(male), (female)
en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 =
Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST =
Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal_code_type =
Postal code(s)
, postal_code = 20001–21149, 22001–22769
, area_code_type =
Area code(s)
, area_code = 040
, registration_plate =
, blank_name_sec1 =
GRP (nominal)
, blank_info_sec1 = €123 billion (2019)
, blank1_name_sec1 = GRP per capita
, blank1_info_sec1 = €67,000 (2019)
, blank1_name_sec2 =
HDI
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, wh ...
(2018)
, blank1_info_sec2 = 0.976
·
1st of 16
, iso_code = DE-HH
, blank_name_sec2 =
NUTS Region
, blank_info_sec2 = DE6
, website =
, footnotes =
, name = Hamburg
![Hamburg by Sentinel-2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Hamburg_by_Sentinel-2.jpg)
Hamburg (, ; nds, label=
Low Saxon
Low Saxon, also known as West Low German ( nds, Nedersassisch, Nedersaksies; nl, Nedersaksisch) are a group of Low German dialects spoken in parts of the Netherlands, northwestern Germany and southern Denmark (in North Schleswig by parts of th ...
, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),
[.] is the
second-largest city in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
after
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, as well as the overall
7th largest city and largest non-
capital city
A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses t ...
in the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
with a population of over 1.85 million. Hamburg's urban area has a population of around 2.5 million
and is part of the
Hamburg Metropolitan Region, which has a population of over 5.1 million people in total. The city lies on the
River Elbe
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Rep ...
and two of its
tributaries
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainag ...
, the
River Alster
The Alster () is a right tributary of the Elbe river in Northern Germany. It has its source near Henstedt-Ulzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, flows somewhat southwards through much of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and joins the Elbe in centra ...
and the
River Bille. One of Germany's 16
federated states
A federated state (which may also be referred to as a state, a province, a region, a canton, a land, a governorate, an oblast, an emirate or a country) is a territorial and constitutional community forming part of a federation. Such states dif ...
, Hamburg is surrounded by
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...
to the north and
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
to the south.
The official name reflects
Hamburg's history as a member of the medieval
Hanseatic League and a
free imperial city
In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...
of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...
. Before the 1871
unification of Germany
The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with adoption of t ...
, it was a fully
sovereign city state
A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...
, and before 1919 formed a civic republic
headed constitutionally by a class of hereditary
grand burgher
Grand Burgher aleor Grand Burgheress emale(from German: Großbürger ale Großbürgerin emale is a specific conferred or inherited title of medieval German origin and legally defined preeminent status granting exclusive constitutional privil ...
s or . Beset by disasters such as the
Great Fire of Hamburg,
North Sea flood of 1962
The North Sea flood of 1962 was a natural disaster affecting mainly the coastal regions of West Germany and in particular the city of Hamburg in the night from 16 February to 17 February 1962. In total, the homes of about 60,000 people were ...
and military conflicts including
World War II bombing raids, the city has managed to recover and emerge wealthier after each catastrophe.
Hamburg is Europe's
third largest port, after
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...
and
Antwerp. Major regional broadcaster
NDR, the printing and publishing firm and the newspapers and are based in the city. Hamburg is the seat of Germany's oldest
stock exchange and the
world's oldest merchant bank,
Berenberg Bank. Media, commercial, logistical, and industrial firms with significant locations in the city include multinationals
Airbus
Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: ' ...
, , , , and
Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...
. Hamburg is also a major European
science, research, and education hub, with several universities and institutions. The city enjoys a very high quality of living, being ranked 19th in the 2019 Mercer Quality of Living Survey.
Hamburg hosts specialists in world economics and international law, including
consular and diplomatic missions as the
International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
, the
EU-LAC Foundation, and the
UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning
The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), formerly UNESCO Institute for Education, is one of six educational institutes of UNESCO. It is a non-profit international research, training, information, documentation and publishing centre on ...
, multipartite international political conferences and summits such as
Europe and China and the
G20
The G20 or Group of Twenty is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union (EU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigatio ...
. Both former German chancellors
Helmut Schmidt
Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982.
Before becoming Ch ...
and
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...
were born in Hamburg. The former
Mayor of Hamburg,
Olaf Scholz, has been the current German chancellor since December 2021.
Hamburg is a major international and domestic
tourist destination
A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement.
Types
Places of natural ...
. The and were declared
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
s by
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
in 2015. Hamburg's rivers and canals are crossed by around 2,500 bridges, making it the city with the highest number of bridges in Europe. Aside from its rich architectural heritage, the city is also home to notable cultural venues such as the and concert halls. It gave birth to movements like and paved the way for bands including
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
. Hamburg is also known for several
theatres
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
and a variety of musical shows.
St. Pauli
St. Pauli (Sankt Pauli; ) is a quarter of the city of Hamburg belonging to the centrally located Hamburg-Mitte borough. Situated on the right bank of the Elbe river, the nearby Landungsbrücken is a northern part of the port of Hamburg. St. ...
's is among the best-known European entertainment districts.
Geography
Hamburg is at a sheltered natural harbour on the southern fanning-out of the
Jutland Peninsula
Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...
, between
Continental Europe to the south and
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...
to the north, with the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...
to the west and the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...
to the northeast. It is on the
River Elbe
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Rep ...
at its confluence with the
Alster
The Alster () is a right tributary of the Elbe river in Northern Germany. It has its source near Henstedt-Ulzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, flows somewhat southwards through much of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and joins the Elbe in central ...
and
Bille. The city centre is around the
Binnenalster
Binnenalster () or Inner Alster Lake is one of two artificial lakes within the city limits of Hamburg, Germany, which are formed by the river Alster (the other being the Außenalster). The main annual festival is the ''Alstervergnügen''.
The la ...
("Inner Alster") and
Außenalster
Außenalster () or Outer Alster Lake is the larger one of two artificial lakes, which are formed by the Alster River and are both located within the city limits of Hamburg, Germany. The other „lake“ is the Binnenalster. The Außenalster and i ...
("Outer Alster"), both formed by damming the River Alster to create lakes. The islands of
Neuwerk
Neuwerk (; (''Archaic English'': New Werk or Newark) is a tidal island in the Wadden Sea on the German North Sea coast, with a population of 32. Neuwerk is located northwest of Cuxhaven, between the Weser and Elbe estuaries. The distance to th ...
,
Scharhörn
Scharhörn is an uninhabited island in the North Sea belonging to the city of Hamburg, Germany. The once most important daymark on the North Sea coast, the Scharhörnbake, was maintained here by the City of Hamburg from 1440 to 1979.
Geogra ...
, and
Nigehörn, away in the
Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park
The Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park (german: Hamburgisches Wattenmeer) is the smallest of the three German Wadden Sea National Parks which protect the single ecological entity of the Wadden Sea reaching from Den Helder to Esbjerg.
It is an ex ...
, are also part of the city of Hamburg.
The neighborhoods of
Neuenfelde,
Cranz, Francop and
Finkenwerder
Finkenwerder (; Low German: ''Finkwarder'', ''Finkenwarder'' or ''- wärder''; German: ''Finkeninsel''; translation: Island of finches) is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany in the borough Hamburg-Mitte. It is the location of a plant of Airbus and its ...
are part of the ''
Altes Land
Altes Land () is an area of reclaimed marshland straddling parts of Lower Saxony and Hamburg. The region is situated downstream from Hamburg on the southwestern riverside of the Elbe around the towns of Stade, Buxtehude, Jork and the '' S ...
'' (old land) region, the largest contiguous fruit-producing region in
Central Europe
Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...
.
Neugraben-Fischbek
[] is a Boroughs and quarters of Hamburg, quarter of Hamburg, Germany, belongs to the borough Harburg, Hamburg, Harburg. The quarter consists of the old settlements ''Neugraben'' and ''Fischbek'', and the more recently constructed area ''Neuwieden ...
has Hamburg's highest elevation, the
Hasselbrack at
AMSL. Hamburg borders the
states of
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...
and
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
.
Climate
Hamburg has an
oceanic climate (
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
: ''Cfb''), influenced by its proximity to the coast and maritime influences that originate over the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
. The location in the north of
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
provides extremes greater than typical marine climates, but definitely in the category due to the prevailing westerlies. 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, the winters of recent years have been less cold, with snowfall just a few days per year.
The warmest months are June, July, and August, with high temperatures of . The coldest are December, January, and February, with low temperatures of .
[
]
History
Origins
Claudius Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importa ...
