Hamburg

Hamburg has an oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb), influenced by its proximity to the coast and maritime influences that originate over the Atlantic Ocean. The location in the north of Germany provides extremes greater than typical marine climates, but definitely in the category due to the prevailing westerlies.[15] Nearby wetlands enjoy a maritime temperate climate. The amount of snowfall has varied greatly in recent decades. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, heavy snowfall sometimes occurred,[16] the winters of recent years have been less cold, with snowfall just a few days per year.[17][18]

The warmest months are June, July, and August, with high temperatures of 20.1 to 22.5 °C (68.2 to 72.5 °F). The coldest are December, January, and February, with low temperatures of −0.3 to 1.0 °C (31.5 to 33.8 °F).[19]

Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century AD) reported the first name for the vicinity as Treva.[23]

The name Hamburg comes from the first permanent building on the site, a castle which the Emperor Charlemagne ordered constructed in AD 808. It rose on rocky terrain in a marsh between the River Alster and the River Elbe as a defence against Slavic incursion, and acquired the name Hammaburg, burg meaning castle or fort. The origin of the Hamma term remains uncertain,[24] but its location is estimated to be at the site of today's Domplatz.[25][26]

In 834, Hamburg was designated as the seat of a bishopric. The first bishop, Ansgar, became known as the Apostle of the North. Two years later, Hamburg was united with Bremen as the Bishopric of Hamburg-Bremen.[27]

Hamburg was destroyed and occupied several times. In 845, 600 Viking ships sailed up the River Elbe and destroyed Hamburg, at that time a town of around 500 inhabitants.[27] In 1030, King Mieszko II Lambert of Poland burned down the city. Valdemar II of Denmark raided and occupied Hamburg in 1201 and in 1214. The Black Death killed at least 60% of the population in 1350.[28] Hamburg experienced several great fires in the medieval period.[29]

Seal of the City of Hamburg in 1241 (replica)

Hamburg in 1320

Hamburg as depicted on a 1679 Half-Portugalöser (5 ducats)

Hamburg, c. 1600

Hamburg in 1811

In 1189, by imperial charter, Frederick I "Barbarossa" granted Hamburg the status of a Free Imperial City and tax-free access (or free-trade zone) up the Lower Elbe into the North Sea. In 1265, an allegedly forged letter was presented to or by the Rath of Hamburg.[30] This charter, along with Hamburg's proximity to the main trade routes of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, quickly made it a major port in Northern Europe. Its trade alliance with Lübeck in 1241 marks the origin and core of the powerful Hanseatic League of trading cities. On 8 November 1266, a contract between Henry III and Hamburg's traders allowed them to establish a hanse in London. This was the first time in history that the word hanse was used for the trading guild of the Hanseatic League.[31] In 1270, the solicitor of the senate of Hamburg, Jordan von Boitzenburg, wrote the first description of civil, criminal and procedural law for a city in Germany in the German language, the Ordeelbook (Ordeel: sentence).[32] On 10 August 1410, civil unrest forced a compromise (German: Rezeß, literally meaning: withdrawal). This is considered the first constitution of Hamburg.[33]

In 1529, the city embraced Lutheranism, and it received Reformed refugees from the Netherlands and France.

When Jan van Valckenborgh introduced a second layer to the fortifications to protect against the Thirty Years War in the seventeenth century, he extended Hamburg and created a "New Town" (Neustadt) whose street names still date from the grid system of roads he introduced.[34]

Upon the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Free Imperial City of Hamburg was not incorporated into a larger administrative area while retaining special privileges (mediatised), but became a sovereign state with the official title of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. Hamburg was briefly annexed by Napoleon I to the First French Empire (1804–1814/1815). Russian forces under General Bennigsen finally freed the city in 1814. Hamburg re-assumed its pre-1811 status as a city-state in 1814. The Vienna Congress of 1815 confirmed Hamburg's independence and it became one of 39 sovereign states of the German Confederation (1815–1866).

In 1842, about a quarter of the inner city was destroyed in the "Great Fire". The fire started on the night of 4 May and was not extinguished until 8 May. It destroyed three churches, the town hall, and many other buildings, killing 51 people and leaving an estimated 20,000 homeless. Reconstruction took more than 40 years.

After periodic political unrest, particularly in 1848, Hamburg adopted in 1860 a semidemocratic constitution that provided for the election of the Senate, the governing body of the city-state, by adult taxpaying males. Other innovations included the separation of powers, the separation of Church and State, freedom of the press, of assembly and association. Hamburg became a member of the North German Confederation (1866–1871) and of the German Empire (1871–1918), and maintained its self-ruling status during the Weimar Republic (1919–1933). Hamburg acceded to the German Customs Union or Zollverein in 1888, the last (along with Bremen) of the German states to join. The city experienced its fastest growth during the second half of the 19th century when its population more than quadrupled to 800,000 as the growth of the city's Atlantic trade helped make it Europe's second-largest port.[35] The Hamburg-America Line, with Albert Ballin as its director, became the world's largest transatlantic shipping company around the start of the 20th century. Shipping companies sailing to South America, Africa, India and East Asia were based in the city. Hamburg was the departure port for many Germans and Eastern Europeans to emigrate to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Trading communities from all over the world established themselves there.

A major outbreak of cholera in 1892 was badly handled by the city government, which retained an unusual degree of independence for a German city. About 8,600 died in the largest German epidemic of the late 19th century, and the last major cholera epidemic in a major city of the Western world.

