(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 ...
, 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 betwee ...
after
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
, 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 union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
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
The Hamburg Metropolitan Region (German: Metropolregion Hamburg) is a metropolitan area centred around the city of Hamburg in northern Germany, consisting of eight districts (''Landkreise'') in the federal state of Lower Saxony, six districts (''Kr ...
, 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 drain ...
, 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 cen ...
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
The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label= Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...
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 unt ...
. 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
''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin , meaning 'above'.
The roles of a sovereign vary from monarch, ruler or ...
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 (river), Rotte'') is the second largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the Prov ...
and
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, . 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
A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for t ...
and the
world's oldest merchant bank,
Berenberg Bank
Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG, commonly known as Berenberg Bank and also branded as simply Berenberg, is a multinational full-service investment bank based in Hamburg, Germany.
It was founded by the Flemish Berenberg family in 1590 () ...
. 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, multipartite international political conferences and summits such as
Europe and China and the
G20. 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
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 ...
,
Olaf Scholz
Olaf Scholz (; born ) is a German politician who has served as the chancellor of Germany since 8 December 2021. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), he previously served as Vice Chancellor under Angela Merkel and as Federal Minister ...
, 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 ...
s by
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
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 music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
. Hamburg is also known for several
theatres and a variety of musical shows.
St. Pauli'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, between
Continental Europe
Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous continent of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by ...
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 S ...
to the north, with the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...
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 from ...
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 and
Bille. The city centre is around the
Binnenalster ("Inner Alster") and
Außenalster ("Outer Alster"), both formed by damming the River Alster to create lakes. The islands of
Neuwerk,
Scharhörn, and
Nigehörn, away in the
Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park, are also part of the city of Hamburg.
The neighborhoods of
Neuenfelde
is a rural quarter located in the borough Harburg of Hamburg, Germany near the Lower Saxony border. The quarter is well known for its quality of fruit and unique houses, many of which prove to be popular attractions for tourists passing through, ...
,
Cranz, Francop and
Finkenwerder are part of the ''
Altes Land'' (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 has Hamburg's highest elevation, the
Hasselbrack
The Hasselbrack, at ,Height of the hill according to the Geological State Office of Hamburg is the highest point in the state of Hamburg, Germany.
It is located on the southern border of the city state with Lower Saxony in the "Black Hills" (''Sc ...
at
AMSL
Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as '' orthometric heights''.
The ...
. 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
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...
(
Köppen: ''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 betwee ...
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 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 territories w ...
.
Etymology
The name Hamburg comes from the first permanent building on the site, a castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
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 E ...
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 cen ...
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
Bremen ( Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state cons ...
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
The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...
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 on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...
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 from ...
, quickly made it a major port in Northern Europe
The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe Northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54°N, or may be based on other geographical factors ...
. 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
The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label= Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...
.[ Verg (2007), p. 30
]
In 1270, the solicitor of the senate of Hamburg, ''Jordan von Boitzenburg'', wrote the first description of civil, criminal and procedural law for a city in Germany in the German language, the ''Ordeelbook'' (''Ordeel'': sentence). 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 Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...
, 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 France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
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 unt ...
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
''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin , meaning 'above'.
The roles of a sovereign vary from monarch, ruler or ...
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 wh ...
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
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
(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 republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...
(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 ...
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 as its director, became the world's largest transatlantic 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 sou ...
, 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 List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
and East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...
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, whi ...
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 Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Trading communities from all over the world established themselves there.
A major outbreak of cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium '' Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting an ...
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 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 I ...
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, 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 by the RAF, killed at least 42,600 civilians; the precise number is not known. About one million civilians were evacuated in the aftermath of the raids. While some of the boroughs destroyed were rebuilt as residential districts after the war, others such as Hammerbrook were entirely developed into office, retail and limited residential or industrial districts.
The Hamburg Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery is in the greater Ohlsdorf Cemetery in the north of Hamburg.
At least 42,900 people are thought to have perished 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 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 Europ ...
. 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
The Reich Association of Jews in Germany (german: Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland), also called the ''new one'' for clear differentiation, was a Jewish umbrella organisation formed in Nazi Germany in February 1939. The Association branc ...
(District Northwest). On 10 June 1943 the Reich Security Main Office
The Reich Security Main Office (german: Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and '' Reichsführer-SS'', the head of the Naz ...
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 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 Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...
'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; 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 ...
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
The inner German border (german: Innerdeutsche Grenze or ; initially also ) was the border between the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. Not including the ...
– only east of Hamburg – separated the city from most of its hinterland and reduced Hamburg's global trade. Since German reunification
German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
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 originatin ...
countries into the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
in 2004, the Port of Hamburg
The Port of Hamburg (german: Hamburger Hafen, ) is a seaport on the river Elbe in Hamburg, Germany, from its mouth on the North Sea.
Known as Germany's "Gateway to the World" (''Tor zur Welt''), it is the country's largest seaport by volume ...
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: 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 term.Matt RosenberPopu ...
was . The metropolitan area of the Hamburg region (Hamburg Metropolitan Region
The Hamburg Metropolitan Region (German: Metropolregion Hamburg) is a metropolitan area centred around the city of Hamburg in northern Germany, consisting of eight districts (''Landkreise'') in the federal state of Lower Saxony, six districts (''Kr ...
) 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, 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
Standard High German (SHG), less precisely Standard German or High German (not to be confused with High German dialects, more precisely Upper German dialects) (german: Standardhochdeutsch, , or, in Switzerland, ), is the standardized variety ...
is spoken in Hamburg, but as typical for northern Germany, the original language of Hamburg is Low German
:
:
:
:
:
(70,000)
(30,000)
(8,000)
, familycolor = Indo-European
, fam2 = Germanic
, fam3 = West Germanic
, fam4 = North Sea Germanic
, ancestor = Old Saxon
, ancestor2 = Middle ...
, usually referred to as ''Hamborger Platt'' (German ''Hamburger Platt'') or '' Hamborgsch''. Since large-scale standardization
Standardization or standardisation is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments. Standardizatio ...
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
() is a type of Low-German-coloured dialect or sociolect of German. It is characterised by Low-German-type structures and the presence of numerous calques and loanwords from Low German in High German.
Description
A more technical definition ...
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
A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional Folk music, folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large Merchant vessel, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessels. The term ''shanty ...
Hamborger Veermaster De Hamborger Veermaster (Standard German: Der Hamburger Viermaster, English: Hamburg's four-master) is a famous sea shanty sung in Low German, presumably first published between 1850 and 1890. It is partly in English, an adaptation of the shanty "T ...
, 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 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, 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 1950 ...
.
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
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 ...
'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), with the office of the mayor, the meeting room for the Senate and the floor for the Hamburg Parliament. From 2001 until 2010, the mayor of Hamburg was Ole von Beust, who governed in Germany's first statewide "black-green" coalition, consisting of the conservative CDU Hamburg
The CDU Hamburg is the regional state association of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) in Hamburg, Germany. As of 2019, there are about 6,474 members in the association, about 40 percent are women. In 1946, from 1953 to 1957 and fro ...
and the alternative GAL, which are Hamburg's regional wing of the Alliance 90/The Greens
Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (for ...
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
Olaf Scholz (; born ) is a German politician who has served as the chancellor of Germany since 8 December 2021. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), he previously served as Vice Chancellor under Angela Merkel and as Federal Minister ...
( SPD) became mayor. After the 2015 election the SPD and the Alliance 90/The Greens
Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (for ...
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 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 ''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 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, Altona, Eimsbüttel, Hamburg-Nord, 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 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, 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 Hambur ...
, Finkenwerder, HafenCity, Hamm
Hamm (, Latin: ''Hammona'') is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northeastern part of the Ruhr area. As of 2016 its population was 179,397. The city is situated between the A1 motorway and A2 motorway. Hamm railwa ...
, Hammerbrook, Horn, Kleiner Grasbrook, Neuwerk, Rothenburgsort, St. Georg, St. Pauli, Steinwerder
Steinwerder (German "stein" stone, "werder" (archaic) island or peninsula, translation "stone peninsula") is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany in the borough Hamburg-Mitte on the southern bank of the river Elbe. It is a primarily maritime industrial ...
, 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
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rive ...
, Waltershof and Wilhelmsburg.[ The quarters Hamburg-Altstadt ("old town") and Neustadt ("new town") are the historical origin of Hamburg.
'' Altona'' is the westernmost urban borough, on the right bank of the Elbe river. From 1640 to 1864, Altona was under the administration of the Danish monarchy. Altona was an independent city until 1937. Politically, the following quarters are part of Altona: ]Altona-Altstadt
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 1 ...
, 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. I ...
, Othmarschen, 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 i ...
, 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, Blankenese, Iserbrook, Sülldorf, Rissen, 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, Altengamme, 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, 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 h ...
, Lohbrügge, Moorfleet, 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 Ham ...
, 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 and Tatenberg.[
'' Eimsbüttel'' is split into nine-quarters: Eidelstedt, Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude, ]Hoheluft-West
is an area composed of two quarters of Hamburg, which are characterized by their largely preserved architecture.
Administratively, Hoheluft is divided into two quarters: in the borough of Hamburg-Nord, and in the borough of Eimsbüttel. The Hoh ...
, Lokstedt, Niendorf, Rotherbaum, Schnelsen
Schnelsen () is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Eimsbüttel. In 2020 it had a population of over 30,100 people and borders the state of Schleswig-Holstein.
Geography
Schnelsen borders with the quarters Eidelstedt and Niendorf ...
and Stellingen.[ Located within this borough is former Jewish neighbourhood Grindel.
'' Hamburg-Nord'' contains the quarters Alsterdorf, ]Barmbek-Nord
(Northern Barmbek) is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Hamburg-Nord. It is located in the east of Hamburg-Nord, approximately five kilometers from Hamburg city center. Barmbek-Nord is a densely built-up area.