(2nd century AD) reported the first name for the vicinity as Treva
Treva is the historical original name-during the short-lived creation of the Germania, Roman province of Germania-of the actual city of Hamburg in Germany.
History
Romans reached the Elbe river under Augustus and conquered all the German territ ...
.
Etymology
The name Hamburg comes from the first permanent building on the site, a castle which the Emperor Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first ...
ordered constructed in AD 808. It rose on rocky terrain in a marsh between the River Alster
The Alster () is a right tributary of the Elbe river in Northern Germany. It has its source near Henstedt-Ulzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, flows somewhat southwards through much of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and joins the Elbe in centra ...
and the River Elbe
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Rep ...
as a defence against Slavic incursion, and acquired the name ''Hammaburg'', ''burg'' meaning castle or fort. The origin of the ''Hamma'' term remains uncertain, but its location is estimated to be at the site of today's Domplatz.
Medieval Hamburg
In 834, Hamburg was designated as the seat of a bishopric
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...
. The first bishop, Ansgar
Ansgar (8 September 801 – 3 February 865), also known as Anskar, Saint Ansgar, Saint Anschar or Oscar, was Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen in the northern part of the Kingdom of the East Franks. Ansgar became known as the "Apostle of the North" b ...
, became known as the Apostle of the North. Two years later, Hamburg was united with Bremen as the Bishopric of Hamburg-Bremen.[ Verg (2007), p.15]
Hamburg was destroyed and occupied several times. In 845, 600 Viking
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
ships sailed up the River Elbe
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Rep ...
and destroyed Hamburg, at that time a town of around 500 inhabitants. In 1030, King Mieszko II Lambert
Mieszko II Lambert (; c. 990 – 10/11 May 1034) was King of Poland from 1025 to 1031, and Duke from 1032 until his death.
He was the second son of Bolesław I the Brave, but the eldest born from his third wife Emnilda of Lusatia. He was pro ...
of Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
burned down the city. Valdemar II of Denmark
Valdemar (28 June 1170 – 28 March 1241), later remembered as Valdemar the Victorious (), was the King of Denmark (being Valdemar II) from 1202 until his death in 1241.
Background
He was the second son of King Valdemar I of Denmark and Sophi ...
raided and occupied Hamburg in 1201 and in 1214. The Black Death killed at least 60% of the population in 1350.
Hamburg experienced several great fires in the medieval period.
In 1189, by imperial charter, Frederick I "Barbarossa" granted Hamburg the status of a Free Imperial City
In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...
and tax-free access (or free-trade zone
A free-trade zone (FTZ) is a class of special economic zone. It is a geographic area where goods may be imported, stored, handled, manufactured, or reconfigured and re-exported under specific customs regulation and generally not subject to cus ...
) up the Lower Elbe into the North Sea. In 1265, an allegedly forged letter was presented to or by the Rath of Hamburg.[ Verg (2007), p. 26] This charter, along with Hamburg's proximity to the main trade routes of the North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...
and Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...
, quickly made it a major port in Northern Europe. Its trade alliance with Lübeck
Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...
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.[ Verg (2007), p. 30
]
In 1270, the solicitor of the senate of Hamburg
The government of Hamburg is divided into executive, legislative and judicial branches. Hamburg is a city-state and municipality, and thus its governance deals with several details of both state and local community politics. It takes place in two ...
, ''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). On 10 August 1410, civil unrest forced a compromise (German: ''Rezeß'', literally meaning: withdrawal). This is considered the first constitution of Hamburg
The Constitution of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg (German: ''Verfassung der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg'') is the basic governing document of the German city-state of Hamburg. It was approved on 6 June 1952. It is the fourth constitutio ...
.
Modern times
In 1529, the city embraced Lutheranism
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
, and it received Reformed refugees from the Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
and France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
.
When Jan van Valckenborgh introduced a second layer to the fortifications to protect against the Thirty Years War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battl ...
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.
Upon the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...
in 1806, the Free Imperial City
In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...
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
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
to the First French Empire
The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire (; Latin: ) after 1809, also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental E ...
(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
The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...
of 1815 confirmed Hamburg's independence and it became one of 39 sovereign states of the German Confederation
The German Confederation (german: Deutscher Bund, ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, w ...
(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
1848 is historically famous for the wave of revolutions, a series of widespread struggles for more liberal governments, which broke out from Brazil to Hungary; although most failed in their immediate aims, they significantly altered the polit ...
, 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
The North German Confederation (german: Norddeutscher Bund) was initially a German military alliance established in August 1866 under the leadership of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was transformed in the subsequent year into a confederated st ...
(1866–1871) and of the German Empire (1871–1918), and maintained its self-ruling status during the Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
(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
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
trade helped make it Europe's second-largest port. The Hamburg-America Line
The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as the Hamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent citi ...
, with Albert Ballin
Albert Ballin (15 August 1857 – 9 November 1918) was a German shipping magnate. He was the general director of the Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG) or Hamburg-America Line, which for a time was the world's largest s ...
as its director, became the world's largest transatlantic
Transatlantic, Trans-Atlantic or TransAtlantic may refer to:
Film
* Transatlantic Pictures, a film production company from 1948 to 1950
* Transatlantic Enterprises, an American production company in the late 1970s
* ''Transatlantic'' (1931 film) ...
shipping company around the start of the 20th century. Shipping companies sailing to South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
, Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
, India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both Geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The modern State (polity), states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. ...
were based in the city. Hamburg was the departure port for many Germans and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...
ans to emigrate to the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
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.
Second World War
Hamburg was a ''Gau'' within the administrative division of Nazi Germany
The ''Gaue'' (Singular: ''Gau'') were the main administrative divisions of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945.
The ''Gaue'' were formed in 1926 as Nazi Party regional districts in Weimar Germany based on the territorial changes after the First ...
from 1934 until 1945. During the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, the Allied bombing of Hamburg devastated much of the city and the harbour. On 23 July 1943, the Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
and United States Army Air Force
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
firebombing created a firestorm
A firestorm is a conflagration which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during some of the largest bushfires and wildfires. Although the term has been used ...
which spread from the ''Hauptbahnhof'' (main railway station) and quickly moved south-east, completely destroying entire boroughs such as Hammerbrook
Hammerbrook () is a quarter (''Stadtteil'') in the Hamburg-Mitte borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg in Germany. In 2020, the population was 5,069.
Name
''Hamm'', as in the Hamm section of the city that borders it to the east, refer ...
, Billbrook
Billbrook () is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Hamburg-Mitte. It is located on the southeastern border of the borough adjacent to the borough of Bergedorf. Billbrook is located in a swamp area near the Elbe and Bille rivers, ...
and Hamm South. Thousands of people perished in these densely populated working class boroughs. The raids, codenamed Operation Gomorrah
The Allied bombing of Hamburg during World War II included numerous attacks on civilians and civic infrastructure. As a large city and industrial centre, Hamburg's shipyards, U-boat pens, and the Hamburg-Harburg area oil refineries were attack ...
by the RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
, 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 Hamburg Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery is a war cemetery which was built and is looked after by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). The war graves of 676 Commonwealth service personnel from World War I and 1,889 from World W ...
is in the greater Ohlsdorf Cemetery
Ohlsdorf Cemetery (german: Ohlsdorfer Friedhof or (former) ) in the Ohlsdorf quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany, is the biggest rural cemetery in the world and the fourth-largest cemetery in the world. Most of the people buried at the cemete ...
in the north of Hamburg.
At least 42,900 people are thought to have perished in the Neuengamme concentration camp
Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in Northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, th ...
(about outside the city in the marshlands), mostly from epidemics and in the bombing of Kriegsmarine evacuation vessels by the RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
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
Beginning with the invasion of Poland during World War II, the Nazi regime set up ghettos across German-occupied Eastern Europe in order to segregate and confine Jews, and sometimes Romani people, into small sections of towns and cities fur ...
or to concentration camps
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
. Most deported persons perished in the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
. 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. The few remaining employees not somewhat protected by a mixed marriage were deported from Hamburg on 23 June to Theresienstadt
Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination ca ...
, where most of them perished.
Post-war history
The city was surrendered to British Forces
The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, su ...
on 3 May 1945, in the Battle of Hamburg, three days after Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's death. After the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, Hamburg formed part of the British Zone of Occupation
Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and France ...
; it became a state of what was then West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
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 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 Europe
Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...
an and Baltic
Baltic may refer to:
Peoples and languages
* Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian
*Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...
countries into the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
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.
