Gewerbehaus, Chamber of crafts building on Holstenwall, Hamburg, Germany

The Gewerbehaus at Holstenwall 12 is a red-brick state building designed by Fritz Schumacher, with tall white-framed windows in regular columns, a stepped gable on the left and a tower-like rise on the right. Rounded archways line the ground floor, and sculpted figures and circular reliefs sit between the lower windows. The Hamburg coat of arms above the entrance door carries the completion year.

The city of Hamburg built the Gewerbehaus on a vacant lot at Holstenwall 12, the last free municipal plot inside the Wallring, after the Bürgerschaft approved 911,300 marks on 10 July 1912. Architect Fritz Schumacher fitted the chamber's offices, guild rooms and a 350 m² waiting hall for job seekers into a 2,500 m² site. It has housed the Gewerbekammer, today the Handwerkskammer Hamburg, since 1915.

The building's fittings were donated by the guilds: glass windows in the large meeting hall by Prof. Czeschka, wood panelling, paintings, fountains in the anterooms, stoves, clocks, light fixtures and door grilles, all designed by the architect to match each room. Two rooms, the "Bauhütte" hall and a drinking parlour, were created entirely by architect H. Aug. Meyer.

The entrance on Holstenwall 12 is marked by the Hamburg coat of arms above the door, with the completion year. The building is a working chamber headquarters, so visits are tied to the Handwerkskammer's activities rather than to exhibitions. The rear of the site borders the Schuldt-Stiftung housing rows on Hütten and Pilatuspool.

The Hamburg coat of arms above the completion year over the entrance door marked the building as a state structure, not a guild project. The city financed it after the Bürgerschaft approved 911,300 marks on 10 July 1912, following a heated debate. The plot at Holstenwall 12 was the last vacant municipal site inside the Wallring, previously used as a storage yard by the glass wholesaler Wilhelm Völker.