Barmbek-Nord borders ...
, Barmbek-Süd
(Southern Barmbek) is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Hamburg-Nord. It is located in the east of Hamburg-Nord, approximately five kilometers from Hamburg city center. Barmbek-Süd is a densely built-up area.
Barmbek-Süd borders ...
, Dulsberg, Eppendorf, Fuhlsbüttel, Groß Borstel
Groß Borstel () (''Great Borstel'') is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Hamburg-Nord. It is located north of the Eppendorf quarter and south of Hamburg Airport. Near Groß Borstel, the neighbourhood of Klein Borstel, which is ...
, Hoheluft-Ost
is an area composed of two quarters of Hamburg, which are characterized by their largely preserved architecture.
Administratively, Hoheluft is divided into two quarters: in the borough of Hamburg-Nord, and in the borough of Eimsbüttel. The Hoh ...
, Hohenfelde, Langenhorn, Ohlsdorf with Ohlsdorf cemetery, Uhlenhorst
Uhlenhorst () 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 ...
and Winterhude
Winterhude () is a quarter in the ward Hamburg-Nord of Hamburg, Germany. As of 2020 the population was 56,382.
History
Winterhude was first mentioned in the 13th century, but archeological findings of tools, weapons and grave-mounds were dated t ...
.[
'' 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
Altenwerder () is a quarter in the Harburg borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg in northern Germany. The former village on an Elbe island became a port expansion area in the 1960s. In the 1970s the city of Hamburg announced the form ...
, Cranz, Eißendorf
Eißendorf () is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Harburg. More than 24,300 inhabitants live in an area of 8.4 km2.
Geography
Eißendorf borders the quarters of Heimfeld, Harburg, Wilstorf, and Marmstorf. Eißendorf is ...
, Francop
Francop is a quarter in the Harburg borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg in northern Germany. In 2020 the population was 711.
History
Francop, probably founded in the mid-12th century, belonged - as to its government - to the Prin ...
, Gut Moor
(lit. ''Manor Moor'') is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Harburg on its southeastern boundaries adjacent to Harburg district in Niedersachsen. It is one of the smallest quarters of Hamburg. 133 inhabitants lived in an area of ...
, Harburg, Hausbruch, Heimfeld, Langenbek
Langenbek is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany in the Harburg, Hamburg, Harburg borough.
References
Quarters of Hamburg
Harburg, Hamburg
{{Hamburg-geo-stub ...
, Marmstorf, Moorburg
Moorburg () is a place in Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1 ...
, Neuenfelde
is a rural quarter located in the borough Harburg of Hamburg, Germany near the Lower Saxony border. The quarter is well known for its quality of fruit and unique houses, many of which prove to be popular attractions for tourists passing through, ...
, Neugraben-Fischbek, Neuland, Rönneburg
Rönneburg () is a quarter of Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_off ...
, 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
Bergstedt () is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Wandsbek. It is located on the northeastern border of the borough and of the city. It is part of the area of Walddörfer (lit. ''forest villages''). In 2016 10,687 lived in Bergst ...
, Bramfeld, Duvenstedt
is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Wandsbek. It is located on the northern boundaries of the borough and of the city. It is part of the area of Walddörfer (lit. ''forest villages'').
Geography
Duvenstedt borders the quarters ...
, Eilbek
(former Eilbeck) is a quarter of the German city of Hamburg and part of the Wandsbek borough. It originated as a small village on the outskirts of Hamburg and was eventually incorporated when the city expanded. In 2020 the population was 22,235. ...
, Farmsen-Berne #
Farmsen-Berne is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Wandsbek. More than 34,000 inhabitants live in an area of 8.3 km2. Farmsen () and Berne () are part of the area of Walddörfer (lit. ''forest villages'').
Geography
Farm ...
, Hummelsbüttel, Jenfeld, Lemsahl-Mellingstedt
Lemsahl-Mellingstedt () is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough Wandsbek. The population was over 6900 in 2020.
Geography
Lemsahl-Mellingstedt borders the quarters Duvenstedt, Wohldorf-Ohlstedt, Bergstedt, Poppenbüttel and Sasel. It ...
, Marienthal, Poppenbüttel, Rahlstedt
Rahlstedt () is a quarter (''Stadtteil'') in the Wandsbek borough (''Bezirk'') of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg in northern Germany. In 2020, the population was 92,511.
History
The quarter was first mentioned in 1248 with the name of "' ...
, Sasel, Steilshoop
Steilshoop () 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 o ...
, Tonndorf
Tonndorf () is a municipality in the Weimarer Land district of Thuringia, Germany. The nearest train station is the village München
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state ...
, Volksdorf
Volksdorf () is a quarter of Hamburg. It is situated in the north east of the city, about 15 km from the centre of the city.
Volksdorf belongs to the borough of Wandsbek. It covers an area of 11.6 km² and has 20,685 inhabitants (as o ...
, 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 ...
, Wellingsbüttel
Wellingsbüttel (), a quarter in the Wandsbek borough in the city of Hamburg in northern Germany, is a former independent settlement. In 2020 the population was 10,935.
History
The first records on Wellingsbüttel are from 1296. Wellingsbüttel ...
and Wohldorf-Ohlstedt
Wohldorf-Ohlstedt () is a neighborhood of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough Wandsbek. It is the most northern quarter and one of the wealthiest in Hamburg.
Geography
Wohldorf-Ohlstedt borders the quarters Duvenstedt, Lemsahl-Mellingstedt and Be ...
.[
]
Cityscape
Architecture
Hamburg has architecturally significant buildings in a wide range of styles and no skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ri ...
s (see List of tallest buildings in Hamburg). Churches are important landmarks, such as St Nicholas', which for a short time in the 19th century was the world's tallest building. The skyline features the tall spires of the most important churches (''Hauptkirchen'') St Michael's (nicknamed "Michel"), St Peter's, St James's
St James's is a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End. In the 17th century the area developed as a residential location for the British aristocracy, and around the 19th century was the focus of the d ...
(''St. Jacobi'') and St. Catherine's covered with copper plates, and the Heinrich-Hertz-Turm
The Heinrich Hertz Tower (german: Heinrich-Hertz-Turm) is a landmark radio telecommunication tower in the city of Hamburg, Germany.
Designed by architect Fritz Trautwein, in co-operation with civil engineers Jörg Schlaich, Rudolf Bergermann an ...
, the radio and television tower (no longer publicly accessible).
The many streams, rivers and canals are crossed by some 2,500 bridges, more than London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
and Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
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 town hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
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 expressionist office building built in 1922 and designed by architect Fritz Höger
Fritz originated as a German nickname for Friedrich, or Frederick (''Der Alte Fritz'', and ''Stary Fryc'' were common nicknames for King Frederick II of Prussia and Frederick III, German Emperor) as well as for similar names including Fridolin ...
, 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
Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a r ...
and Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (2 ...
. 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
Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd.,
" Herzog & de Meuron. Retrieved on 11 October 2012. "Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd. R ...
''.
The many parks are distributed over the whole city, which makes Hamburg a very verdant city. The biggest parks are the '' Stadtpark'', the Ohlsdorf Cemetery and Planten un Blomen
Planten un Blomen is an urban park with a size of in the inner-city of Hamburg, Germany. The name Planten un Blomen is Low German for "Pflanzen und Blumen" in German or "Plants and Flowers" in English.
History
The first plant was a Platanus, p ...
. The '' Stadtpark'', Hamburg's "Central Park", has a great lawn and a huge water tower, which houses one of Europe's biggest planetaria
A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation.
A dominant feature of most planetarium ...
. The park and its buildings were designed by Fritz Schumacher in the 1910s.
Parks and gardens
The lavish and spacious ''Planten un Blomen
Planten un Blomen is an urban park with a size of in the inner-city of Hamburg, Germany. The name Planten un Blomen is Low German for "Pflanzen und Blumen" in German or "Plants and Flowers" in English.
History
The first plant was a Platanus, p ...
'' 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
A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...
that now consists primarily of greenhouses.
The '' Botanischer Garten Hamburg'' is a modern botanical garden
A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...
maintained by the University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vo ...
. 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
Planten un Blomen is an urban park with a size of in the inner-city of Hamburg, Germany. The name Planten un Blomen is Low German for "Pflanzen und Blumen" in German or "Plants and Flowers" in English.
History
The first plant was a Platanus, p ...
'' 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
The European Green Capital Award is an award for a European city based on its environmental record. The award was launched on 22 May 2008 and the first award was given to Stockholm for the year 2010. The European Commission has long recognised ...
scheme, and was awarded the title of European Green Capital for 2011.
Theatres
The state-owned ''Deutsches Schauspielhaus
The Deutsches Schauspielhaus is a theatre in the St. Georg quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany. It was established in 1901 by the renowned stage actress Franziska Ellmenreich.
Theatre managers
Notable actors
Marco Albrecht,
Ingrid ...
'', the Thalia Theatre, Ohnsorg Theatre, "Schmidts Tivoli" and the ''Kampnagel
Kampnagel is a theatre in Hamburg, Germany. It is Germany's biggest independent production venue for the performing arts. It is based on the premises of a former mechanical engineering factory in Winterhude, founded in 1865.
History
Since 198 ...
'' are well-known theatres.
The English Theatre of Hamburg
The English Theatre of Hamburg is a professional theatre in Hamburg, Germany where performances are held in the English language. This private theatre was founded in 1976 by two Americans. It is the oldest professional English language theatre in ...
near U3 Mundsburg station was established in 1976 and is the oldest professional English-speaking theatre in Germany, and has exclusively English native-speaking actors in its company.