Demographics
On 31 December 2016, there were 1,860,759 people registered as living in Hamburg in an area of . The population density
Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...
was . The metropolitan area of the Hamburg region ( Hamburg Metropolitan Region) is home to 5,107,429 living on .
There were 915,319 women and 945,440 men in Hamburg. For every 1,000 females, there were 1,033 males. In 2015, there were 19,768 births in Hamburg (of which 38.3% were to unmarried women); 6422 marriages and 3190 divorces, and 17,565 deaths. In the city, the population was spread out, with 16.1% under the age of 18, and 18.3% were 65 years of age or older. 356 people in Hamburg were over the age of 100.[https://www.statistik-nord.de/fileadmin/Dokumente/Statistische_Berichte/bevoelkerung/A_I_S_1_j_H/A_I_S1_j16.pdf ]
According to the Statistical Office for Hamburg and Schleswig Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schl ...
, the number of people with a migrant background is at 34% (631,246).[https://www.statistik-nord.de/fileadmin/Dokumente/Statistik_informiert_SPEZIAL/SI_SPEZIAL_V_2017_Korrektur.pdf ] Immigrants come from 200 countries. 5,891 people have acquired German cititzenship in 2016.[https://www.statistik-nord.de/fileadmin/Dokumente/Jahrb%C3%BCcher/Hamburg/JB16HH_Gesamt_Internet_min.pdf ]
In 2016, there were 1,021,666 households, of which 17.8% had children under the age of 18; 54.4% of all households were made up of singles. 25.6% of all households were single parent households. The average household size was 1.8.[Selectable data base: ]
Foreign citizens in Hamburg
Hamburg residents with a foreign citizenship as of 31 December 2016 is as follows
Language
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. 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.
Religion
65.2% of the population is not religious or adherent other religions than the Evangelical Church or Catholicism.
In 2018, 24.9% of the population belonged to the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church
The North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church (german: link=no, Nordelbische Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche; NEK) was a Lutheran regional church in Northern Germany which emerged from a merger of four churches in 1977 and merged with two more churc ...
, the largest religious body, and 9.9% to the Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. Hamburg is seat of one of the three
3 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
3, three, or III may also refer to:
* AD 3, the third year of the AD era
* 3 BC, the third year before the AD era
* March, the third month
Books
* '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...
bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany (Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Norddeutschland) is a Lutheran member church of the Evangelical Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, EKD). It was established on 27 May 2012 ...
and seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hamburg
The Archdiocese of Hamburg (Lat. ''Archidioecesis Hamburgensis''; Ger. Erzbistum Hamburg) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese in the north of Germany and covers the Federal States of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein as well ...
.
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. 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. As of 2021 there were more than 50 mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
s in the city, including the Ahmadiyya
Ahmadiyya (, ), officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ, ar, الجماعة الإسلامية الأحمدية, al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmīyah al-Aḥmadīyah; ur, , translit=Jamā'at Aḥmadiyyah Musl ...
run Fazle Omar Mosque
The Fazl-e-Omar Mosque in Hamburg is the second purpose-built mosque in Germany. The mosque is named after the Second Caliph Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad and is located at the street of Wieckstraße in Eimsbüttel, Hamburg. It is run by the ...
, which is the oldest in the city, and it hosts the Islamic Centre Hamburg
The Islamic Centre Hamburg (german: Islamisches Zentrum Hamburg) ( fa, مرکز اسلامی هامبورگ) is one of the oldest mosques in Germany and Europe and is abbreviated IZH. Established in Hamburg, in northern Germany, in the late 1950s ...
.
A Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
community exists.
Government
The city of Hamburg is one of 16 German states, therefore the Mayor of Hamburg's office corresponds more to the role of a minister-president
A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. I ...
than to the one of a city mayor. As a German state government, it is responsible for public education, correctional institutions and public safety; as a municipality, it is additionally responsible for libraries, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply and welfare services.
Since 1897, the seat of the government has been the Hamburg Rathaus
Hamburg City Hall (german: link=no, Hamburger Rathaus, ) is the seat of local government of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany. It is the seat of the government of Hamburg and as such, the seat of one of Germany's 16 state parlia ...
(Hamburg City Hall), with the office of the mayor, the meeting room for the Senate and the floor for the Hamburg Parliament
The Hamburg Parliament (german: Hamburgische Bürgerschaft; literally “Hamburgish Citizenry”) is the unicameral legislature of the German state of Hamburg according to the constitution of Hamburg. As of 2011 there were 121 members in the parli ...
. From 2001 until 2010, the mayor of Hamburg was Ole von Beust
Ole von Beust (born 13 April 1955) is a former German politician who was First Mayor of Hamburg from 31 October 2001 to 25 August 2010, serving as President of the Bundesrat from 1 November 2007 on for one year. He was succeeded as mayor by C ...
, who governed in Germany's first statewide "black-green" coalition, consisting of the conservative CDU Hamburg and the alternative GAL, which are Hamburg's regional wing of the Alliance 90/The Greens party. Von Beust was briefly succeeded by Christoph Ahlhaus
Christoph Ahlhaus (born 28 August 1969) is a German politician. He is a representative of the German Christian Democratic Union which he joined in 1985. He was the mayor of Hamburg from August 2010 to March 2011.
Personal life
Ahlhaus was bo ...
in 2010, but the coalition broke apart on 28 November 2010. On 7 March 2011 Olaf Scholz (SPD
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been t ...
) became mayor. After the 2015 election the SPD
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been t ...
and the Alliance 90/The Greens formed a coalition.
Boroughs
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.[Borough Administration Act ] 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
The Greater Hamburg Act (german: Groß-Hamburg-Gesetz), in full the Law Regarding Greater Hamburg and Other Territorial Readjustments (german: Gesetz über Groß-Hamburg und andere Gebietsbereinigungen), was passed by the government of Nazi Germa ...
of 1937, when the cities Altona, Harburg and Wandsbek
Wandsbek () is the second-largest of seven boroughs that make up the city and state of Hamburg, Germany. The name of the district is derived from the river Wandse which passes through here. Wandsbek, which was formerly an independent city, is ur ...
were merged into the state of Hamburg.Greater Hamburg Act
The Greater Hamburg Act (german: Groß-Hamburg-Gesetz), in full the Law Regarding Greater Hamburg and Other Territorial Readjustments (german: Gesetz über Groß-Hamburg und andere Gebietsbereinigungen), was passed by the government of Nazi Germa ...
The ''Act of the Constitution and Administration of Hanseatic city of Hamburg'' established Hamburg as a state and a municipality.[Reich Act of the Constitution and Administration of Hanseatic city of Hamburg ] 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 government of Hamburg is divided into executive, legislative and judicial branches. Hamburg is a city-state and municipality, and thus its governance deals with several details of both state and local community politics. It takes place in two ...
. The borough administrator is elected by the Borough Council and thereafter requires confirmation and appointment by Hamburg's Senate.[ The quarters have no governing bodies of their own.
]
Since the latest territorial reform of March 2008, the boroughs are Hamburg-Mitte
Hamburg-Mitte (Hamburg Central) is one of the seven boroughs of Hamburg, Germany, covering most of the city's urban center. The quarters of Hamburg-Altstadt and Neustadt cover much of the city's historic core. In 2020 the population was 301,231.
...
, Altona, Eimsbüttel
Eimsbüttel () is one of the seven boroughs (Bezirke) of Hamburg, Germany. In 2020 the population was 269,118.
History
On March 1, 2008 Eimsbüttel lost part of its area to the borough Altona where it formed the Sternschanze quarter.
Geography ...
, Hamburg-Nord
Hamburg-Nord (meaning ''Hamburg North'') is one of the seven boroughs of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, in northern Germany. In 2020, according to the residents registration office, the population was 315,514 in an area of 57.5 km2. ...
, Wandsbek
Wandsbek () is the second-largest of seven boroughs that make up the city and state of Hamburg, Germany. The name of the district is derived from the river Wandse which passes through here. Wandsbek, which was formerly an independent city, is ur ...
, Bergedorf
Bergedorf () is the largest of the seven boroughs of Hamburg, Germany, named after Bergedorf quarter within this borough. In 2020 the population of the borough was 130,994.
History
The city of Bergedorf received town privileges in 1275, then ...
and Harburg.
''Hamburg-Mitte
Hamburg-Mitte (Hamburg Central) is one of the seven boroughs of Hamburg, Germany, covering most of the city's urban center. The quarters of Hamburg-Altstadt and Neustadt cover much of the city's historic core. In 2020 the population was 301,231.
