Hamburg

Origins

Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century AD) reported the first name for the vicinity as Treva.^[13]

Etymology

The name Hamburg comes from the first permanent building on the site, a castle which the Emperor Charlemagne ordered constructed in AD 808. It rose on rocky terrain in a marsh between the River Alster and the River Elbe as a defence against Slavic incursion, and acquired the name Hammaburg, burg meaning castle or fort. The origin of the Hamma term remains uncertain,^[14] but its location is estimated to be at the site of today's Domplatz.^[15][16]

Medieval Hamburg

Hamburg in 1150

In 834, Hamburg was designated as the seat of a bishopric. The first bishop, Ansgar, became known as the Apostle of the North. Two years later, Hamburg was united with Bremen as the Bishopric of Hamburg-Bremen.^[17]

Hamburg was destroyed and occupied several times. In 845, 600 Viking ships sailed up the River Elbe and destroyed Hamburg, at that time a town of around 500 inhabitants.^[17] In 1030, King Mieszko II Lambert of Poland burned down the city. Valdemar II of Denmark raided and occupied Hamburg in 1201 and in 1214. The Black Death killed at least 60% of the population in 1350.^[18] Hamburg experienced several great fires in the medieval period.^[19]

In 1189, by imperial charter, Frederick I "Barbarossa" granted Hamburg the status of a Free Imperial City and tax-free access (or free-trade zone) up the Lower Elbe into the North Sea. In 1265, an allegedly forged letter was presented to or by the Rath of Hamburg.^[20] This charter, along with Hamburg's proximity to the main trade routes of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, quickly made it a major port in Northern Europe. Its trade alliance with Lübeck in 1241 marks the origin and core of the powerful Hanseatic League of trading cities. On 8 November 1266, a contract between Henry III and Hamburg's traders allowed them to establish a hanse in London. This was the first time in history that the word hanse was used for the trading guild of the Hanseatic League.^[21] 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).^[22] On 10 August 1410, civil unrest forced a compromise (German: Rezeß, literally meaning: withdrawal). This is considered the first constitution of Hamburg.^[23]

In 1356 was celebrated for the first time the Matthiae-Mahl feast dinner for Hanseatic League cities on 25 February, the first day of spring in medieval times. It continues today as the world's oldest ceremonial meal.^[24]

Early modern period

Hamburg, c. 1600

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

When Jan van Valckenborgh introduced a second layer to the fortifications to protect against the Thirty Years' War in the seventeenth century, he extended Hamburg and created a "New Town" (Neustadt) whose street names still date from the grid system of roads he introduced.^[25]

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

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

Hamburg in 1811

After periodic political unrest, particularly in 1848, Hamburg adopted in 1860 a semidemocratic constitution that provided for the election of the Senate, the governing body of the city-state, by adult taxpaying males. Other innovations included the separation of powers, the separation of Church and State, freedom of the press, of assembly and association. Hamburg became a member of the North German Confederation (1866–1871) and of the German Empire (1871–1918), and maintained its self-ruling status during the Weimar Republic (1919–1933). Hamburg acceded to the German Customs Union or Zollverein in 1888, the last (along with Bremen) of the German states to join. The city experienced its fastest growth during the second half of the 19th century when its population more than quadrupled to 800,000 as the growth of the city's Atlantic trade helped make it Europe's second-largest port.^[26] The Hamburg-America Line, with Albert Ballin as its director, became the world's largest transatlantic shipping company around the start of the 20th century. Shipping companies sailing to South America, Africa, India and East Asia were based in the city. Hamburg was the departure port for many Germans and Eastern Europeans to emigrate to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Trading communities from all over the world established themselves there.

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

Second World War

Hamburg Eilbek after the 1943 bombing

Flak tower on the Heiligengeistfeld in Hamburg – one of four enormous fortress-like bunkers in Hamburg

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

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

At least 42,900 people are thought to have perished^[27] in the Neuengamme concentration camp (about 25 km (16 mi) outside the city in the marshlands), mostly from epidemics and in the bombing of Kriegsmarine evacuation vessels by the RAF at the end of the war.

Systematic deportations of Jewish Germans and Gentile Germans of Jewish descent started on 18 October 1941. These were all directed to ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe or to concentration camps. Most deported persons perished in the Holocaust. By the end of 1942 the Jüdischer Religionsverband in Hamburg was dissolved as an independent legal entity and its remaining assets and staff were assumed by the Reich Association of Jews in Germany (District Northwest). On 10 June 1943 the Reich Security Main Office dissolved the association by a decree.^[28] The few remaining employees not somewhat protected by a mixed marriage were deported from Hamburg on 23 June to Theresienstadt, where most of them perished.

Post-war history

Container Terminal at the Port of Hamburg

The city was surrendered to British Forces on 3 May 1945, in the Battle of Hamburg,^[29] three days after Adolf Hitler's death. After the Second World War, Hamburg formed part of the British Zone of Occupation; it became a state of what was then West Germany in 1949.

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

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

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History of Hamburg

History of Hamburg

Hamburg was founded in the 9th century as a mission settlement to convert the Saxons. Since the Middle Ages, it has been an important trading center in Europe. The convenient location of the port and its independence as a city and state for centuries strengthened this position.

Timeline of Hamburg

Timeline of Hamburg

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Hamburg, Germany.

Treva

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.

Castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders.

Charlemagne

Charlemagne

Charlemagne or Charles the Great, a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the Emperor of the Romans from 800. Charlemagne succeeded in uniting the majority of western and central Europe and was the first recognized emperor to rule from western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire around three centuries earlier. The expanded Frankish state that Charlemagne founded was the Carolingian Empire, which is considered the first phase in the history of the Holy Roman Empire. He was canonized by Antipope Paschal III—an act later treated as invalid—and he is now regarded by some as beatified in the Catholic Church.

Alster

Alster

The Alster is a right tributary of the Elbe river in Northern Germany. It has its source near Henstedt-Ulzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, flows somewhat southwards through much of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and joins the Elbe in central Hamburg.

Elbe

Elbe

The Elbe 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, then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 kilometres northwest of Hamburg. Its total length is 1,094 km (680 mi).

St. Mary's Cathedral, Hamburg

St. Mary's Cathedral, Hamburg

Saint Mary's Cathedral in Hamburg was the cathedral of the ancient Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hamburg, which was merged in personal union with the Diocese of Bremen in 847, and later in real union to form the Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen, as of 1027.

Ansgar

Ansgar

Ansgar, 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" because of his travels and the See of Hamburg received the missionary mandate to bring Christianity to Northern Europe.

Mieszko II Lambert

Mieszko II Lambert

Mieszko II Lambert was King of Poland from 1025 to 1031, and Duke from 1032 until his death.

Valdemar II of Denmark

Valdemar II of Denmark

Valdemar II Valdemarsen, later remembered as Valdemar the Victorious, was King of Denmark from 1202 until his death in 1241.

Black Death

Black Death

The Black Death 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, causing the deaths of 75–200 million people, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351. Bubonic plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis spread by fleas, but during the Black Death it probably also took a secondary form, spread by person-to-person contact via aerosols causing pneumonic plague.

Hamburg is at a sheltered natural harbour on the southern fanning-out of the Jutland Peninsula, between Continental Europe to the south and Scandinavia to the north, with the North Sea to the west and the Baltic Sea to the northeast. It is on the River Elbe 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, 100 kilometres (60 mi) away in the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park, are also part of the city of Hamburg.^[30]

The neighborhoods of Neuenfelde, Cranz, Francop and Finkenwerder are part of the Altes Land (old land) region, the largest contiguous fruit-producing region in Central Europe. Neugraben-Fischbek has Hamburg's highest elevation, the Hasselbrack at 116.2 metres (381 ft) AMSL.^[31] Hamburg borders the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony.

Climate

Hamburg has an oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb), influenced by its proximity to the coast and maritime influences that originate over the Atlantic Ocean. The location in the north of Germany provides extremes greater than typical marine climates, but definitely in the category due to the prevailing westerlies.^[32] 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,^[33] the winters of recent years have been less cold, with snowfall just a few days per year.^[34][35]

The warmest months are June, July, and August, with high temperatures of 20.1 to 22.5 °C (68.2 to 72.5 °F). The coldest are December, January, and February, with low temperatures of −0.3 to 1.0 °C (31.5 to 33.8 °F).^[36]

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Continental Europe

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 some, simply as the Continent. When Eurasia is regarded as a single continent, Europe is treated as a subcontinent, and called as European subcontinent.

Baltic Sea

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.

Elbe

Elbe

The Elbe 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, then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 kilometres northwest of Hamburg. Its total length is 1,094 km (680 mi).

Alster

Alster

The Alster is a right tributary of the Elbe river in Northern Germany. It has its source near Henstedt-Ulzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, flows somewhat southwards through much of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and joins the Elbe in central Hamburg.

Bille (Elbe)

Bille (Elbe)

The river Bille is a small, slow-flowing German river in Stormarn, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, a right tributary of the Elbe. Its source is near Linau, north of the heathland Hahnheide forest. It then flows south of Trittau, representing the border between Stormarn and Lauenburg, continues south of Reinbek and reaches the river Elbe near Billwerder. A lot of old estates and tasteful parks are laid out along its riverbank. Its total length is 65 km.

Binnenalster

Binnenalster

Binnenalster or Inner Alster Lake is one of two artificial lakes within the city limits of Hamburg, Germany, which are formed by the river Alster. The main annual festival is the Alstervergnügen.

Außenalster

Außenalster

Außenalster or Outer Alster Lake is the larger one of two artificial lakes, which are formed by the Alster River and are both located within the city limits of Hamburg, Germany. The other „lake“ is the Binnenalster. The Außenalster and its shores are used by the inhabitants of Hamburg for many sport and recreational purposes, such as sailing and rowing.

Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park

Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park

The Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park is the smallest of the three German Wadden Sea National Parks which protect the single ecological entity of the Wadden Sea reaching from Den Helder to Esbjerg.

Cranz, Hamburg

Cranz, Hamburg

Cranz is a quarter in the Harburg borough of Hamburg, Germany. It is on the left bank of the Elbe river and one of the 104 quarters of Hamburg. In 2020 the population was 843.

Finkenwerder

Finkenwerder

Finkenwerder is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany in the borough Hamburg-Mitte. It is the location of the Hamburg Airbus plant and its airport. In 2016 the population was 11,668.

Altes Land

Altes Land

Altes Land is an area of reclaimed marshland straddling parts of Lower Saxony and Hamburg. The region is situated downstream from Hamburg on the southwestern riverside of the Elbe around the towns of Stade, Buxtehude, Jork and the Samtgemeinde of Lühe. In Hamburg it includes the quarters of Neuenfelde, Cranz, Francop and Finkenwerder. Altes Land is one of the Elbe Marshes.

Central Europe

Central Europe

Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common geography, historical, social and cultural identity. The concept of "Central Europe" appeared in the 19th century.

On 31 December 2016, there were 1,860,759 people registered as living in Hamburg in an area of 755.3 km² (291.6 sq mi). The population density was 2,464/km² (6,380/sq mi).^[41] The metropolitan area of the Hamburg region (Hamburg Metropolitan Region) is home to 5,107,429 living on 196/km² (510/sq mi).^[42]

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.^[43]

According to the Statistical Office for Hamburg and Schleswig Holstein, the number of people with a migrant background is at 34% (631,246).^[44] Immigrants come from 200 countries. 5,891 people have acquired German cititzenship in 2016.^[45]

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.^[46]

Foreign citizens in Hamburg

Hamburg residents with a foreign citizenship as of 31 December 2016 is as follows^[45]

Language

As elsewhere in Germany, Standard German is spoken in Hamburg, but as typical for northern Germany, the original language of Hamburg is Low German, usually referred to as Hamborger Platt (German Hamburger Platt) or Hamborgsch. Since large-scale standardization of the German language beginning in earnest in the 18th century, various Low German-colored dialects have developed (contact-varieties of German on Low Saxon substrates). Originally, there was a range of such Missingsch varieties, the best-known being the low-prestige ones of the working classes and the somewhat more bourgeois Hanseatendeutsch (Hanseatic German), although the term is used in appreciation.^[47] All of these are now moribund due to the influences of Standard German used by education and media. However, the former importance of Low German is indicated by several songs, such as the famous sea shanty Hamborger Veermaster, written in the 19th century when Low German was used more frequently. Many toponyms and street names reflect Low Saxon vocabulary, partially even in Low Saxon spelling, which is not standardised, and to some part in forms adapted to Standard German.^[48]

Religion

65.2% of the population is not religious or adherent other religions than the Evangelical Church or Catholicism.^[49]

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

According to the publication Muslimisches Leben in Deutschland ("Muslim life in Germany"), an estimated 141,900 Muslim migrants (from nearly 50 countries of origin) lived in Hamburg in 2008.^[50] About three years later (May 2011) calculations based on census data for 21 countries of origin resulted in a figure of about 143,200 Muslim migrants in Hamburg, making up 8.4% percent of the population.^[51] As of 2021^[update], there were more than 50 mosques in the city,^[52] including the Ahmadiyya run Fazle Omar Mosque, which is the oldest in the city,^[53] and which hosts the Islamic Centre Hamburg.

A Jewish community exists.^[54]

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Demographics of Hamburg

Demographics of Hamburg

The German city of Hamburg is the most populous city in the European Union which is not a national capital. The city contains an approximate 1.8 million people.

Population density

Population density

Population 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. In simple terms, population density refers to the number of people living in an area per square kilometre, or other unit of land area.

Hamburg Metropolitan Region

Hamburg Metropolitan Region

The Hamburg Metropolitan Region is a metropolitan area centred around the city of Hamburg in northern Germany, consisting of eight districts in the federal state of Lower Saxony, six districts in the state of Schleswig-Holstein and two districts in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern along with the city-state of Hamburg itself. It covers an area of roughly 26,000 square kilometres (10,000 sq mi) and is home to more than 5.1 million inhabitants.

Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein 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 Schleswig. Its capital city is Kiel; other notable cities are Lübeck and Flensburg.

Europe

Europe

Europe is a continent comprising the westernmost peninsulas of Eurasia, located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with both Africa and Asia. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east. Europe is commonly considered to be separated from Asia by the watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea and the waterways of the Turkish Straits.

European Union

European Union

The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of 4,233,255.3 km2 (1,634,469.0 sq mi) and an estimated total population of nearly 447 million. The EU has often been described as a sui generis political entity combining the characteristics of both a federation and a confederation.

Asian people

Asian people

Asian people are the people of Asia. The term may also refer to their descendants.

Americas

Americas

The Americas are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.

Australians

Australians

Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizens, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Australians, several of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Australian. Australian law does not provide for a racial or ethnic component of nationality, instead relying on citizenship as a legal status.

Low German

Low German

Low German or Low Saxon is a West Germanic language variety spoken mainly in Northern Germany and the northeastern part of the Netherlands. The dialect of Plautdietsch is also spoken in the Russian Mennonite diaspora worldwide.

Missingsch

Missingsch

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.

Irreligion

Irreligion

Irreligion is the neglect or active rejection of religion and, depending on the definition, a simple lack of religion.

Hamburg City Hall (front view)

The city of Hamburg is one of 16 German states, therefore the Mayor of Hamburg's office corresponds more to the role of a minister-president 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.^[55] From 2001 until 2010, the mayor of Hamburg was Ole von Beust,^[56] who governed in Germany's first statewide "black-green" coalition, consisting of the conservative CDU Hamburg and the alternative GAL, which are Hamburg's regional wing of the Alliance 90/The Greens party.^[57] Von Beust was briefly succeeded by Christoph Ahlhaus in 2010, but the coalition broke apart on 28 November 2010.^[58] On 7 March 2011 Olaf Scholz (SPD) became mayor. After the 2015 election the SPD and the Alliance 90/The Greens formed a coalition.

Boroughs

The 7 boroughs and 104 quarters of Hamburg

Hamburg is made up of seven boroughs (German: Bezirke) and subdivided into 104 quarters (German: Stadtteile). There are 181 localities (German: Ortsteile). The urban organization is regulated by the Constitution of Hamburg and several laws.^[8][59] Most of the quarters were former independent cities, towns or villages annexed into Hamburg proper. The last large annexation was done through the Greater Hamburg Act of 1937, when the cities Altona, Harburg and Wandsbek were merged into the state of Hamburg.^[60] The Act of the Constitution and Administration of Hanseatic city of Hamburg established Hamburg as a state and a municipality.^[61] 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.^[59] The quarters have no governing bodies of their own.

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

Since the latest territorial reform of March 2008, the boroughs are Hamburg-Mitte, Altona, Eimsbüttel, Hamburg-Nord, Wandsbek, Bergedorf and Harburg.^[62][63]

Hamburg-Mitte ("Hamburg Centre") covers mostly the urban centre of the city and consists of the quarters Billbrook, Billstedt, Borgfelde, Finkenwerder, HafenCity, Hamm, Hammerbrook, Horn, Kleiner Grasbrook, Neuwerk, Rothenburgsort, St. Georg, St. Pauli, Steinwerder, Veddel, Waltershof and Wilhelmsburg.^[62] The quarters Hamburg-Altstadt ("old town") and Neustadt ("new town") are the historical origin of Hamburg.

Altona is the westernmost urban borough, on the right bank of the Elbe river. From 1640 to 1864, Altona was under the administration of the Danish monarchy. Altona was an independent city until 1937. Politically, the following quarters are part of Altona: Altona-Altstadt, Altona-Nord, Bahrenfeld, Ottensen, Othmarschen, Groß Flottbek, Osdorf, Lurup, Nienstedten, Blankenese, Iserbrook, Sülldorf, Rissen, Sternschanze.^[62]

Bergedorf consists of the quarters Allermöhe, Altengamme, Bergedorf—the centre of the former independent town, Billwerder, Curslack, Kirchwerder, Lohbrügge, Moorfleet, Neuengamme, Neuallermöhe, Ochsenwerder, Reitbrook, Spadenland and Tatenberg.^[62]

Eimsbüttel is split into nine-quarters: Eidelstedt, Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude, Hoheluft-West, Lokstedt, Niendorf, Rotherbaum, Schnelsen and Stellingen.^[62] Located within this borough is former Jewish neighbourhood Grindel.

Hamburg-Nord contains the quarters Alsterdorf, Barmbek-Nord, Barmbek-Süd, Dulsberg, Eppendorf, Fuhlsbüttel, Groß Borstel, Hoheluft-Ost, Hohenfelde, Langenhorn, Ohlsdorf with Ohlsdorf cemetery, Uhlenhorst and Winterhude.^[62]

Harburg lies on the southern shores of the river Elbe and covers parts of the port of Hamburg, residential and rural areas, and some research institutes. The quarters are Altenwerder, Cranz, Eißendorf, Francop, Gut Moor, Harburg, Hausbruch, Heimfeld, Langenbek, Marmstorf, Moorburg, Neuenfelde, Neugraben-Fischbek, Neuland, Rönneburg, Sinstorf and Wilstorf.^[62]

Wandsbek is divided into the quarters Bergstedt, Bramfeld, Duvenstedt, Eilbek, Farmsen-Berne, Hummelsbüttel, Jenfeld, Lemsahl-Mellingstedt, Marienthal, Poppenbüttel, Rahlstedt, Sasel, Steilshoop, Tonndorf, Volksdorf, Wandsbek, Wellingsbüttel and Wohldorf-Ohlstedt.^[62]

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Government of Hamburg

Government 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 ranks – a citywide and state administration, and a local rank for the boroughs. The head of the city-state's government is the First Mayor and President of the Senate. A ministry is called Behörde (office) and a state minister is a Senator in Hamburg. The legislature is the state parliament, called Hamburgische Bürgerschaft, and the judicial branch is composed of the state supreme court and other courts. The seat of the government is Hamburg Rathaus. The President of the Hamburg Parliament is the highest official person of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. This is a traditional difference to the other German states. The president is not allowed to exert any occupation of the executive.

