Initiatives of theHamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft
Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft was founded 15 years ago as a central funding organisation for the cultural and creative industries in the Hanseatic city. Today, it is the largest organisation of its kind in Germany and a role model for comparable programmes in other federal states and abroad. At the state press conference in Hamburg City…
Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft was founded 15 years ago as a central funding organisation for the cultural and creative industries in the Hanseatic city. Today, it is the largest organisation of its kind in Germany and a role model for comparable programmes in other federal states and abroad. At the state press conference in Hamburg City Hall, Dr Carsten Brosda, Senator for Culture and Media, and Managing Director Egbert Rühl took stock of the past fifteen years and gave an outlook on future projects.
Dr Carsten Brosda, Senator for Culture and Media: "Hamburg recognised early on the importance of the creative industries for the business location, but also for the quality of life in the city. This growing sector of the economy often has very specific needs and requirements. The Kreativ Gesellschaft is the engine with which we support creative people in the city on their way from an idea to a successful business model. It also plays an important role as a mediator and translator between the very specific milieus of creative professionals and the requirements of administration, the financial sphere, property players, politics and chambers. Over the past 15 years, Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft has written a great success story in and for Hamburg."
Egbert Rühl, Managing Director of Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft: "Our greatest successes can be seen where our work has an impact far beyond Hamburg - when we serve as a role model nationwide: with cross-innovation programmes, creative real estate strategies and structural support for submarkets. The fact that others are adopting our models is the best confirmation of our work. However, it remains crucial that the players in Hamburg's creative industries use our programmes to develop further. Our task is to constantly facilitate this development - with the right formats, at the right time, in the right places and always in close dialogue with the city's creatives."
A dynamic economic sector with growing importance
The creative industries are among the fastest-growing sectors in Germany. in 2023, it employed around two million people nationwide and generated 204.6 billion euros in turnover. In 2022, its gross value added was on a par with traditional industries, just behind that of vehicle construction and ahead of mechanical engineering. In addition, the sector makes an important contribution to the attractiveness of the location, education, participation and cultural identity and plays an increasingly important role in economic and social innovation processes.
Hamburg as a model city for promoting the creative industries
In Hamburg, more than 100,000 people are employed in the creative industries - around one in seven companies in the city belongs to this sector. With an annual turnover of 11.4 billion euros, the sector contributes around 2.6 per cent to the overall economy.
Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft has been supporting this development since 2010 as a central contact point for the cultural and creative industries. As a wholly owned subsidiary of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, it supports creative professionals in eleven submarkets - from architecture and design to performing and visual arts to games and software. Over the past 15 years, Kreativ Gesellschaft has organised around 3,000 individual consultations, over 600 coaching sessions and around 2,000 events with more than 100,000 participants.
in 2018, the location initiatives nextMedia.Hamburg, Gamecity Hamburg and designxport were integrated into Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft. The latter now operates as Design Zentrum Hamburg, based at Hongkongstraße 8. All three initiatives have since been further developed operationally and now offer a wide range of services to strengthen their respective submarkets.
The company's work is organised into eight areas: Consulting & Training, Real Estate & Urban Development, nextMedia.Hamburg, Gamecity Hamburg, Design Centre Hamburg, Cross Innovation Hub, Administration and Communication. Currently, 63 people work at Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft. In 2024 alone, 339 events with over 13,500 participants were realised and 485 consultations, 90 coaching sessions and 112 formats for innovation and further education were supported.
Innovation for Hamburg's creative industries
Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft strengthens the future viability of the creative industries with a wide range of programmes. Three specialised incubators - Media Lift, Games Lift and Music WorX - specifically support start-ups or young companies from the content, games and music sectors in developing their business ideas. Each programme combines mentoring, workshops, financial support and access to an internal industry network of experts.
The eight-month training and networking programme Creative Business Academy 2025-2028 is aimed at self-employed people, freelancers and employees in the creative industries. It supports them in developing their business models in a sustainable and future-proof way. Every year, 40 participants benefit from lectures, workshops and community learning - a total of 160 over the entire duration of the programme.
