The Planten un Blumen prison is located in the immediate vicinity of the park and therefore is an ideal location to trespass. The way the buildings tower over the park offers the possibility to communicate with the prisoners in various ways. 

I want to use this five-minute film as an opportunity to share not only the visuals but also the experience I have had trying to get closer to the people inside the prison. All this without physically entering the building and being separated by the highly guarded prison walls.

The Planten un Blomen prison was built between 1877 and 1889. Separated by stone walls, barbed wire and cameras, this beautiful ensemble of buildings made of stone bricks is ironically hidden behind a wall of plants and trees. Located in the centre of the city park, the prison was used as a central execution site in the years before and during the Second World War, where political prisoners were imprisoned and killed. Before that, the prison was used exclusively as a place of solitary confinement. 

Today, with its 482 prison cells and 47 hospital beds, it serves as a pretrial detention centre  and hospital where arrested suspects from Hamburg are detained until their trial.