This is part 7 of 16 of a journey through my home country: Germany.

I invite everyone to take a closer look at what I call home. I will show you sides of today-Germany you didn't know of - especially when you are not German.
A lot of "foreigners" (actually I don't really like this word) connect Germany with beer, cars, lederhosen and sauerkraut. I admit these are parts of Germany and important ones too (especially the beer and the cars), but they by far are not everything!

This article serie will show you the 16 countries of Germany, some quite similar to each other, some totally different. Sure, this serie will mainly feature photography, but perhaps I will link to other styles of art like modern German music or so.

Our journey leads us through (click the ones in italic to see that article):

_{Bavaria
Saxony
Brandenburg
Berlin
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Schleswig-Holstein
Hamburg
Lower Saxony
Saxony-Anhalt
Thuringia
Hesse
Baden-Wuerttemberg
Rhineland-Palatinate
Saarland
North Rhine-Westphalia
Bremen}

Please, come and see...

Part 7 of 16 - Hamburg

So, we've just been to Schleswig-Holstein, the very north of Germany - let's start moving southwards again. When travelling a little to the south of Schleswig-Holstein, you will "stumble upon" Hamburg, that's sure. With 1.8 million inhabitants, Hamburg is not only the second biggest German city (after Berlin), it also is the biggest European city which is not a capital.

Hamburger (yes, the people of Hamburg are called like that!) believe that Hamburg is the most beautiful city in the world - and in this article, you will see, why! The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg is a beauty, and probably the world's only metropolis that doesn't let you think you're entrapped in a jungle of concrete, steel and glass.

Hamburg is about 1200 years old, it was founded as a castle by famous medieval ruler Charlemagne. Due to various fires, raids, wars and floods, the location of that castle is unknown today.
Hamburg lies at the Elbe river, which starts to open up here. Together with the small Alster river and the huge port (second biggest in Europe), Hamburg has a very, very maritime flair, even if the North Sea still is about 100km to the north.

Trade has always been the domain of Hamburg. Today, it is Germany's most important transportation hub. Since the time of the Hanseatic League, Hamburg had huge storage houses for coffee, spices and everything else from around the world.
Luckily, these storages did not get lost in the centuries (and in the WWII bombing of the city), so that the old "Speicherstadt", as these quarter is called, is one of Hamburg's major tourist attractions.

You can book tours with small ships through this quarter and view the storages ("Speicher") from the waterside. You can even smell the scent of spices between these old houses.
While on your tour through the Speicherstadt, you will pass dozens of bridges. Hamburg (and not Venice, as one may think) is the city with the most brigdes in the world. Some big, some so tiny you won't even recognize them as a bridge.

When speaking of bridges in Hamburg, we must not miss the Landungsbrücken (gangplanks or piers) in St. Pauli. They are old landing stages and the place where most tourist tours on water start and end. From here, you have a wonderful view over the harbour.

The Landungsbrücken are part of the quarter of St. Pauli, which most will know for the famous Reeperbahn red light district. Often, the term for the whole quarter is used when talking about the red light distric. That's not correct, St. Pauli is more (for example one of the coolest football-clubs on earth - or the place of the very, very first The Beatles concerts), even the Reeperbahn itself is not (only) a dirty, criminal area where you should not got: it's an amusement quarter with cinemas, clubs, bars and everything - plus the brothels.

When you partied all night on the Reeperbahn (or did other things there), you should go to the fish-market the next morning. This is kind of a tradition among young North-Germans (no matter where from, people even drive 200km from the south of Lower Saxony or the north of Schleswig-Holstein after a good party to go there). Earlier, this really was a fish market, today it's more or less a coloured bazaar - yet you can still buy fish or living animals on that market. The vendors are announcing their products quite loud and often are rather rude, especially with tourists - this is wanted and adds to the atmosphere of the market.

After having had a nice fish roll to blow the alcohol out of your mind, you might want to visit some old buildings or churches. Hamburg is blessed with interesting buildings, for example the "Michel" (cathedral of St. Michaelis), the city's landmark.
Yet, other buildings like the train station or the city hall are quite remarkable, too.
And you should not miss the Bunker! There are two old bunkers left in Hamburg and the one on the Heiligengeistfeld is rather famous. It's massive, it's spooky and cool.

But now, let's go to the harbour. It's important for the city and whole Germany. Though the ships have to travel about 110km to reach open waters, the Hamburg Harbour has become one of the most important ports worldwide. We need this big port, as Germany is a massively exporting nation - and that's why we call it our "Gateway to the World"!

Right next to the harbour, they're building the socalled "Hafen City", a brand new living and working quarter and a paradise for us photographers:

Unfortunately, it's not yet finished!
So... as a port, Hamburg is a very cosmopolitan city. About 15% of the inhabitants are not German (not counting those with onlyt one German parent), this is one of the highest rates of foreigners in Germany - yet, Hamburg does not have major problems with neo-nazis or racism.
This open-minded and cosmopolitan culture helps Hamburg a lot - it causes a brain-gain, which adds to the important industries of the city: aviation, shipbuilding, chemistry, logistics and media!

Hamburg too is a capital for sport, culture, art and all kinds of amusement. For examples, Hamburg has several musicals to play in town like The Lion King, Dirty Dancing, I've never been to New York or Phantom of the Opera in earlier days. It has a big opera scene and is builing one of the most spectacular concert houses ever: A glass crown on an old Speicher in Hafen City. Hamburg is home to a very successful football club, the HSV and other successfull clubs from all kind of sports: icehockey, hockey, floorball, handball. With the HT16, Hamburg has the world's oldest official sports club.
Yet, besides all that, sailing is one of the most important things in Hamburg. To celebrate the maritime tradition and the creation of the port, Hamburg celebrates the "Hafengeburtstag" every year around May 7th (that's in about 2 weeks!) - a big festival with lots of ships that attracts about 1 million people every year.

Well, that's about it. As always, I left away all the areas that are "pure living areas", even if Hamburg has huge villas and other interesting quarters that are worth a look besides all the tourist attractions.
Some last words: With it's size and economic power, Hamburg also a very dominant city in TV and music. Several important German actors are Hamburger, so are several singers, bands and DJs. Especially the Rap/Hip-Hop scene and the Techno/Electro/Trance scene flourishes in Hamburg and they always kind of battle with Berlin. Hamburg too is a major setting for movies and series, as it is big and pretty.
On the other hand, real Hamburger are typical North Germans: They don't speak much and if they do it sounds a little strange (see my last article about Schleswig-Holstein, where I wrote about Low German!) but lovely nontheless. They have an open heart for everyone, yet they try to hide it a little. They may appear rude, but they are not: they are direct like hell. Don't expect them to say something untrue out of politeness, lying is rather seen as unpoliteness ("Did I gain weight?" - "Yo!")!

Now, this was only a very, very short trip through Hamburg and I know I missed a lot (if not almost everything). But this is supposed to be a short, informative journal and not a travel guide. I hope you like the pictures - if you do, please give the artists a visit and/or a fav, they really deserve it.

If you have any questions about this station of our trip or Germany as a whole: please ask, I'll try to answer as quick as possible.
And if you have any suggestions about how to make this trip any better, please don't hesitate to write me, either.

Artists featured in this article

Looking forward for your comments - and the next station of this trip...