Museums
Hamburg has several large museums and galleries showing classical and contemporary art, for example the Kunsthalle Hamburg
The Hamburger Kunsthalle is the art museum of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany. It is one of the largest art museums in the country. The museum consists of three connected buildings, dating from 1869 (main building), 1921 (Kuppelsaa ...
with its contemporary art gallery (''Galerie der Gegenwart''), the ''Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...
'' (Museum of Art and Design) and the Deichtorhallen
The Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany, is one of Europe's largest art centers for contemporary art and photography. The two historical buildings dating from 1911 to 1913 are iconic in style, with their open steel-and-glass structures. Their archi ...
(with the House of Photography and Hall of Contemporary Art). The Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg
The Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg (abbr. IMMH, ''International Maritime Museum'') is a private museum in the HafenCity quarter of Hamburg, Germany. The museum houses Peter Tamm's collection of model ships, construction plans, uniforms ...
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 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
The Harburg Hills (German: Harburger Berge) are a low ridge in the northeastern part of the German state of Lower Saxony and the southern part of the city state of Hamburg. They are up to high.
Geography and history
The Harburg Hills lie northwe ...
just outside of Hamburg in Rosengarten. Two museum ships near St. Pauli Piers
The St. Pauli Piers (german: St. Pauli Landungsbrücken, often only referred to as ''Landungsbrücken''; ), is the largest landing site in the Port of Hamburg, Germany, and also one of Hamburg's major tourist attractions. Other English language tr ...
(''Landungsbrücken'') bear witness to the freight ship ('' Cap San Diego'') and cargo sailing ship era (''Rickmer Rickmers
''Rickmer Rickmers'' is a sailing ship (three masted barque) permanently moored as a museum ship in Hamburg, near the ''Cap San Diego''.
Rickmer Clasen Rickmers, (1807–1886) was a Bremerhaven shipbuilder and Willi Rickmer Rickmers, (18 ...
''). In 2017 the Hamburg-built iron-hulled sailing ship ''Peking
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
'' returned to the city and was installed in the German Port Museum
The German Port Museum (''Deutsches Hafenmuseum'') is a nautical museum in Hamburg. The German Federal Parliament's budget committee approved initial funding of €94 million to rebuild it.
Scope
The museum displays the commercial and economic ...
in 2020. The world's largest model railway museum Miniatur Wunderland
''Miniatur Wunderland'' (German for 'miniature wonderland') is a model railway and miniature airport attraction in Hamburg, Germany, the largest of its kind in the world. The railway is located in the historic Speicherstadt neighbourhood of the ci ...
with total railway length is also situated near St. Pauli Piers in a former warehouse.
BallinStadt
__NOTOC__
BallinStadt () is the name given to a memorial park and former emigration station in the Port of Hamburg, Germany.
From the 1850s to the early 1930s the ground's emigration halls were last homestead for some five million emigrants fr ...
, 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 Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg (Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra) is an internationally renowned symphony orchestra based in Hamburg. As of 2015, Kent Nagano has been General Music Director (''Generalmusikdirektor'') and chief ...
. The city's other well-known orchestra is the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra
The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra (german: NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester) is a German radio orchestra. Affiliated with the ''Norddeutscher Rundfunk'' (NDR; North German Broadcasting), the orchestra is based at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, G ...
. The main concert venue is the new concert hall Elbphilharmonie. Before it was the Laeiszhalle
The Laeiszhalle (), formerly Musikhalle Hamburg, is a concert hall in the Neustadt of Hamburg, Germany and home to the Hamburger Symphoniker and the Philharmoniker Hamburg. The hall is named after the German shipowning company F. Laeisz, foun ...
, ''Musikhalle Hamburg''. The Laeiszhalle also houses a third orchestra, the Hamburger Symphoniker
The Symphoniker Hamburg (''Hamburg Symphony Orchestra'') is a German orchestra based in Hamburg, Germany. Founded in 1957, it is one of the city's three largest orchestras. The Hamburg Symphony Orchestra is the orchestra in residence in the Lae ...
. György Ligeti
György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century ...
and Alfred Schnittke
Alfred Garrievich Schnittke (russian: Альфре́д Га́рриевич Шни́тке, link=no, Alfred Garriyevich Shnitke; 24 November 1934 – 3 August 1998) was a Russian composer of Jewish-German descent. Among the most performed and re ...
taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg
The Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg is one of the larger universities of music in Germany.
It was founded 1950 as ''Staatliche Hochschule für Musik'' (Public college of music) on the base of the former private acting school of Annem ...
.
Hamburg is the birthplace of Johannes Brahms, who spent his formative early years in the city, and the birthplace and home of the famous waltz composer Oscar Fetrás, who wrote the well-known "Mondnacht auf der Alster" waltz.
Since the German premiere of '' Cats'' in 1986, there have always been musicals running, including ''The Phantom of the Opera
''The Phantom of the Opera'' (french: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra) is a novel by French author Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serial in from 23 September 1909 to 8 January 1910, and was released in volume form in late March 1910 by Pier ...
'', ''The Lion King
''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance ...
'', ''Dirty Dancing
''Dirty Dancing'' is a 1987 American romantic drama dance film written by Eleanor Bergstein, produced by Linda Gottlieb, and directed by Emile Ardolino. Starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, it tells the story of Frances "Baby" Houseman ...
'' and ''Dance of the Vampires (musical)
''Dance of the Vampires'' is a musical remake of the 1967 Roman Polanski film of the same name (known as ''The Fearless Vampire Killers'' in the USA). Polanski also directed this musical’s original German-language production (titled ). The mus ...
''. This density, the highest in Germany, is partly due to the major musical production company ''Stage Entertainment
Stage Entertainment is an international operating live entertainment company, a subsidiary of Advance Publications. The company was founded in 1998 by Joop van den Ende in Amsterdam.
History The Netherlands / Corporate
The root of the company l ...
'' 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
Arena Birmingham (known for sponsorship reasons as Utilita Arena Birmingham, and previously as The Barclaycard Arena and originally as the National Indoor Arena) is an indoor arena and sporting venue in central Birmingham, United Kingdom. It ...
, the Bahrenfeld harness racing track and Hamburg City Park.
Hamburg was an important center of rock music in the early 1960s. 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 ...
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
The Star-Club was a music club in Hamburg, Germany, that opened on Friday 13 April 1962, and was initially operated by Manfred Weissleder and Horst Fascher. In the 1960s, many of the giants of rock music played at the club. The club closed on 3 ...
on St. Pauli.
Hamburg has produced a number of successful (pop) musicians. Among the best known are Udo Lindenberg
Udo Lindenberg (born 17 May 1946) is a German singer, drummer, and composer.
Career
Lindenberg started his musical career as a drummer. In 1969, he founded his first band Free Orbit, and also appeared as a studio and guest musician (with Micha ...
, Deichkind
Deichkind (, literally '' Dyke Child'') is a German electropunk band formed in Hamburg in 1997. Current members are “Kryptik Joe” alias Philipp Grütering (rapper/songwriter), Henning “DJ Phono” Besser (DJ), Sebastian “Porky” Dürre ...
and Jan Delay
Jan Phillip Eißfeldt (born 25 August 1976), known professionally as Jan Delay, is a German rapper and singer whose stylistic range includes mainly hip hop, reggae, dub and funk. An accomplished solo artist, he became known to the public as a ...
. The singer Annett Louisan
Annett Louis (born Annett Päge; 2 April 1977 in Havelberg, Saxony-Anhalt, East Germany) is a German singer. She lives in Hamburg, Germany. Louisan is her stage name, derived from the name of her grandmother, Louise. Concerning her birth year ...
lives in Hamburg.
An important meeting place for Hamburg musicians from the 1970s to the mid-80s was the jazz pub Onkel Pö
Onkel Pös Carnegie Hall, better known as Onkel Pö, was a music venue in Hamburg in the 1970s and the early 1980s.
Pöseldorf
Onkel Pö was originally a jazz venue in Mittelweg in the quarter Pöseldorf (in Rotherbaum) in Hamburg, and was open ...
, 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
Otto Gerhard Waalkes (born 22 July 1948) is a German comedian, actor, and musician. He became famous in the 1970s and 1980s in Germany with his shows, books and films. His best known trademark are the 'Ottifanten' ('Ottiphants'), elephant-like c ...
, Hans Scheibner and groups such as Torfrock
Torfrock (, lit. "Peat Rock") is a German rock group founded by Klaus Büchner and Raymond Voß in 1976. Guitarist Jürgen Lugge from Hamburg played lead guitar until his unexpected death in 1992. With their Northern German identity, they are nota ...
and Frumpy
Frumpy was a German progressive rock/krautrock band based in Hamburg, which was active between 1970–1972 and 1990–1995. Formed after the break-up of folk rockers , Frumpy released four albums in 1970–1973 and achieved considerab ...
. One of the members of the band Frumpy was the Hamburg-born singer and composer Inga Rumpf
Frumpy was a German progressive rock/krautrock band based in Hamburg, which was active between 1970–1972 and 1990–1995. Formed after the break-up of folk rockers , Frumpy released four albums in 1970–1973 and achieved considerab ...
.
Hamburg is famous for a special kind of German alternative music, the " Hamburger Schule", a term used for bands like Tocotronic
Tocotronic is a German rock band founded in 1993 (see 1993 in music). Similar to Blumfeld or Die Sterne they are considered a part of the Hamburger Schule (''Hamburg School'') movement. They are influential for bands such as Wir sind Helde ...
, Blumfeld, Tomte
A (, ), tomte (), , or () is a mythological creature from Nordic folklore today typically associated with the winter solstice and the Christmas season. They are generally described as being short, having a long white beard, and wearing a co ...
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
MOONBOOTICA is the pseudonym of Hamburg DJs KoweSix (Oliver Kowalski) and Tobitob (Tobias Schmidt), who have been playing together since the 1990s.
General
The MOONBOOTICA music project was born at the early Moonbootica party series in the ...