List of mayors of Hamburg

List of mayors of Hamburg

The following is a chronological list of mayors of Hamburg, a city-state in Germany. The mayors are the head of the city-state, part of the government of Hamburg. Since 1861, according to the constitution of 28 September 1860, the state has been governed by the ten-member Senate, which had previously been called the council. It is headed by the First Mayor of Hamburg as the President of the Senate. The deputy is the Second Mayor.

Minister-president

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. It is an alternative term for prime minister, premier, chief minister, or first minister and very similar to the title of president of the council of ministers.

Hamburg Parliament

Hamburg Parliament

The Hamburg Parliament is the unicameral legislature of the German state of Hamburg according to the constitution of Hamburg. As of 2011 there were 121 members in the parliament, representing a relatively equal amount of constituencies. The parliament is situated in the city hall Hamburg Rathaus and is part of the Government of Hamburg.

Ole von Beust

Ole von Beust

Ole von Beust is a former German politician who was First Mayor of Hamburg from 31 October 2001 to 25 August 2010, serving as President of the Bundesrat from 1 November 2007 on for one year. He was succeeded as mayor by Christoph Ahlhaus.

CDU Hamburg

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 from 2001 to 2011, the party appointed the First Mayor of Hamburg. The CDU Hamburg has been part of the opposition since 2011. Seven district associations and 47 local associations form the basis for the political commitment of the CDU Hamburg.

Christoph Ahlhaus

Christoph Ahlhaus

Christoph Ahlhaus 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.

Olaf Scholz

Olaf Scholz

Olaf Scholz 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 in Fourth Merkel cabinet and as Federal Minister of Finance from 2018 to 2021. He was also First Mayor of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018 and deputy leader of the SPD from 2009 to 2019.

Boroughs and quarters of Hamburg

Boroughs and quarters of Hamburg

The city of Hamburg in Germany is made up of seven boroughs and subdivided into 104 quarters. Most of the quarters were former independent settlements. The areal organisation is regulated by the constitution of Hamburg and several laws. The subdivision into boroughs and quarters was last modified in March 2008.

Greater Hamburg Act

Greater Hamburg Act

The Greater Hamburg Act, in full the Law Regarding Greater Hamburg and Other Territorial Readjustments, was passed by the government of Nazi Germany on 26 January 1937, and mandated the exchange of territories between Hamburg and the Free State of Prussia. It became effective on 1 April 1937.

Altona, Hamburg

Altona, Hamburg

Altona, also called Hamburg-Altona, is the westernmost urban borough (Bezirk) of the German city state of Hamburg, 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 borough until 1937. In 2016 the population was 270,263.

Harburg, Hamburg

Harburg, Hamburg

Harburg is a borough of the city of Hamburg, Germany. It is also the name of Harburg quarter in the borough, which used to be the capital of the Harburg district in Lower Saxony. The borough of Harburg lies on the southern banks of the river Elbe and covers parts of the port of Hamburg as well as residential and rural areas. It had a population of 169,221 as of 2020.

Panoramic view of the Hamburg skyline of the Binnenalster taken from Lombardsbrücke

Architecture

Historicist Palmaille, Altona

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

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

The Chilehaus with a typical brick expressionist façade

The many streams, rivers and canals are crossed by some 2,500 bridges, more than London, Amsterdam and Venice put together.^[64] Hamburg has more bridges inside its city limits than any other city in the world.^[65] The Köhlbrandbrücke, Freihafen Elbbrücken, and Lombardsbrücke and Kennedybrücke dividing Binnenalster from Aussenalster are important roadways.

The town hall is a richly decorated Neo-Renaissance building finished in 1897. The tower is 112 metres (367 ft) high. Its façade, 111 m (364 ft) long, depicts the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, since Hamburg was, as a Free Imperial City, only under the sovereignty of the emperor.^[66] The Chilehaus, a brick expressionist office building built in 1922 and designed by architect Fritz Höger, is shaped like an ocean liner.

Europe's largest urban development since 2008, the HafenCity, will house about 15,000 inhabitants and 45,000 workers.^[67] The plan includes designs by Rem Koolhaas and Renzo Piano. The Elbphilharmonie (Elbe Philharmonic Hall), opened in January 2017, houses concerts in a sail-shaped building on top of an old warehouse, designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron.^[68][69]

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

Parks and gardens

A water-light concert at Planten un Blomen park

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

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

Discover more about Cityscape related topics

Binnenalster

Binnenalster

Binnenalster or Inner Alster Lake is one of two artificial lakes within the city limits of Hamburg, Germany, which are formed by the river Alster. The main annual festival is the Alstervergnügen.

Altona, Hamburg

Altona, Hamburg

Altona, also called Hamburg-Altona, is the westernmost urban borough (Bezirk) of the German city state of Hamburg, 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 borough until 1937. In 2016 the population was 270,263.

Skyscraper

Skyscraper

A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least 100 metres (330 ft) or 150 metres (490 ft) in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-rise buildings. Historically, the term first referred to buildings with between 10 and 20 stories when these types of buildings began to be constructed in the 1880s. Skyscrapers may host offices, hotels, residential spaces, and retail spaces.

List of tallest buildings in Hamburg

List of tallest buildings in Hamburg

This is a list of tallest buildings in Hamburg. As in most German cities except Frankfurt, skyscrapers or high-rises in Hamburg are rarely approved or built.

St. Catherine's Church, Hamburg

St. Catherine's Church, Hamburg

St. Catherine's Church is one of the five principal Lutheran churches (Hauptkirchen) of Hamburg, Germany. The base of its spire, dating from the 13th century, is the second oldest building preserved in the city, after the lighthouse on Neuwerk island. It is situated on an island near what was formerly the southern boundary of the medieval city, opposite the historic harbour area on the Elbe river. It traditionally served as the church of the seamen.

Chilehaus

Chilehaus

The Chilehaus is a ten-story office building in Hamburg, Germany. It is located in the Kontorhaus District. It is an exceptional example of the 1920s Brick Expressionism style of architecture. This large angular building is located on a site of approximately 6,000 m2, spanning the Fischertwiete Street in Hamburg. It was designed by the German architect Fritz Höger and finished in 1924. As part of Kontorhaus District, it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015.

Brick Expressionism

Brick Expressionism

The term Brick Expressionism describes a specific variant of Expressionist architecture that uses bricks, tiles or clinker bricks as the main visible building material. Buildings in the style were erected mostly in the 1920s, primarily in Germany and the Netherlands, where the style was created.

List of rivers of Hamburg

List of rivers of Hamburg

A list of rivers of Hamburg, Germany:

List of bridges in Hamburg

List of bridges in Hamburg

This list of bridges in Hamburg is incomplete, with an overview of their history and geography. In this article, the bridges are listed by Hamburg's three major rivers and the respectively crossed body of water. The Elbe is by far the largest of the three. Unlike Alster and Bille, the Elbe is also within the North Sea's tidal influence, and Elbe bridges differ substantially from the ones on Alster and Bille. All three rivers are fed by a number of smaller rivers and also feature a number of branches or sidearms.

London

London

London is the capital and 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 50-mile (80 km) estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and retains its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national government and parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which since 1965 has largely comprised Greater London, which is governed by 33 local authorities and the Greater London Authority.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 921,402 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the urban area and 2,480,394 in the metropolitan area. Located in the Dutch province of North Holland, Amsterdam is colloquially referred to as the "Venice of the North", for its large number of canals, now designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islands are in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay lying between the mouths of the Po and the Piave rivers. In 2020, around 258,685 people resided in greater Venice or the Comune di Venezia, of whom around 55,000 live in the historical island city of Venice and the rest on the mainland (terraferma). Together with the cities of Padua and Treviso, Venice is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area (PATREVE), which is considered a statistical metropolitan area, with a total population of 2.6 million.

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.^[70][71] 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.^[72] The creative industries represent almost one fifth of all companies in Hamburg.^[73] Hamburg has entered the European Green Capital Award scheme, and was awarded the title of European Green Capital for 2011.

Theatres

The Deutsches Schauspielhaus in the St. Georg quarter

The state-owned Deutsches Schauspielhaus, the Thalia Theatre, Ohnsorg Theatre, "Schmidts Tivoli" and the Kampnagel are well-known theatres.^[74]

The English Theatre of Hamburg^[75] 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 with its contemporary art gallery (Galerie der Gegenwart), the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Museum of Art and Design) and the Deichtorhallen (with the House of Photography and Hall of Contemporary Art). The Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg opened in the HafenCity quarter in 2008. There are various specialised museums in Hamburg, such as the Archäologisches Museum Hamburg (Hamburg Archaeological Museum) in the Harburg borough, the Hamburg Museum of Work (Museum der Arbeit), and several museums of local history, such as the Kiekeberg Open Air Museum [de] (Freilichtmuseum am Kiekeberg) at Kiekeberg in the Harburg Hills just outside of Hamburg in Rosengarten. Two museum ships near St. Pauli Piers (Landungsbrücken) bear witness to the freight ship (Cap San Diego) and cargo sailing ship era (Rickmer Rickmers).^[76] In 2017 the Hamburg-built iron-hulled sailing ship Peking returned to the city and was installed in the German Port Museum in 2020. The world's largest model railway museum Miniatur Wunderland with 15.4 km (9.57 mi) total railway length is also situated near St. Pauli Piers in a former warehouse.

BallinStadt, a memorial park and former emigration station, is dedicated to the millions of Europeans who emigrated to North and South America between 1850 and 1939. Visitors descending from those overseas emigrants may search for their ancestors at computer terminals.

