Hamburg
This article is about the city in Germany. For other articles named Hamburg, see Hamburg (disambiguation). |
Hamburg's motto: May the posterity endeavour with dignity to conserve the freedom, which the forefathers acquired. |
Hamburg (German
pronunciation: ; , ) is the second largest city in
Germany and with
Hamburg Harbour, its principal port, Hamburg is also the second largest port city in the
European Union and
the largest city of the Union which is not a capital. A large part of the port is a fenced-in duty-free area.
The official name
Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (; ) refers to Hamburg's membership in the
medieval Hanseatic League and the fact that Hamburg is a
City State and one of the sixteen
Federal States of Germany.
Hamburg is situated on the southern tip of
Jutland Peninsula, geographically centred (a) between
Continental Europe and
Scandinavia and (b) between the
North Sea and the
Baltic Sea. The city of Hamburg lies at the junction of the river
Elbe with the rivers
Alster and
Bille and the city centre is beautifully set around Lake
Binnenalster and Lake
Außenalster.
Hamburg is an international trade city and the commercial and cultural centre of
Northern Germany.
The
Bürgerschaft (City Assembly) is the parliament of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, which is elected by the citizens of Hamburg every four years.
The
Erster Bürgermeister (
First Mayor) is head of the senate (which forms the executive branch of government) and gets elected by the city assembly and is thus head of the city state. The current mayor is
Ole von Beust (see also
List of mayors of Hamburg).
|
Hamburg Rathaus (Town Hall) |
The state and administrative city cover 750 km² with 1.8 million inhabitants, while another 0.8 million live in neighboring urban areas. The Greater
Hamburg Metropolitan Region (
Metropolregion Hamburg) includes some districts in the adjacent federal states of
Schleswig-Holstein and
Lower Saxony and covers an area of 18,100 km² with a population of just over 4 million.
Hamburg is organised into seven boroughs (Bezirke) comprising 104 quarters (Stadtteile):
*
Altona*
Bergedorf*
Eimsbüttel*
Harburg*
Mitte*
Nord*
WandsbekThree small islands in the
North Sea also belong to the City State of Hamburg:
Neuwerk,
Scharhörn and
Nigehörn.
The city takes its name from the first permanent building on the site, a castle ordered to be built by
Emperor Charlemagne in
808 AD. The castle was built on some rocky ground in a marsh between the
Alster and the
Elbe as a defence against Slavic incursion. The castle was named
Hammaburg, where "burg" means "castle".
The "Hamma" element remains uncertain.
Old High German includes both a hamma, "angle" and a hamme, "pastureland." The angle might refer to a spit of land or to the curvature of a river. However, the language spoken might not have been Old High German, as
Low Saxon was spoken there later.Other theories are that the castle was named for a surrounding Hamma forest, or for the village of Hamm, later incorporated into the city. Hamm as a place name occurs a number of times in Germany, but its meaning is equally uncertain. It could be related to "heim" and Hamburg could have been placed in the territory of the ancient
Chamavi. However, a derivation of "home city" is perhaps too direct, as the city was named after the castle.Another theory is that Hamburg comes from
ham which is Old Saxon for
shore.
In 834 Hamburg was designated the seat of a
bishopric, whose first bishop,
Ansgar, became known as the
Apostle of the North. In 845 a fleet of 600 Viking ships came up the River Elbe and destroyed Hamburg, at that time a town of around 500 inhabitants. Two years later, Hamburg was united with
Bremen as the bishopric of Hamburg-Bremen.
In 1030, the city was burned down by King
Mieszko II Lambert of
Poland. After further raids in 1066 and 1072 the bishop permanently moved to Bremen. Hamburg had several great fires, notably in 1284 and 1842.
The charter in
1189 by
Frederick I "Barbarossa" granted Hamburg the status of an
Imperial Free City and tax free access up the Lower
Elbe into the
North Sea. This and 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.