, Mladen Solomun and Helena Hauff
Helena Hauff is a German DJ and record producer based in Hamburg, Germany. She is known for her "stripped-down techno and electro tracks" that are recorded using strictly analog equipment and draws influences from acid house, EBM and industri ...
.
Hamburg is also home to many music labels, music distributors and publishers. These include Warner Music
Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and th ...
, Kontor Records
Kontor Records or Kontor New Media is a record label based in Hamburg, Germany. The label's artist roster includes ATB, Tiësto, Armin van Buuren and Scooter. Jens Thele is the head manager of Kontor and is also the manager of Scooter.
Edel ...
, PIAS, Edel SE & Co. KGaA, Believe Digital and Indigo. The high proportion of independent labels in the city, which include Audiolith, Dial Records, Grand Hotel van Cleef
Grand Hotel van Cleef is an independent record label headquartered in Hamburg, Germany.
Label history
Grand Hotel van Cleef was founded in September 2002 by the musicians Thees Uhlmann, Marcus Wiebusch and Reimer Bustorff. The newly formed ba ...
, among others, is striking. Before its closure, the label L'Age D'Or
''L'Age d'Or'' (french: L'Âge d'Or, ), commonly translated as ''The Golden Age'' or ''Age of Gold'', is a 1930 French surrealist satirical comedy film directed by Luis Buñuel about the insanities of modern life, the hypocrisy of the sexual m ...
also belonged to these.
In addition, Hamburg has a considerable alternative
Alternative or alternate may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki''
* ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film
* ''The Alternative ...
and punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
scene, which gathers around the Rote Flora
The Rote Flora is a former theatre in the Sternschanze district of Hamburg, Germany. It has been squatted since November 1989 as a self-managed social centre. The collective said in 2001 "We are the 'UFO in the neighbourhood.' The black hole ...
, a squatted
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...
former theatre located in the Sternschanze
The city was a major centre for heavy metal music in the 1980s. Helloween
Helloween is a German power metal band founded in 1984 in Hamburg by members of bands Iron Fist, Gentry, Second Hell and Powerfool. Its first lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Kai Hansen, bassist Markus Grosskopf, guitarist Michael Wei ...
, Gamma Ray
A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol γ or \gamma), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. It consists of the shortest wavelength electromagnetic waves, typically ...
, Running Wild and Grave Digger
A gravedigger is a cemetery worker who is responsible for digging a grave prior to a funeral service.
Description
If the grave is in a cemetery on the property of a church or other religious organization (part of, or called, a churchyard), ...
started in Hamburg. The industrial rock
Industrial rock is a fusion genre that fuses industrial music and rock music. It initially originated in the 1970s, and drew influence from early experimental and industrial acts such as Cromagnon, Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten ...
band KMFDM
KMFDM (originally Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid, loosely translated by the band as "no pity for the majority") is a multinational industrial band from Hamburg led by Sascha Konietzko, who founded the band in 1984 as a performance art project. ...
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
Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in contra ...
.
In the late 90s, Hamburg was considered one of the strongholds of the German hip-hop scene. Bands like Beginner shaped Hamburg's hip-hop style and made the city a serious location for the hip-hop scene through songs like "Hamburg City Blues." In addition to Beginner, several successful German hip-hop acts hail from Hamburg, such as Fünf Sterne Deluxe
Fünf Sterne deluxe (“Five Stars Deluxe”) is a German-language hip-hop band from Hamburg, Germany, founded in mid-1997, consisting of the rappers Das Bo (Mirko Bogojevic) and Tobi Tobsen (Tobias Schmidt), the graphic designer Marcnesium (M ...
, Samy Deluxe
Samy Sorge (born 19 December 1977), commonly known as Samy Deluxe, Wickeda MC or Sam Semillia, is a German rapper and record producer from Hamburg.
Early life
Samy was two years old when his Sudanese father left Germany. Samy grew up with h ...
, Fettes Brot
Fettes Brot () is a German hip hop group that formed in 1992.
History
Band name
Fettes Brot means ''fat bread'' in German. "Fett" is a German slang term for "excellent" and brot is slang for "hash". The band took the name from a fan who ca ...
and 187 Strassenbande
187 Strassenbande (German for "187 streetgang") is a German hip hop and urban music formation joining a great number of German rappers mostly based in Hamburg formed in 2006. It is made up of Gzuz, Bonez MC, Maxwell, LX and Sa4, taggers and gr ...
.
Hamburg has a vibrant psychedelic trance community, with record labels such as Spirit Zone
Spirit Zone Recordings was an independent record label releasing Goa trance, psychedelic trance, progressive trance and ambient music. Founded in 1994 by Wolfgang Ahrens (a.k.a. DJ Antaro), the label has been defunct since July 2005.
Some of the ...
.
Festivals and regular events
Hamburg is noted for several festivals and regular events. Some of them are street festivals, such as the gay pride
LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to s ...
''Hamburg Pride
The Hamburg Pride Celebration, usually known as CSD Hamburg, is a parade and festival held at the end of July each year in Hamburg to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their allies, as part of internat ...
'' festival or the Alster fair (German: ''Alstervergnügen
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 lak ...
''), held at the '' Binnenalster''. The ''Hamburger DOM
The Hamburger Dom is a large fair held at Heiligengeistfeld fair ground in central Hamburg, Germany. With three fairs (spring, summer and winter) per year it is the biggest and the longest fair throughout Germany and attracts
approximately ten mil ...
'' is northern Germany's biggest funfair, held three times a year. '' Hafengeburtstag'' is a funfair
A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks.
Types
Variations of fairs incl ...
to honour the birthday of the port of Hamburg with a party and a ship parade. The annual biker's service in Saint Michael's Church attracts tens of thousands of bikers. Christmas markets in December are held at the Hamburg Rathaus 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
FILMFEST HAMBURG is an international film festival in Hamburg, the third-largest of its kind in Germany (after Berlin and Munich). It shows national and international feature and documentary films in eleven sections. The range of the program stret ...
— a film festival originating from the 1950s ''Film Days'' (German: ''Film Tage'') — presents a wide range of films. The '' Hamburg Messe and Congress'' offers a venue for trade shows, such ''hanseboot'', an international boat show, or ''Du und deine Welt'', a large consumer products show. Regular sports events—some open to pro and amateur participants—are the cycling competition EuroEyes Cyclassics
The Hamburg Cyclassics (currently known as the Bemer Cyclassics for sponsorship purposes) is an annual one-day professional and amateur cycling race in and around Hamburg, Germany. Although the route varies, its distance is always around 250  ...
, the Hamburg Marathon
The Hamburg Marathon (german: Hamburg-Marathon) is an annual marathon race over the classic distance of held in Hamburg, Germany. In 2009, 13,938 participants were counted. The marathon is categorized as a Gold Label Road Race by World Athlet ...
, the biggest marathon in Germany after Berlin, the tennis tournament Hamburg Masters
The Hamburg European Open (formerly ''German Open Tennis Championships'') is an annual tennis tournament for professional players held in Hamburg, Germany and part of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour. Before 2021, it was a mal ...
and equestrian events like the Deutsches Derby
The Deutsches Derby is a Group 1 flat horse race in Germany open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at Hamburg-Horn over a distance of 2,400 metres (about 1½ miles), and it is scheduled to ...
.
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 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
Birnen, Bohnen und Speck ("pears, beans and bacon") is a North German dish which is especially popular in the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Hamburg. It also goes under the names of Bohnen, Birnen und Speck ...
'' (green beans cooked with pears and bacon), ''Aalsuppe'' ( Hamburgisch ''Oolsupp'') is often mistaken to be German for "eel soup" (''Aal''/''Ool'' translated 'eel'), but the name probably comes from the Low Saxon ''allns'' , 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'' ( pan-fried potato slices), ''Finkenwerder Scholle'' (Low Saxon ''Finkwarder Scholl'', pan-fried plaice), ''Pannfisch'' (pan-fried fish with mustard sauce), ''Rote Grütze
Rote can refer to:
People
*Jason Butler Rote, American TV writer
*Kyle Rote (1928–2002), American football player and father of:
*Kyle Rote, Jr. (born 1950), American soccer player
*Ryan Rote (born 1982), baseball pitcher
*Tobin Rote (1928–200 ...
'' (Low Saxon ''Rode Grütt'', related to Danish ''rødgrød
Rødgrød (), rote Grütze (), or rode Grütt (), meaning "red groats", is a sweet fruit dish from Denmark and Northern Germany. The name of the dish in Danish features many of the elements that make Danish pronunciation difficult for non-native ...
'', 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
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
's lobscouse
Lobscouse (or ''lapskaus'') is a thick Norwegian stew made of meat and potatoes.
There are many variations of ''lapskaus''. The dish may be made of fresh or leftover meat (usually beef or lamb, but sometimes also chicken, pork, or ham) and pota ...
, 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) is the local name for a type of shandy
Shandy is beer or cider mixed with a lemon or a lemon-lime flavored beverage. The citrus beverage, often called lemonade, may or may not be carbonated. The proportions of the two ingredients are adjusted to taste but are usually half lemonade ...
, 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
A Franzbrötchen () is a small, sweet pastry baked with butter and cinnamon, similar to a cinnamon roll. Sometimes other ingredients are used as well, such as chocolate or raisins. It is a type of pastry commonly found in northern Germany, espec ...
. 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
In baking and pastry making, streusel () is a crumbly topping of flour, butter, and sugar that is baked on top of muffins, breads, pies, and cakes. . The name may also reflect to the roll's croissant
A croissant is a buttery, flaky, Austrian viennoiserie pastry inspired by the shape of the Austrian kipferl but using the French yeast-leavened laminated dough. Croissants are named for their historical crescent shape, the dough is layered wi ...