Music

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

Hamburg State Opera is a leading opera company. Its orchestra is the Philharmoniker Hamburg. The city's other well-known orchestra is the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. The main concert venue is the new concert hall Elbphilharmonie. Before it was the Laeiszhalle, Musikhalle Hamburg. The Laeiszhalle also houses a third orchestra, the Hamburger Symphoniker. György Ligeti and Alfred Schnittke taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg.^[77][78]

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

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

In addition to musicals, opera houses, concert halls and theaters, the cityscape is characterized by a large music scene. This includes, among other things, over 100 music venues, several annual festivals and over 50 event organizers based in Hamburg.^[79] Larger venues include the Barclaycard Arena, the Bahrenfeld harness racing track and Hamburg City Park.

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

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

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

Hamburg is famous for a special kind of German alternative music, the "Hamburger Schule", a term used for bands like Tocotronic, Blumfeld, Tomte or Kante. The meeting point of the Hamburg School was long considered to be the Golden Pudel Club in Altona's old town near the Fischmarkt. Alongside clubs such as the Pal, the Moondoo or the Waagenbau, today the Pudel is a central location of the Hamburg electro scene. Well-known artists of this scene include the DJ duo Moonbootica, Mladen Solomun and Helena Hauff.^[80]

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

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

The city was a major centre for heavy metal music in the 1980s. Helloween, Gamma Ray, Running Wild and Grave Digger started in Hamburg.^[81] The industrial rock band KMFDM was also formed in Hamburg, initially as a performance art project. The influences of these and other bands from the area helped establish the subgenre of power metal.

In the late 90s, Hamburg was considered one of the strongholds of the German hip-hop scene. Bands like Beginner shaped Hamburg's hip-hop style and made the city a serious location for the hip-hop scene through songs like "Hamburg City Blues." In addition to Beginner, several successful German hip-hop acts hail from Hamburg, such as Fünf Sterne Deluxe, Samy Deluxe, Fettes Brot and 187 Strassenbande.^[82]

Hamburg has a vibrant psychedelic trance community, with record labels such as Spirit Zone.^[83]

Festivals and regular events

Annual Hafengeburtstag (Port Anniversary)

Hamburg is noted for several festivals and regular events. Some of them are street festivals, such as the gay pride Hamburg Pride festival^[84] or the Alster fair (German: Alstervergnügen),^[85] held at the Binnenalster. The Hamburger DOM is northern Germany's biggest funfair, held three times a year.^[86] Hafengeburtstag is a funfair to honour the birthday of the port of Hamburg with a party and a ship parade.^[87] The annual biker's service in Saint Michael's Church attracts tens of thousands of bikers.^[88] Christmas markets in December are held at the Hamburg Rathaus square, among other places.^[89] The long night of museums (German: Lange Nacht der Museen) offers one entrance fee for about 40 museums until midnight.^[90] The sixth Festival of Cultures was held in September 2008, celebrating multi-cultural life.^[91] The Filmfest Hamburg — a film festival originating from the 1950s Film Days (German: Film Tage) — presents a wide range of films.^[92] 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.^[93] Regular sports events—some open to pro and amateur participants—are the cycling competition EuroEyes Cyclassics, the Hamburg Marathon, the biggest marathon in Germany after Berlin,^[94] the tennis tournament Hamburg Masters and equestrian events like the Deutsches Derby.

Hamburg is also known for its music and festival culture. For example, the Reeperbahn alone has between 25 - 30 million visitors every year. In addition, there are over a million visitors to the annual festivals and major music events.^[95] Hamburg's festivals include the Elbjazz Festival, which takes place 2 days a year (usually on the Whitsun weekend) in Hamburg's harbor and HafenCity.

For contemporary and experimental music, the "blurred edges Archived 20 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine" festival usually follows in May at various venues within Hamburg. In mid-August, the MS Dockville music and arts festival has run annually since 2007 in the Wilhelmsburg district.^[96] This is followed at the end of September by the Reeperbahn Festival, which has been running since 2006. As Europe's largest club festival, it offers several hundred program points around the Reeperbahn in Hamburg over four days and is one of the most important meeting places for the music industry worldwide.^[97] In November, the ÜBERJAZZ Festival, which aims to expand the stylistic boundaries of the concept of jazz, starts every year at Kampnagel.^[98]

Cuisine

Fried plaice, Finkenwerder style

Original Hamburg dishes are Birnen, Bohnen und Speck (green beans cooked with pears and bacon),^[99] Aalsuppe (Hamburgisch Oolsupp) is often mistaken to be German for "eel soup" (Aal/Ool translated 'eel'), but the name probably comes from the Low Saxon allns [aˑlns], meaning "all", "everything and the kitchen sink", not necessarily eel. Today eel is often included to meet the expectations of unsuspecting diners.^[100] There is Bratkartoffeln (pan-fried potato slices), Finkenwerder Scholle (Low Saxon Finkwarder Scholl, pan-fried plaice), Pannfisch (pan-fried fish with mustard sauce),^[101] Rote Grütze (Low Saxon Rode Grütt, related to Danish rødgrød, a type of summer pudding made mostly from berries and usually served with cream, like Danish rødgrød med fløde)^[102] and Labskaus (a mixture of corned beef, mashed potatoes and beetroot, a cousin of the Norwegian lapskaus and Liverpool's lobscouse, all offshoots off an old-time one-pot meal that used to be the main component of the common sailor's humdrum diet on the high seas).^[103]

Alsterwasser (in reference to the city's river, the Alster) is the local name for a type of shandy, a concoction of equal parts of beer and carbonated lemonade (Zitronenlimonade), the lemonade being added to the beer.^[104]

There is the curious regional dessert pastry called Franzbrötchen. Looking rather like a flattened croissant, it is similar in preparation but includes a cinnamon and sugar filling, often with raisins or brown sugar streusel. The name may also reflect to the roll's croissant-like appearance – franz appears to be a shortening of französisch, meaning "French", which would make a Franzbrötchen a "French roll". Ordinary bread rolls tend to be oval-shaped and of the French bread variety. The local name is Schrippe (scored lengthways) for the oval kind and, for the round kind, Rundstück ("round piece" rather than mainstream German Brötchen, diminutive form of Brot "bread"),^[105] a relative of Denmark's rundstykke. In fact, while by no means identical, the cuisines of Hamburg and Denmark, especially of Copenhagen, have a lot in common. This also includes a predilection for open-faced sandwiches of all sorts, especially topped with cold-smoked or pickled fish.

The American hamburger may have developed from Hamburg's Frikadeller: a pan-fried patty (usually larger and thicker than its American counterpart) made from a mixture of ground beef, soaked stale bread, egg, chopped onion, salt and pepper, usually served with potatoes and vegetables like any other piece of meat, not usually on a bun. The Oxford Dictionary defined a Hamburger steak in 1802: a sometimes-smoked and -salted piece of meat, that, according to some sources, came from Hamburg to America.^[106] 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

• 

  Elbphilharmonie ("Elphi")

• 

  Port of Hamburg

• 

  St. Pauli Piers and cruise ship

• 

  Speicherstadt (Warehouse district)

• 

  Hamburg City Hall

• 

  St. Michael's Church ("Michel")

• 

  Reeperbahn, nightlife district of St. Pauli

• 

  Miniatur Wunderland (Miniature Wonderland)

• 

  Große Freiheit ("Great Freedom")

• 

  Nikolai Memorial

• 

  HafenCity

• 

  Dockland at night

• 

  View over frozen Alster towards Radisson Hotel and Hertz-Turm

• 

  Planten un Blomen

• 

  Jungfernstieg Boulevard

• 

  Hills and mansions in Blankenese

• 

  Laeiszhalle concert venue

• 

  Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, the busiest railway station in Germany

• 

  Hanseatisches Oberlandesgericht ("HansOLG"), upper court

• 

  Highrises in St. Pauli (Hafenkrone)

• 

  Köhlbrand Bridge

• 

  TV Tower

• 

  Traditional sailing ships at Sandtorkai in HafenCity

• 

  View over Hamburg and the Alster

Rote Flora in the Sternschanze neighbourhood, Hamburg

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.^[107]

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.^[108]

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.^[109]

British culture

The English Theatre of Hamburg at Lerchenfeld 14

There are several English-speaking communities, such as the Caledonian Society of Hamburg, The British Club Hamburg, British and Commonwealth Luncheon Club, Anglo-German Club e.V.,^[110] Professional Women's Forum,^[111] 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^[112] within the Grand Lodge of British Freemasons of Germany^[113] under the United Grand Lodges of Germany^[114] works in Hamburg, and has a diverse expat membership. There is also a 400-year-old Anglican church community worshipping at St Thomas Becket Church.^[115]

American and international English-speaking organisations include The American Club of Hamburg e.V.,^[116] the American Women's Club of Hamburg,^[117] the English Speaking Union, the German-American Women's Club,^[118] and The International Women's Club of Hamburg e.V. The American Chamber of Commerce handles matters related to business affairs.^[119] The International School of Hamburg serves school children.

William Wordsworth, Dorothy Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge spent the last two weeks of September 1798 at Hamburg. Dorothy wrote a detailed journal of their stay, labelled "The Hamburg Journal (1798) by noted Wordsworth scholar Edward de Selincourt."^[120]

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,^[121] 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.^[122]

Discover more about Culture related topics

European Green Capital Award

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 the important role that local authorities play in improving the environment, and their high level of commitment to genuine progress. The European Green Capital Award has been conceived as an initiative to promote and reward these efforts.

List of theatres in Hamburg

List of theatres in Hamburg

This is a list of theatres and stages in Hamburg.

Deutsches Schauspielhaus

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.

Kampnagel

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.

List of museums in Hamburg

List of museums in Hamburg

List of museums in Hamburg

Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

The Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg is a museum of fine, applied and decorative arts in Hamburg, Germany. It is located centrally, near the Hauptbahnhof.