Hamburg Eilbek after the 1943 bombing

Flak tower on the Heiligengeistfeld in Hamburg – one of four enormous fortress-like bunkers which were built of reinforced concrete between 1942 and 1944 and equipped with anti-aircraft artillery for air defense

Hamburg was a Gau within the administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1934 until 1945. During the Second World War, the Allied bombing of Hamburg devastated much of the city and the harbour. On 23 July 1943, the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force firebombing created a firestorm which spread from the Hauptbahnhof (main railway station) and quickly moved south-east, completely destroying entire boroughs such as Hammerbrook, Billbrook and Hamm South. Thousands of people perished in these densely populated working class boroughs. The raids, codenamed Operation Gomorrah by the RAF, killed at least 42,600 civilians; the precise number is not known. About one million civilians were evacuated in the aftermath of the raids. While some of the boroughs destroyed were rebuilt as residential districts after the war, others such as Hammerbrook were entirely developed into office, retail and limited residential or industrial districts.

The Hamburg Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery is in the greater Ohlsdorf Cemetery in the north of Hamburg.

At least 42,900 people are thought to have perished[36] in the Neuengamme concentration camp (about 25 km (16 mi) outside the city in the marshlands), mostly from epidemics and in the bombing of Kriegsmarine evacuation vessels by the RAF at the end of the war.

Systematic deportations of Jewish Germans and Gentile Germans of Jewish descent started on 18 October 1941. These were all directed to ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe or to concentration camps. Most deported persons perished in the Holocaust. By the end of 1942 the Jüdischer Religionsverband in Hamburg was dissolved as an independent legal entity and its remaining assets and staff were assumed by the Reich Association of Jews in Germany (District Northwest). On 10 June 1943 the Reich Security Main Office dissolved the association by a decree.[37] The few remaining employees not somewhat protected by a mixed marriage were deported from Hamburg on 23 June to Theresienstadt, where most of them perished.

The city was surrendered to British Forces on 3 May 1945, in the Battle of Hamburg,[38] three days after Adolf Hitler's death. After the Second World War, Hamburg formed part of the British Zone of Occupation; it became a state of what was then West Germany in 1949.

On 16 February 1962, a North Sea flood caused the Elbe to rise to an all-time high, inundating one-fifth of Hamburg and killing more than 300 people.

The inner German border – only 50 kilometres (30 mi) east of Hamburg – separated the city from most of its hinterland and reduced Hamburg's global trade. Since German reunification in 1990, and the accession of several Central European and Baltic countries into the European Union in 2004, the Port of Hamburg has restarted ambitions for regaining its position as the region's largest deep-sea port for container shipping and its major commercial and trading centre.

Hamburg residents with a foreign citizenship as of 31 December 2016 is as follows[44]

As elsewhere in Germany, Standard German is spoken in Hamburg, but as typical for northern Germany, the original language of Hamburg is Low German, usually referred to as Hamborger Platt (German Hamburger Platt) or Hamborgsch. Since large-scale standardization of the German language beginning in earnest in the 18th century, various Low German-colored dialects have developed (contact-varieties of German on Low Saxon substrates). Originally, there was a range of such Missingsch varieties, the best-known being the low-prestige ones of the working classes and the somewhat more bourgeois Hanseatendeutsch (Hanseatic German), although the term is used in appreciation.[46] All of these are now moribund due to the influences of Standard German used by education and media. However, the former importance of Low German is indicated by several songs, such as the famous sea shanty Hamborger Veermaster, written in the 19th century when Low German was used more frequently. Many toponyms and street names reflect Low Saxon vocabulary, partially even in Low Saxon spelling, which is not standardised, and to some part in forms adapted to Standard German.[47]

65.2% of the population is not religious or adherent other religions than the Evangelical Church or Catholicism.[48]

In 2018, 24.9% of the population belonged to the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church, the largest religious body, and 9.9% to the Roman Catholic Church. Hamburg is seat of one of the three bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany and seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hamburg.

According to the publication "Muslimisches Leben in Deutschland" (Muslim life in Germany) estimated 141,900 Muslim migrants (counting in nearly 50 countries of origin) lived in Hamburg in 2008.[49] About three years later (May 2011) calculations based on census data for 21 countries of origin resulted in the number of about 143,200 Muslim migrants in Hamburg, making up 8.4% percent of the population.[50] As of 2021 there were more than 50 mosques in the city,[51] including the Ahmadiyya run Fazle Omar Mosque, which is the oldest in the city,[52] and it hosts the Islamic Centre Hamburg.

A Jewish community exists.[53]

The 7 boroughs and 104 quarters of Hamburg

Hamburg is made up of seven boroughs (German: Bezirke) and subdivided into 104 quarters (German: Stadtteile). There are 181 localities (German: Ortsteile). The urban organization is regulated by the Constitution of Hamburg and several laws.[8][58] Most of the quarters were former independent cities, towns or villages annexed into Hamburg proper. The last large annexation was done through the Greater Hamburg Act of 1937, when the cities Altona, Harburg and Wandsbek were merged into the state of Hamburg.[59] The Act of the Constitution and Administration of Hanseatic city of Hamburg established Hamburg as a state and a municipality.[60] Some of the boroughs and quarters have been rearranged several times.

Each borough is governed by a Borough Council (German: Bezirksversammlung) and administered by a Municipal Administrator (German: Bezirksamtsleiter). The boroughs are not independent municipalities: their power is limited and subordinate to the Senate of Hamburg. The borough administrator is elected by the Borough Council and thereafter requires confirmation and appointment by Hamburg's Senate.[58] The quarters have no governing bodies of their own.

