On the other side of Kehrwiederfleet, in Block L, which is shared by several museums, including Spicy’s, the “only private spice museum in the world”, as the operators assure us. In any case, there is no doubt that a spice museum belongs in the town, whose merchants have always been tenderly and mockingly called pepper sacks.

There is also no doubt that the Speicherstadtmuseum, in the same block, preserves the living memory of the Speicherstadt. This is mainly thanks to Henning Rademacher, founder, director, heart and soul in personal union. “He leaves school to go to sea,” his report card said when he left school after ninth grade to enlist as a cabin boy and years later to take his captain’s license. After several errors and confusions, some knitted with, others without sailor’s yarn, in 1988, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary celebration, he was in charge of the first special exhibition on Speicherstadt, from which the museum emerged. When Rademacher looks at “his” museum today, more than 30 years later, he sees the work and lifeblood of his whole life. And whoever visits his museum will also see it: More than anything else, it is the memory of the place, which has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, beyond tourist development, urban development and structural change of the port industry.

Continued: Kehrwieder: The Way to the Top