Deichtorhallen

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 architecture creates a backdrop for spectacular major international exhibitions.

Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg

Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg

The Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg is a private museum in the HafenCity quarter of Hamburg, Germany. The museum houses Peter Tamm's collection of model ships, construction plans, uniforms, and maritime art, amounting to over 40,000 items and more than one million photographs. It opened in a former warehouse in 2008.

Archäologisches Museum Hamburg

Archäologisches Museum Hamburg

The Archäologisches Museum Hamburg is an archaeological museum in the Harburg borough of Hamburg, Germany. It houses the archaeological finds of the city of Hamburg and the neighbouring counties to the south of the city. It focuses on northern German prehistory and early history as well as the history of the former city of Harburg. The museum is also home to the cultural heritage landmarks commission of the city of Hamburg and the adjacent district of Harburg in Lower-Saxony and thus supervises all archaeological undertakings in the region.

Hamburg Museum of Work

Hamburg Museum of Work

The Hamburg Museum of Work is a museum in Hamburg-Barmbek. Its major theme is changes in work and living during the last 150 years. It examines and displays the social cultural and economic effects of industrialisation. The museum is an anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH).

Kiekeberg

Kiekeberg

The Kiekeberg is, at 127.1 metres above sea level, one of the more prominent hills in the Harburg Hills in north Germany. It is located in the parish of Ehestorf in the municipality of Rosengarten in the district of Harburg in the southern foothills of the range, which is also known as The Black Hills, near the southern state boundary of Hamburg.

Harburg Hills

Harburg Hills

The Harburg Hills 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 155 metres (509 ft) high.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of Hamburg was 119.0 billion € in 2018, accounting for 3.6% of German economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was €59,600 or 197% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 132% of the EU average.^[123] 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.^[124]

The unemployment rate stood at 6.1% in October 2018 and was higher than the German average.^[125]

The Hamburg Stock Exchange

Banking

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

Port

Queen Mary 2 at the Port of Hamburg

The most significant economic unit is the Port of Hamburg, which ranks third to Rotterdam and Antwerpen in Europe and 17th-largest worldwide with transshipments of 8.9 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of cargo and 138.2 million tons of goods in 2016.^[127] International trade is also the reason for the large number of consulates in the city. Although situated 110 kilometres (70 mi) up the Elbe, it is considered a sea port due to its ability to handle large ocean-going vessels.^[128]

Industrial production

Heavy industry of Hamburg includes the making of steel, aluminium, copper and various large shipyards such as Blohm + Voss.^[129]

Hamburg, along with Seattle and Toulouse, is an important location of the civil aerospace industry. Airbus, which operates the Hamburg-Finkenwerder assembly plant in Finkenwerder, employs over 13,000 people.^[130]

HafenCity

Western HafenCity area and Speicherstadt

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

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

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

Tourism

City logo of Hamburg

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

In 2017, more than 6,783,000 visitors with 13,822,000 overnight stays visited the city.^[131] The tourism sector employs more than 175,000 people full-time and brings in revenue of almost €9 billion, making the tourism industry a major economic force in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Hamburg has one of the fastest-growing tourism industries in Germany. From 2001 to 2007, the overnight stays in the city increased by 55.2% (Berlin +52.7%, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern +33%).^[132]

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

The area of Reeperbahn in the quarter St. Pauli is Europe's largest red light district and home of strip clubs, brothels, bars and nightclubs. The singer and actor Hans Albers is strongly associated with St. Pauli, and wrote the neighbourhood's unofficial anthem, "Auf der Reeperbahn Nachts um Halb Eins" ("On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight") in the 1940s. The Beatles had stints on the Reeperbahn early in their careers. Others prefer the laid-back neighbourhood Schanze with its street cafés, or a barbecue on one of the beaches along the river Elbe. Hamburg's famous zoo, the Tierpark Hagenbeck, was founded in 1907 by Carl Hagenbeck as the first zoo with moated, barless enclosures.^[133]

In 2016, the average visitor spent two nights in Hamburg.^[134] The majority of visitors come from Germany. Most foreigners are European, especially from Denmark (395,681 overnight stays), the United Kingdom (301,000 overnight stays), Switzerland (340,156 overnight stays), Austria (about 252,397 overnight stays) and the Netherlands (about 182,610 overnight stays).^[134] The largest group from outside Europe comes from the United States (206,614 overnight stays).^[134]

The Queen Mary 2 has docked regularly since 2004, and there were six departures planned from 2010 onwards.^[135]

Creative industries

Der Spiegel headquarters

Media businesses employ over 70,000 people.^[136] The Norddeutscher Rundfunk which includes the television station NDR Fernsehen is based in Hamburg, including the very popular news program Tagesschau, as are the commercial television station Hamburg 1, the Christian television station Bibel TV and the civil media outlet Tide TV. There are regional radio stations such as Radio Hamburg. Some of Germany's largest publishing companies, Axel Springer AG, Gruner + Jahr, Bauer Media Group are located in the city. Many national newspapers and magazines such as Der Spiegel and Die Zeit are produced in Hamburg, as well as some special-interest newspapers such as Financial Times Deutschland. Hamburger Abendblatt and Hamburger Morgenpost are daily regional newspapers with a large circulation. There are music publishers, such as Warner Bros. Records Germany, and ICT firms such as Adobe Systems and Google Germany.

A total of about 2,000 companies are located in Hamburg that are active in the music industry. With over 17,000 employees and a gross value added of around 640 million euros, this industry is one of the strongest in the city.^[137] The Interessengemeinschaft Hamburger Musikwirtschaft and the Clubkombinat represent the companies in the industry. The interests of Hamburg musicians* are represented, for example, by RockCity Hamburg e.V..

Hamburg was one of the locations for the James Bond series film Tomorrow Never Dies. The Reeperbahn has been the location for many scenes, including the 1994 Beatles film Backbeat.^[138] The film A Most Wanted Man was set in and filmed in Hamburg. Hamburg was also shown in An American Tail where Fievel Mousekewitz and his family immigrate to America in the hopes to escape cats.

Discover more about Economy related topics

Gross domestic product

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 in a specific time period by a country or countries, generally "without double counting the intermediate goods and services used up to produce them". GDP is most often used by the government of a single country to measure its economic health. Due to its complex and subjective nature, this measure is often revised before being considered a reliable indicator. GDP (nominal) per capita does not, however, reflect differences in the cost of living and the inflation rates of the countries; therefore, using a basis of GDP per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP) may be more useful when comparing living standards between nations, while nominal GDP is more useful comparing national economies on the international market. Total GDP can also be broken down into the contribution of each industry or sector of the economy. The ratio of GDP to the total population of the region is the per capita GDP.

Hamburg Stock Exchange

Hamburg Stock Exchange

The Hamburg Stock Exchange is the oldest stock exchange in Germany. It was founded in 1558 in the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg. Four different individual exchanges now exist under its umbrella: the Insurance Exchange, Grain Exchange, Coffee Exchange, along with the General Exchange.

Northern Germany

Northern Germany

Northern Germany is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony and the two city-states Hamburg and Bremen. It contrasts with Southern Germany, Western Germany and Eastern Germany.

History of banking

History of banking

The history of banking began with the first prototype banks, that is, the merchants of the world, who gave grain loans to farmers and traders who carried goods between cities. This was around 2000 BCE in Assyria, India and Sumeria. Later, in ancient Greece and during the Roman Empire, lenders based in temples gave loans, while accepting deposits and performing the change of money. Archaeology from this period in ancient China and India also shows evidence of money lending.

Berenberg Bank

Berenberg Bank

Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG, commonly known as Berenberg Bank and also branded as simply Berenberg, is a multinational full-service private bank and investment bank based in Hamburg, Germany.

Hamburg Commercial Bank

Hamburg Commercial Bank

Hamburg Commercial Bank 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 maritime finance, its main focus is on shipping, transportation, real estate and renewable energy. The bank is one of the pioneers in the pan-European project financing of renewable energies and is also involved in the expansion of digital infrastructure. In 2022, the bank won the “World’s Best Bank Transformation” award by Euromoney trade magazine.

Port of Hamburg

Port of Hamburg

The Port of Hamburg is a seaport on the river Elbe in Hamburg, Germany, 110 kilometres (68 mi) from its mouth on the North Sea.

Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the "New Meuse" inland shipping channel, dug to connect to the Meuse first, but now to the Rhine instead.

Antwerp

Antwerp

Antwerp is the largest city in Belgium by area at 204.51 km2 (78.96 sq mi) and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 530,504, it is the most populous municipality in Belgium, and with a metropolitan population of around 1,200,000 people, it is the second-largest metropolitan region in Belgium, second only to Brussels.

Seattle

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 region of North America. The Seattle metropolitan area's population is 4.02 million, making it the 15th-largest in the United States. Its growth rate of 21.1% between 2010 and 2020 made it one of country's fastest-growing large cities.

Aerospace

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 astronautics. Aerospace organizations research, design, manufacture, operate, or maintain both aircraft and spacecraft.

Airbus

Airbus

Airbus SE is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells commercial aircraft and has separate Defence and Space and Helicopters divisions. As of 2019, Airbus is the world's largest manufacturer of airliners as well as the leading helicopter manufacturer.