The part of the North Sea in this aerial picture is called the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park and belongs administratively to the borough of Hamburg-Mitte. Some 50 people live here on the island Neuwerk (visible just above the centre).

In 2008, the boroughs were Hamburg-Mitte, Altona, Eimsbüttel, Hamburg-Nord, Wandsbek, Bergedorf and Harburg.[61]

Hamburg-Mitte ("Hamburg Centre") covers mostly the urban centre of the city and consists of the quarters Billbrook, Billstedt, Borgfelde, Finkenwerder, HafenCity, Hamm, Hammerbrook, Horn, Kleiner Grasbrook, Neuwerk, Rothenburgsort, St. Georg, St. Pauli, Steinwerder, Veddel, Waltershof and Wilhelmsburg.[61] The quarters Hamburg-Altstadt ("old town") and Neustadt ("new town") are the historical origin of Hamburg.

Altona is the westernmost urban borough, on the right bank of the Elbe river. From 1640 to 1864, Altona was under the administration of the Danish monarchy. Altona was an independent city until 1937. Politically, the following quarters are part of Altona: Altona-Altstadt, Altona-Nord, Bahrenfeld, Ottensen, Othmarschen, Groß Flottbek, Osdorf, Lurup, Nienstedten, Blankenese, Iserbrook, Sülldorf, Rissen, Sternschanze.[61]

Bergedorf consists of the quarters Allermöhe, Altengamme, Bergedorf—the centre of the former independent town, Billwerder, Curslack, Kirchwerder, Lohbrügge, Moorfleet, Neuengamme, Neuallermöhe, Ochsenwerder, Reitbrook, Spadenland and Tatenberg.[61]

Eimsbüttel is split into nine-quarters: Eidelstedt, Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude, Hoheluft-West, Lokstedt, Niendorf, Rotherbaum, Schnelsen and Stellingen.[61] Located within this borough is former Jewish neighbourhood Grindel.

Hamburg-Nord contains the quarters Alsterdorf, Barmbek-Nord, Barmbek-Süd, Dulsberg, Eppendorf, Fuhlsbüttel, Groß Borstel, Hoheluft-Ost, Hohenfelde, Langenhorn, Ohlsdorf with Ohlsdorf cemetery, Uhlenhorst and Winterhude.[61]

Harburg lies on the southern shores of the river Elbe and covers parts of the port of Hamburg, residential and rural areas, and some research institutes. The quarters are Altenwerder, Cranz, Eißendorf, Francop, Gut Moor, Harburg, Hausbruch, Heimfeld, Langenbek, Marmstorf, Moorburg, Neuenfelde, Neugraben-Fischbek, Neuland, Rönneburg, Sinstorf and Wilstorf.[61]

Wandsbek is divided into the quarters Bergstedt, Bramfeld, Duvenstedt, Eilbek, Farmsen-Berne, Hummelsbüttel, Jenfeld, Lemsahl-Mellingstedt, Marienthal, Poppenbüttel, Rahlstedt, Sasel, Steilshoop, Tonndorf, Volksdorf, Wandsbek, Wellingsbüttel and Wohldorf-Ohlstedt.[61]

Historicist Palmaille, Altona

The Marco-Polo-Centre (left) and Unilever HQ Germany

Hamburg has architecturally significant buildings in a wide range of styles and no skyscrapers (see List of tallest buildings in Hamburg). Churches are important landmarks, such as St Nicholas', which for a short time in the 19th century was the world's tallest building. The skyline features the tall spires of the most important churches (Hauptkirchen) St Michael's (nicknamed "Michel"), St Peter's, St James's (St. Jacobi) and St. Catherine's covered with copper plates, and the Heinrich-Hertz-Turm, the radio and television tower (no longer publicly accessible).

The Chilehaus with a typical brick expressionist façade

The many streams, rivers and canals are crossed by some 2,500 bridges, more than London, Amsterdam and Venice put together.[62] Hamburg has more bridges inside its city limits than any other city in the world.[63] The Köhlbrandbrücke, Freihafen Elbbrücken, and Lombardsbrücke and Kennedybrücke dividing Binnenalster from Aussenalster are important roadways.

The town hall is a richly decorated Neo-Renaissance building finished in 1897. The tower is 112 metres (367 ft) high. Its façade, 111 m (364 ft) long, depicts the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, since Hamburg was, as a Free Imperial City, only under the sovereignty of the emperor.[64] The Chilehaus, a brick expressionist office building built in 1922 and designed by architect Fritz Höger, is shaped like an ocean liner.

Europe's largest urban development since 2008, the HafenCity, will house about 15,000 inhabitants and 45,000 workers.[65] The plan includes designs by Rem Koolhaas and Renzo Piano. The Elbphilharmonie (Elbe Philharmonic Hall), opened in January 2017, houses concerts in a sail-shaped building on top of an old warehouse, designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron.[66][67]

The many parks are distributed over the whole city, which makes Hamburg a very verdant city. The biggest parks are the Stadtpark, the Ohlsdorf Cemetery and Planten un Blomen. The Stadtpark, Hamburg's "Central Park", has a great lawn and a huge water tower, which houses one of Europe's biggest planetaria. The park and its buildings were designed by Fritz Schumacher in the 1910s.