In
1520 the city embraced
Lutheranism, and Hamburg subsequently received Protestant refugees from the
Netherlands and
France. Hamburg was at times under
Danish sovereignty while remaining part of the
Holy Roman Empire as an Imperial Free City.
Briefly annexed by
Napoleon I (1810-14), Hamburg suffered severely during his last campaign in Germany. The city was besieged for over a year by Allied forces (mostly Russian, Swedish and German). Russian forces under
General Bennigsen finally freed the city in 1814. During the first half of the 19th century a patron goddess with Hamburg's Latin name
Hammonia emerged, mostly in romantic and poetic references, and although she has no mythology to call her own,
Hammonia became the symbol of the city's spirit during this time.
Hamburg 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 third-largest port.
|
Hamburg's central promenade Jungfernstieg on River Alster in 1900 |
With
Albert Ballin as its director the
Hamburg-America Line became the world's largest
transatlantic shipping company at the turn of the century, and Hamburg was also home to shipping companies to
South America,
Africa,
India and
East Asia. Hamburg became a cosmopolitan metropolis based on worldwide trade. Hamburg was the port for most Germans and Eastern Europeans to leave for the
New World and became home to trading communities from all over the world (like a small
Chinatown in
Altona).
After
World War I Germany lost her
colonies and Hamburg lost many of its trade routes. In
1938 the city boundaries were extended with the
Groß-Hamburg-Gesetz (
Greater Hamburg Act) to incorporate
Wandsbek,
Harburg, Wilhelmsburg and
Altona. The city counts 1.7 million inhabitants.
During
World War II Hamburg suffered a series of devastating air raids which killed 42,000 German civilians (
Bombing of Hamburg in World War II). Through this, and the new zoning guidelines of the
1960s, the inner city lost much of its architectural past.
The
Iron Curtainâ€"only 50 kilometres east of Hamburgâ€"separated the city from most of its hinterland and further reduced Hamburg's global trade. On February 16, 1962 a severe storm caused the Elbe to rise to an all-time high, inundating one fifth of Hamburg and killing more than 300 people.
After
German reunification in 1990, and the accession of some Eastern European and Baltic States into the
EU in 2004,
Hamburg Harbour and Hamburg have ambitions for regaining their positions as the region's largest deep-sea port for container shipping and its major commercial and trading centre.
Hamburg 2020See also: Hamburg state election, 2004Ole von Beust was able to form a majority CDU government without the support of partners. His former coalition partners
FDP,
Offensive and
Ronald Schill, who split with several friends from the Offensive, failed to return to the
Bürgerschaft.
| Party | Party List votes | Vote percentage | Total Seats | Seat percentage |
|---|
| Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | 389,170 | 47.2% (+21.0) | 63 (+30) | 52.1% |
| Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 251,441 | 30.5% (-6.0) | 41 (-5) | 33.9% |
| Green-Alternative List (GAL) | 101,227 | 12.3% (+3.7) | 17 (+6) | 14.0% |
| Pro Deutsche Mitte (Pro DM/Schill) | 25,763 | 3.1% (+2.9) | 0 (+0) | 0.0% |
| Free Democratic Party (FDP) | 23,373 | 2.8% (-2.2) | 0 (-6) | 0.0% |
| Rainbow - For a new Left (Regenbogen) | 9,221 | 1.1% (-0.6) | 0 (+0) | 0.0% |
| Grey Panthers Party of Germany (GRAUE) | 8,862 | 1.1% (+0.8) | 0 (+0) | 0.0% |
| Law and Order Offensive Party (Offensive) | 3,041 | 0.4% (-19.1) | 0 (-25) | 0.0% |
| All Others | 12,030 | 1.5% (-0.5) | 0 | 0.0% |
| - bgcolor=lightgrey | Totals | 824,128 | 100.0% | 121 | 100.0% |
|---|
*
St. Petersburg,
Russia, since
1957*
Marseille,
France, since
1958*
Shanghai,
People's Republic of China, since
1986*
Dresden,
Germany (then
East Germany), since
1987*
León,
Nicaragua, since
1989*
ÅŒsaka,
Japan, since
1989*
Prague,
Czech Republic, since
1990*
Chicago,
Illinois,
U.S., since
1994 |
Landungsbrücken ("Jetties"), in St. Pauli district |
The most significant economic basis for Hamburg in the past centuries has been (and still is) its harbour (see:
Hamburg Harbour), which ranks 2
nd in Europe and 9
th worldwide with transshipments of 7 million standard container units (
TEU) and 115 million tons of goods in 2004. International trade is also the reason for the large number of
consulates in the city. Although situated several kilometres up the Elbe, due to its ability to handle sea ships it is considered a sea harbour.