Health systems

Hamburg has 54 hospitals. The University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, with about 1,736 beds, houses a large medical school. There are also smaller private hospitals. On 1 January 2011 there were about 12,507 hospital beds.^[139] The city had 5,663 physicians in private practice and 456 pharmacies in 2010.^[140]

Transport

The Port of Hamburg on the river Elbe

Baumwall station of the Hamburg U-Bahn

Neue and Freihafen-Elbbrücke

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

Bridges and tunnels connect the northern and southern parts of the city, such as the old Elbe Tunnel (Alter Elbtunnel) or St. Pauli Elbtunnel (official name) which opened in 1911, now is major tourist sight, and the Elbe Tunnel (Elbtunnel) the crossing of a motorway.^[141]

Hamburg Airport is the oldest airport in Germany still in operation.^[142][143] There is also the smaller Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport, used only as a company airport for Airbus. Some airlines market Lübeck Airport in Lübeck as serving Hamburg.^[144]

Hamburg's licence plate prefix was "HH" (Hansestadt Hamburg; English: Hanseatic City of Hamburg) between 1906 and 1945 and from 1956 onwards, rather than the single letter normally used for large cities since the federal registration reform in 1956, such as B for Berlin or M for Munich. "H" was Hamburg's prefix in the years between 1945 and 1947 (used by Hanover since 1956).^[145]

Public transport

A map of the transit rail lines in Hamburg

Public transport by rail, bus and ship is organised by the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund ("Hamburg transit authority") (HVV). Tickets sold by one company are valid on all other HVV companies' services. The HVV was the first organisation of this kind worldwide.^[146]

33 mass transit rail lines across the city are the backbone of public transport.^[147] The S-Bahn (commuter train system) comprises six lines and the U-Bahn four lines – U-Bahn is short for Untergrundbahn (underground railway). Approximately 41 km (25 mi) of 101 km (63 mi) of the U-Bahn is underground; most is on embankments or viaduct or at ground level. Older residents still speak of the system as Hochbahn (elevated railway), also because the operating company of the subway is the Hamburger Hochbahn. The AKN railway connects satellite towns in Schleswig-Holstein to the city. On some routes regional trains of Germany's major railway company Deutsche Bahn AG and the regional metronom trains may be used with an HVV ticket. Except at the four bigger stations of the city, Hauptbahnhof, Dammtor, Altona and Harburg regional trains do not stop inside the city. The tram system was opened in 1866 and shut down in 1978.^[148]

Gaps in the rail network are filled by more than 669 bus routes, operated by single-deck two-, three- and four-axle diesel buses.^[147] Hamburg has no trams or trolleybuses, but has hydrogen-fueled buses. The buses run frequently during working hours, with buses on some so-called MetroBus routes as often as every 2 minutes. On special weekday night lines the intervals can be 30 minutes or longer, on normal days (Monday-Friday) the normal buses stop running at night. (MetroBuses run all around the clock, every day at the year at least every half-hour.)

There are eight ferry lines along the River Elbe, operated by HADAG, that fall under the aegis of the HVV. While mainly used by citizens and dock workers, they can also be used for sightseeing tours.^[149]

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

The international airport serving Hamburg, Hamburg Airport Helmut Schmidt (IATA: HAM, ICAO: EDDH) is the fifth biggest and oldest airport in Germany, having been established in 1912 and located about 5 miles (8 kilometres) from the city centre. About 60 airlines provide service to 125 destination airports, including some long-distance destinations like Newark, New Jersey on United Airlines, Dubai on Emirates, and Tehran on Iran Air. Hamburg is a secondary hub for Lufthansa, which is the largest carrier at the airport, and the airline also operates one of its biggest Lufthansa Technik maintenance facilities there. The second airport is located in Hamburg-Finkenwerder, officially named Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport (IATA: XFW, ICAO: EDHI). It is about 10 km (6 mi) from the city centre and is a nonpublic airport for the Airbus plant. It is the second biggest Airbus plant, after Toulouse, and the third biggest aviation manufacturing plant after Seattle and Toulouse; the plant houses the final assembly lines for A318, A319, A320, A321 and A380 aircraft.^[150]

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.^[151]

Utilities

Electricity for Hamburg and Northern Germany is largely provided by Vattenfall Europe, formerly the state-owned Hamburgische Electricitäts-Werke. Vattenfall Europe used to operate the Brunsbüttel Nuclear Power Plant and Krümmel Nuclear Power Plant, both taken out of service as part of the nuclear power phase-out. In addition, E.ON operates the Brokdorf Nuclear Power Plant near Hamburg. There are also the coal-fired Wedel, Tiefstack and Moorburg CHP Plant, and the fuel-cell power plant in the HafenCity quarter. VERA Klärschlammverbrennung uses the biosolids of the Hamburg wastewater treatment plant; the Pumpspeicherwerk Geesthacht is a pump storage power plant and a solid waste combustion power station is Müllverwertung Borsigstraße.^[152]

In June 2019 City of Hamburg introduced a law governing the phasing out of coal based thermal and electric energy production ("Kohleausstiegsgesetz").^[153] This move was the result of negotiations between parliamentary parties and representatives of the popular petition Tschuess Kohle ("Goodbye Coal"). Hamburg Ministry for Environment and Energy in 2020 announced a partnership with Namibia, which is a potential supplier of woody biomass from encroacher bush as replacement of coal.^[154]

Discover more about Infrastructure related topics

Elbe

Elbe

The Elbe 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, then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 kilometres northwest of Hamburg. Its total length is 1,094 km (680 mi).

Hamburg U-Bahn

Hamburg U-Bahn

The Hamburg U-Bahn is a rapid transit system serving the cities of Hamburg, Norderstedt and Ahrensburg in Germany. Although referred to by the term U-Bahn, most of the system's track length is above ground. The network is interconnected with the city's S-Bahn system, which also has underground sections. It is operated by Hamburger Hochbahn within the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (HVV). It was opened in February 1912, and comprises four lines serving 93 stations, with a route length of 106.4 kilometres (66.1 mi) in 2019.

Autobahn

Autobahn

The Autobahn is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is Bundesautobahn, which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word Bundesautobahn is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'.

Elbe Tunnel (1911)

Elbe Tunnel (1911)

Old Elbe Tunnel or St. Pauli Elbe Tunnel which opened in 1911, is a pedestrian and vehicle tunnel in Hamburg. The 426 m long tunnel was a technical sensation; 24 m beneath the surface, two 6 m diameter tubes connect central Hamburg with the docks and shipyards on the south side of the river Elbe. This was a big improvement for tens of thousands of workers in one of the busiest harbors in the world.

Elbe Tunnel (1975)

Elbe Tunnel (1975)

The New Elbe Tunnel, often simply called Elbtunnel, is a subterranean Elbe River crossing in northern Germany located in Hamburg.

Bundesautobahn 7

Bundesautobahn 7

Bundesautobahn 7 is the longest German Autobahn and the longest national motorway in Europe at 963 km. It bisects the country almost evenly between east and west. In the north, it starts at the border with Denmark as an extension of the Danish part of E45. In the south, the autobahn ends at the Austrian border. This final gap was closed in September 2009.

Hamburg Airport

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. It is located 8.5 km (5.3 mi) north of the city centre in the Fuhlsbüttel quarter and serves as a hub for Eurowings and focus city for Condor. It was formerly named Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel Airport, a name still sometimes used.

Airbus

Airbus

Airbus SE is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells commercial aircraft and has separate Defence and Space and Helicopters divisions. As of 2019, Airbus is the world's largest manufacturer of airliners as well as the leading helicopter manufacturer.

Lübeck

Lübeck

Lübeck, officially the Hanseatic City of 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 of Schleswig-Holstein, after its capital of Kiel, and is the 35th-largest city in Germany.

Hanover

Hanover

Hanover 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 after Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen. Hanover's urban area comprises the towns of Garbsen, Langenhagen and Laatzen and has a population of about 791,000 (2018). The Hanover Region has approximately 1.16 million inhabitants (2019).

Hamburger Verkehrsverbund

Hamburger Verkehrsverbund

The Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (HVV) 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 ticket for journeys with transfers between different operating companies, and to facilitate and speed up travel by harmonising the individual companies' schedules. At its inception in 1965, the HVV was the first organisation of its kind worldwide.

Hamburg S-Bahn

Hamburg S-Bahn

The Hamburg S-Bahn is a suburban commuter railway network in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Together, the S-Bahn, the Hamburg U-Bahn, the AKN railway and the regional railway form the backbone of railway public transport in the city and the surrounding area. The network has operated since 1907 as a commuter rail system, under the direction of the state railway, and is a member of the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund. There are six lines, serving 68 stations, on 147 kilometres (91 mi) of route. On an average working day the S-Bahn transports about 590,000 passengers; in 2010 about 221 million people used the S-Bahn.

Hamburg City Man 2007 at the Binnenalster

Barclaycard Arena

Volksparkstadion

Hamburger SV is a football team playing in the 2. Bundesliga (as of 2023). The HSV was the oldest team of the Bundesliga, playing in the league since its beginning in 1963 until a change of results saw them relegated from the Bundesliga in 2018. HSV is a six-time German champion, a three-time German cup winner and triumphed in the European Cup in 1983, and has played in the group stages of the Champions League twice: in 2000–01 and in 2006–07. They play at the Volksparkstadion (average attendance in the 12–13 season was 52,916). In addition, FC St. Pauli was a second division football club that came in second place in the 2009–10 season and qualified to play alongside Hamburger SV in the first division for the first time since the 2001–02 season. St. Pauli's home games take place at the Millerntor-Stadion.

The Hamburg Freezers represented Hamburg until 2016 in the DEL, the premier ice hockey 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 win in 2013. Since 2014, the club has suffered from economic problems and was almost not allowed the playing licence for the 2014–15 season. But due to economic support from the former club president/sponsor Andreas Rudolf the club was allowed the licence in the last minute. On 20 January 2016 however, their licence was removed due to violations following the continued economic struggles. In 2016–17, they were not allowed to play in the first or second league. The team lives on through their former second team (now their main team) in the third division (2016-2018) and in second division (since 2018).

The BCJ Hamburg played in the Basketball Bundesliga from 1999 to 2001. Later, the Hamburg Towers became the city's prime team. The Towers promoted to Germany's top division in 2019. In 2022, they already reached the playoffs. The Towers play their home games at the Edel-optics.de Arena in Wilhelmsburg.