A water-light concert at Planten un Blomen park

The lavish and spacious Planten un Blomen park (Low German dialect for "plants and flowers") located in the centre of Hamburg is the green heart of the city. Within the park are various thematic gardens, the biggest Japanese garden in Germany, and the Alter Botanischer Garten Hamburg, which is a historic botanical garden that now consists primarily of greenhouses.

The Botanischer Garten Hamburg is a modern botanical garden maintained by the University of Hamburg. Besides these, there are many more parks of various sizes. In 2014 Hamburg celebrated a birthday of park culture, where many parks were reconstructed and cleaned up. Moreover, every year there are the famous water-light-concerts in the Planten un Blomen park from May to early October.

The Deutsches Schauspielhaus in the St. Georg quarter

The 110-metre-high (361-foot) Elbphilharmonie concert hall

The state-owned Deutsches Schauspielhaus, the Thalia Theatre, Ohnsorg Theatre, "Schmidts Tivoli" and the Kampnagel are well-known theatres.[72]

The English Theatre of Hamburg[73] near U3 Mundsburg station was established in 1976 and is the oldest professional English-speaking theatre in Germany, and has exclusively English native-speaking actors in its company.

Hamburg has several large museums and galleries showing classical and contemporary art, for example the Kunsthalle Hamburg with its contemporary art gallery (Galerie der Gegenwart), the Museum for Art and Industry (Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe) and the Deichtorhallen/House of Photography. The Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg opened in the HafenCity quarter in 2008. There are various specialised museums in Hamburg, such as the Archaeological Museum Hamburg (Archäologisches Museum Hamburg) in Hamburg-Harburg, the Hamburg Museum of Work (Museum der Arbeit), and several museums of local history, for example the Kiekeberg Open Air Museum (Freilichtmuseum am Kiekeberg). Two museum ships near Landungsbrücken bear witness to the freight ship (Cap San Diego) and cargo sailing ship era (Rickmer Rickmers).[74] In 2020 the Peking returned to Hamburg as well. The world's largest model railway museum Miniatur Wunderland with 15.4 km (9.57 mi) total railway length is also situated near Landungsbrücken in a former warehouse.

BallinStadt (Emigration City) is dedicated to the millions of Europeans who emigrated to North and South America between 1850 and 1939. Visitors descending from those overseas emigrants may search for their ancestors at computer terminals.

Hamburg State Opera is a leading opera company. Its orchestra is the Philharmoniker Hamburg. The city's other well-known orchestra is the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. The main concert venue is the new concert hall Elbphilharmonie. Before it was the Laeiszhalle, Musikhalle Hamburg. The Laeiszhalle also houses a third orchestra, the Hamburger Symphoniker. György Ligeti and Alfred Schnittke taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg.[75][76]

Hamburg is the birthplace of Johannes Brahms, who spent his formative early years in the city, and the birthplace and home of the famous waltz composer Oscar Fetrás, who wrote the well-known "Mondnacht auf der Alster" waltz.

Since the German premiere of Cats in 1986, there have always been musicals running, including The Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King, Dirty Dancing and Dance of the Vampires (musical). This density, the highest in Germany, is partly due to the major musical production company Stage Entertainment being based in the city.

In addition to musicals, opera houses, concert halls and theaters, the cityscape is characterized by a large music scene. This includes, among other things, over 100 music venues, several annual festivals and over 50 event organizers based in Hamburg.[77] Larger venues include the Barclaycard Arena, the Bahrenfeld harness racing track and Hamburg City Park.

Hamburg was an important center of rock music in the early 1960s. The Beatles lived and played in Hamburg from August 1960 to December 1962. They proved popular and gained local acclaim. Prior to the group's initial recording and widespread fame, Hamburg provided residency and performing venues for the band during the time they performed there. One of the venues they performed at was the Star Club on St. Pauli.

Hamburg has produced a number of successful (pop) musicians. Among the best known are Udo Lindenberg, Deichkind and Jan Delay. The singer Annett Louisan lives in Hamburg.

An important meeting place for Hamburg musicians from the 1970s to the mid-80s was the jazz pub Onkel Pö, which was originally founded in the Pöseldorf neighborhood and later moved to Eppendorf. Many musicians who were counted as part of the "Hamburg scene" met here. In addition to Udo Lindenberg, these included Otto Waalkes, Hans Scheibner and groups such as Torfrock and Frumpy. One of the members of the band Frumpy was the Hamburg-born singer and composer Inga Rumpf.

Hamburg is famous for a special kind of German alternative music, the "Hamburger Schule", a term used for bands like Tocotronic, Blumfeld, Tomte or Kante. The meeting point of the Hamburg School was long considered to be the Golden Pudel Club in Altona's old town near the Fischmarkt. Alongside clubs such as the Pal, the Moondoo or the Waagenbau, today the Pudel is a central location of the Hamburg electro scene. Well-known artists of this scene include the DJ duo Moonbootica, Mladen Solomun and Helena Hauff.[78]

Hamburg is also home to many music labels, music distributors and publishers. These include Warner Music, Kontor Records, PIAS, Edel SE & Co. KGaA, Believe Digital and Indigo. The high proportion of independent labels in the city, which include Audiolith, Dial Records, Grand Hotel van Cleef, among others, is striking. Before its closure, the label L'Age D'Or also belonged to these.