...
'' ("Hamburg Centre") covers mostly the urban centre of the city and consists of the quarters Billbrook
Billbrook () is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Hamburg-Mitte. It is located on the southeastern border of the borough adjacent to the borough of Bergedorf. Billbrook is located in a swamp area near the Elbe and Bille rivers, ...
, Billstedt
Billstedt () is a quarter in the borough Hamburg-Mitte, in the eastern part of Hamburg, Germany. In 2020, the population was 71,077, it was the second-most populous quarter.
History
Schifbeck, Öjendorf, Steinbeck and Schlem are the old settleme ...
, Borgfelde
Borgfelde () is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Hamburg-Mitte. It is located on the northern border of the borough adjacent to the borough of Hamburg-Nord. It is a more densely populated area, approximately 2 km from Hamburg ...
, Finkenwerder
Finkenwerder (; Low German: ''Finkwarder'', ''Finkenwarder'' or ''- wärder''; German: ''Finkeninsel''; translation: Island of finches) is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany in the borough Hamburg-Mitte. It is the location of a plant of Airbus and its ...
, HafenCity, Hamm, Hammerbrook
Hammerbrook () is a quarter (''Stadtteil'') in the Hamburg-Mitte borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg in Germany. In 2020, the population was 5,069.
Name
''Hamm'', as in the Hamm section of the city that borders it to the east, refer ...
, Horn
Horn most often refers to:
*Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound
** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments
*Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...
, Kleiner Grasbrook
is a quarter (''Stadtteil'') of Hamburg, Germany within the borough (''Bezirk'') of Hamburg-Mitte. It is situated on the eponymous island between the Northern and Southern branches of the Elbe river (''Norderelbe'' and ''Süderelbe''), together wi ...
, Neuwerk
Neuwerk (; (''Archaic English'': New Werk or Newark) is a tidal island in the Wadden Sea on the German North Sea coast, with a population of 32. Neuwerk is located northwest of Cuxhaven, between the Weser and Elbe estuaries. The distance to th ...
, Rothenburgsort
Rothenburgsort () is a quarter (german: Stadtteil) in the Hamburg-Mitte borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg in northern Germany. In December 2020, the population was 9,043.
History
Geography
The quarter is situated in the south-e ...
, St. Georg, St. Pauli
St. Pauli (Sankt Pauli; ) is a quarter of the city of Hamburg belonging to the centrally located Hamburg-Mitte borough. Situated on the right bank of the Elbe river, the nearby Landungsbrücken is a northern part of the port of Hamburg. St. ...
, Steinwerder, Veddel
Veddel () is a quarter (''Stadtteil'') in the Hamburg-Mitte borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg on the homonymous island in the Elbe river, in northern Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a c ...
, Waltershof
Waltershof () is a quarter in the Hamburg-Mitte borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg in northern Germany. It is a part of the Port of Hamburg.
Geography
Waltershof is located at the Norderelbe and Köhlbrand and is made out of t ...
and Wilhelmsburg.[ The quarters ]Hamburg-Altstadt
Altstadt (, literally: "Old town"), more precisely Hamburg-Altstadt – as not to be mistaken with Hamburg-Altona-Altstadt – is one of the inner-city districts of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany.
History
The area of today's ...
("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
The monarchy of Denmark is a constitutional institution and a historic office of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Kingdom includes Denmark proper and the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland. The Kingdom of Denmark was alre ...
. Altona was an independent city until 1937. Politically, the following quarters are part of Altona: Altona-Altstadt
is a quarter in Hamburg (Germany) that belongs to the Altona borough. The quarter's boundaries are congruent with the historic center of what has been the city of Altona until 1937.
History
Altona was founded in 1535 and became a city in 16 ...
, Altona-Nord
() located in the Altona borough in the city Hamburg, Germany, is one of 104 quarters of Hamburg. In 2020, the population was 25,802.
Geography
According to the statistical office of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, the quarter has a total ar ...
, Bahrenfeld
is a western quarter of the city of Hamburg in Germany, it is subject to the district/borough ''Bezirk Altona'' and was an independent settlement until 1890. It is home to DESY and the Barclaycard Arena. In 2020 the population was 29,652.
Hist ...
, Ottensen
Ottensen () (old name: Ottenhusen) located in Hamburg, Germany in the Altona borough on the right bank of the Elbe river, is a former town. It is a now one of the 104 quarters of Hamburg.
History
The first record of Ottensen dates from 1310. In ...
, Othmarschen
Othmarschen () is a quarter in the Altona borough of the Hamburg in northern Germany. In 2020 the population was 16,009.
History
The first records on Othmarschen are from 1317. Together with Altona, Othmarschen became a part of Hamburg in 1937/1 ...
, Groß Flottbek
Groß Flottbek (), (''Great Flottbek'') is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Altona. It is located in the center of the borough north of the Othmarschen quarter. Near Groß Flottbek, the neighbourhood of Klein Flottbek, which is ...
, Osdorf, Lurup
Lurup () is a quarter in the Altona borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg in northern Germany. It was formerly an independent village. In 2020 the population was 36,521.
History
In 1927 Lurup was merged with Altona, and in 1938 it w ...
, Nienstedten
Nienstedten () is a quarter in the city of Hamburg, Germany. It belongs to the Altona borough on the right bank of the Elbe river. Nienstedten is home to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. In 2020 the population was 7,114.
Geogra ...
, Blankenese
Blankenese () is a suburban quarter in the borough of Altona in the western part of Hamburg, Germany; until 1938 it was an independent municipality in Holstein. It is located on the right bank of the Elbe river. With a population of 13,637 as of ...
, Iserbrook
is a district in the borough of Altona within the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg in North Germany. In 2020 its population was 11,352. Iserbrook belongs to the Elbvororte (suburbs that are near the river Elbe).
Geography
According to the sta ...
, Sülldorf
Sülldorf () is a quarter in the Altona borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg in northern Germany. In 2020 the population was 9,474.
Geography
In 2006 according to the statistical office of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, the quarter ...
, Rissen
Rissen () is a quarter of the city of Hamburg in Germany. It is located in the borough of Altona and is the westernmost quarter of Hamburg, bordering the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein in the west, north, and northeast and the Elbe ri ...
, Sternschanze.[
'']Bergedorf
Bergedorf () is the largest of the seven boroughs of Hamburg, Germany, named after Bergedorf quarter within this borough. In 2020 the population of the borough was 130,994.
History
The city of Bergedorf received town privileges in 1275, then ...
'' consists of the quarters Allermöhe
Allermöhe () is a quarter in the borough Bergedorf of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg in northern Germany. The quarter consists of a rural area and the old settlement Allermöhe. In 2020 the population was 1,392 (without the new neighbourho ...
, Altengamme
Altengamme () located in the Bergedorf borough of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg in northern Germany, is a rural quarter on the right bank of the Elbe river. ''Altengamme'' is the most eastern part of Hamburg. In 2020 the population was 2 ...
, Bergedorf
Bergedorf () is the largest of the seven boroughs of Hamburg, Germany, named after Bergedorf quarter within this borough. In 2020 the population of the borough was 130,994.
History
The city of Bergedorf received town privileges in 1275, then ...
—the centre of the former independent town, Billwerder
Billwerder () is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Bergedorf. It is located on the northwestern border of the borough adjacent to the borough of Hamburg-Mitte. At the same time Billwerder means a greater area south of the river B ...
, Curslack
Curslack () is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Bergedorf. It is located in the eastern part of the borough, which lies in the southeast of Hamburg.
Name
The name derives from ''Cuwerslake'', meaning low swampland, which is heav ...
, Kirchwerder
Kirchwerder () is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Bergedorf. It is located on the southeast border of Hamburg at the Elbe river.
Geography
Kirchwerder is a part of the Vierlande and is located at the Elbe river. Therefore it is ...
, Lohbrügge
is a quarter in the Bergedorf borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg in northern Germany. In 2020, the population was 40,745.
Geography
In 2006, according to the statistical office of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, the Lohbrügge qua ...
, Moorfleet
Moorfleet () is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Bergedorf. It is located in the west of the borough.
Geography
Moorfleet is a part of the Marschlande and is located at the Dove Elbe river. The quarter is not highly populated an ...
, Neuengamme, Neuallermöhe
is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Bergedorf. In 2020 the population was over 23,000.
