By all measures, Hamburg is a water-centric city - historically, geographically, and atmospherically. Lying on the Elbe River (just 60 miles from the North Sea), Germany’s second largest city has had a long history as a major port and trading center for central Europe - often referred to as the country’s Gateway to the World. The city was first established as a Saxon moat-fortified earthwork ‘Hammaburg’ around 825 AD as protection from the raiding Vikings of the Scandinavian North. Hamburg’s mercantile aspirations would develop five hundred years later, when it assisted in creating (along with the city of Lübeck) a precursor to the powerful Hanseatic League of trading cities - a medieval trade alliance in Northern Europe - that would be the foundation of the city’s wealth and prosperity in the past centuries. In 1266, England granted Hamburg’s trading bloc to expand mercantile offices in London and made them the only Germans to have a reserved place at the London Stock Exchange, further expanding their trading routes to Western Europe. By the end of the Middle Ages, Hamburg was becoming a major economic power in Northern Europe, developing an independent infrastructure - including its own stock exchange and bank - and continued to grow by broadening its trading connections across the world. Today, the city boasts the second largest port in Europe (after the Port of Rotterdam), making it one of the richest metropolitan areas in the European Union and Germany’s leading media hub. Thanks to the city’s advantageous location as an international hub of travel - located on the southern point of the Jutland Peninsula, between Continental Europe to the south and Scandinavia to the north, bounded by the North Sea (to the west) and Baltic Sea (to the east) - over 100,000 enterprises from numerous sectors have called Hamburg home - such as logistics, financial, life sciences, aeronautical industry, media and IT. Hamburg’s maritime spirit had dominated its past but is also helping to shape its future, evolving from an old industrial port city to a sophisticated urban maturation - with new waterside developments and contemporary designs that see it detract the spotlight from Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich.
City Canals along the Am Sandtorkai
Port of Hamburg
The Nikolaifleet
Visitors looking for Old World Europe appeal will not find it it Hamburg. About a quarter the city’s medieval center was virtually destroyed by the 4-day “Great Fire” in 1842, followed by World War II Allied bombing that decimated the remaining historic city. Today’s city center - originally formed by damming the Alster River that created two large artificial lakes - is a mixture of vibrant neighborhoods inundated with multicultural eateries, cosmopolitan commercial areas and affluent retail shops. Historical canals, estuaries and rivers define most of the city, complemented by a reported 2,500 bridges - more than Amsterdam, London and Venice combined. Rebuilding efforts have also made Hamburg the greenest city in Europe with nearly 50% of its surface area marked by landscape features that includes some 1,400 parks and gardens. In 2011, the city was voted the European Green Capital and is used as a case study for other large densely populated urban areas to achieve continued economic growth with smart technologies and environmentally sound concepts. The key industries for Hamburg being on-and-offshore wind energy production and a clean public transportation plan to reduce carbon emissions.
Der Spiegel Headquarters by Henning Larsen Architects
Sievekingplatz
Planten un Blomen (47 hectare park in center of Hamburg)