In addition, Hamburg has a considerable alternative and punk scene, which gathers around the Rote Flora, a squatted former theatre located in the Sternschanze

The city was a major centre for heavy metal music in the 1980s. Helloween, Gamma Ray, Running Wild and Grave Digger started in Hamburg.[79] The industrial rock band KMFDM was also formed in Hamburg, initially as a performance art project. The influences of these and other bands from the area helped establish the subgenre of power metal.

In the late 90s, Hamburg was considered one of the strongholds of the German hip-hop scene. Bands like Beginner shaped Hamburg's hip-hop style and made the city a serious location for the hip-hop scene through songs like "Hamburg City Blues." In addition to Beginner, several successful German hip-hop acts hail from Hamburg, such as Fünf Sterne Deluxe, Samy Deluxe, Fettes Brot and 187 Strassenbande.[80]

Hamburg has a vibrant psychedelic trance community, with record labels such as Spirit Zone.[81]

Annual Hafengeburtstag (Port Anniversary)

Hamburg is noted for several festivals and regular events. Some of them are street festivals, such as the gay pride Hamburg Pride festival[82] or the Alster fair (German: Alstervergnügen),[83] held at the Binnenalster. The Hamburger DOM is northern Germany's biggest funfair, held three times a year.[84] Hafengeburtstag is a funfair to honour the birthday of the port of Hamburg with a party and a ship parade.[85] The annual biker's service in Saint Michael's Church attracts tens of thousands of bikers.[86] Christmas markets in December are held at the Hamburg Rathaus square, among other places.[87] The long night of museums (German: Lange Nacht der Museen) offers one entrance fee for about 40 museums until midnight.[88] The sixth Festival of Cultures was held in September 2008, celebrating multi-cultural life.[89] The Filmfest Hamburg — a film festival originating from the 1950s Film Days (German: Film Tage) — presents a wide range of films.[90] The Hamburg Messe and Congress offers a venue for trade shows, such hanseboot, an international boat show, or Du und deine Welt, a large consumer products show.[91] Regular sports events—some open to pro and amateur participants—are the cycling competition EuroEyes Cyclassics, the Hamburg Marathon, the biggest marathon in Germany after Berlin,[92] the tennis tournament Hamburg Masters and equestrian events like the Deutsches Derby.

Hamburg is also known for its music and festival culture. For example, the Reeperbahn alone has between 25 - 30 million visitors every year. In addition, there are over a million visitors to the annual festivals and major music events.[93] Hamburg's festivals include the Elbjazz Festival, which takes place 2 days a year (usually on the Whitsun weekend) in Hamburg's harbor and HafenCity.

For contemporary and experimental music, the "blurred edges Archived 20 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine" festival usually follows in May at various venues within Hamburg. In mid-August, the MS Dockville music and arts festival has run annually since 2007 in the Wilhelmsburg district.[94] This is followed at the end of September by the Reeperbahn Festival, which has been running since 2006. As Europe's largest club festival, it offers several hundred program points around the Reeperbahn in Hamburg over four days and is one of the most important meeting places for the music industry worldwide.[95] In November, the ÜBERJAZZ Festival, which aims to expand the stylistic boundaries of the concept of jazz, starts every year at Kampnagel.[96]

Fried plaice, Finkenwerder style

Original Hamburg dishes are Birnen, Bohnen und Speck (green beans cooked with pears and bacon),[97] Aalsuppe (Hamburgisch Oolsupp) is often mistaken to be German for "eel soup" (Aal/Ool translated 'eel'), but the name probably comes from the Low Saxon allns [aˑlns], meaning "all", "everything and the kitchen sink", not necessarily eel. Today eel is often included to meet the expectations of unsuspecting diners.[98] There is Bratkartoffeln (pan-fried potato slices), Finkenwerder Scholle (Low Saxon Finkwarder Scholl, pan-fried plaice), Pannfisch (pan-fried fish with mustard sauce),[99] Rote Grütze (Low Saxon Rode Grütt, related to Danish rødgrød, a type of summer pudding made mostly from berries and usually served with cream, like Danish rødgrød med fløde)[100] and Labskaus (a mixture of corned beef, mashed potatoes and beetroot, a cousin of the Norwegian lapskaus and Liverpool's lobscouse, all offshoots off an old-time one-pot meal that used to be the main component of the common sailor's humdrum diet on the high seas).[101]

Alsterwasser (in reference to the city's river, the Alster) is the local name for a type of shandy, a concoction of equal parts of beer and carbonated lemonade (Zitronenlimonade), the lemonade being added to the beer.[102]

There is the curious regional dessert pastry called Franzbrötchen. Looking rather like a flattened croissant, it is similar in preparation but includes a cinnamon and sugar filling, often with raisins or brown sugar streusel. The name may also reflect to the roll's croissant-like appearance – franz appears to be a shortening of französisch, meaning "French", which would make a Franzbrötchen a "French roll". Ordinary bread rolls tend to be oval-shaped and of the French bread variety. The local name is Schrippe (scored lengthways) for the oval kind and, for the round kind, Rundstück ("round piece" rather than mainstream German Brötchen, diminutive form of Brot "bread"),[103] a relative of Denmark's rundstykke. In fact, while by no means identical, the cuisines of Hamburg and Denmark, especially of Copenhagen, have a lot in common. This also includes a predilection for open-faced sandwiches of all sorts, especially topped with cold-smoked or pickled fish.