|
Channel between harbour and the inner-city lakes |
Other important industries are the aerospace company
Airbus, which has one of its two assembly plants located there, and media businesses, most notably three of Germany's largest publishing companies, Axel Springer Verlag [
1], Gruner + Jahr [
2] and Heinrich Bauer Verlag [
3]. About half of Germany's national newspapers and magazines are produced in Hamburg. There are also a number of music companies (the largest being
Warner Music Germany) and Internet businesses (e.g.
AOL,
Adobe Systems and
Google Germany). Heavy industry includes a steel, an aluminium and Europe's largest copper plant [
4], and a number of shipyards like Blohm + Voss [
5]. Research
DESY -
Deutsches
Elektronen
SYnchrotron, the German Electron Synchrotron
Hamburg is connected by four
Autobahnen (motorways) and is the most important railway junction on the route to Northern Europe. Hamburg's international airport is
Hamburg Airport, which is the oldest airport in Germany still in operation.
Though large cities in Germany normally only have a one-letter prefix (e.g. B for Berlin), Hamburg's vehicle
licence plate prefix is "HH" (Hansestadt Hamburg, English: Hanseatic City of Hamburg), which underlines Hamburg's historic roots and allows the city of
Hanover to use the prefix "H".
As in most larger German cities, public transport is organised by a fare-collection joint venture between transportation companies. Tickets sold by one member company in this
Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (HVV) are valid on all other HVV companies' services.
Nine
mass transit routes across the city are the backbone of Hamburg public transport. Three lines comprise the
U-Bahn and six the
S-Bahn system. U-Bahn, short for Untergrundbahn (underground, subway), is a standard German term for a municipally owned, electric mass transit system. Very little of the U-Bahn lies underground; most of the U-Bahn tracks are on embankments or viaducts or at ground level. Older residents still speak of the system as the
Hochbahn ("elevated railway"). A
light rail system, the AKN, connects to satellite towns in Schleswig-Holstein. Gaps in the mass-transit network are filled by bus routes, plied by single-deck, two- and three-axle diesel buses. Hamburg has no trams or trolley-buses, but has hydrogen fuelled buses operating pilot services.
Finally, regional trains of Germany's major railway company
Deutsche Bahn AG and the regional
Metronom trains may be used with a HVV public transport ticket, too. Except at the three bigger stations in the centre of Hamburg, the regional trains hardly stop again inside the area of the city.
A 24-hour bus network operates as frequently as every 2 minutes on busy routes (30 minutes in suburban areas). There are six ferry lines along the river
Elbe, operated by the
HADAG company. While mainly needed by Hamburg citizens and dock workers, they can also be used for sightseeing tours at the (relatively) low fees of a HVV public transport ticket.
|
Hamburg harbour on the river Elbe |
Bridges and Tunnels
Hamburg has a number of prominent buildings from the past and present.
Speicherstadt,
The many canals in Hamburg are crossed by over 2300 bridges — more than
Amsterdam (1200) and
Venice (400) combined.
*
Köhlbrandbrücke*
Freihafen Elbbrücken*
Old Elbe Tunnel (
Alter Elbtunnel)
*
New Elbe Tunnel (
Elbtunnel)
Churches
The skyline of Hamburg features the high spires of the five principal churches (
Hauptkirchen) covered with green copper plates.