Geography
200px, left, Viewing platform „Zuckerstangen“
Neuallermöhe limits to the Berlin-Hamburg Railway and Billwerder to the north. ...
, Ochsenwerder
Ochsenwerder () is a quarter in Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Bergedorf. In 2020 the population was over 3,000. Agriculture plays a very big role in this quarter for the metropolitan area.
Geography
Ochsenwerder is in the southeast of Hamb ...
, Reitbrook
Reitbrook () is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Bergedorf. It has a population of only 522 people (2020). It is popular for its wind mill.
Geography
Reitbrook borders the quarter Kirchwerder, Ochsenwerder, Neuengamme and Alle ...
, Spadenland
Spadenland () is a quarter in Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Bergedorf at the Elbe. In 2020 the population was 539 people. Agriculture plays a very big role in this quarter for the metropolitan area.
Geography
Spadenland is located at the ...
and Tatenberg
Tatenberg () is a quarter in Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Bergedorf. In 2020 the population was 564.
Geography
Tatenberg borders the quarters Spadenland, Ochsenwerder, Moorfleet, Rothenburgsort and Allermöhe. It is located at the Dove ...
.[
'']Eimsbüttel
Eimsbüttel () is one of the seven boroughs (Bezirke) of Hamburg, Germany. In 2020 the population was 269,118.
History
On March 1, 2008 Eimsbüttel lost part of its area to the borough Altona where it formed the Sternschanze quarter.
Geography ...
'' is split into nine-quarters: Eidelstedt
is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Eimsbüttel. It is located on the northwestern boundaries of the borough and of the city.
Geography
Eidelstedt borders the quarters of Schnelsen, Niendorf, Stellingen, as well as Bahrenfel ...
, Eimsbüttel
Eimsbüttel () is one of the seven boroughs (Bezirke) of Hamburg, Germany. In 2020 the population was 269,118.
History
On March 1, 2008 Eimsbüttel lost part of its area to the borough Altona where it formed the Sternschanze quarter.
Geography ...
, Harvestehude, Hoheluft-West, Lokstedt
Lokstedt () is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of ...
, Niendorf, Rotherbaum
Rotherbaum () is a quarter of Eimsbüttel, a borough of Hamburg, Germany. In 2020 the population was 17,114.
In German, "roter Baum" means ''red tree''. The "th", which in general was abolished in the spelling reform of 1900, was preserved in na ...
, Schnelsen and Stellingen.[ Located within this borough is former Jewish neighbourhood Grindel.
'']Hamburg-Nord
Hamburg-Nord (meaning ''Hamburg North'') is one of the seven boroughs of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, in northern Germany. In 2020, according to the residents registration office, the population was 315,514 in an area of 57.5 km2. ...
'' contains the quarters Alsterdorf
Alsterdorf () is a quarter in the Hamburg-Nord borough of the Hamburg, Germany. The name derives from the river Alster and its artificial lakes Außenalster and Binnenalster in the centre of Hamburg. In 2020 the population was 15,227.
History
Arou ...
, Barmbek-Nord, Barmbek-Süd, Dulsberg
Dulsberg () is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Hamburg-Nord. In the east and the south it borders Wandsbek.
History
*1906: the station "Friedrichsberg" was opened by Hamburg S-Bahn
*1910: the second great fire of Hamburg
...
, Eppendorf, Fuhlsbüttel
is an urban quarter in the north of Hamburg, Germany in the Hamburg-Nord district. It is known as the site of Hamburg's international airport, and as the location of a prison which served as a concentration camp in the Nazi system of repression. ...
, Groß Borstel, Hoheluft-Ost, Hohenfelde, Langenhorn, Ohlsdorf, Hamburg, Ohlsdorf with Friedhof Ohlsdorf, Ohlsdorf cemetery, Uhlenhorst and Winterhude.[
'' 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 (quarter), Harburg, Hausbruch, Heimfeld, Langenbek, Marmstorf, Moorburg, Neuenfelde, ]Neugraben-Fischbek
[] is a Boroughs and quarters of Hamburg, quarter of Hamburg, Germany, belongs to the borough Harburg, Hamburg, Harburg. The quarter consists of the old settlements ''Neugraben'' and ''Fischbek'', and the more recently constructed area ''Neuwieden ...
, Neuland, Hamburg, Neuland, Rönneburg, Sinstorf and Wilstorf.[
'']Wandsbek
Wandsbek () is the second-largest of seven boroughs that make up the city and state of Hamburg, Germany. The name of the district is derived from the river Wandse which passes through here. Wandsbek, which was formerly an independent city, is ur ...
'' is divided into the quarters Bergstedt, Bramfeld, Duvenstedt, Eilbek, Farmsen-Berne, Hummelsbüttel, Jenfeld, Lemsahl-Mellingstedt, Marienthal, Hamburg, Marienthal, Poppenbüttel, Rahlstedt, Sasel, Steilshoop, Tonndorf, Hamburg, Tonndorf, Volksdorf, Wandsbek (quarter), Wandsbek, Wellingsbüttel and Wohldorf-Ohlstedt.[
]
Cityscape
Architecture
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. Nikolai, Hamburg, 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. Michaelis Church, Hamburg, St Michael's (nicknamed "Michel"), St. Peter's Church, Hamburg, St Peter's, St. Jacobi, Hamburg, St James's (''St. Jacobi'') and St. Catherine's Church, Hamburg, St. Catherine's covered with copper plates, and the Heinrich-Hertz-Turm, the radio and television tower (no longer publicly accessible).
The many List of rivers of Hamburg, streams, rivers and canals are crossed by List of bridges in Hamburg, some 2,500 bridges, more than London, Amsterdam and Venice put together. Hamburg has more bridges inside its city limits than any other city in the world. The Köhlbrandbrücke, Freihafen Elbbrücken, and Lombardsbrücke and Kennedybrücke dividing Binnenalster from Aussenalster are important roadways.
The Hamburg Rathaus, town hall is a richly decorated Neo-Renaissance building finished in 1897.
The tower is high. Its façade, long, depicts the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, since Hamburg was, as a Free Imperial City, only under the sovereignty of the emperor. The Chilehaus, a Brick Expressionism, brick expressionist office building built in 1922 and designed by architect Johann Friedrich Höger, 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. 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''.
The many parks are distributed over the whole city, which makes Hamburg a very verdant city. The biggest parks are the ''Hamburg Stadtpark, Stadtpark'', the Ohlsdorf Cemetery
Ohlsdorf Cemetery (german: Ohlsdorfer Friedhof or (former) ) in the Ohlsdorf quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany, is the biggest rural cemetery in the world and the fourth-largest cemetery in the world. Most of the people buried at the cemete ...
and Planten un Blomen. The ''Hamburg Stadtpark, Stadtpark'', Hamburg's "Central Park", has a great lawn and a huge water tower, which houses one of Europe's biggest planetarium, planetaria. The park and its buildings were designed by Fritz Schumacher (architect), Fritz Schumacher in the 1910s.
Parks and gardens
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.
Culture and contemporary life
Hamburg has more than 40 theatres, 60 museums and 100 music venues and clubs. With 6.6 music venues per 100,000 inhabitants, Hamburg has the second-highest density of music venues of Germany's largest cities, after Munich and ahead of Cologne and Berlin. In 2005, more than 18 million people visited concerts, exhibitions, theatres, cinemas, museums, and cultural events, and 8,552 taxable companies (average size 3.16 employees) were engaged in the culture sector, which includes music, performing arts and literature. The creative industries represent almost one fifth of all companies in Hamburg.
Hamburg has entered the European Green Capital Award scheme, and was awarded the title of European Green Capital for 2011.
Theatres
The state-owned ''Deutsches Schauspielhaus'', the Thalia Theatre (Hamburg), Thalia Theatre, Ohnsorg-Theater, Ohnsorg Theatre, "Schmidts Tivoli" and the ''Kampnagel'' are well-known theatres.
The English Theatre of Hamburg near U3 (Hamburg U-Bahn), 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.