The American hamburger may have developed from Hamburg's Frikadeller: a pan-fried patty (usually larger and thicker than its American counterpart) made from a mixture of ground beef, soaked stale bread, egg, chopped onion, salt and pepper, usually served with potatoes and vegetables like any other piece of meat, not usually on a bun. The Oxford Dictionary defined a Hamburger steak in 1802: a sometimes-smoked and -salted piece of meat, that, according to some sources, came from Hamburg to America.[104] The name and food, "hamburger", has entered all English-speaking countries, and derivative words in non-English speaking countries.

There are restaurants which offer most of these dishes, especially in the HafenCity.

• 
  Elbphilharmonie ("Elphi")
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  Port of Hamburg
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  St. Pauli Piers and cruise ship
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  Speicherstadt (Warehouse district)
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  Hamburg City Hall
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  St. Michael's Church ("Michel")
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  Reeperbahn, nightlife district of St. Pauli
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  Spielbudenplatz at Reeperbahn
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  Große Freiheit ("Great Freedom")
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  Nikolai Memorial
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  HafenCity
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  Dockland at night
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  View over frozen Alster towards Radisson Hotel and Hertz-Turm
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  Planten un Blomen
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  Jungfernstieg Boulevard
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  Hills and mansions in Blankenese
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  Laeiszhalle concert venue
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  Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, the busiest railway station in Germany
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  Hanseatisches Oberlandesgericht ("HansOLG"), upper court
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  Highrises in St. Pauli (Hafenkrone)
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  Köhlbrand Bridge
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  TV Tower
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  Traditional sailing ships at Sandtorkai in HafenCity
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  View over Hamburg and the Alster

Rote Flora in the Sternschanze neighbourhood, Hamburg

Hamburg has long been a centre of alternative music and counter-culture movements. The boroughs of St. Pauli, Sternschanze and Altona are known for being home to many radical left-wing and anarchist groups, culminating every year during the traditional May Day demonstrations.[105]

During the 2017 G20 summit, which took place in Hamburg from 7–8 July that year, protestors clashed violently with the police in the Sternschanze area and particularly around the Rote Flora. On 7 July, several cars were set on fire and street barricades were erected to prevent the police from entering the area. In response to that, the police made heavy use of water cannons and tear gas in order to scatter the protestors. However, this was met with strong resistance by protestors, resulting in a total of 160 injured police and 75 arrested participants in the protests.[106]

After the summit, however, the Rote Flora issued a statement, in which it condemns the arbitrary acts of violence that were committed by some of the protestors whilst generally defending the right to use violence as a means of self-defence against police oppression. In particular, the spokesperson of the Rote Flora said that the autonomous cultural centre had a traditionally good relationship with its neighbours and local residents, since they were united in their fight against gentrification in that neighbourhood.[107]

The English Theatre of Hamburg at Lerchenfeld 14

There are several English-speaking communities, such as the Caledonian Society of Hamburg, The British Club Hamburg, British and Commonwealth Luncheon Club, Anglo-German Club e.V.,[108] Professional Women's Forum,[109] The British Decorative and Fine Arts Society, The English Speaking Union of the Commonwealth, The Scottish Country Dancers of Hamburg, The Hamburg Players e.V. English Language Theatre Group, The Hamburg Exiles Rugby Club, several cricket clubs, and The Morris Minor Register of Hamburg. Furthermore, the Anglo-Hanseatic Lodge No. 850[110] within the Grand Lodge of British Freemasons of Germany[111] under the United Grand Lodges of Germany[112] works in Hamburg, and has a diverse expat membership. There is also a 400-year-old Anglican church community worshipping at St Thomas Becket Church.[113]

American and international English-speaking organisations include The American Club of Hamburg e.V.,[114] the American Women's Club of Hamburg,[115] the English Speaking Union, the German-American Women's Club,[116] and The International Women's Club of Hamburg e.V. The American Chamber of Commerce handles matters related to business affairs.[117] The International School of Hamburg serves school children.

William Wordsworth, Dorothy Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge spent the last two weeks of September 1798 at Hamburg. Dorothy wrote a detailed journal of their stay, labelled "The Hamburg Journal (1798) by noted Wordsworth scholar Edward de Selincourt."[118]

A Hamburg saying, referring to its anglophile nature, is: "Wenn es in London anfängt zu regnen, spannen die Hamburger den Schirm auf." ... "When it starts raining in London, people in Hamburg open their umbrellas."

A memorial for successful English engineer William Lindley, [119] who, beginning in 1842, reorganized the drinking water and sewage system and thus helped to fight against cholera, is near Baumwall train station in Vorsetzen street.

In 2009, more than 2,500 "stumbling blocks" (Stolpersteine) were laid, engraved with the names of deported and murdered citizens. Inserted into the pavement in front of their former houses, the blocks draw attention to the victims of Nazi persecution.[120]

Hamburg has for centuries been a commercial centre of Northern Europe, and is the most important banking city of Northern Germany. The city is the seat of Germany's oldest bank, the Berenberg Bank, M.M.Warburg & CO and Hamburg Commercial Bank. The Hamburg Stock Exchange is the oldest of its kind in Germany.

