In December 1998, three young refugees, Hatice, Jusef and Omid, initiated a theater workshop with the artists Ella Huck and Dorothea Reinicke. Together with them and the twenty other workshop participants, they decided to found the group Hajusom after glamorous performances in the summer of 1999. The three young people who gave the group its name from the very beginning represent the heart of the Ha-jus-om center, which has been beating in solidarity ever since.

In the meantime, the "intercultural project" has become an independent association and a center for transnational arts (since 2010). Hajusom e.V. is an independent youth welfare organization and co-founder of the nationwide Network Post-Heimat. The group Hajusom became a nationally recognized performance ensemble with which over four hundred young people with and without refugee experience performed on stage.

At the same time, various newcomer groups work in the Hajusom center, outside the big spotlight, in which the common spirit of a diverse and grown transnational collective is cultivated. Long-standing ensemble members guide the newcomers. The young people, the instructors, musicians, artists, technicians, interns and volunteers - they all shape Hajusom.

Melike Bilir works transdisciplinary in theory and practice between the fields of visual art, sound and performance. She uses dramaturgy as a method of curating and integrates transdisciplinary approaches into her exhibition design. Instead of static forms, she focuses on events and installations that make changes and transitions visible. She studied Turkology and art history at the Ernst August University of Göttingen and communication design at the HAW Hamburg.

melike.bilir@hajusom.de

Bernd Kroschewski founded the record label Fidel Bastro in 1993 and is active as an organizer of concerts and festivals. As a musician, he is a member of Boy Division and Potato Fritz. Since 2015, he has been a volunteer with Migrantpolitan and regularly performs at various events, including Solicasinos and Theater Nights. He began his professional career at the company Gebrüder Stallmann, where he completed his training. In 1992, he took over the company, which he has managed ever since. In 2023, the company celebrated its 150th anniversary

bernd.kroschewski@hajusom.de

In regular workshops, seminars and lectures, Hajusom imparts its working methods to schools, universities, cultural workers and volunteers. At the same time, TRANSFER offers an internal training program for ensemble members.

Public events with academics, activists and artists continuously supplement the program and tie in with the content of the ensemble's productions.

The original concept of TRANSFER was developed by Zandile Darko, Ania Faas, Elmira Ghafoori and Sofie Olbers. It is currently being revised and adapted to current needs.

We are particularly pleased that Shahrbanoo Sadat - Afghan-born director, screenwriter and women's rights activist - will be working with Hajusom as an INTRO fellow in 2024/2025. Together we want to plan new projects and support her in the realization of her plans.

Shahrbanoo_Sadat

Since 2019, the INTRO scholarship program of the Ministry of Culture and Media in Hamburg has been supporting international artists who are no longer able to work in their home countries to continue working as artists. The funding, which lasts up to twelve months, enables participants to realize their own projects in collaboration with Hamburg cultural institutions or independent groups. The aim is to open up new perspectives, strengthen intercultural exchange and promote innovative artistic approaches.

Hajusom has already realized artistic projects with several artists from the INTRO programme. These collaborations enrich the local cultural scene and create valuable space for creative exchange.

2023/24: Paricher Bijani

2022/23: Mokhtar Namdar

The bunker: "eyesore"? Memorial. Home of Hajusom.

The Allied air raids in August 1940 were decisive for the construction of several flak towers in Berlin, Vienna and Hamburg. Between April 1942 and summer 1943, Flak Tower IV, on Heiligengeistfeld in Hamburg, was built by thousands of forced laborers. Flak Tower IV, one of the largest bunkers ever built, was intended to serve as an air defence system and at the same time as a shelter for the population under bombardment.

The forced laborers were more than inadequately supplied and housed, there was neither occupational safety nor medical care, and they were also defenceless against the bombing, as they themselves were not allowed to flee to the bunker they had built.

After the end of the war, people wanted to erase the "eyesore", it was too reminiscent of the shame of the lost war, but this was almost impossible due to its massiveness. After all, the bunker served as living space for the homeless population in destroyed Hamburg, was used as an archive and storage facility, the German Red Cross served food in its rooms and the health department had the population vaccinated there. The architect Erwin Knaack founded a bunker utilization company as early as 1945, the first cultural institutions moved in, the NDR in 1949 and the photographer F. C. Gundlach in 1956. This is how the bunker gradually became what it is now: a creative and media bunker.

The walls are still thick, but the doors are still open.

The addition of storeys and planting from 2020 to 2024 has subjected the bunker to a change that has provoked criticism. Is the history of the  memorial site gradually disappearing behind its attractive guise?

In 2019, Hajusom's work with young talent was awarded the "Power of the Arts" [→] prize, and in 2016 she was nominated for the BKM Special Prize for Cultural Participation . das gender_ding, the first production by the young ensemble at the time, Neue Sterne, received the Bundespreis der Berliner Festspiele and was nominated for the BKM Prize for Cultural Education in 2015. In fall 2014, Hajusom e.V. received the Max Brauer Prize from the Alfred Toepfer Foundation for special cultural and social commitment in Hamburg. With the production, Hajusom in Bollyland, the ensemble Hajusom was awarded the Innovation Prize Socioculture 2010/2011 and invited to the renowned festival Politik im Freien Theater. The musical Back Up Story received the National Promotion Award from the Hamburg Mannheimer Foundation in 2008. The ensemble won a prize at the Berliner Festspiele  (2001) with the production 7 Leben and was nominated again in 2003 for Kinder der Regenmacher.