Hamburg is the nation's field hockey capital and dominates the men's as well as the women's Bundesliga. Hamburg hosts many top teams such as Uhlenhorster Hockey Club, Harvesterhuder Hockey Club and Club An Der Alster.

The Hamburg Warriors are one of Germany's top lacrosse clubs.^[155] 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).^[156]

Hamburg Blue Devils was one of the prominent American Football teams playing in German Football League before its exit in 2017.^[157] Hamburg Sea Devils is a team of European League of Football (ELF) which is a planned professional league, that is set to become the first fully professional league in Europe since the demise of NFL Europe.^[158] The Sea Devils will start playing games in June 2021.^[159]

There are also the Hamburg Dockers, an Australian rules football club.^[160] The FC St. Pauli team dominates women's rugby in Germany. Other first-league teams include VT Aurubis Hamburg (Volleyball) and Hamburger Polo Club.^[161] Eimsbütteler TV plays in the German Women's 2 Volleyball Bundesliga. There are also several minority sports clubs, including four cricket clubs.

Am Rothenbaum is the main tennis stadium of the International German Open.

The Centre Court of the Tennis Am Rothenbaum venue, with a capacity of 13,200 people, is the largest in Germany.^[162]

Hamburg also hosts equestrian events at Reitstadion Klein Flottbek (Deutsches Derby in jumping and dressage) and Horner Rennbahn (Deutsches Derby flat racing).^[163] Besides Hamburg owns the famous harness racing track "Trabrennbahn Bahrenfeld". The Hamburg Marathon is the biggest marathon in Germany after Berlin's. In 2008 23,230 participants were registered.^[164] World Cup events in cycling, the UCI ProTour competition EuroEyes Cyclassics, and the triathlon ITU World Cup event Hamburg City Man are also held in here.^[165]

Volksparkstadion was used as a site for the 2006 World Cup. In 2010 UEFA held the final of the UEFA Europa League in the arena.^[166]

Hamburg made a bid for the 2024 Olympic Games, but 51.7 percent of those city residents participating in a referendum in November 2015 voted against continuing Hamburg's bid to host the games. Meanwhile, Hamburg's partner city Kiel voted in favour of hosting the event, with almost 66 percent of all participants supporting the bid. Opponents of the bid had argued that hosting the 33rd Olympic Games would cost the city too much in public funds.^[167]

Discover more about Sports related topics

Hamburger SV

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 earlier clubs, it traces its origins to 29 September 1887 when the first of the predecessors, SC Germania, was founded. Up until the 2017–18 Bundesliga season, which found the team relegated for the first time in history, HSV's football team had the distinction of being the only team that had played continuously in the top tier of the German football league system since the founding of the club at the end of World War I. It was subsequently the only team that had played in every season of the Bundesliga since its foundation in 1963.

Association football

Association football

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel a ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is to score more goals than the opposite team by moving the ball beyond the goal line into a rectangular-framed goal defended by the opposing side. Traditionally, the game has been played over two 45-minute halves, for a total match time of 90 minutes. With an estimated 250 million players active in over 200 countries and territories, it is considered the world's most popular sport.

2. Bundesliga

2. Bundesliga

The 2. Bundesliga (Zweite Bundesliga [ˈtsvaɪtə ˈbʊndəsˌliːɡa], lit. '2nd Federal League') 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 the Bundesliga and above the 3. Liga in the German football league system. All of the 2. Bundesliga clubs take part in the DFB-Pokal, the annual German Cup competition. A total of 127 clubs have competed in the 2. Bundesliga since its foundation.

Bundesliga

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 football competition. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga. Seasons run from August to May. Games are played on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. All of the Bundesliga clubs take part in the DFB-Pokal cup competition. The winner of the Bundesliga qualifies for the DFL-Supercup.

2012–13 Bundesliga

2012–13 Bundesliga

The 2012–13 Bundesliga was the 50th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. The season began on 24 August 2012 with the season opening match at Westfalenstadion involving defending champions Borussia Dortmund and SV Werder Bremen and ended with the last games on 18 May 2013, with a winter break between the weekends around 15 December 2012 and 19 January 2013. Bayern Munich managed to secure the championship of the 2012–13 season after only 28 match days, beating their previous record by two matches.

FC St. Pauli

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.

2009–10 Bundesliga

2009–10 Bundesliga

The 2009–10 Bundesliga was the 47th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. The season commenced on 7 August 2009 with the traditional season-opening match involving the defending champions VfL Wolfsburg and VfB Stuttgart. The last games were played on 8 May 2010. There was a winter break between 21 December 2009 and 14 January 2010, though the period was reduced from six to three weeks. The season was overshadowed by the suicide of Hannover 96 captain and goalkeeper Robert Enke on 10 November 2009.

2001–02 Bundesliga

2001–02 Bundesliga

The 2001–02 Bundesliga the 39th season of the Bundesliga. It began on 28 July 2001 and concluded on 4 May 2002.

Millerntor-Stadion

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 stadium had a capacity of 32,000 when it was built in 1961. It is also used by the Blue Devils American football team, and as a concert venue, including a performance by Prince in 1988. FC St Pauli celebrated their centenary festival at the stadium in 2010.

Hamburg Freezers

Hamburg Freezers

The Hamburg Freezers were a German professional men's ice hockey club from Hamburg, Germany that played in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. The club announced its withdrawal from the DEL and ceased operations on 24 May 2016 when Anschutz Entertainment Group, who owned both the Freezers and Eisbären Berlin, felt it was no longer financially viable to own two teams within the same hockey league.

Deutsche Eishockey Liga

Deutsche Eishockey Liga

The Deutsche Eishockey Liga or DEL, is a German professional ice hockey league and the highest division in German ice hockey. Founded in 1994, it was formed as a replacement for the Eishockey-Bundesliga and became the new top-tier league in Germany as a result. Unlike the old Bundesliga, the DEL is not under the administration of the German Ice Hockey Federation.

Ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice 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 hockey sticks to control, advance, and shoot a closed, vulcanized, rubber disc called a "puck" into the other team's goal. Each goal is worth one point. The team which scores the most goals is declared the winner. In a formal game, each team has six skaters on the ice at a time, barring any penalties, one of whom is the goaltender. Ice hockey is a full contact sport, and is considered to be one of the more physically demanding sports.

The main building of the University of Hamburg

The University of Music and Theatre

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 and 188 secondary schools in 2016.^[168] There are 32 public libraries in Hamburg.^[169]

Nineteen universities are located in Hamburg, with about 100,589 university students in total, including 9,000 resident students.^[170] Six universities are public, including the largest, the University of Hamburg (Universität Hamburg) with the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, the University of Music and Theatre, the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, the HafenCity University Hamburg and the Hamburg University of Technology. Seven universities are private, like the Bucerius Law School, the Kühne Logistics University and the HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration. The city has also smaller private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions, such as the Helmut Schmidt University (formerly the University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg).^[171] Hamburg is home to one of the oldest international schools in Germany, the International School of Hamburg.

Discover more about Education related topics

Education in Hamburg

Education in Hamburg

Education in Hamburg covers the whole spectrum from kindergarten, primary education, secondary education, and higher education in Hamburg. The German states are primarily responsible for the educational system in Germany, and therefore the Behörde für Schule und Berufsbildung is the administrative agency in Hamburg. The Behörde für Wissenschaft und Forschung has the oversight for universities and colleges.

Education in Germany

Education in Germany

Education in Germany is primarily the responsibility of individual German states, with the federal government playing a minor role. Optional Kindergarten education is provided for all children between one and six years old, after which school attendance is compulsory.

Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg

Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg

The Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg is one of the larger universities of music in Germany.

Primary education

Primary education

Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in primary schools, elementary schools, or first schools and middle schools, depending on the location.

Secondary education

Secondary education

Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education is considered the second and final phase of basic education, and level 3 upper secondary education or senior secondary education is the stage before tertiary education. Every country aims to provide basic education, but the systems and terminology remain unique to them. Secondary education typically takes place after six years of primary education and is followed by higher education, vocational education or employment. In most countries secondary education is compulsory, at least until the age of 16. Children typically enter the lower secondary phase around age 12. Compulsory education sometimes extends to age 19.

Hamburg University of Applied Sciences

Hamburg University of Applied Sciences

The Hamburg University of Applied Sciences is a higher education and applied research institution located in Hamburg, Germany. Formerly known as Fachhochschule Hamburg, the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences was founded in 1970. In terms of student enrolment, the HAW is the second-largest university in Hamburg and the forth-largest applied sciences university in Germany, with a student body of 16.879.

HafenCity University Hamburg

HafenCity University Hamburg

The HafenCity University Hamburg — also known as the University Of The Built Environment And Metropolitan Development — is a public university in Hamburg, Germany which is focused on architecture, civil engineering and urban planning courses.

Bucerius Law School

Bucerius Law School

Bucerius Law School is a private law school located in Hamburg, Germany. The school is the first private law school in Germany. It admits approximately 100 undergraduate students per year.

Kühne Logistics University

Kühne Logistics University

Kuehne Logistics University – Wissenschaftliche Hochschule für Logistik und Unternehmensführung (KLU) is a private, state-recognized business school (Wirtschaftshochschule) based in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded by the Kühne Stiftung, based in Schindellegi, Switzerland. The contracting body is the Kühne Logistics University gGmbH. The non-profit foundation supports education and further education as well as research and science in transport and logistics.

HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration

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 institution, it offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business as cooperative education and part-time courses for 1000 students. HSBA's Cooperative Education Model has its origin in Germany's dual education system which was applied to university level.

Helmut Schmidt University

Helmut Schmidt University

The Helmut Schmidt University, 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 Schmidt. Originally known as the "University of the Bundeswehr Hamburg", its complete official name today is "Helmut-Schmidt-Universität/Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg". Teaching first started in Autumn of 1973. It is one of two universities that were established by the Bundeswehr to train and educate its future and existing officers.