Museums
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 für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe'' (Museum of Art and Design) and the Deichtorhallen (with the House of Photography and Hall of Contemporary Art). The Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg opened in the HafenCity quarter in 2008. There are various specialised museums in Hamburg, such as the ''Archäologisches Museum Hamburg'' (Hamburg Archaeological Museum) in the Hamburg-Harburg, Harburg borough, the Hamburg Museum of Work (''Museum der Arbeit''), and several museums of local history, such as the (''Freilichtmuseum am Kiekeberg'') at Kiekeberg in the Harburg Hills just outside of Hamburg in Rosengarten, Lower Saxony, Rosengarten. Two museum ships near St. Pauli Piers (''Landungsbrücken'') bear witness to the freight ship (''Cap San Diego'') and cargo sailing ship era (''Rickmer Rickmers''). In 2017 the Hamburg-built iron-hulled sailing ship ''Peking (ship), Peking'' returned to the city and was installed in the German Port Museum in 2020. The world's largest model railway museum Miniatur Wunderland with total railway length is also situated near St. Pauli Piers in a former warehouse.
BallinStadt, a memorial park and former emigration station, 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.
Music
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.
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 (musical), Cats'' in 1986, there have always been musical theatre, musicals running, including ''The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical), The Phantom of the Opera'', ''The Lion King (musical), The Lion King'', ''Dirty Dancing#Stage version, 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. Larger venues include the Barclaycard Arena (Hamburg), Barclaycard Arena, the Trabrennbahn Bahrenfeld, Bahrenfeld harness racing track and Hamburg Stadtpark, 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, 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 "" 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 (band), Tomte or Kante. The meeting point of the Hamburg School was long considered to be the 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.
Hamburg is also home to many music labels, music distributors and publishers. These include Warner Music Group, Warner Music, Kontor Records, PIAS Recordings, PIAS, Edel SE & Co. KGaA, Believe Digital and Indigo. The high proportion of independent labels in the city, which include Audiolith Records, 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 rock, alternative and punk rock, punk scene, which gathers around the Rote Flora, a squatting, squatted former theatre located in the Sternschanze
The city was a major centre for heavy metal music in the 1980s. Helloween, Gamma Ray (band), Gamma Ray, Running Wild (band), Running Wild and Grave Digger (band), Grave Digger started in Hamburg. 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 (band), 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, Fünf Sterne Deluxe, Samy Deluxe, Fettes Brot and 187 Strassenbande.
Hamburg has a vibrant psychedelic trance community, with record labels such as Spirit Zone Records, Spirit Zone.
Festivals and regular events
Hamburg is noted for several festivals and regular events. Some of them are street festivals, such as the gay pride ''Hamburg Pride'' festival or the Alster fair (German: ''Alstervergnügen''), held at the ''Binnenalster
Binnenalster () or Inner Alster Lake is one of two artificial lakes within the city limits of Hamburg, Germany, which are formed by the river Alster (the other being the Außenalster). The main annual festival is the ''Alstervergnügen''.
The la ...
''. The ''Hamburger DOM'' is northern Germany's biggest funfair, held three times a year. ''Hafengeburtstag'' is a funfair to honour the birthday of the port of Hamburg with a party and a ship parade. The annual biker's service in St. Michaelis Church, Hamburg, Saint Michael's Church attracts tens of thousands of Motorcycle, bikers. Christmas markets in December are held at the Hamburg Rathaus
Hamburg City Hall (german: link=no, Hamburger Rathaus, ) is the seat of local government of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany. It is the seat of the government of Hamburg and as such, the seat of one of Germany's 16 state parlia ...
square, among other places. The ''long night of museums'' (German: ''Lange Nacht der Museen'') offers one entrance fee for about 40 museums until midnight. The sixth ''Festival of Cultures'' was held in September 2008, celebrating multi-cultural life. The Filmfest Hamburg — a film festival originating from the 1950s ''Film Days'' (German: ''Film Tage'') — presents a wide range of films. The ''Hamburg Messe und Congress, 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. 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, the tennis tournament International German Open, 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. Hamburg's festivals include th
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
" festival usually follows in May at various venues within Hamburg. In mid-August, the Dockville, MS Dockville music and arts festival has run annually since 2007 in the Wilhelmsburg district. This is followed at the end of September by the , 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. In November, the ÜBERJAZZ Festival, which aims to expand the stylistic boundaries of the concept of jazz, starts every year at Kampnagel.
Cuisine
Original Hamburg dishes are ''Birnen, Bohnen und Speck'' (green beans cooked with pears and bacon), ''Aalsuppe'' (Hamburgisch dialect, 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'' , meaning "all", "everything and the kitchen sink", not necessarily eel. Today eel is often included to meet the expectations of unsuspecting diners. There is ''Bratkartoffeln'' (Home fries, pan-fried potato slices), ''Finkenwerder Scholle'' (Low Saxon ''Finkwarder Scholl'', pan-fried plaice), ''Pannfisch'' (pan-fried fish with mustard sauce), ''Rødgrød, 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'') and ''Labskaus'' (a mixture of corned beef, mashed potatoes and beetroot, a cousin of the Norwegian ''lapskaus'' and Liverpool's Scouse (food), 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).
''Alsterwasser'' (in reference to the city's river, the Alster
The Alster () is a right tributary of the Elbe river in Northern Germany. It has its source near Henstedt-Ulzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, flows somewhat southwards through much of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and joins the Elbe in central ...
) 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.
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"), 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 staling, 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. 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.
Main sights
File:Hamburg Elbphilharmonie 2016.jpg, ''Elbphilharmonie'' ("Elphi")
File:Hamburger Hafen-St. Michaelis.jpg, Port of Hamburg
File:Freedom-of-the-Seas--in-Hamburg.jpg, St. Pauli Piers and MS Freedom of the Seas, cruise ship
File:Speicherstadt abends.jpg, ''Speicherstadt'' (Warehouse district)
File:Rathaus Hamburg bei Nacht.jpg, Hamburg City Hall
File:St. Michaelis.jpg, St. Michael's Church, Hamburg, St. Michael's Church ("Michel")
File:Reeperbahn.jpg, ''Reeperbahn'', nightlife district of St. Pauli
St. Pauli (Sankt Pauli; ) is a quarter of the city of Hamburg belonging to the centrally located Hamburg-Mitte borough. Situated on the right bank of the Elbe river, the nearby Landungsbrücken is a northern part of the port of Hamburg. St. ...
File:Hamburg-St. Pauli Spielbudenplatz 01.jpg, ''Spielbudenplatz'' at Reeperbahn
File:Grosse Freiheit Hamburg.jpg, ''Große Freiheit'' ("Great Freedom")
File:St. Nikolai Memorial Church.jpg, St. Nicholas' Church, Hamburg, Nikolai Memorial
File:Sandtorpark 2013-05-24 12-03-35 Germany Hamburg-HafenCity 2h.jpg, HafenCity
File:Dockland by Night.jpg, Dockland at night
File:Alstereisvergnügen 11-02-2012 09.jpg, View over frozen Alster
The Alster () is a right tributary of the Elbe river in Northern Germany. It has its source near Henstedt-Ulzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, flows somewhat southwards through much of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and joins the Elbe in central ...
towards Radisson Blu Hotel Hamburg, Radisson Hotel and Heinrich-Hertz-Turm, Hertz-Turm
File:Hamburg Wallanlagen Brunnen.jpg, ''Planten un Blomen''
File:DE Hamburg Centerview.JPG, Jungfernstieg Boulevard
File:Hamburg-Blankenese(01).JPG, Hills and mansions in Blankenese
Blankenese () is a suburban quarter in the borough of Altona in the western part of Hamburg, Germany; until 1938 it was an independent municipality in Holstein. It is located on the right bank of the Elbe river. With a population of 13,637 as of ...
File:Laeisz-Halle (Hamburg-Neustadt).1.29179.ajb.jpg, ''Laeiszhalle'' concert venue
File:2013-06-08 Highflyer HP L4729.JPG, Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, the busiest railway station in Germany
File:Hamburg OLG 1.jpg, Hanseatisches Oberlandesgericht ("HansOLG"), upper court
File:Neue Skyline Hamburg.JPG, List of tallest buildings in Hamburg, Highrises in St. Pauli (''Hafenkrone'')
File:Köhlbrandbrücke 2010.jpg, Köhlbrand Bridge
File:Heinrich-Hertz-Turm - PHB.jpg, Heinrich-Hertz-Turm, TV Tower
File:HafenCity Traditionsschiffhafen Sandtorkai Hamburg 3943 v3.jpg, Traditional sailing ships at Sandtorkai in HafenCity
File:HP_L4224.JPG, View over Hamburg and the Alster
The Alster () is a right tributary of the Elbe river in Northern Germany. It has its source near Henstedt-Ulzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, flows somewhat southwards through much of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and joins the Elbe in central ...
