Detlef Garbe was awarded the honorary title "Professor" by the Senate and presented with a certificate by Senator Brosda during the award ceremony which took place on August  12, 2019 in the Hamburg City Hall. In this way, the city has shown its appreciation of Mr. Garbe’s work as the long-standing director of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial as well as his contributions to the fields of the culture of remembrance and the history of National Socialism. According to Senator Brosda, Minister for Culture and Media, "Detlef Garbe’s practically endless engagement earned him a special place in the culture of remembrance of our city. Under his leadership, due to his scientific precision, expertise and great empathy for the victims of the Nazi persecution and their children, the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial has become an important place of commemoration." Detlef Garbe has been the director of the Neuengamme Memorial since 1989. He has been recognized as an expert on a variety of topics, such as marginalization and persecution of minorities during National Socialist rule, perpetrators and victims of the Wehrmacht judiciary as well as the issue of postwar reparations.