Queen Mary 2 at the Port of Hamburg

The most significant economic unit is the Port of Hamburg, which ranks third to Rotterdam and Antwerpen in Europe and 17th-largest worldwide with transshipments of 8.9 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of cargo and 138.2 million tons of goods in 2016.[125] International trade is also the reason for the large number of consulates in the city. Although situated 110 kilometres (70 mi) up the Elbe, it is considered a sea port due to its ability to handle large ocean-going vessels.[126]

Heavy industry of Hamburg includes the making of steel, aluminium, copper and various large shipyards such as Blohm + Voss.[127]

Hamburg, along with Seattle and Toulouse, is an important location of the civil aerospace industry. Airbus, which operates the Hamburg-Finkenwerder assembly plant in Finkenwerder, employs over 13,000 people.[128]

Western HafenCity area and Speicherstadt

The HafenCity is Europe's largest urban development project and is located in the Hamburg-Mitte district. It consists of the area of the Great Grasbrook, the northern part of the former Elbe island Grasbrook, and the warehouse district on the former Elbe island Kehrwieder and Wandrahm. It is bordered to the north, separated by the customs channel to Hamburg's city center, west and south by the Elbe and to the east, bounded by the upper harbor, Rothenburgsort. The district is full of rivers and streams and is surrounded by channels, and has a total area of about 2.2 square-kilometers.

HafenCity has 155 hectares in the area formerly belonging to the free port north of the Great Grasbrook. Residential units for up to 12,000 people are planned to be built on the site by around the mid-2020s, and jobs for up to 40,000 people, mainly in the office sector, should be created. It is the largest ongoing urban development project in Hamburg.

Construction work started in 2003, and in 2009 the first part of the urban development project was finished with the completion of the Dalmannkai / Sandtorkai neighborhood – which is the first stage of the HafenCity project. According to the person responsible for the development and commercialization of HafenCity, HafenCity Hamburg GmbH, half of the master plan underlying structural construction is already completed, whereas the other half is either under construction or is in the construction preparation stages.

City logo of Hamburg

Neuer Wall, one of Europe's most luxurious shopping streets

In 2017, more than 6,783,000 visitors with 13,822,000 overnight stays visited the city.[129] The tourism sector employs more than 175,000 people full-time and brings in revenue of almost €9 billion, making the tourism industry a major economic force in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Hamburg has one of the fastest-growing tourism industries in Germany. From 2001 to 2007, the overnight stays in the city increased by 55.2% (Berlin +52.7%, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern +33%).[130]

A typical Hamburg visit includes a tour of the city hall and the grand church St. Michaelis (called the Michel), and visiting the old warehouse district (Speicherstadt) and the harbour promenade (Landungsbrücken). Sightseeing buses connect these points of interest. As Hamburg is one of the world's largest harbours many visitors take one of the harbour and/or canal boat tours (Große Hafenrundfahrt, Fleetfahrt) which start from the Landungsbrücken. Major destinations also include museums.

The area of Reeperbahn in the quarter St. Pauli is Europe's largest red light district and home of strip clubs, brothels, bars and nightclubs. The singer and actor Hans Albers is strongly associated with St. Pauli, and wrote the neighbourhood's unofficial anthem, "Auf der Reeperbahn Nachts um Halb Eins" ("On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight") in the 1940s. The Beatles had stints on the Reeperbahn early in their careers. Others prefer the laid-back neighbourhood Schanze with its street cafés, or a barbecue on one of the beaches along the river Elbe. Hamburg's famous zoo, the Tierpark Hagenbeck, was founded in 1907 by Carl Hagenbeck as the first zoo with moated, barless enclosures.[131]

In 2016, the average visitor spent two nights in Hamburg.[132] The majority of visitors come from Germany. Most foreigners are European, especially from Denmark (395,681 overnight stays), the United Kingdom (301,000 overnight stays), Switzerland (340,156 overnight stays), Austria (about 252,397 overnight stays) and the Netherlands (about 182,610 overnight stays).[132] The largest group from outside Europe comes from the United States (206,614 overnight stays).[132]

The Queen Mary 2 has docked regularly since 2004, and there were six departures planned from 2010 onwards.[133]

Der Spiegel headquarters

Media businesses employ over 70,000 people.[134] The Norddeutscher Rundfunk which includes the television station NDR Fernsehen is based in Hamburg, including the very popular news program Tagesschau, as are the commercial television station Hamburg 1, the Christian television station Bibel TV and the civil media outlet Tide TV. There are regional radio stations such as Radio Hamburg. Some of Germany's largest publishing companies, Axel Springer AG, Gruner + Jahr, Bauer Media Group are located in the city. Many national newspapers and magazines such as Der Spiegel and Die Zeit are produced in Hamburg, as well as some special-interest newspapers such as Financial Times Deutschland. Hamburger Abendblatt and Hamburger Morgenpost are daily regional newspapers with a large circulation. There are music publishers, such as Warner Bros. Records Germany, and ICT firms such as Adobe Systems and Google Germany.

A total of about 2,000 companies are located in Hamburg that are active in the music industry. With over 17,000 employees and a gross value added of around 640 million euros, this industry is one of the strongest in the city.[135] The Interessengemeinschaft Hamburger Musikwirtschaft and the Clubkombinat represent the companies in the industry. The interests of Hamburg musicians* are represented, for example, by RockCity Hamburg e.V..

Hamburg was one of the locations for the James Bond series film Tomorrow Never Dies. The Reeperbahn has been the location for many scenes, including the 1994 Beatles film Backbeat.[136] The film A Most Wanted Man was set in and filmed in Hamburg. Hamburg was also shown in An American Tail where Fievel Mousekewitz and his family immigrate to America in the hopes to escape cats.