-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
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
, especially of Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, 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
A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, ...
may have developed from Hamburg's ''Frikadeller
A frikadelle (plural frikadellen) is a rounded, flat-bottomed, pan-fried meatball of minced meat, often likened to the German version of meatballs. The origin of the dish is unknown. The term is German but the dish is associated with German, ...
'': a pan-fried patty (usually larger and thicker than its American counterpart) made from a mixture of ground beef, soaked stale bread, egg, chopped onion, salt and pepper, usually served with potatoes and vegetables like any other piece of meat, not usually on a bun. The Oxford Dictionary defined a ''Hamburger steak'' in 1802: a sometimes-smoked and -salted piece of meat, that, according to some sources, came from Hamburg to America. 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
The Port of Hamburg (german: Hamburger Hafen, ) is a seaport on the river Elbe in Hamburg, Germany, from its mouth on the North Sea.
Known as Germany's "Gateway to the World" (''Tor zur Welt''), it is the country's largest seaport by volume ...
File:Freedom-of-the-Seas--in-Hamburg.jpg, St. Pauli Piers
The St. Pauli Piers (german: St. Pauli Landungsbrücken, often only referred to as ''Landungsbrücken''; ), is the largest landing site in the Port of Hamburg, Germany, and also one of Hamburg's major tourist attractions. Other English language tr ...
and cruise ship
Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as ...
File:Speicherstadt abends.jpg, ''Speicherstadt
The Speicherstadt (, literally: 'City of Warehouses', meaning warehouse district) in Hamburg, Germany is the largest warehouse district in the world where the buildings stand on timber-pile foundations, oak logs, in this particular case. It is ...
'' (Warehouse district)
File:Rathaus Hamburg bei Nacht.jpg, Hamburg City Hall
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 parliam ...
File:St. Michaelis.jpg, St. Michael's Church ("Michel")
File:Reeperbahn.jpg, ''Reeperbahn
The Reeperbahn () is a street and entertainment district in Hamburg's St. Pauli district, one of the two centres of Hamburg's nightlife (the other being Sternschanze) and also the city's major red-light district. In German, it is also nick ...
'', nightlife district of St. Pauli
File:Hamburg-St. Pauli Spielbudenplatz 01.jpg, ''Spielbudenplatz'' at Reeperbahn
File:Grosse Freiheit Hamburg.jpg, ''Große Freiheit
The Große Freiheit (German for: "Great Freedom") is a cross street on the North Side to Hamburg's Reeperbahn road in the St. Pauli quarter. It is part of the red-light district.
History
The street was named in 1610 after the fact that Count ...
'' ("Great Freedom")
File:St. Nikolai Memorial Church.jpg, 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 towards Radisson Hotel
Radisson Hotels is an international hotel chain headquartered in the United States. A division of the Radisson Hotel Group, it operates the brands Radisson Blu, Radisson Red, Radisson RED, Radisson Collection, Country Inn & Suites, and Park In ...
and Hertz-Turm
File:Hamburg Wallanlagen Brunnen.jpg, ''Planten un Blomen
Planten un Blomen is an urban park with a size of in the inner-city of Hamburg, Germany. The name Planten un Blomen is Low German for "Pflanzen und Blumen" in German or "Plants and Flowers" in English.
History
The first plant was a Platanus, p ...
''
File:DE Hamburg Centerview.JPG, Jungfernstieg
The Jungfernstieg () is an urban promenade in Hamburg, Germany. It is the city's foremost boulevard.
Location
Jungfernstieg mostly lies within the quarter of Neustadt; however at its easternmost it stretches as far as Hamburg-Altstadt. In to ...
Boulevard
File:Hamburg-Blankenese(01).JPG, Hills and mansions in Blankenese
File:Laeisz-Halle (Hamburg-Neustadt).1.29179.ajb.jpg, ''Laeiszhalle
The Laeiszhalle (), formerly Musikhalle Hamburg, is a concert hall in the Neustadt of Hamburg, Germany and home to the Hamburger Symphoniker and the Philharmoniker Hamburg. The hall is named after the German shipowning company F. Laeisz, foun ...
'' concert venue
File:2013-06-08 Highflyer HP L4729.JPG, Hamburg Hauptbahnhof
Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (abbrev. ''Hamburg Hbf'') is the main railway station of the city of Hamburg, Germany. Opened in 1906 to replace four separate terminal stations, today Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is operated by DB Station&Service AG. With an avera ...
, the busiest railway station in Germany
File:Hamburg OLG 1.jpg, Hanseatisches Oberlandesgericht ("HansOLG"), upper court
File:Neue Skyline Hamburg.JPG, Highrises in St. Pauli (''Hafenkrone'')
File:Köhlbrandbrücke 2010.jpg, Köhlbrand Bridge
The Köhlbrand Bridge (german: Köhlbrandbrücke) is a cable-stayed bridge in Hamburg, Germany,Stahl, F. L., & Gagnon, C. P. (1996)Cable Corrosion in Bridges and Other Structures: Causes and SolutionsASCE Publications. . Retrieved on 16 March 20 ...
File:Heinrich-Hertz-Turm - PHB.jpg, TV Tower
Radio masts and towers are typically tall structures designed to support antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, including television. There are two main types: guyed and self-supporting structures. They are among the tallest human-made ...
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
Alternative culture
Hamburg has long been a centre of alternative music and counter-culture movements. The boroughs of St. Pauli, Sternschanze and Altona are known for being home to many radical left-wing and anarchist groups, culminating every year during the traditional May Day demonstrations.
During the 2017 G20 summit, which took place in Hamburg from 7–8 July that year, protestors clashed violently with the police in the Sternschanze area and particularly around the Rote Flora. On 7 July, several cars were set on fire and street barricades were erected to prevent the police from entering the area. In response to that, the police made heavy use of water cannons and tear gas in order to scatter the protestors. However, this was met with strong resistance by protestors, resulting in a total of 160 injured police and 75 arrested participants in the protests.
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 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 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 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
The International School of Hamburg, known to the school community as ISH, is a private international school located in the Groß Flottbek quarter of Hamburg. ISH combines the IPC (age 3-10), the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) (age 11-16), the IB ...
serves school children.
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
, Dorothy Wordsworth
Dorothy Mae Ann Wordsworth (25 December 1771 – 25 January 1855) was an English author, poet, and diarist. She was the sister of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, and the two were close all their adult lives. Dorothy Wordsworth had no a ...
and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake ...
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
Edward is an English language, English given name. It is derived from the Old English, Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements ''wikt:ead#Old English, ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and ''wikt:weard#Old English, weard'' "gua ...
."
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
William Lindley (7 September 1808 in London – 22 May 1900 in Blackheath, London), was an English engineer who together with his sons designed water and sewerage systems for over 30 cities across Europe.
Life
As a young engineer he worked t ...
, 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
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is oft ...
(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
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Becau ...
city of Northern Germany. The city is the seat of Germany's oldest bank, the Berenberg Bank
Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG, commonly known as Berenberg Bank and also branded as simply Berenberg, is a multinational full-service investment bank based in Hamburg, Germany.
It was founded by the Flemish Berenberg family in 1590 () ...
, M.M.Warburg & CO and Hamburg Commercial Bank
Hamburg Commercial Bank (formerly HSH Nordbank) is a commercial bank in northern Europe with headquarters in Hamburg as well as Kiel, Germany. It is active in corporate and private banking. Considered to be the world’s largest provider of maritim ...
. The Hamburg Stock Exchange
The Hamburg Stock Exchange (german: link=yes, Hamburger Börse) is the oldest stock exchange in Germany. It was founded in 1558 in the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 ...
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 (river), Rotte'') is the second largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the Prov ...
and Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, en 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
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
and Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...
, is an important location of the civil aerospace
Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astr ...
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 Hamburg-Finkenwerder assembly plant in Finkenwerder, employs over 13,000 people.
HafenCity
The HafenCity is Europe's largest urban development project and is located in the Hamburg-Mitte district. It consists of the area of the Great Grasbrook, the northern part of the former Elbe island Grasbrook
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 ...
, and the warehouse district on the former Elbe island Kehrwieder and Wandrahm. It is bordered to the north, separated by the customs channel to Hamburg's city center, west and south by the Elbe and to the east, bounded by the upper harbor, Rothenburgsort. The district is full of rivers and streams and is surrounded by channels, and has a total area of about 2.2 square-kilometers.
HafenCity has 155 hectares in the area formerly belonging to the free port north of the Great Grasbrook. Residential units for up to 12,000 people are planned to be built on the site by around the mid-2020s, and jobs for up to 40,000 people, mainly in the office sector, should be created. It is the largest ongoing urban development project in Hamburg.
Construction work started in 2003, and in 2009 the first part of the urban development project was finished with the completion of the Dalmannkai / Sandtorkai neighborhood – which is the first stage of the HafenCity project. According to the person responsible for the development and commercialization of HafenCity, ''HafenCity Hamburg GmbH'', half of the master plan underlying structural construction is already completed, whereas the other half is either under construction or is in the construction preparation stages.
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
In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business.
Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive reven ...
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
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...
+33%).
A typical Hamburg visit includes a tour of the city hall and the grand church St. Michaelis (called the ''Michel''), and visiting the old warehouse district (''Speicherstadt
The Speicherstadt (, literally: 'City of Warehouses', meaning warehouse district) in Hamburg, Germany is the largest warehouse district in the world where the buildings stand on timber-pile foundations, oak logs, in this particular case. It is ...
'') and the harbour promenade (''Landungsbrücken''). Sightseeing buses connect these points of interest. As Hamburg is one of the world's largest harbours many visitors take one of the harbour and/or canal boat tours (''Große Hafenrundfahrt'', ''Fleetfahrt'') which start from the ''Landungsbrücken''. Major destinations also include museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...
s.