*
St. Michaeliskirche (Saint Michael's Church, nicknamed "Michel," like "Mickey")
*
St. Nikolaikirche (Saint Nicolas' Church, memorial)
*
St. Petrikirche (Saint Peter's Church, 11th century)
*
St. Jakobikirche (Saint Jacob's Church, 13th century)
*
St. Katharinenkirche (Saint Catherine's Church, 14th century)
Other churches are also visible in the inner city:
*
St.Johannis, Harvestehude, Hamburg (Saint John's) at the
AußenalsterTowers and masts
*
Heinrich-Hertz-Turm*
Transmitter Hamburg-Billstedt |
The smaller Alster lake at dusk |
Theatres
*
Altonaer Theater*
Theater Allee*
Schauspielhaus*
Ernst-Deutsch-Theater*
Hansa Theater*
Theater im Zimmer*
English Theatre*
St. Pauli Theater*
Schmidts Tivoli *
Hamburger Kammerspiele*
Imperial Theater*
komödie - im Winterhuder Fährhaus*
Thalia Theater*
Thalia Gaußstraße*
Monsun Theater*
Theater Imago*
Kampnagel Fabrik*
Theater für Kinder*
Neues Theater am Holstenwall*
Theater in der Basilika*
Schilleroper*
Theaterschiff am Mäuseturm*
Ohnsorg-Theaterâ€"a theatre in which the actors speak
Low Saxon (but they speak
Missingsch-infused
German for national television broadcasts, since
Low Saxon in not comprehensible to most German speakers)
Dance clubs
*Angie's Nightclub (Soul/Jazz/Livebands)
website*Change (Gay)(Electronica)
website*China Lounge (House)
website*Docks (Trance/Latin/RnB/Mixed)
website*Cult Club (70s, 80s, Classics)
website*Echochamber (Reggae/Dancehall/Electro)
website (CLOSED)
*Funky Pussy Club (HipHop/R&B)
Info*Golden Pudel Club (Electronic/Dancehall/left-wing political events)
website*Große Freiheit 36 (Mixed)
website*Grünspan (Mixed/Livebands)
website*Hafenklang (Mixed/Liveacts)
website*Kaiserkeller (in the basement of Große Freiheit 36)
*Kir (Alternative/Mixed/Wednesday=Gay)
website*Lounge (House/Soul/Latin/Lounge)
Info*Molotow (Livemusic/Clubnights/Rock)
website*Pit (Gay)(Electronica)(Bondar)
website*Pacha (House)
website*Rutsche (Dancehall/Techno/Pop/Rock)
*Superfly (House/HipHop/Mixed)
website*Tanzhalle (DJs/Liveacts)
website*Thomas Read (House/Pop/R&B)
website*Waagenbau (Electronica/Techno/HipHop)
website*Rote Flora (Mixed-Liveacts/Djs/Left-wing political discussions)
website*Übel und Gefährlich (Mixed/Livebands/Liveacts)
websiteMusic
Classical:
*Famous
organ built by
Arp Schnitger (1648-1719)
*
Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra*
North German Radio Symphony Orchestra (NDR-Symphonieorchester)Famous Composers:
*
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) died in Hamburg.
*
Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach (1714-1788, a son of
Johann Sebastian Bach) died in Hamburg.
*
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) was born in Hamburg.
*
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was born in Hamburg.
Contemporary:Hamburg is known for giving
the Beatles a start in their musical career in the early 1960s. They played at the
Star-Club, which was located in the district
St. Pauli near the perhaps most famous street of Hamburg, the
Reeperbahn.
Sascha Konietzko the frontman and founder of
KMFDM is from Hamburg and visits reguarly.
More recently it is known for some of the most popular German
hip hop acts, such as
5 Sterne Deluxe,
Samy Deluxe,
Beginner and
Fettes Brot. There is also a quite big
alternative and
punk scene which gathers around the
Rote Flora, an occupied villa located in the district of Sternschanze. Some of the musicians of the famous electronic band
Kraftwerk also came from Hamburg.
