Celebrations at the Dom by Horst Max Cerni

The Bunker in Hamburg has been a landmark since 1942, when it was built to provide shelter to the citizens during air raids. Since last summer it has become a tourist attraction as a hotel, museum, botanical garden, etc. It is now known as the Green Bunker.

Three times a year the Bunker is also part of Northern Germany’s largest folk festival and fair, known as the DOM. It actually means cathedral, but it is anything but a church. Yet in its earliest days in the 14th century, the catholic bishop actually allowed the merchants and others working in the surrounding area as well as show people to take shelter from the awful weather in the Marien-Dom. Well, the traders and show people didn’t stop their normal activities and soon the Dom served as the venue for a market and cajoling and performances. And the bishop couldn’t control it anymore. So the religious Dom had become a place for entertainment, including a circus, and the name DOM stuck - with or without the church.

“Like a circle in a spiral,

like a wheel within a wheel,

never ending or beginning,

on an ever spinning reel..

As the images unwind.

Like the windmills of your mind.”

                                                                                              (Michel Legrand)

The Marien-Dom was the first Christian church in Northern Germany, built in 834. After the Lutheran Reformation it became an enclave in Protestant Hamburg, and created a lot of friction with its neighbors. In 1804, the Dom was turned over to the city of Hamburg and almost immediately torn down (- it was claimed that too many repairs were needed and the upkeep would be too costly).. Few artifacts were saved, and the altar ended up in the National Museum of Warsaw. A University building was constructed on that site, but destroyed during WWII.

“Life is a carousel.

All you gotta do

Is just stay on.”

(Pharrell Williams)

Nowadays, the Dom hosts some 230 attractions and vendors and is the longest folk festival in Germany. It takes place three times a year, for a whole month each, and is adjacent to the Green Bunker on the Holy Ghost Field. This used to be a meadow and grazing ground for cows and sheep. It belonged originally to the “Convent Hospital of the Holy Ghost”. They exchanged it for two other properties and the Hamburg administration was now trying to figure out what to do with it.. The army used the area as an exercise ground, and the French, who occupied Hamburg from 1806 until 1814, burned their illegal goods (mostly smuggled merchandise from England) and even executed criminals. Finally, the meadow was cleaned up, the windmill that stood there was torn down, and the Holy Ghost Field became a place for public events. In 1898 it hosted the German Sports Festival with some 10,000 athletes. It became the preferred place for the circus and concerts, and the festival of the Dom became a regular feature. Especially after the War years, Hamburg needed to find a way to let loose, and so in 1947 the Summer Dom took place, and in the following March the Spring Dom.

“Live every day as if it is a festival.

Turn your life into a celebration.”

(Shri Radhe Maa)

In 1962, the soccer club FC St.Pauli built its stadium there, and in 1963 the International Garden Show was held on the Holy Ghost Field.

The Spring Dom takes place from the 21st of March till 21st April 2025, Summer Dom will be held from 25th July till 24th of August, and the next Winter Dom from 7 November until 7 December 2025.

Photos courtesy of 

Oliver Flessner

Instagram: oliverharburg

The Bunker and the Heiligengeistfeld are in the district of St.Pauli. Originally, in the 17th century, the area was called Hamburger Berg (Hamburg Mountain), but eventually took on the name of the local church St.Pauli. The church is still there, but now only as a museum.

St.Pauli is world famous (or infamous) as the entertainment district of Hamburg. Just South from the Bunker is the iconic Reeperbahn boulevard with many clubs, bars, burlesque, cabarets, dance halls, theaters etc. and (according to Wikepedia) “the world-famous red-light district.” A plaza honors the Beatles, who started their fame here (as Fouad experienced and mentioned in his comment to my first Ruins story).

It’s a short walk from the harbor, and sailors took advantage of their shore leave to spend a few hours or days in St.Pauli, before leaving port again. There always were a lot of sailors (and now tourists) in Hamburg, which is known as the “Tor zur Welt” - the Gate to the World.