With SPACE, the innovation space of the nextMedia.Hamburg location initiative, Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft is creating an open, interdisciplinary workspace for the media and digital industry. Creative ideas, entrepreneurial thinking and technical expertise come together on 630 square metres in Hamburg's Speicherstadt warehouse district. Founders and teams develop business models, drive projects forward and forge partnerships here. SPACE offers around 40 workstations as well as modern meeting and workshop rooms. As a lively community, it promotes dialogue, experimentation and shared learning - a space that unlocks potential and enables innovation.
Innovation with Hamburg's creative industries
Since 2016, Hamburg has been actively promoting cross-sector collaboration between the creative industries and traditional branches of industry with the Cross Innovation Hub - making it a pioneer in Germany. Whether in aviation, the mobility sector or healthcare: The programmes use Hamburg's creative potential to initiate innovations. New ideas, products, processes, business models and forms of collaboration are developed in interdisciplinary teams. The Cross Innovation Hub imparts innovation expertise, supports the development of prototypes and strengthens companies undergoing change, together with visionary players from Hamburg's creative industries. The programme is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
Stimuli for urban development and transformation of the city centre
Programmes such as "Frei_Fläche - Raum für kreative Zwischennutzung" provide new impetus at the interface between urban development and the creative industries. This was particularly visible in the "Jupiter" project, Germany's largest creative interim use with over 8,000 square metres of space. Projects such as the pop-up space Satellit - a temporary creative space in a construction container in the centre of the city on Mönckebergstraße - and Fabric - Future Fashion Lab, which opened in May 2024, also enrich the cityscape. Fabric combines a studio, workshop, showroom, event space and pop-up store on three floors in the Galleria Passage am Fleet - a unique location for Hamburg's fashion industry and an important building block for urban production.
A look ahead: technologies, spaces, alliances
A key topic in the coming years will be the use of artificial intelligence in the creative and media industry. With the new AI MEDIA LEADERS conference on 27 November 2025, Hamburg is creating a forum for decision-makers from large parts of the creative industries. The focus will be on specific needs and challenges in dealing with AI. Experts from the worlds of business, politics and science will share the latest specialist knowledge - practical, interdisciplinary and forward-looking.
At the same time, the transformation of urban spaces remains an important task. The Kreativ Gesellschaft is actively involved in rethinking the inner city, for example with projects such as Fabric, which makes sustainable fashion production visible. The experiences from "Frei_Fläche" are to be consolidated and transferred to other spaces, such as ground floor zones or former retail spaces. The company is also involved in neighbourhood and area development, for example in Seilerstraße, at Diebsteich station, in the Paloma quarter and in the Oberhafen quarter. Creative industries are not only located here, but are also considered from the outset as a driving force for urban development.
By continuing the successful German Creative Economy Summit 2026, Hamburg is sending a strong signal at federal level. The congress brings together more than 1,300 participants from politics, administration, associations, companies, funding institutions and the independent creative scene. The aim is to promote cross-sector dialogue, strengthen strategic alliances and further increase the national visibility of the creative industries.
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Auf der Landespressekonferenz im Hamburger Rathaus zogen Dr. Carsten Brosda, Senator für Kultur und Medien, und Geschäftsführer Egbert Rühl eine Bilanz der vergangenen fünfzehn Jahre und gaben einen Ausblick auf kommende Vorhaben.
Ergänzende Daten und Fakten zur Kreativwirtschaft in Deutschland, Hamburg und zur Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft.
Präsentation zur Landespressekonferenz am 15. Juli 2025.
Jean heads the communications department at Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft and is the contact person for press and media representatives.
Before taking over the project management of the Oberhafenquartier development as a freelancer at Kreativ Gesellschaft in 2014, he was in charge of public relations for the MS Dockville Festival in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg for seven years. In addition to all communication tasks, he was responsible for networking and lobbying and in this role helped to shape the foundation, development and growth of the festival and accompanied the development of numerous formats such as the Spektrum Festival, the Vogelball, the art camp (today: Artville) and the Lüttville kids project. At the same time as starting at Kreativ Gesellschaft, he was involved as co-initiator of the first Hallo Festspiele at Kraftwerk Bille in Hammerbrook.
At the Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Jean studied Applied Cultural Studies for a long time and successfully - with internships at enja Records, Munich, the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Freunde der Hamburger Kunsthalle e.V. and the German-French TV channel arte, Strasbourg.