Hamburg is also famous for an original kind of German
alternative music called
Hamburger Schule ("Hamburg School"), a term used for bands like
Die Sterne,
Tocotronic,
Blumfeld and
Tomte.
Hamburg was one of the major centres of the
heavy metal music world in the 1980's. Many bands such as
Helloween,
Running Wild and
Grave Digger got their start in Hamburg. The influences of these bands and other bands from the area were critical to establishing the subgenre of
Power metal.
|
The Lion King theatre in Hamburg's harbour |
Since the German premiere of
Cats in
1985 there are always a number of
musicals being played in the city. Among them have been
Phantom of the Opera,
The Lion King or Dirty Dancing ( before there was
Dance of the Vampires). This density, which is the highest in Germany, is partly due to Germany's major musical production company
Stage Entertainment being located in Hamburg. One of the musical theatres is a large tent in the harbour, guests either arrive by boat or through the historic
Old Elbe Tunnel.
Museums
Museums in Hamburg include:
*Altona Museum and North German State Museum [
6]
*Art Gallery (
Kunsthalle Hamburg) [
7]
*Brahmsmuseum
*Bucerius Kunst Forum [
8]
*Hamburg Museum for Archaeology and the History of
Harburg*
Neuengamme concentration camp memorial [
9]
*Speicherstadt Museum [
10]
*Museum of Hamburg History (Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte) [
11]
*Museum of Art and Design (Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe) [
12]
*Museum of Ethnography (Museum für Völkerkunde) [
13]
*Museum of Labour (Museum der Arbeit) [
14]
Although Hamburg is jokingly said to be the birthplace of the
Hamburger, this is just a myth. The hamburger was allegedly named after Hamburg. Original Hamburg dishes are
Bohnen, Birnen und Speck (
Low Saxon Bohn, Peern un Speck, green runner beans cooked with pears and bacon),
Aalsuppe (
Low Saxon Oolsupp, often mistaken to be German for "eel soup" (
Aal/
Ool ‘eel'), however the name probably comes from the Low Saxon
allns [Ê"aË‘lns], meaning "all", "everything and the kitchen sink", not necessarily eel. Today eel is often included to meet the expectations of unsuspecting diners.),
Bratkartoffeln (
Low Saxon Brootkartüffeln, pan-fried potato slices),
Finkenwerder Scholle (
Low Saxon Finkwarder Scholl, pan-fried plaice),
Pannfisch (pan-fried fish),
Rote Grütze (
Low Saxon Rode Grütt, related to Danish
rødgrød, a type of summer pudding made mostly from berries and usually served with cream, like Danish
rødgrød med fløde) and
Labskaus (a mixture of corned beef, mashed potatoes and beet root, 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). Hamburg is the birthplace of
Alsterwasser (a reference to the city's river
Alster with two lake-like bodies in the city centre thanks to damming), a type of
shandy, a concoction of equal parts of
beer and carbonated lemonade (
Zitronenlimonade), the lemonade being added to the beer. Hamburg is also home to a curious regional pastry called
Franzbrötchen. Looking rather like a flattened croissant, the
Franzbrötchen is somewhat similar in preparation but includes a
cinnamon and
sugar filling, often with
raisins or brown sugar
streussel. 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." Being a Hamburg regional food, the
Franzbrötchen becomes quite scarce outside the borders of the city; as near as
Lunenburg (
Lüneburg) it can only be found as a
Hamburger and is not to be had in
Bremen at all. Ordinary bread rollsâ€"without which a leisurely weekend breakfast in Hamburg is unimaginableâ€"tend to be oval-shaped and of the French bread variety. The local name is
Rundstück ("round piece" rather than mainstream German
Brötchen, diminutive form of
Brot "bread"), a relative of Denmark's
rundstykke. In fact, while by no means identical, the cuisines of Hamburg and
Denmark, especially of
Copenhagen have a lot in common. This also includes a predilection for open-faced sandwiches of all sorts, especially topped with cold-smoked or pickled fish. The American
hamburger seems to have developed from Hamburg's
Frikadelle (or
Frikandelle): a pan-fried patty (usually larger and thicker than the 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. (Many Hamburgers consider their
Frikadelle and the American hamburger different, virtually unrelated "creatures.")