Alternative culture
Hamburg has long been a centre of alternative music and counter-culture movements. The boroughs of St. Pauli
St. Pauli (Sankt Pauli; ) is a quarter of the city of Hamburg belonging to the centrally located Hamburg-Mitte borough. Situated on the right bank of the Elbe river, the nearby Landungsbrücken is a northern part of the port of Hamburg. St. ...
, 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.
During the 2017 G20 Hamburg summit, 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.
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.
British culture
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 eingetragener Verein, e.V., Professional Women's Forum, 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 RFC, Hamburg Exiles Rugby Club, several cricket clubs, and The Morris Minor Register of Hamburg. Furthermore, the Anglo-Hanseatic Lodge No. 850 within the Grand Lodge of British Freemasons of Germany under the United Grand Lodges of Germany works in Hamburg, and has a diverse expat membership. There is also a 400-year-old Anglican church community worshipping at '.
American and international English-speaking organisations include The American Club of Hamburg eingetragener Verein, e.V., the American Women's Club of Hamburg, the English Speaking Union, the German-American Women's Club, and The International Women's Club of Hamburg e.V. ''The American Chamber of Commerce'' handles matters related to business affairs. 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."
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."
Memorials
A memorial for successful English engineer William Lindley, 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.
Economy
The gross domestic product (GDP) of Hamburg was 119.0 billion € in 2018, accounting for 3.6% of German economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was €59,600 or 197% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 132% of the EU average. The city has a relatively high employment rate, at 88 percent of the working-age population, employed in over 160,000 businesses. The median gross salary in 2021 was €47,544, which is 9.29% higher than the median gross salary in Germany overall.
The unemployment rate stood at 6.1% in October 2018 and was higher than the German average.
Banking
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 History of banking, 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.
Port
The most significant economic unit is the Port of Hamburg, which ranks third to Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...
and Antwerpen in Europe and 17th-largest worldwide with transshipments of of cargo and 138.2 million tons of goods in 2016. International trade is also the reason for the large number of consulates in the city. Although situated up the Elbe, it is considered a sea port due to its ability to handle large ocean-going vessels.
Industrial production
Heavy industry of Hamburg includes the making of steel, aluminium, copper and various large shipyards such as Blohm + Voss.
Hamburg, along with Seattle and Toulouse, is an important location of the civil aerospace industry. Airbus
Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: ' ...
, which operates the Airbus Hamburg-Finkenwerder, Hamburg-Finkenwerder assembly plant in Finkenwerder
Finkenwerder (; Low German: ''Finkwarder'', ''Finkenwarder'' or ''- wärder''; German: ''Finkeninsel''; translation: Island of finches) is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany in the borough Hamburg-Mitte. It is the location of a plant of Airbus and its ...
, employs over 13,000 people.
HafenCity
The HafenCity is Europe's largest urban development project and is located in the Hamburg-Mitte
Hamburg-Mitte (Hamburg Central) is one of the seven boroughs of Hamburg, Germany, covering most of the city's urban center. The quarters of Hamburg-Altstadt and Neustadt cover much of the city's historic core. In 2020 the population was 301,231.
...
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
Rothenburgsort () is a quarter (german: Stadtteil) in the Hamburg-Mitte borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg in northern Germany. In December 2020, the population was 9,043.
History
Geography
The quarter is situated in the south-e ...
. 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.
Tourism
In 2017, more than 6,783,000 visitors with 13,822,000 overnight stays visited the city. 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%).
A typical Hamburg visit includes a tour of the city hall and the grand church St. Michaelis Church, Hamburg, St. Michaelis (called the ''Michel''), and visiting the old warehouse district (''Speicherstadt'') and the Landungsbrücken, 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
St. Pauli (Sankt Pauli; ) is a quarter of the city of Hamburg belonging to the centrally located Hamburg-Mitte borough. Situated on the right bank of the Elbe river, the nearby Landungsbrücken is a northern part of the port of Hamburg. St. ...
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 (song), 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.
In 2016, the average visitor spent two nights in Hamburg. 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
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
(about 182,610 overnight stays). The largest group from outside Europe comes from the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
(206,614 overnight stays).
The ''RMS Queen Mary 2, Queen Mary 2'' has docked regularly since 2004, and there were six departures planned from 2010 onwards.
Creative Industries
Media businesses employ over 70,000 people. The Norddeutscher Rundfunk which includes the television station NDR Fernsehen is based in Hamburg, including the very popular news program ''Tagesschau (German TV series), 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 Information and communication technologies, 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. The and th
Clubkombinat
represent the companies in the industry. The interests of Hamburg musicians* are represented, for example, b
RockCity Hamburg e.V.
Hamburg was one of the locations for the James Bond (film series), James Bond series film ''Tomorrow Never Dies''. The ''Reeperbahn'' has been the location for many scenes, including the 1994 Beatles film ''Backbeat (film), Backbeat''. The film ''A Most Wanted Man (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.
Infrastructure
Health systems
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. The city had 5,663 physicians in private practice and 456 pharmacies in 2010.
Transport
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 Elbe Tunnel (1911), old Elbe Tunnel (''Alter Elbtunnel'') or St. Pauli Elbtunnel (official name) which opened in 1911, now is major tourist sight, and the Elbe Tunnel (1975), Elbe Tunnel (''Elbtunnel'') the crossing of a Bundesautobahn 7, motorway.
Hamburg Airport is the oldest airport in Germany still in operation. There is also the smaller Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport, used only as a company airport for Airbus
Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: ' ...
. Some airlines market Lübeck Airport in Lübeck
Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...
as serving Hamburg.
Hamburg's Vehicle registration plates of Germany, 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).
Public transport
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.
33 mass transit rail lines across the city are the backbone of public transport. The Hamburg S-Bahn, S-Bahn (commuter train system) comprises six lines and the Hamburg U-Bahn, U-Bahn four lines – ''U-Bahn'' is short for ''Untergrundbahn'' (underground railway). Approximately of 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 Eisenbahn, AKN railway connects satellite towns in Schleswig-Holstein to the city. On some routes regional trains of Germany's major railway company Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Bahn AG and the regional ''metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft, metronom'' trains may be used with an HVV ticket. Except at the four bigger stations of the city, Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, Hauptbahnhof, Hamburg Dammtor station, Dammtor, Hamburg-Altona station, Altona and Hamburg-Harburg station, Harburg regional trains do not stop inside the city. The Trams in Hamburg, tram system was opened in 1866 and shut down in 1978.
Gaps in the rail network are filled by more than 669 bus routes, operated by single-deck two-, three- and four-axle diesel buses. 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
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Rep ...
, operated by ''HADAG Seetouristik und Fährdienst, 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.
The international airport serving Hamburg, Hamburg Airport, Hamburg Airport Helmut Schmidt (International Air Transport Association, IATA: HAM, International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO: EDDH) is the fifth biggest and oldest airport in Germany, having been established in 1912 and located about 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 (airline), 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 (International Air Transport Association, IATA: XFW, International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO: EDHI). It is about from the city centre and is a nonpublic airport for the Airbus Operations GmbH, 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 Airbus A320 family, A318, A319, A320, A321 and Airbus A380, A380 aircraft.
;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.
Utilities
Electricity for Hamburg and Northern Germany is largely provided by ''Vattenfall, 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 in Germany#Closures and phase-out, nuclear power phase-out. In addition, E.ON operates the Brokdorf Nuclear Power Plant near Hamburg.
There are also the coal-fired Wedel Power Station, Wedel, Tiefstack Power Station, Tiefstack and Moorburg Combined Heat And Power, 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''.
In June 2019 City of Hamburg introduced a law governing the phasing out of coal based thermal and electric energy production ("Kohleausstiegsgesetz"). 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 Bush encroachment, encroacher bush as replacement of coal.
Sports
Hamburger SV is a Association football, football team playing in the 2. Bundesliga (as of 2018). The HSV was the oldest team of the Bundesliga, playing in the league since its beginning in 1963 until a change of results saw them relegated from the Bundesliga in 2018. HSV is a six-time German champion, a three-time German cup winner and triumphed in the European Cup in 1983, and has played in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League, Champions League twice: in 2000–01 and in 2006–07. They play at the Volksparkstadion (average attendance in the 2012–13 Bundesliga, 12–13 season was 52,916). In addition, FC St. Pauli was a 2. Bundesliga, second division football club that came in second place in the 2009–10 Bundesliga, 2009–10 season and qualified to play alongside Hamburger SV in the Bundesliga, first division for the first time since the 2001–02 Bundesliga, 2001–02 season. St. Pauli's home games take place at the Millerntor-Stadion.