Dorothea Reinicke Founder, Artistic Director 1999-2021, Adviser and Artistic Collaborator until 2023

Ella Huck Founder, Artistic Director 1999-2023

Jochen Roller 2000-2004 Choreography and part of the artistic direction of Hajusom from 2015-2019 Choreography Ensemble

Claude Jansen 2000-2009 Part of the artistic direction of Hajusom 2010-12 Junior group Ruff Monkeys

Katharina Oberlik 2002 Choreography Ensemble from 2013 to 2016 Co-Director Ensemble

Sofie Olbers 2002-2011 Project and assistant director, 2016-2017 co-founder of the TRANSFER project

Julia zur Lippe Management 2010-2022

Zandile Darko 2010-2018 Ensemble member Co-founder of TRANSFER

Jelka Plate 2010-2017 Part of the core artistic team of Hajusom

Michael Böhler 2010-2022 Stage design, Costume design and part of the core artistic team

Markus Lohmann 2010 - 2022 Stage design, costume design and part of the core artistic team

Mable Preach 2010-12 Ruff Monkeys

Josep Caballero Garcia Choreography 2016-2023 since 2021 also artistic director

Bernd Gruber Management 2023

AK Hamburg Postkolonial
Ania Faas, Curator Transfer and Press and Public Relations
Andreina Vieira dos Santos, Set Design
Angela Guerreiro, Dancer and Choreographer
Anna Christin Wright, Assistant Hajusom
Anke Meyn, Assistant Video
Ariane Batou-To Van, translator and assistant
Arne Thaysen, photographer and graphic designer
Artur Jagodda, video artist
Ashraf Sharif Khan, musician
Barner 18, inclusive network of professional cultural productions by artists with and without disabilities
Bernd Gruber, Management
Bilijana Milkov, video
Blandine von Ribbeck, collaboration on set design
Blandine Yamaéogo, Choreographer and dancer from Burkina Faso
Can Gülec, dancer and choreographer
Carlos Andres Rico, musician
Carlos Ngugi, dancer
Carsten Mayer, musician
Christoph Schäfer, visual artist
Crear vale la pena, art center in Buenos Aires
Cordula Grolle, Cellist
Cybermohalla and Sarai, Art and Media Center in New Delhi
Derya Yildirim, Musician
Dorothea Reinicke, Founder, Artistic Director
Dr. Patricia Alleyne-Dettmers, cultural anthropologist
Earl Lovelace, author from Trinidad & Tobago
Ece Tufan, production manager, guest performance management
Ella Huck, founder, artistic director
Ensemble Resonanz, string players
Esther Brandt, project and stage assistant, social work support
Eva Maria Stüting, Dramaturg
Franklyn Kakyire, dancer and choreographer
Friederike Lampert, dancer, choreographer and dance scholar
Gabriela Vasileva, consultant center
Gotta Depri, choreographer
Hana Tefrati, Assistant Dance and Choreography
Heike Hallenga, Costume Designer
Jana Lüthje, Guest Performance Management
Jeffrey Chock, Photographer
Jimi Tenor, Musician and Composer
Johnny Lloyd, Musician, Dancer and Choreographer
John Eckardt, double bass player
Josep Caballero Garcia, choreography and artistic director
Joseph "Chocho" Tapsoba, director from Burkina Faso
Julia Mihály, singer
Julia zur Lippe, management
Kabu Kabu, Afro-Band
Katalina Götz, Assistant to the KL, Ensemble Coordination
Knarf Rellöm, Musician
Lore Hoffmann, Volunteer Support
Latai Taumeopeau, Performer and Choreographer from Tonga
Lea Connert, Guest Performance Management, production management, leader of the young performance group
Lutz Saure, web design and programmer
Maike Mohr, choreographer and dancer
Manuel Horstmann, light and sound design
Margit Czenki, director, film editor, cinematographer and installation artist
Marek Lamprecht, lighting design
Marga Nagel, dancer Markus Lohmann, set designer
Martin Ambara, director from Cameroon
Matthias Cassun, Lighting designer
Michael Böhler, set design
Michael Lentner, lighting design
My Ladies and Gentlemen, theater project with people with disabilities
Mable Preach, director
Negar Taymoorzadeh, artistic director of LAB & TRANSFER
Nikola Duric, performer
Niklas Loycke/Das Helmi, puppet maker and player
Patrick Kabré, musician, singer and founder of the Eco-Art project Silmandé in Burkina Faso
Pamberi Steel Orchestra from Trinidad & Tobago
Peter Minshall, visual artist and costume designer
Ricarda Schnoor, lighting design
Ruth May, visual artist
Satenik Danielyan, Federal Volunteer Service
Sarah Bergh, guest performance management and coordination
Sergio Vasquez Carrillo, musician
Silke Goes, photographer
Sue Ying Zabala, dancer and choreographer
Tata Dindin, griot, singer and kora player from Gambia
Ute Walter, dancer
Varsha Thakur, choreographer and dancer from India Viktor Marek, music & Composition
Wolfgang Mitterer, composer
Yaya Coulibaly, puppet maker and puppeteer from Mali