80 % German, 20 % Other ( mostly Turkish, Italian and Polish)
37 % Protestant,10 % Catholic,8 % Muslim,40 % none
As elsewhere in Northern Germany, the original language of Hamburg is
Low Saxon, usually referred to as
Hamborger Platt (German
Hamburger Platt) or
Hamborgsch. It is still is use, albeit by a minority and rarely in public, probably due to a hostile climate between World War II and the early 1980s. Since large-scale Germanisation beginning in earnest with in the 18th century, various Low German-coloured dialects have developed (contact-varieties of
German on
Low Saxon substrates). Originally, there was a range of such
Missingsch varieties, best known being the low-prestige ones of the working classes and the somewhat more "posh" bourgeois
Hanseatendeutsch. All of these are now moribund due to the influences of "proper" German propagated by education and media, perhaps also because of gradual erosion of the erstwhile independent spirit and local pride of Hamburg's population. In addition, immigration brought numerous dialects from all over the German-speaking world used to Hamburg, also a large number of foreign language communities, such as
Turkish,
Kurdish,
Italian,
Arabic,
Berber,
Persian,
Spanish,
Portuguese,
Serbo-Croatian,
Polish,
Russian,
English,
Scandinavian,
Finnish,
Chinese,
Japanese,
Vietnamese,
Filipino and numerous sub-Saharan
African languages. Furthermore, Hamburg has a sizeable population of
Sinti and
Roma ("Gypsy") people, some of them sedentary (mostly
Sinti) and some of them
nomadic or
semi-nomadic (mostly Roma), camp grounds being set aside by the state and municipal governments. Hamburg is thus one of the few locations in the world in which both
Sinti and
Romany are spoken, and it is also one of the major headquarters of international
Roma organisations.
Universities
*
University of Hamburg website*University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf
website*
Hamburg University of Applied Sciences website*Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg
website*HWP - Hamburger Universität für Wirtschaft und Politik
website*HFH - Hamburger Fern-Hochschule
website*
Helmut Schmidt University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg
website*Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg
website*Fachhochschule für Öffentliche Verwaltung Hamburg
website*Fachhochschule für Finanzen (website not available yet)
*Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg
website*Evangelische Fachhochschule für Sozialpädagogik, Soziale Arbeit und Diakonie
website*
Bucerius Law School - Hochschule für Rechtswissenschaft
website*European University of Applied Sciences Hamburg
website*HCU - HafenCity University for Architecture, City Planning, Structural Development and Geomatics
website*HSBA - Hamburg School of Business Administration
website*AMB - Academy Fashion & Design
website*EBC - European Business College Hamburg
website*HMS -
Hamburg Media School websiteImage:Speicherstadt 1890.jpg|Warehouse district 1890Image:Speicherstadt3glp.JPG|Warehouse districtImage:Kesselhaus.JPG|The Kesselhaus (boiler house) Hamburg is generally not considered to be a tourism magnet, not even by locals. Nevertheless, tourism plays a significant role in the city's economy, and according to the magazine
Travelhouse Media even two of the most visited sites in Germany are located here: the harbour (8 million visitors per year) and the Reeperbahn (4 million), compared to famous sites like the
Cathedral in Cologne (6 million) or the castle
Neuschwanstein (200,000) unexpected high numbers to most people.
Hamburg is best visited in spring or summer. 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. Of course, a visit in one of the world's largest harbours would be incomplete without having taken one of the harbour and/or canal boat tours (
Große Hafenrundfahrt,
Fleetfahrt) which start from the Landungsbrücken. Many visitors take a walk in the evening around the area of
Reeperbahn, considered Europe's second largest red light district and home of many theatres, bars and night clubs. Others prefer the laidback Schanze district with its street cafés or a barbecue on one of the beaches along the river Elbe. And not to forget: Hamburg's famous Hagenbeck's Tierpark (Zoo) with the great artificial rocka and the first moated, barless enclosures ever to be built (1907). A friend of Hagenbeck's, the illustrator
Heinrich Leutemann made some illustrations here.