The Hamburg Freezers represented Hamburg until 2016 in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, DEL, the premier ice hockey league in Germany.
HSV Hamburg, HSV Handball represented Hamburg until 2016 in the German Bundesliga (handball), handball league. In 2007, HSV Handball won the European Cupwinners Cup. The Club won the league in the 2010–11 season and had an average attendance of 10.690 in the O2 World Hamburg the same year. The most recent success for the team was the EHF Champions League win in 2013. Since 2014, the club has suffered from economic problems and was almost not allowed the playing licence for the 2014–15 season. But due to economic support from the former club president/sponsor Andreas Rudolf the club was allowed the licence in the last minute. On 20 January 2016 however, their licence was removed due to violations following the continued economic struggles. In 2016–17, they were not allowed to play in the first or second league. The team lives on through their former second team (now their main team) in the third division (2016-2018) and in second division (since 2018).
The ''BCJ Hamburg'' played in the Basketball Bundesliga from 1999 to 2001. Later, the Hamburg Towers became the city's prime team. The Towers promoted to Germany's top division in 2019. In 2022, they already reached the playoffs. The Towers play their home games at the Edel-optics.de Arena in Wilhelmsburg.
Hamburg is the nation's field hockey capital and dominates the men's as well as the women's Bundesliga. Hamburg hosts many top teams such as Uhlenhorster Hockey Club, Harvesterhuder Hockey Club and Club An Der Alster.
The Hamburg Warriors are one of Germany's top lacrosse clubs. The club has grown immensely in the last several years and includes at least one youth team, three men's, and two women's teams. The team participates in the Deutsch Lacrosse Verein. The Hamburg Warriors are part of the Harvestehuder Tennis- und Hockey-Club e.V (HTHC).
Hamburg Blue Devils was one of the prominent American Football teams playing in German Football League before its exit in 2017. Hamburg Sea Devils (ELF), Hamburg Sea Devils is a team of European League of Football (ELF) which is a planned professional league, that is set to become the first fully professional league in Europe since the demise of NFL Europe. The Sea Devils will start playing games in June 2021.
There are also the Hamburg Dockers, an Australian rules football club. The FC St. Pauli team dominates women's rugby in Germany. Other first-league teams include VT Aurubis Hamburg (Volleyball) and Hamburger Polo Club. Eimsbütteler TV plays in the German Women's 2 Volleyball Bundesliga. There are also several minority sports clubs, including four cricket clubs.
The Centre Court of the Tennis Am Rothenbaum venue, with a capacity of 13,200 people, is the largest in Germany.
Hamburg also hosts equestrianism, equestrian events at ''Reitstadion Klein Flottbek'' (Deutsches Derby in jumping and dressage) and ''Horner Rennbahn'' (Deutsches Derby flat racing). Besides Hamburg owns the famous harness racing track "Trabrennbahn Bahrenfeld". The Hamburg Marathon is the biggest marathon in Germany after Berlin's. In 2008 23,230 participants were registered. World Cup events in cycling, the UCI ProTour competition EuroEyes Cyclassics, and the triathlon International Triathlon Union, ITU World Cup event ''Hamburg City Man'' are also held in here.
Volksparkstadion was used as a site for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, 2006 World Cup. In 2010 UEFA held the final of the UEFA Europa League in the arena.
Hamburg made a bid for the 2024 Olympic Games, but 51.7 percent of those city residents participating in a referendum in November 2015 voted against continuing Hamburg's bid to host the games. Meanwhile, Hamburg's partner city Kiel voted in favour of hosting the event, with almost 66 percent of all participants supporting the bid. Opponents of the bid had argued that hosting the 33rd Olympic Games would cost the city too much in public funds.
Education
The school system is managed by the Ministry of Schools and Vocational Training (''Behörde für Schule und Berufsbildung''). The system had approximately 191,148 students in 221 primary education, primary schools and 188 secondary education, secondary schools in 2016. There are 32 public libraries in Hamburg.
Nineteen universities are located in Hamburg, with about 100,589 university students in total, including 9,000 resident students. Six universities are public, including the largest, the University of Hamburg (Universität Hamburg) with the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, University of Music and Theatre, the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, the HafenCity University Hamburg and the Technical University of Hamburg, Hamburg University of Technology. Seven universities are private, like the Bucerius Law School, the Kühne Logistics University and the HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration. The city has also smaller private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions, such as the Helmut Schmidt University (formerly the University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg).
Hamburg is home to one of the oldest international schools in Germany, the International School of Hamburg.
Twin towns – sister cities
Hamburg is Sister city, twinned with:
* Saint Petersburg, Russia (1957)
* Marseille, France (1958)
* Shanghai, China (1986)
* Dresden, Germany (1987)
* León, Nicaragua, León, Nicaragua (1989)
* Osaka, Japan (1989)
* Prague, Czech Republic (1990)
* Chicago, United States (1994)
* Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania (2010)
Notable people
The list below started with people with a ref to 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica who are said to be "born at Hamburg". It is in date order. There are others too.
* Lucas Holstenius (1596–1661), German Catholic humanist, geographer, historian and librarian.
* Andreas Schlüter (ca.1659 – ca.1714) a German baroque sculptor and architect.
* Barthold Heinrich Brockes (1680–1747) a German poet.
* Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694–1768), a German philosopher and writer of the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment.
* Konrad Ekhof (1720–1778) the foremost German actor of the 18th century.
* Johann Bernhard Basedow (1724–1790) a German educational reformer, teacher and writer.
* Johann Joachim Eschenburg (1743–1820) a German critic and literary historian.
* Johann Elert Bode (1747–1826) an astronomer, he named and determined the orbit of Uranus.
* Johann Dominicus Fiorillo (1748–1821) a German painter and historian of art.
* Christian of Stolberg-Stolberg, Christian, Count of Stolberg-Stolberg (1748–1821) poet, brother of Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg, Frederick Leopold.
* Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg, Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg-Stolberg (1750–1819), a German lawyer and translator.
* Georg Friedrich von Martens (1756–1821) a German jurist and diplomat.
* Ludwig Erdwin Seyler (1758-1836) banker and politician
* Johann Franz Encke (1791–1865) astronomer, measured the distance from Earth to the Sun.
* Ami Boué (1794–1881) a geologist of French Huguenot origin.
* Gustav Friedrich Waagen (1794–1868) a German art historian.
* Johann Christian Poggendorff (1796–1877), a physicist, dealt with electricity and magnetism.
* Matthias Jakob Schleiden (1804–1881) a German botanist, co-founder of cell theory.
* Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808–1888) Orthodox rabbi, founded the ''Torah im Derech Eretz''.
* Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847), a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor.
* Ludwig Preller (1809–1861) a German philologist and antiquarian.
* Friedrich Gerstäcker (1816–1872) a German travel writer and novelist.
* Justus Ludwig Adolf Roth (1818–1892) a German geologist and mineralogist.
* Heinrich Barth (1821–1865) a German explorer of Africa and a scholar.
* Jacob Bernays (1824–1881) a German philologist and philosophical writer.
* Julius Oppert (1825–1905) a French-German Assyria, Assyriologist.
* Thérèse Tietjens (1831–1877) a leading opera and oratorio soprano.
* Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) a German composer, pianist and conductor.
* Michael Bernays (1834–1897) German literary historian, scholar of Goethe and Shakespeare.
* Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig (1835–1910) German chemist, discovered the pinacol coupling reaction.
* Wilhelm Kühne (1837–1900) a German physiologist, coined the word enzyme in 1878.
* Carl Rosa (1842–1889) musical impresario, founded the Carl Rosa Opera Company in London.
* Carl Hagenbeck (1844–1913) a merchant of wild animals who supplied many European zoos.
* Hans Hinrich Wendt (1853–1928) a German Protestant theologian.
* Hans von Bartels (1856–1913) a German painter.
* Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894) physicist who first proved the existence of Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic waves.
* Helmut Schmidt
Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982.
Before becoming Ch ...
(1918–2015) politician and chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982.
* Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...
(born 1954) a retired politician and scientist, chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021.
See also
*Novo Hamburgo
References
External links
*
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Hamburg Panorama-View
{{Authority control
Hamburg,
City-states
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Free imperial cities
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Populated places established in the 9th century
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States of the North German Confederation
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Populated riverside places in Germany
Populated places on the Elbe
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