Hamburg has 54 hospitals. The University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, with about 1,736 beds, houses a large medical school. There are also smaller private hospitals. On 1 January 2011 there were about 12,507 hospital beds.[137] The city had 5,663 physicians in private practice and 456 pharmacies in 2010.[138]

The Port of Hamburg on the river Elbe

Baumwall station of the Hamburg U-Bahn

Neue and Freihafen-Elbbrücke

Hamburg is a major transportation hub, connected to four Autobahnen (motorways) and the most important railway junction on the route to Scandinavia.

Bridges and tunnels connect the northern and southern parts of the city, such as the old Elbe Tunnel (Alter Elbtunnel) or St. Pauli Elbtunnel (official name) which opened in 1911, now is major tourist sight, and the Elbe Tunnel (Elbtunnel) the crossing of a motorway.[139]

Hamburg Airport is the oldest airport in Germany still in operation.[140][141] There is also the smaller Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport, used only as a company airport for Airbus. Some airlines market Lübeck Airport in Lübeck as serving Hamburg.[142]

Hamburg's licence plate prefix was "HH" (Hansestadt Hamburg; English: Hanseatic City of Hamburg) between 1906 and 1945 and from 1956 onwards, rather than the single letter normally used for large cities since the federal registration reform in 1956, such as B for Berlin or M for Munich. "H" was Hamburg's prefix in the years between 1945 and 1947 (used by Hanover since 1956).[143]

A map of the transit rail lines in Hamburg

Public transport by rail, bus and ship is organised by the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund ("Hamburg transit authority") (HVV). Tickets sold by one company are valid on all other HVV companies' services. The HVV was the first organisation of this kind worldwide.[144]

33 mass transit rail lines across the city are the backbone of public transport.[145] The S-Bahn (commuter train system) comprises six lines and the U-Bahn four lines – U-Bahn is short for Untergrundbahn (underground railway). Approximately 41 km (25 mi) of 101 km (63 mi) of the U-Bahn is underground; most is on embankments or viaduct or at ground level. Older residents still speak of the system as Hochbahn (elevated railway), also because the operating company of the subway is the Hamburger Hochbahn. The AKN railway connects satellite towns in Schleswig-Holstein to the city. On some routes regional trains of Germany's major railway company Deutsche Bahn AG and the regional metronom trains may be used with an HVV ticket. Except at the four bigger stations of the city, Hauptbahnhof, Dammtor, Altona and Harburg regional trains do not stop inside the city. The tram system was opened in 1866 and shut down in 1978.[146]

Gaps in the rail network are filled by more than 669 bus routes, operated by single-deck two-, three- and four-axle diesel buses.[145] Hamburg has no trams or trolleybuses, but has hydrogen-fueled buses. The buses run frequently during working hours, with buses on some so-called MetroBus routes as often as every 2 minutes. On special weekday night lines the intervals can be 30 minutes or longer, on normal days (Monday-Friday) the normal buses stop running at night. (MetroBuses run all around the clock, every day at the year at least every half-hour.)

There are eight ferry lines along the River Elbe, operated by HADAG, that fall under the aegis of the HVV. While mainly used by citizens and dock workers, they can also be used for sightseeing tours.[147]

An Airbus A321 on final assembly line 3 in the Airbus Hamburg-Finkenwerder plant

The international airport serving Hamburg, Hamburg Airport Helmut Schmidt (IATA: HAM, ICAO: EDDH) is the fifth biggest and oldest airport in Germany, having been established in 1912 and located about 5 miles (8 kilometres) from the city centre. About 60 airlines provide service to 125 destination airports, including some long-distance destinations like Newark, New Jersey on United Airlines, Dubai on Emirates, and Tehran on Iran Air. Hamburg is a secondary hub for Lufthansa, which is the largest carrier at the airport, and the airline also operates one of its biggest Lufthansa Technik maintenance facilities there. The second airport is located in Hamburg-Finkenwerder, officially named Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport (IATA: XFW, ICAO: EDHI). It is about 10 km (6 mi) from the city centre and is a nonpublic airport for the Airbus plant. It is the second biggest Airbus plant, after Toulouse, and the third biggest aviation manufacturing plant after Seattle and Toulouse; the plant houses the final assembly lines for A318, A319, A320, A321 and A380 aircraft.[148]

Public transportation statistics

The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Hamburg, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 58 min. 16% of public transit riders, ride for more than two hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 11 min, while 11% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 8.9 km, while 21% travel for over 12 km in a single direction.[149]

Electricity for Hamburg and Northern Germany is largely provided by Vattenfall Europe, formerly the state-owned Hamburgische Electricitäts-Werke. Vattenfall Europe used to operate the Brunsbüttel Nuclear Power Plant and Krümmel Nuclear Power Plant, both taken out of service as part of the nuclear power phase-out. In addition, E.ON operates the Brokdorf Nuclear Power Plant near Hamburg. There are also the coal-fired Wedel, Tiefstack and Moorburg CHP Plant, and the fuel-cell power plant in the HafenCity quarter. VERA Klärschlammverbrennung uses the biosolids of the Hamburg wastewater treatment plant; the Pumpspeicherwerk Geesthacht is a pump storage power plant and a solid waste combustion power station is Müllverwertung Borsigstraße.[150]

In June 2019 City of Hamburg introduced a law governing the phasing out of coal based thermal and electric energy production ("Kohleausstiegsgesetz").[151] This move was the result of negotiations between parliamentary parties and representatives of the popular petition Tschuess Kohle ("Goodbye Coal"). Hamburg Ministry for Environment and Energy in 2020 announced a partnership with Namibia, which is a potential supplier of woody biomass from encroacher bush as replacement of coal.[152]