Quite common is a tour through Northern Germany with Hamburg as a starting point or stop-over.
However, most people visit Hamburg because of a specific interest, notably one of the musicals, a sports event, a congress or fair. Therefore, in
2005, the average visitor spent two nights in Hamburg. The majority of visitors come from Germany (80%); most foreigners are European, especially from the
United Kingdom and
Switzerland, and the largest group from outside Europe comes from the
U.S. An interesting footnote is the high number of rich guests from the
Arabian peninsula, who seek treatment in one of Hamburg's hospitals.
A more recent attraction is the Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg. This expanding model railway exhibition had more than 800,000 visitors in 2005 and is reputed to be the largest model railway in the world.
Regular events
For the interested visitor, some events held every year:
* Sports (Note that a registration, usually months in advance, is needed for public races.)
** Hamburg Marathon [
15] -
marathon, open to the public: April
** Tennis Masters Series: May
** HSH Nordbank Run - open to the public. Race through the
HafenCity (HarbourCity): May
**
Dragon boat race, open to the public: August
** Cyclassics [
16] - UCI-ProTour bike race, open to the public: August
** Hamburg City Man Triathlon [
17] -
triathlon, open to the public: August
* Film festivals
** Filmfest Hamburg [
18]: September
** Fantasy Filmfest [
19]: April
** Kurzfilmfestival - International Short Film Festival [
20]: June
** Lateinamerika-Filmtage - Latin-America Days [
21]: December
** Spanische Filmtage - Spanish Days [
22]: July
** Lesbian & Gay Film Festival Hamburg [
23]: October
* Arts & Exhibitions
** International Fireworks Festival: August
** Kirschblütenfest - Grand fireworks and Japanese culture: May
** Lange Nacht der Museen - one ticket, 40 of Hamburg's museums open until midnight: May
** Theme nights (jungle, romantic, Asian) at Hagenbeck's zoo [
24]: Saturdays in summer
* Music
** Fleetinselfest - Music and international artists open air [
25]: July
** G-Move -
Techno parade: June
** Schlagermove - German 1960's / 1970's music parade [
26]: July
* Fun / Street Festivals
** Alstervergnügen [
27] - Alster fair: August
**
Christopher Street Day (Gay Pride Parade) [
28]: June
** Hamburger Dom - considered the biggest seasonal theme park in northern Germany: three times a year
** Hafengeburtstag [
29]- Hamburg's harbour birthday: May
** Motorradgottesdienst - Biker's divine service in Hamburg's largest church St. Michaelis: June
Actors / Actresses, Filmmakers and Directors
*
Gustaf Gründgens*
Hans Albers*
Fatih Akın*
Heidi Kabel*
Heinz Erhardt*
Horst Janson*
Jürgen Vogel*
Hark Bohm*
Andreas Schnaas*
Uwe Friedrichsen*
Douglas Sirk*
Wolfgang Menge*
Gyula Trebitsch*
Helmut Griem*
Dietrich Kuhlbrodt*
Reinhold Schünzel*
Karl-Heinz von Hassel*
Jürgen Roland*
Ida Ehre*
Jason HawkeArchitects, Designers, Photographers, Artists and Painters
*
Fritz Höger*
Ernst Barlach*
Franz Bernhard Schiller*
Meister Bertram*
Hugo Lederer*
Fritz Schumacher*
Gottfried Semper*
Martin Haller *
Hans and Oskar Gerson*
Franz Gustav Joachim Forsmann*
Horst Janssen*
Herbert List*
Bill Brandt*
Alfred Lichtwark*
Arthur Illies*
Carl Julius Milde*
Anita Rée*
Philipp Otto Runge*
Karl Lagerfeld*