The area of Reeperbahn
The Reeperbahn () is a street and entertainment district in Hamburg's St. Pauli district, one of the two centres of Hamburg's nightlife (the other being Sternschanze) and also the city's major red-light district. In German, it is also nick ...
in the quarter St. Pauli is Europe's largest red light district and home of strip clubs, brothels, bars and nightclubs. The singer and actor Hans Albers is strongly associated with St. Pauli, and wrote the neighbourhood's unofficial anthem, "Auf der Reeperbahn Nachts um Halb Eins" (" On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight") in the 1940s. The Beatles
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 ...
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
The Tierpark Hagenbeck is a zoo in Stellingen, Hamburg, Germany. The collection began in 1863 with animals that belonged to Carl Hagenbeck Sr. (1810–1887), a fishmonger who became an amateur animal collector. The park itself was founded by Ca ...
, 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
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
(395,681 overnight stays), the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
(301,000 overnight stays), Switzerland (340,156 overnight stays), Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
(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 Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
(206,614 overnight stays).
The ''Queen Mary 2
RMS ''Queen Mary 2'' (also referred to as the ''QM2'') is a British transatlantic ocean liner. She has served as the flagship of Cunard Line since succeeding ''Queen Elizabeth 2'' in 2004. As of 2022, ''Queen Mary 2'' is the only ocean liner ...
'' 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
NDR Fernsehen is a German free-to-air regional television channel targeting northern Germany, specifically the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Hamburg and Bremen.
It is broadcast by both Norddeutscher Rundfun ...
is based in Hamburg, including the very popular news program '' Tagesschau'', as are the commercial television station '' Hamburg 1'', the Christian television station ''Bibel TV
Bibel TV is Germany's first Christian television channel. Since 1 October 2002, it has been broadcasting 24 hours each day of the year. It can be received by digital satellite dish (SES Astra, Astra satellites), most digital cable systems in Germ ...
'' and the civil media outlet '' Tide TV''. There are regional radio stations such as Radio Hamburg
Radio Hamburg is a private commercial radio station based on Hamburg, Germany. Established in the 1980s to play popular music of the time, nowadays it plays hits from the 2000s onwards, on high rotation. Their slogan is ''Mehr Musik, mehr Vielfal ...
. Some of Germany's largest publishing companies, Axel Springer AG
Axel Springer SE () is a German digital and popular periodical publishing house which is the largest in Europe, with numerous multimedia news brands, such as ''Bild'', ''Die Welt'', and '' Fakt'' and more than 15,000 employees. It generated tot ...
, Gruner + Jahr Gruner may refer to:
People
* Dov Gruner (1912–1947), Jewish Zionist leader
* Eduard Gruner, Swiss engineer
* Elioth Gruner (1882–1939), Australian painter
* Gottlieb Sigmund Gruner (1717–1778), Swiss cartographer and geologist
* K ...
, Bauer Media Group
Heinrich Bauer Publishing (german: Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG), trading as Bauer Media Group, is a German multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Hamburg. It operates worldwide and owns more than 600 magazines, over 400 digital products and 50 r ...
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
The ''Financial Times Deutschland'' was a German-language financial newspaper based in Hamburg, Germany, published by Bertelsmann's Gruner + Jahr newspaper and magazine division. The daily contained four sections: Business, Politics & Economy, Fi ...
''. ''Hamburger Abendblatt
The ''Hamburger Abendblatt'' (English: ''Hamburg Evening Newspaper'') is a German daily newspaper in Hamburg.
The paper focuses on news in Hamburg and area, and produces regional supplements with news from Norderstedt, Ahrensburg, Harburg, and P ...
'' and ''Hamburger Morgenpost
The ''Hamburger Morgenpost'' (Hamburg Morning Post) (also known as Mopo) is a daily German newspaper published in Hamburg in tabloid format.
As of 2006 the ''Hamburger Morgenpost'' was the second-largest newspaper in Hamburg after '' Bild Zeitu ...
'' are daily regional newspapers with a large circulation. There are music publishers, such as Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
Germany, and ICT firms such as Adobe Systems and Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
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 series
James Bond is a fictional character created by British novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. A British secret agent working for MI6 under the codename 007, Bond has been portrayed on film in twenty-seven productions by actors Sean Connery, David Niv ...
film ''Tomorrow Never Dies
''Tomorrow Never Dies'' is a 1997 spy film, the eighteenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode from a screenplay ...
''. The ''Reeperbahn
The Reeperbahn () is a street and entertainment district in Hamburg's St. Pauli district, one of the two centres of Hamburg's nightlife (the other being Sternschanze) and also the city's major red-light district. In German, it is also nick ...
'' has been the location for many scenes, including the 1994 Beatles film ''Backbeat
In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse (regularly repeating event), of the ''mensural level'' (or ''beat level''). The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a p ...
''. The film '' A Most Wanted Man'' was set in and filmed in Hamburg. Hamburg was also shown in ''An American Tail
''An American Tail'' is a 1986 American animated musical adventure film directed by Don Bluth from a screenplay by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss and a story by David Kirschner, Freudberg and Geiss. The film features the voices of Phillip Glass ...
'' 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
The University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (german: Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)) is the teaching hospital of the University of Hamburg and the largest hospital in Hamburg, Germany.
The UKE has 1,738 beds and 121 day-care p ...
, 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 Autobahn
The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track' ...
en (motorways) and the most important railway junction on the route to Scandinavia.
Bridges and tunnels connect the northern and southern parts of the city, such as the old Elbe Tunnel
Old Elbe Tunnel or St. Pauli Elbe Tunnel (German: ''Alter Elbtunnel'' colloquially or ''St. Pauli Elbtunnel'' officially) which opened in 1911, is a pedestrian and vehicle tunnel in Hamburg. The 426 m (1,398 ft) long tunnel was a technical s ...
(''Alter Elbtunnel'') or St. Pauli Elbtunnel (official name) which opened in 1911, now is major tourist sight, and the Elbe Tunnel (''Elbtunnel'') the crossing of a motorway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...
.
Hamburg Airport
Hamburg Airport , known in German as ''Flughafen Hamburg'', is a major international airport in Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany. Since November 2016 the airport has been christened after the former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt. ...
is the oldest airport in Germany still in operation. There is also the smaller Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport
Airbus Hamburg-Finkenwerder, also known as Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport , is an aircraft manufacturing plant and associated private airport in the Finkenwerder quarter of southwest Hamburg, Germany. The airport is an integral part of the Airbus ...
, 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
Lübeck Airport is a minor German airport located south of Lübeck, the second-largest city in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, and northeast of Hamburg. It is the secondary airport for the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, after the much bigger ...
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 licence plate
A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate (British English), license plate (American English), or licence plate (Canadian English), is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identificatio ...
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
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
since 1956).
Public transport
Public transport
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typi ...
by rail, bus and ship is organised by the ''Hamburger Verkehrsverbund
The Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (HVV) ( en, "Hamburg Transport Association") is a transport association coordinating public transport in and around Hamburg, Germany. Its main objectives are to provide a unified fare system, requiring only a single ...
'' ("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 S-Bahn
The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban-suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble c ...
(commuter train system) comprises six lines and the U-Bahn
Rapid transit in Germany consists of four U-Bahn systems and fourteen S-Bahn systems. The U-Bahn commonly understood to stand for Untergrundbahn (''underground railway'') are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while ...
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
Hamburger Hochbahn AG (HHA), founded in 1911, operates the underground system and large parts of the bus system in Hamburg, Germany.
History
The HHA was founded by Siemens & Halske and AEG as a consortium on 27 May 1911. The first chairman ...
''. The AKN railway
AKN Eisenbahn GmbH operates railway lines, commuter trains and freight trains in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. Its headquarters is in Kaltenkirchen. It is a member of the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (HVV), which organises public transport in an ...
connects satellite towns in Schleswig-Holstein to the city. On some routes regional trains of Germany's major railway company Deutsche Bahn AG and the regional ''metronom
Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft mbH is a German non-entirely-state-owned railway company based in Uelzen, Lower Saxony since December 2005. The company's activities focus exclusively on passenger transport, operating services from Hamburg to Bre ...
'' trains may be used with an HVV ticket. Except at the four bigger stations of the city, Hauptbahnhof
Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...
, Dammtor
Dammtor is a zone (''Ort'') of the German city of Hamburg, situated between the quarters of Rotherbaum (in the borough of Eimsbüttel) and Neustadt (in the borough of Mitte).
History
Originally, the ''Dammthor'' was a city gate between the '' ...
, Altona and Harburg regional trains do not stop inside the city. The tram system
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
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 tram
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
s or trolleybus
A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or trol ...
es, 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
The HADAG (full name HADAG Seetouristik und Fährdienst AG, literally "''HADAG Sea-tourism and Ferry service''") is a local public transport company in Hamburg, Germany. It owns and operates passengers ferries across the Elbe River, overseen by a ...
'', 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 Helmut Schmidt ( IATA: HAM, 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
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.[United Airlines
United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.] , Dubai
Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
on Emirates
Emirates may refer to:
* United Arab Emirates, a Middle Eastern country
* Emirate, any territory ruled by an emir
** Gulf emirates, emirates located on the Persian Gulf
** Emirates of the United Arab Emirates, the individual emirates
* The Emirat ...
, and Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
on Iran Air
The National Airline of Iran ( fa, هواپیمايی ملی ایران, Havâpeymâyi-ye Melli-ye Irân), branded as Iran Air, is the flag carrier of Iran, which is headquartered at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran. As of 2018, it operates schedule ...
. 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
Lufthansa Technik AG ('Lufthansa Engineering', often referred to simply as “LHT”) provides worldwide maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services for aircraft, engines, and components. It is a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group.
Headquarte ...
maintenance facilities there. The second airport is located in 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 a ...
