History of the House / about us

Slowly evolving from a ruin for 40 years, Österfeld - a stately marsh farm in earlier times, which has not been used for agricultural purposes since the economic crisis of 1929 – is a work in progress project with no prospect of ever ending up in a perfect / finished state. The house has not been completely renovated, but is enlivened, maintained and designed by us, the hosts, and friends of the house in a space in between old splendour and necessary interventions.
In the many years of use, Österfeld - the big house and the wild garden - has repeatedly become a place for artistic production by us and friends: rehearsals for a next music album or a performance, writing a novel, a workshop in puppet making with wood from the garden under the direction of the Malian and documenta fifteen artist Yaya Coulibaly, various retreats for the concept development of performances or the completion of radio features, etc., - and of course for open-air parties with performances by musician friends / bands and DJs.

We, the hosts – Dorothea Reinicke, for many years artistic director of Hajusom, Center for Transnational Arts in Hamburg and Christoph Behnke who worked as a sociologist at Leuphana Universität Lüneburg - would now like to redefine Österfeld in association with predominantly young artists from Hamburg. Or rather: to enable a professionally organized collective appropriation in a cross-generational constellation, which takes up the creative spirit that has been living here for a long time and develops it further in projects that also reflect the special location in its integration into a sensitive planetary ecological structure…