Jil SanderMusicians and Composers
*
Hieronymus Praetorius (1560 - 1629)
*
Johann Schop (approx. 1590 - 1667)
*
Arp Schnitger (1648 - 1719)
*
Vincent Lübeck (1654 - 1740)
*
Reinhard Keiser (1674 - 1739)
*
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681 - 1767)
*
Johann Mattheson (1681 - 1764)
*
Carl Philip Emanuel Bach (1714 - 1788), a son of
Johann Sebastian Bach*
Karl David Stegmann (1751 - 1826)
*
Fanny Hensel (1805 - 1847)
*
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809 - 1847)
*
Hans Guido von Bülow (1830 - 1894)
*
Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897)
*
Wolf Biermann (* 1936)
Poets, Writers and Journalists
*
Rudolf Augstein*
Wolfgang Borchert*
Barthold Heinrich Brockes*
Matthias Claudius*
Marion Dönhoff*
Ralph Giordano*
Heinrich Heine*
Hans Henny Jahn*
Hans Massaquoi*
Walter Jens*
Helmut Heißenbüttel*
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock*
Brigitte Kronauer*
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing*
Carl von Ossietzky*
Hans Erich Nossack*
Jan Philipp Reemstma*
Peter Rühmkorf*
James H. Schmitz*
Uwe Timm*
Peter von ZahnPoliticians
*
August Bebel, founder of the SPD
*
Ernst Thälmann, leader of the KPD during the Weimar Republic
*
Helmut Schmidt, former
Chancellor of Germany*Lord
Ralf Dahrendorf*
Klaus von Dohnanyi, former mayor and federal minister
*
Adolph Schönfelder, chairman of the parliamentary council
*
Max Brauer, former mayor
*
Theodor Haubach, Nazi resistance movement
*
Alma Wartenberg, early feminist activist
*
Herbert Weichmann, former mayor and minister
Scientists
*
Heinrich Albers-Schönberg (1865-1921), radiologist
*
Emil Artin (1898 â€" 1962), mathematician
*
Heinrich Barth (1821â€"1865), geographer, ethnologist and linguist
*
Johann Bernhard Basedow (1723 - 1790), educational reformer
*
Ami Boué (1794 â€" 1881), geologist and physician
*
Erwin Bünning (1906 â€" 1990), biologist
*
Otto Paul Herrmann Diels (1876 â€" 1954), chemist
*
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857 â€" 1894), physicist
*
Walter Kaminsky, (* 1941), chemistry professor
*
Niklot Klüßendorf (* 1944), numismatician
*
Agathe Lasch (1879 â€" 1942), German studies specialist
*
Max Nonne, (1861 - 1959), neurologist
*
Heinrich Pette (1885 - 1960) experimental virologists, polio researcher
*
Werner Rolfinck (1599 â€" 1633), physician, scientist and phytologist
*
Matthias Jacob Schleiden (1804â€"1881), phytologist
*
Amalie Sieveking (1794 - 1859), philantropist
*
Tom Stonier (1927 â€" 1999), biologist, information scientist and philosopher
*
Jürgen Voß (* 1936), chemist
*
Aby Warburg (1899 â€" 1929), art historian and iconologist
*
Albert Krantz (approx. 1448 - 1517), humanist und historian
Sportsmen and -women
*
Greta Blunck*
Andreas Brehme*
Gert "Charly" Dörfel*
Josef "Jupp" Posipal*
Stefan Effenberg*
Tommy Haas*
Peter-Michael Kolbe*
Ricki Osterthun*
Max Schmeling*
Uwe Seeler*
Michael Stich*
Ilse Thouret*
Michael WestphalBusinessmen
*
Henry Trefflich*
Official Hamburg website - In many languages
*
Hamburg 2020*
Picture of the hamburg nightlife - Picture from the redlight- and partydistrict St. Pauli / Kiez
*
Hafen City*
Hagenbeck's Tierpark (Zoo) at Zoo-Infos.de (in English)*
Hamburg category of the Open Directory Project DMOZ*
Hamburg travel guide - Wikitravel
*
Hamburg city guide - English