International School of Hamburg

International School of Hamburg

The International School of Hamburg, known to the school community as ISH, is a private international school in the West of Hamburg. ISH combines the IPC, the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP), the IB Career Related Programme (CP) , and the IB Diploma Programme . The International School of Hamburg was founded in 1957 as the first international school in Germany. ISH is a non-profit organization and remains the only Council of International Schools-accredited organisation in Hamburg. In 2010, ISH moved to its current, purpose-built campus, at Hemmingstedter Weg in Hamburg-Osdorf. An extensive expansion was built in 2015. The school currently has a combined enrolment of approximately 760 students aged 3 to 19 from over 55 countries.

Hamburg is twinned with:^[172]

Discover more about Twin towns – sister cities related topics

List of twin towns and sister cities in Germany

List of twin towns and sister cities in Germany

This is a list of municipalities in Germany which have standing links to local communities in other countries, or in other parts of Germany, known as "town twinning" or "sister cities".

France

France

France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. It also includes overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, giving it one of the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zones in the world. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea; overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Its eighteen integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 km2 (248,573 sq mi) and had a total population of over 68 million as of January 2023. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre; other major urban areas include Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, Bordeaux, and Nice.

Marseille

Marseille

Marseille is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the Provence region of southern France, it is located on the coast of the Gulf of Lion, part of the Mediterranean Sea, near the mouth of the Rhône river. Its inhabitants are called Marseillais.

China

China

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia. With an area of approximately 9.6 million square kilometres (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the world's third largest country by total land area. The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two special administrative regions. The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and largest financial center is Shanghai.

Germany

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 between the Baltic and North seas to the north, and the Alps to the south; it covers an area of 357,022 square kilometres (137,847 sq mi), with a population of over 84 million within its 16 constituent states. Germany borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The nation's capital and most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr.

Dresden

Dresden

Dresden 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 largest by area, and the third most populous city in the area of former East Germany, after Berlin and Leipzig. Dresden's urban area comprises the towns of Freital, Pirna, Radebeul, Meissen, Coswig, Radeberg and Heidenau and has around 790,000 inhabitants. The Dresden metropolitan area has approximately 1.34 million inhabitants.

Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the country's capital and largest city. As of 2015, it was estimated to be the second largest city in Central America. Nicaragua's multiethnic population of six million includes people of mestizo, Indigenous, European and African heritage. The main language is Spanish. Indigenous tribes on the Mosquito Coast speak their own languages and English.

León, Nicaragua

León, Nicaragua

León is the second largest city in Nicaragua, after Managua. Founded by the Spanish as Santiago de los Caballeros de León, it is the capital and largest city of León Department. As of 2021, the municipality of León has an estimated population of 212,504.

Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans an archipelago of 14,125 islands, with the five main islands being Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto.

Osaka

Osaka

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 2.7 million in the 2020 census, it is also the largest component of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area, which is the second-largest metropolitan area in Japan and the 10th largest urban area in the world with more than 19 million inhabitants.

Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The Czech Republic has a hilly landscape that covers an area of 78,871 square kilometers (30,452 sq mi) with a mostly temperate continental and oceanic climate. The capital and largest city is Prague; other major cities and urban areas include Brno, Ostrava, Plzeň and Liberec.

Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the third most populous in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. With a population of 2,746,388 in the 2020 census, it is also the most populous city in the Midwest. As the seat of Cook County, the city is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area, one of the largest in the world.

In Hamburg it's hard to find a native Hamburger. A hurried and superficial search turns up only crayfish, people from Pinneberg, and those from Bergedorf. One accompanies the contented little kippers of a striving society; mackerels from Stade, sole from Finkenwerder, herrings from Cuxhaven swim in expectant throngs through the streets of my city and lobsters patrol the stock exchange with open claws.... The first so-called unguarded glance always lands on the bottom of the sea and falls into twilight of the aquarium. Heinrich Heine must have had the same experience when he tried, with his cultivated scorn and gifted melancholy, to find the people of Hamburg.

— Siegfried Lenz, in Leute von Hamburg (People of Hamburg) ISBN 978-3-423-11538-4.^[173]

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.

portrait of Barthold Heinrich Brockes

painting of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, 1833

portrait of Johannes Brahms, 1899

• Lucas Holstenius (1596–1661), German Catholic humanist, geographer, historian and librarian.^[174]
• Andreas Schlüter (ca.1659 – ca.1714) a German baroque sculptor and architect.^[175]
• Barthold Heinrich Brockes (1680–1747) a German poet.^[176]
• Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694–1768), a German philosopher and writer of the Enlightenment.^[177]
• Konrad Ekhof (1720–1778) the foremost German actor of the 18th century.^[178]
• Johann Bernhard Basedow (1724–1790) a German educational reformer, teacher and writer.^[179]
• Meta Klopstock (1728-1758), writer.^[180]
• Johann Joachim Eschenburg (1743–1820) a German critic and literary historian.^[181]
• Johann Elert Bode (1747–1826) an astronomer, he named and determined the orbit of Uranus.^[182]
• Johann Dominicus Fiorillo (1748–1821) a German painter and historian of art.^[183]
• Christian, Count of Stolberg-Stolberg (1748–1821) poet, brother of Frederick Leopold.^[184]
• Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg-Stolberg (1750–1819), a German lawyer and translator.^[185]
• Georg Friedrich von Martens (1756–1821) a German jurist and diplomat.^[186]
• Ludwig Erdwin Seyler (1758-1836) banker and politician.
• Johann Franz Encke (1791–1865) astronomer, measured the distance from Earth to the Sun.^[187]
• Ami Boué (1794–1881) a geologist of French Huguenot origin.^[188]
• Gustav Friedrich Waagen (1794–1868) a German art historian.^[189]
• Johann Christian Poggendorff (1796–1877), a physicist, dealt with electricity and magnetism.^[190]
• Matthias Jakob Schleiden (1804–1881) a German botanist, co-founder of cell theory.^[191]
• Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808–1888) Orthodox rabbi, founded the Torah im Derech Eretz.^[192]
• Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847), a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor.^[193]
• Ludwig Preller (1809–1861) a German philologist and antiquarian.^[194]
• Friedrich Gerstäcker (1816–1872) a German travel writer and novelist.^[195]
• Justus Ludwig Adolf Roth (1818–1892) a German geologist and mineralogist.^[196]
• Heinrich Barth (1821–1865) a German explorer of Africa and a scholar.^[197]
• Jacob Bernays (1824–1881) a German philologist and philosophical writer.^[198]
• Julius Oppert (1825–1905) a French-German Assyriologist.^[199]
• Thérèse Tietjens (1831–1877) a leading opera and oratorio soprano.^[200]
• Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) a German composer, pianist and conductor.^[201]
• Michael Bernays (1834–1897) German literary historian, scholar of Goethe and Shakespeare.^[202]
• Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig (1835–1910) German chemist, discovered the pinacol coupling reaction.^[203]
• Wilhelm Kühne (1837–1900) a German physiologist, coined the word enzyme in 1878.^[204]
• Carl Rosa (1842–1889) musical impresario, founded the Carl Rosa Opera Company in London.^[205]
• Carl Hagenbeck (1844–1913) a merchant of wild animals who supplied many European zoos.^[206]
• Hans Hinrich Wendt (1853–1928) a German Protestant theologian.^[207]
• Hans von Bartels (1856–1913) a German painter.^[208]
• Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894) physicist who first proved the existence of electromagnetic waves.^[209]
• Helmut Schmidt (1918–2015) politician and chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982.
• Angela Merkel (born 1954) a retired politician and scientist, chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021.

Discover more about Notable people related topics

Bergedorf

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.

Finkenwerder

Finkenwerder

Finkenwerder is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany in the borough Hamburg-Mitte. It is the location of the Hamburg Airbus plant and its airport. In 2016 the population was 11,668.

Cuxhaven

Cuxhaven

Cuxhaven is an independent town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has a footprint of 14 kilometres (east–west) by 7 km (4 mi) (north–south). Its town quarters Duhnen, Döse and Sahlenburg are especially popular vacation spots on the North Sea and home to about 52,000 residents.

Heinrich Heine

Heinrich Heine

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert. Heine's later verse and prose are distinguished by their satirical wit and irony. He is considered a member of the Young Germany movement. His radical political views led to many of his works being banned by German authorities—which, however, only added to his fame. He spent the last 25 years of his life as an expatriate in Paris.

Barthold Heinrich Brockes

Barthold Heinrich Brockes

Barthold Heinrich Brockes was a German poet.

Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music, organ music and chamber music. His best-known works include the overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the oratorio St. Paul, the oratorio Elijah, the overture The Hebrides, the mature Violin Concerto and the String Octet. The melody for the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" is also his. Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions.

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.

Andreas Schlüter

Andreas Schlüter

Andreas Schlüter 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.

Hermann Samuel Reimarus

Hermann Samuel Reimarus

Hermann Samuel Reimarus, was a German philosopher and writer of the Enlightenment who is remembered for his Deism, the doctrine that human reason can arrive at a knowledge of God and ethics from a study of nature and our own internal reality, thus eliminating the need for religions based on revelation. He denied the supernatural origin of Christianity, and was the first influential critic to investigate the historical Jesus. According to Reimarus, Jesus was a mortal Jewish prophet, and the apostles founded Christianity as a religion separate from Jesus’ own ministry.

Age of Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries with global influences and effects. The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on the value of human happiness, the pursuit of knowledge obtained by means of reason and the evidence of the senses, and ideals such as natural law, liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state.

Konrad Ekhof

Konrad Ekhof

Konrad Ekhof 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 Abel Seyler in the 1760s and 1770s, first at the Hamburg National Theatre and then at the travelling Seyler Theatre Company.

Johann Bernhard Basedow

Johann Bernhard Basedow

Johann Bernhard Basedow 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 "Elementarwerk", a popular illustrated textbook for children.