This study explores the roles of religious organizations in the refugee movement “Lampedusa in Hamburg”, in Hamburg, Germany during 2013 and 2014. “Lampedusa in Hamburg” consisted of approximately 300 refugees who had come from Libya, and decided to fight for their right to stay in Germany. Early on, religious organizations became important supporters to the movement, by providing the members food and shelter. By analyzing archival material and interviews with two religious representatives, this thesis investigates the involvement of religious organizations, their collaborations, and the outcomes produced by their work during the protests, using theories connected to secularization and religion and migration. The analysis shows that the involvement of religious organizations in the “Lampedusa in Hamburg”- movement is an example of how faith-based actors in the West are standing up against authorities and objecting migration policies. Their work, collaborations and impact were clearly shaped by national ties with the German state and their position in society.  Further, local dynamics formed the roles of the religious organizations, especially in the case of the St. Pauli church – one of the most central religious actors – located in St. Pauli, a block with a long history of protests. During the Lampedusa in Hamburg-movement, processes operating at global, national, and local scales met, exposing the complexities of the roles that religious organizations take on, as they become involved in migrant processes in Western Europe today.

“What is certain is that the question of […] re-making a landscape of prostitution in the city […] needs to be viewed as part of a changing, global discourse on the nature of contemporary cities” (Aalbers & Sabat 2012, p. 114).Prostitution – associated with well-known Red-Light Districts – has for a long time been seen as “a significant urban activity that relates to other economic and social functions of the city [and contributes] […] to the cognitive image of a city held by both residents and non-residents, even those who have never frequented them” (Ashworth, White & Winchester 1988, p. 201). It is therefore no surprise that within the neoliberal framework of inter-city competition, these once notorious districts, commonly associated with crime and violence, ascended into spaces of entertainment and consumption, neatly aligning with entrepreneurial city branding strategies. The Reeperbahn, Hamburg’s famous mile of sin, located within the district of St. Pauli is no exception to this rule. As a place traditionally located outside Hamburg’s social and physical city limits, it is nowadays frequented by thousands of tourists and party seekers, drawn in by the area’s myths and shady reputation (Khan 2012). Actively fostering the (economic) attractiveness of the so-called Kiez has long been part of Hamburg’s city politics and was reinforced with the creation of the Hamburg Brand Marketing Strategy in 2002, where the Entertainment Mile Reeperbahn alongside Hamburg’s Pulsating Scenes became two of the key success modules in branding the city. The repercussion this has had not only for the district and its inhabitants but specifically for the red-light industry has largely been understudied.This Master’s Thesis therefore, aims at studying the general effects of city branding, such as displacement and conflict over spatial uses in the face of Over-Tourism and re-development strategies. Looking at the specific case of the Reeperbahn, it closes the gap of the somewhat understudied effects of gentrification on St. Pauli’s unique culture. By interviewing different local stakeholders, conducting a broad literature review as well as undertaking field work, the Hamburg-St.-Pauli-Brand-Dialectic will be analyzed subsequently, showing, how the Hamburg Brand and the city as a whole have profited from St. Pauli’s reputation and what consequences this has had in turn for the district.