Located on the Elbe River, 75 miles (120 kilometers) inland from the North Sea, Hamburg has long been Germany’s greatest harbor city. It serves the largest ocean liners and sends cargoes on canal and river barges to the interior. Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany and is also one of the country’s 16 Länder, or states, with an area of 292 square miles (756 square kilometers).
In Hamburg the Alster and Bille rivers meet the Elbe, and the city has numerous canals and bridges. The Altstadt (Old Town), a former medieval settlement, forms the city center. Its boundaries include the harbor and several roads that follow the outline of the old fortifications. The layout of the Altstadt can be seen in the canals that connect the Alster River with the Elbe’s docks. Two major fires—in 1842 and 1906—and bombing during World War II destroyed many of the older structures.
The Alster was dammed during the 18th century and forms a lake at its southern end. Two bridges, the Lombardsbrücke and the Kennedybrücke, divide the lake into the Binnenalster (Inner Alster) and the Aussenalster (Outer Alster).
The Deichstrasse is a historic street of merchants’ buildings that date as far back as the 17th century. Many were restored to their original condition after the great fire of 1842. Reminders of the city’s 1,200-year history are five rebuilt churches: the Katharinen, Jacobi, Michaelis, Petri, and Nickolai. South of the Binnenalster is the Rathaus, or city hall. It was built in the late 1800s in neo-Renaissance style. During the prosperous period of 1890–1910, many large, elegant homes were built around the Aussenalster. Many now house consulates of various countries; Hamburg has the most foreign consulates of any city in the world after New York City.
The 1920s and 1930s were also an architectural boom time, known especially for the revival of the use of traditional north German red brick—as for example in the Chilehaus, a German expressionist building that is shaped somewhat like a ship. Notable structures of the later 20th century include the Congress Center, which is a vast exhibition and conference center, and the Television Tower. In the 2000s a new district named HafenCity (Port City) was developed near the harbor. The architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron designed the Elbphilharmonie concert-hall complex to be one of the district’s major landmarks.
Hamburg is known for its excellent museums—especially the Kunsthalle, an art gallery featuring works from the late Middle Ages to the present. A museum called the BallinStadt focuses on the millions of emigrants who left Europe for the United States from Hamburg’s harbor between 1850 and the 1930s. The Deichtorhallen, which is one of Europe’s largest venues for art exhibitions, is dedicated to contemporary art and photography. There are also notable museums of decorative arts and crafts, local history, maritime history, and ethnology. The Reeperbahn, a red-light district whose nightclubs were once the proving ground for the British rock group the Beatles, houses a museum dedicated to the Fab Four.
The composers Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms were born in Hamburg, and the city has long maintained a musical tradition. The State Opera dates from 1678 and is the site for opera and ballet. There are three great orchestras as well as smaller groups specializing in a variety of musical styles. The neobaroque Musikhalle (Music Hall) was built in 1904–08. Plays are performed at numerous theaters.
Hagenbeck Zoo, founded in 1907, was the first zoo in the world to house animals in open-air pens. The city has many parks, including Planten un Blomen, a park famous for its rare trees and shrubs.
The University of Hamburg was founded in 1919 and is one of the largest in Germany. Other institutions of higher education include the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences and the Hamburg University of Technology. Several state schools specialize in the arts and music. More than 200 research centers in fields from oceanography to economics are located in the city.
Hamburg is one of Germany’s most prosperous cities. Some three quarters of the workforce is employed in service industries, such as transportation, real estate, information technology, tourism, and retail, wholesale, and foreign trade. Hamburg is one of Germany’s principal centers of finance and insurance and has the country’s oldest stock exchange, which dates to 1558. The city is also a site for large trade fairs and is a media hub. After Berlin it is Germany’s top center of newspaper and periodical publishing, an industry based in the city since the 17th century. Television and film production, book publishing, and advertising are also important.
The city is also a major industrial center. Among its many industries are construction and the production of aircraft, machinery and equipment, electronics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, automobile parts, processed foods, and metals. The city is home to Europe’s largest copper-smelting company, Aurubis. Steel and aluminum production, petroleum refining, and shipbuilding are also important, though the latter has declined because of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean competition.
The port’s contribution to the economy is great; it handles a large volume of foreign trade. Each year more than 10,000 ships from all over the world sail through Hamburg’s harbor. Trains of the German rail network and international lines pass through the main train station. Hamburg has been a major air-traffic center since before World War II.
Hamburg developed around a moated castle named Hammaburg, which was built in about 825. About 10 years later an archbishop was installed, and he made the town a base for Christian missionary activities in northern Europe. Because of repeated looting and burning by Danes and Slavs, Hamburg was rebuilt many times.
Hamburg’s commercial growth began in the 12th century. It served as the North Sea port for the newly founded city of Lübeck. In 1189 the emperor Frederick I granted Hamburg special trading rights, toll exemptions, and navigation rights on the Elbe. In the 13th century Lübeck, Hamburg, and other mercantile cities in northern Germany formed the Hanseatic League. The league became powerful enough to protect its land and sea trade from pirates and other marauders. In 1510 the emperor Maximilian I proclaimed Hamburg a free imperial city—an independent city-state subject only to the authority of the Holy Roman emperor. Local and coastal commerce flourished. Today, the city is still officially known as the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (a name it was given in the 19th century).
When Napoleon won the battle of Lübeck in 1810, Hamburg was occupied by French troops. There were looting and heavy taxation, and the population shrank. After the occupation ended in 1814, the city quickly returned to its former prosperity. In 1842 fire destroyed much of the business district.
Because Hamburg’s harbor is ice-free all year and because it had the finest equipment, the port grew. Its exports and imports were vast in variety and quantity. The harbor teemed with activity.
In World War II mass bombings destroyed more than half of the city and killed 55,000 people there. After the war, however, Hamburg recovered swiftly, as a city of West Germany. In the 1960s a large business district, City-Nord, was built and became a symbol of Hamburg’s commercial rebirth. After Germany was reunified in 1990, the city’s trade with eastern and central Europe increased.
The structure of the city-state’s government was established by the constitution of 1952. The Bürgerschaft (State Parliament) is the legislature; it is composed of 121 members elected to four-year terms. The Bürgerschaft elects the first mayor, who is head of the executive branch of government, known as the Senat (Senate). Population (2014 estimate), 1,746,342; urban area, 2,575,055.