, officially named Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport
Airbus Hamburg-Finkenwerder, also known as Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport , is an aircraft manufacturing plant and associated private airport in the Finkenwerder quarter of southwest Hamburg, Germany. The airport is an integral part of the Airbus ...
( IATA: XFW, ICAO: EDHI). It is about from the city centre and is a nonpublic airport for the 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: ' ...
plant. It is the second biggest Airbus plant, after Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...
, and the third biggest aviation manufacturing plant after Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
and Toulouse; the plant houses the final assembly lines for A318, A319, A320, A321 and A380
The Airbus A380 is a large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and only full-length double-deck jet airliner.
Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was annou ...
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 Europe
Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational power company owned by the Swedish State. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
The company's name is Swedish for "waterfall", and ...
'', formerly the state-owned ''Hamburgische Electricitäts-Werke''. Vattenfall Europe used to operate the Brunsbüttel Nuclear Power Plant
The Brunsbüttel Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant in Brunsbüttel near Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timez ...
and Krümmel Nuclear Power Plant
Krümmel Nuclear Power Plant is a German nuclear power plant in Geesthacht, Schleswig-Holstein, near Hamburg. It was taken into operation in 1983 and is owned 50% by Vattenfall via Vattenfall Europe Nuclear Energy GmbH and 50% by E.ON, and ope ...
, both taken out of service as part of the nuclear power phase-out
A nuclear power phase-out is the discontinuation of usage of nuclear power for energy production. Often initiated because of concerns about nuclear power, phase-outs usually include shutting down nuclear power plants and looking towards fossi ...
. In addition, E.ON operates the Brokdorf Nuclear Power Plant
Brokdorf Nuclear Power Plant (German: Kernkraftwerk Brokdorf, or KBR) is a Power Plant close to the municipality of Brokdorf in Steinburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany that shut down on New Year's Eve 2021.
It started in October 1986 by a first-o ...
near Hamburg.
There are also the coal-fired Wedel, Tiefstack and Moorburg CHP Plant, and the fuel-cell power plant in the HafenCity quarter. ''VERA Klärschlammverbrennung'' uses the biosolids
Biosolids are solid organic matter recovered from a sewage treatment process and used as fertilizer. In the past, it was common for farmers to use animal manure to improve their soil fertility. In the 1920s, the farming community began also to use ...
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
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
, which is a potential supplier of woody biomass from encroacher bush as replacement of coal.
Sports
Hamburger SV
Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...
is a football team playing in the 2. Bundesliga
The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...
(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
The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...
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 Champions League twice: in 2000–01 and in 2006–07. They play at the Volksparkstadion
Volksparkstadion () is a football stadium in Hamburg, Germany, and is the home of Hamburger SV.
History
HSV actually have nothing to do with the origins of the stadium, even though they own the current arena. Before the club moved to the cur ...
(average attendance in the 12–13 season was 52,916). In addition, FC St. Pauli
Fußball-Club St Pauli von 1910 e.V., commonly known as simply FC St Pauli (), is a German professional football club based in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg, that competes in the 2. Bundesliga.
The football department is part of a larger sp ...
was a second division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
football club that came in second place in the 2009–10 season and qualified to play alongside Hamburger SV
Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...
in the first division for the first time since the 2001–02 season. St. Pauli's home games take place at the Millerntor-Stadion
Millerntor-Stadion () is a multi-purpose stadium in the St. Pauli area of Hamburg, Germany. Best known as the home ground of football club FC St. Pauli, it is on the Heiligengeistfeld near the Reeperbahn, the red light district of Hamburg. The s ...
.
The Hamburg Freezers represented Hamburg until 2016 in the DEL
Del, or nabla, is an operator used in mathematics (particularly in vector calculus) as a vector differential operator, usually represented by the nabla symbol ∇. When applied to a function defined on a one-dimensional domain, it denotes ...
, the premier ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...
league in Germany.
HSV Handball represented Hamburg until 2016 in the German 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
The Men's EHF Champions League is the most important club handball competition for men's teams in Europe and involves the leading teams from the top European nations. The competition is organised every year by EHF. The official name for the men ...
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
Hamburg Towers, for sponsorship reasons named Veolia Towers Hamburg, is a professional basketball team, based in Hamburg, Germany. The Towers are currently playing in the Basketball Bundesliga, after promoting from the ProA in 2019.
Founded in 2 ...
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
The Edel-optics.de Arena (known until May 2017 as Inselparkhalle) is a multi-function sports facility in the Wilhelmsburg district of Hamburg with a sports hall and a swimming pool. The hall is the home venue of the first division basketball tea ...
in Wilhelmsburg.
Hamburg is the nation's field hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...
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
Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...
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
The Hamburg Blue Devils are an American football team in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded in 1992. The Blue Devils are one of the most successful American football clubs in Germany, having won four German Bowls as well as three Eurobowls. Durin ...
was one of the prominent American Football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
teams playing in German Football League
The German Football League (GFL) is an American football league in Germany and was formed in 1979. Playing rules are based on those of the American NCAA. In 1999, the league switched its name from ''American-Football-Bundesliga'' to ''German Foot ...
before its exit in 2017. Hamburg Sea Devils is a team of European League of Football
The European League of Football (ELF) is a professional American football league. The league (as of the 2023 season) consists of 17 teams located in Germany, Poland, Spain, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Czech Republic and France, with p ...
(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
Eimsbütteler Turnverband is a German sports club based in Eimsbüttel, Hamburg. Apart from football, the club also offers a variety of other sports, like basketball, volleyball, and fencing. The club's golden era was in the 1930s and early 1940s ...
plays in the German Women's 2 Volleyball Bundesliga
The Women's 2. Volleyball Bundesliga or in (German : Die 2. Volleyball-Bundesliga der Frauen) is the second highest division in German women's volleyball.
In this competition, two leagues (North and South ) are played, there is one round of matc ...
. There are also several minority sports clubs, including four cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...
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 equestrian
The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse".
Horseback riding (or Riding in British English)
Examples of this are:
* Equestrian sports
*Equestrian order, one of the upper classes i ...
events at ''Reitstadion Klein Flottbek'' (Deutsches Derby in jumping and dressage) and ''Horner Rennbahn
Galopprennbahn Hamburg-Horn (''Hamburg-Horn Racecourse''), also known as Horner Rennbahn, is a major horse racing venue located in Horn, Hamburg, Germany. It is Germany's oldest horse-racing track, built in 1855. It has a capacity of 50,000 spect ...
'' (Deutsches Derby
The Deutsches Derby is a Group 1 flat horse race in Germany open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at Hamburg-Horn over a distance of 2,400 metres (about 1½ miles), and it is scheduled to ...
flat racing
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...
). Besides Hamburg owns the famous harness racing track "Trabrennbahn Bahrenfeld
Trabrennbahn Bahrenfeld, located in the Bahrenfeld 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 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
The Hamburg Cyclassics (currently known as the Bemer Cyclassics for sponsorship purposes) is an annual one-day professional and amateur cycling race in and around Hamburg, Germany. Although the route varies, its distance is always around 250  ...
, and the triathlon
A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the ...
ITU
The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...
World Cup event ''Hamburg City Man'' are also held in here.
Volksparkstadion was used as a site for the 2006 World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...
. In 2010 UEFA held the final of the UEFA Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...
in the arena.
Hamburg made a bid for the 2024 Olympic Games, but 51.7 percent of those city residents participating in a referendum
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
in November 2015 voted against continuing Hamburg's bid to host the games. Meanwhile, Hamburg's partner city Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...
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 schools
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
and 188 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
The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vo ...
(Universität Hamburg) with the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
The University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (german: Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)) is the teaching hospital of the University of Hamburg and the largest hospital in Hamburg, Germany.
The UKE has 1,738 beds and 121 day-care p ...
, the University of Music and Theatre, the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences
The Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (German: Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg) is a higher education and applied research institution located in Hamburg, Germany. Formerly known as ''Fachhochschule Hamburg,'' the ''Hamburg U ...
, the HafenCity University Hamburg
The HafenCity University Hamburg (german: HafenCity Universität Hamburg, abbreviated ''HCU'') — also known as the University Of The Built Environment And Metropolitan Development — is a public university in Hamburg, Germany which is focuse ...
and the Hamburg University of Technology
The Hamburg University of Technology (in German Technische Universität Hamburg, abbreviated TUHH (HH as acronym of Hamburg state) or TU Hamburg) is a research university in Germany. The university was founded in 1978 and in 1982/83 lecturing fo ...
. Seven universities are private, like the Bucerius Law School, the Kühne Logistics University and the HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration
HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration is a private business school located in Hamburg, Germany. Founded by Hamburg Chamber of Commerce in 2004, HSBA now cooperates with more than 300 companies. As a state-recognised third-level institut ...
. The city has also smaller private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions, such as the Helmut Schmidt University
The Helmut Schmidt University (german: link=no, Helmut-Schmidt-Universität), located in Hamburg, Germany, is a German military educational establishment that was founded in 1973 at the initiative of the then-Federal Minister of Defence, Helmut Sc ...
(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
The International School of Hamburg, known to the school community as ISH, is a private international school located in the Groß Flottbek quarter of Hamburg. ISH combines the IPC (age 3-10), the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) (age 11-16), the IB ...
.
Twin towns – sister cities
Hamburg is twinned with:
* Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, Russia (1957)
* Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...
, France (1958)
* Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
, China (1986)
* Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
, Germany (1987)
* León, Nicaragua (1989)
* Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
, Japan (1989)
* Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
, Czech Republic (1990)
* Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, 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
Lucas Holstenius, born Lukas Holste, sometimes called Holstein (1596 – 2 February 1661), was a German Catholic humanist, geographer, historian, and librarian.
Life
Born at Hamburg in 1596, he studied at the gymnasium of Hamburg, and later ...
(1596–1661), German Catholic humanist, geographer, historian and librarian.
