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Hub for Crossdisciplinary Learning
Hub for Crossdisciplinary Learning

Photo: UHH/von Wieding

Hub for Crossdisciplinary Learning

A Debt Audit for Hamburg

A debit and assets watch has been inaugurated in front of the main building of the university initiated by activists among the student body in 2011. In contrast to the debit watch which has been installed in front of the Ministry of Finance by the Taxpayers‘ Association in 1995, it does not only show the development of the level of debt (of the City of Hamburg), but contrasts this figure with the development of the assets of the richest 10 percent of the people living in Hamburg. Thus, it hints at a simple yet important relation: all debts (may they be public or private) contrast with a fortune. Thus, the question of public debt is always first and foremost a political question.

Ideology instead of analysis

While this insight may be considered to be common knowledge in the countries of the global South, we still have a very underdeveloped understanding of public debt in Germany. This is inter alia because the topic of public debt (and debt in general) is ideologically highly charged in Germany (Schui 2014). Thus, the real economic relations are veiled and mystified.

Public debt in Hamburg

The intention of our project „A Debt Audit for Hamburg“ is to investigate the causes and impacts of the public debt of the City of Hamburg and thus contribute to shed light into the darkness. We intend to examine for which reasons and to which conditions public debt have been taken on and which social, economic and ecologic impacts a debt repayment would have. We use the concept of illegitimate debt and the method of debt audit to do this. The theoretical foundation of the research project is based on a heterodox (Keynesian and post Marxist) approach.

Illegitimate debt: Analysis instead of morale

The concept of illegitimate debt has been used for the first by the USA in 1898 in order to annul the debts of Cuba which they had occupied. It is a principle that has not yet been embedded under international law. However, it has been practiced several times. In accordance with this principle all debts of a state which have not been taken on for the well-being of its population or which have not been approved of by the people of the country or their elected representatives are to be considered as illegitimate and must thus be annulled (Howse 2007, S. 9). The debt audit is a democratic instrument to retrace the morale-ideologically charged debts to their earthly origins (see for example HSH-Nordbank und Cum-Ex) and thus make them an issue of public discussion. Therefore, we intend to deal with the following questions in the frame of this research project:

  • Which debts of the City of Hamburg that have been taken on during the research period 2000 until 2020 are to be considered as illegitimate?
  • For which purpose or in which context have these debts been taken on?

Student research group

  • Lene Greve
  • Paula Herrschel
  • Svenja Horn
  • Ida Rockenbach
  • Henri Weber

Mentor

  • Prof. Dr. Arne Heise