* Andreas Schlüter
Andreas Schlüter (1659 – c. June 1714) was a German baroque sculptor and architect, active in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Tsardom.
Biography
Andreas Schlüter was b ...
(ca.1659 – ca.1714) a German baroque sculptor and architect.
* Barthold Heinrich Brockes
Barthold Heinrich Brockes (September 22, 1680 – January 16, 1747) was a German poet.
He was born in Hamburg and educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums. He studied jurisprudence at Halle, and after extensive travels in Italy, France a ...
(1680–1747) a German poet.
* Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694–1768), a German philosopher and writer of the Enlightenment.
* Konrad Ekhof
Konrad Ekhof (12 August 1720 in Hamburg, Germany – 16 June 1778) was a German actor, widely regarded as one of the foremost actors of the German-speaking realm in the 18th century. He was noted for his collaboration with the theatre principal ...
(1720–1778) the foremost German actor of the 18th century.
* Johann Bernhard Basedow
Johann Bernhard Basedow (11 September 1724 – 25 July 1790) was a German educational reformer, teacher and writer. He founded the Philanthropinum, a short-lived but influential progressive school in Dessau, and was the author of "''Elementar ...
(1724–1790) a German educational reformer, teacher and writer.
* Johann Joachim Eschenburg
Johann Joachim Eschenburg (7 December 1743 – 29 February 1820) was a German critic and literary historian.
He was born and educated at Hamburg, going on to study at the University of Leipzig and University of Göttingen. In 1767 he was app ...
(1743–1820) a German critic and literary historian.
* Johann Elert Bode
Johann Elert Bode (; 19 January 1747 – 23 November 1826) was a German astronomer known for his reformulation and popularisation of the Titius–Bode law. Bode determined the orbit of Uranus and suggested the planet's name.
Life and career
B ...
(1747–1826) an astronomer, he named and determined the orbit of Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus ( Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars), grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter) and father of ...
.
* Johann Dominicus Fiorillo (1748–1821) a German painter and historian of art.
* Christian, Count of Stolberg-Stolberg (1748–1821) poet, brother of Frederick Leopold.
* Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg-Stolberg
Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg-Stolberg (7 November 1750 – 5 December 1819), was a German lawyer, and translator born at Bramstedt in Holstein (then a part of Denmark). He was also a poet of the ''Sturm und Drang'' and early Romantic ...
(1750–1819), a German lawyer and translator.
* Georg Friedrich von Martens
Georg Friedrich von MartensGeorg Friedrich von Martens should not be confused with F. F. Martens (1845–1909) a Russian diplomat and who was also an international lawyer, whose full name is sometimes given as Friedrich Fromhold von Martens (22 ...
(1756–1821) a German jurist and diplomat.
* Ludwig Erdwin Seyler
Ludwig Erdwin Seyler (15 May 1758 – 26 October 1836; often known as ''L.E. Seyler'') was a German banker, merchant and politician. He was by marriage a member of the Hanseatic Berenberg banking dynasty, and was a partner in the Hamburg firm Jo ...
(1758-1836) banker and politician
* Johann Franz Encke
Johann Franz Encke (; 23 September 179126 August 1865) was a German astronomer. Among his activities, he worked on the calculation of the periods of comets and asteroids, measured the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and made observations ...
(1791–1865) astronomer, measured the distance from Earth to the Sun.
* Ami Boué
Ami Boué (16 March 179421 November 1881) was a geologist of French Huguenot origin. Born at Hamburg he trained in Edinburgh and across Europe. He travelled across Europe, studying geology, as well as ethnology, and is considered to be among th ...
(1794–1881) a geologist of French Huguenot origin.
* Gustav Friedrich Waagen
Gustav Friedrich Waagen (11 February 1794 – 15 July 1868) was a German art historian. His opinions were greatly respected in England, where he was invited to give evidence before the royal commission inquiring into the condition and future o ...
(1794–1868) a German art historian.
* Johann Christian Poggendorff
Johann Christian Poggendorff (29 December 1796 – 24 January 1877), was a German physicist born in Hamburg. By far the greater and more important part of his work related to electricity and magnetism. Poggendorff is known for his electrostatic ...
(1796–1877), a physicist, dealt with electricity and magnetism.
* Matthias Jakob Schleiden
Matthias Jakob Schleiden (; 5 April 1804 – 23 June 1881) was a German botanist and co-founder of cell theory, along with Theodor Schwann and Rudolf Virchow.
Career
Matthias Jakob Schleiden was born in Hamburg. on 5 April 1804. His father was ...
(1804–1881) a German botanist, co-founder of cell theory
In biology, cell theory is a scientific theory first formulated in the mid-nineteenth century, that living organisms are made up of cells, that they are the basic structural/organizational unit of all organisms, and that all cells come from pre ...
.
* Samson Raphael Hirsch
Samson Raphael Hirsch (; June 20, 1808 – December 31, 1888) was a German Orthodox rabbi best known as the intellectual founder of the '' Torah im Derech Eretz'' school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism. Occasionally termed ''neo-Orthodoxy'', hi ...
(1808–1888) Orthodox rabbi, founded the ''Torah im Derech Eretz
''Torah im Derech Eretz'' ( he, תורה עם דרך ארץ – Torah with "the way of the land"Rabbi Y. Goldson, Aish HaTorah"The Way of the World", Ethics of the Fathers, 3:21/ref>)
is a phrase common in Rabbinic literature referring to vario ...
''.
* Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847), a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor.
* Ludwig Preller
Ludwig Preller (15 September 1809 – 21 June 1861) was a German philologist and antiquarian.
Biography
Born in Hamburg, he studied at Leipzig, Berlin and Göttingen, in 1838 he was appointed to the professorship of philology at the University ...
(1809–1861) a German philologist and antiquarian.
* Friedrich Gerstäcker
Friedrich Gerstäcker (May 10, 1816 in Hamburg – May 31, 1872 in Braunschweig) was a German traveler and novelist.
Biography
He was the son of Friedrich Gerstäcker (1790–1825), a celebrated opera singer. After being apprenticed to a comm ...
(1816–1872) a German travel writer and novelist.
* Justus Ludwig Adolf Roth (1818–1892) a German geologist and mineralogist.
* Heinrich Barth
Johann Heinrich Barth (; ; 16 February 1821 – 25 November 1865) was a German explorer of Africa and scholar.
Barth is thought to be one of the greatest of the European explorers of Africa, as his scholarly preparation, ability to speak and wri ...
(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 Assyriologist
Assyriology (from Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , ''-logia'') is the archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic study of Assyria and the rest of ancient Mesopotamia (a region that encompassed what is now modern Iraq, northeastern Syria, southea ...
.
* Thérèse Tietjens
Thérèse Carolina Johanne Alexandra Tietjens (17 July 1831, Hamburg3 October 1877, London) was a leading opera and oratorio soprano. She made her career chiefly in London during the 1860s and 1870s, but her sequence of musical triumphs in th ...
(1831–1877) a leading opera and oratorio soprano.
* Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) a German composer, pianist and conductor.
* Michael Bernays
Michael Bernays (27 November 183425 February 1897) was a German literary historian, and an important Goethe and Shakespeare scholar.
Life
He was born in Hamburg. His father, Isaac Bernays, died when he was fourteen years old. His adjustments w ...
(1834–1897) German literary historian, scholar of Goethe and Shakespeare.
* Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig
Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig (6 December 183519 November 1910) was a German chemist. He discovered the pinacol coupling reaction, mesitylene, diacetyl and biphenyl. Fittig studied the action of sodium on ketones and hydrocarbons. He discovered the Fi ...
(1835–1910) German chemist, discovered the pinacol coupling reaction A pinacol coupling reaction is an organic reaction in which a carbon–carbon bond is formed between the carbonyl groups of an aldehyde or a ketone in presence of an electron donor in a free radical process. The reaction product is a vicinal diol. ...
.
* Wilhelm Kühne
Wilhelm Friedrich Kühne (28 March 183710 June 1900) was a German physiologist. Born in Hamburg, he is best known today for coining the word enzyme in 1878.
Biography
Kühne was born at Hamburg on 28 March 1837. After attending the gymnasium ...
(1837–1900) a German physiologist, coined the word enzyme
Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products ...
in 1878.
* Carl Rosa (1842–1889) musical impresario, founded the Carl Rosa Opera Company
The Carl Rosa Opera Company was founded in 1873 by Carl Rosa, a German-born musical impresario, and his wife, British operatic soprano Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa to present opera in English in London and the British provinces. The company premiered ...
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
Hans von Bartels (25 December 1856 – 5 October 1913) was a German painter.
Life
He was born in Hamburg, the son of Dr N. F. F. von Bartels, a Russian government official. He studied first under the marine painter R. Hardorff in Hamburg, then ...
(1856–1913) a German painter.
* Heinrich Hertz
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz ( ; ; 22 February 1857 – 1 January 1894) was a German physicist who first conclusively proved the existence of the electromagnetic waves predicted by James Clerk Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism. The unit ...
(1857–1894) physicist who first proved the existence of 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
The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,; often shortened to ''Bundeskanzler''/''Bundeskanzlerin'', / is the head of the federal government of Germany and the commander in chief of the Ge ...
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
Novo Hamburgo (Portuguese for ''New Hamburg''; german: Neu-Hamburg) is a municipality in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, located in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre, the state capital. As of 2020, its population was 247, ...
References
External links
*
*
*
*
Hamburg Panorama-View
{{Authority control
City-states
German state capitals
Free imperial cities
Members of the Hanseatic League
NUTS 1 statistical regions of the European Union
Port cities and towns in Germany
Port cities and towns of the North Sea
Populated places established in the 9th century
States of the German Confederation
States of the German Empire
States of the North German Confederation
States of the Weimar Republic
Populated riverside places in Germany
Populated places on the Elbe
Hanseatic Cities
States of Germany