The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg is considered to be the Pearl of the North. About 2.2 million people live in the City-State of Hamburg with about 5 million people living in the metropolitan region of the Federal State. When combined with the over 80 million day tourists who visit the city every year, this makes up an entire Republic, but fortunately Hamburg cannot be visited in just one day. On the contrary, in the city of big and small freedoms, of the Reeperbahn and Elbphilharmonie, pathways and doors are open all year round with each of the city’s seven districts with their very specific charms enticing visitors from Germany and the whole world into the important harbor city.
Hamburg borders on the adjacent Federal States of Lower Saxony (in the South) and Schleswig-Holstein (in the North). You can also quickly leave Hamburg behind and be at the North or Baltic Coasts – it’s only 30 minutes’ drive to the popular Timmendorfer Strand from our subsidiary in Hamburg-Wandsbek. From a transport perspective alone, Hamburg is a city of superlatives. This applies to its transshipment ports which are almost unparalleled worldwide in this size and significance and to the airport first opened in 1911 which, despite its age, is still one of the five biggest airports in Germany. Hamburg Main Station is also one of the biggest hubs for North-European rail traffic. Personal transportation options are provided for by a well-developed local transportation system including local express trains, underground trains and buses.
In 2019 Hamburg is celebrating the 830th anniversary of the harbor – an event that regularly attracts numerous visitors to the metropolis. But also before and after the celebrations there is always something to visit, celebrate and discover in the Hanseatic city. For example the famous Speicherstadt (warehouse district) and the Kontorhaus district are UNESCO world heritage sites. From the city center you can embark on fantastic boat excursions on the Alster and Elbe and visitors young and old alike can experience the Miniatur-Wunderland or the Hagenbeck Zoo. Everyone wanting to discover all the different aspects of Hamburg will take a stroll in the morning through the Fischmarkt, visit the Cathedral and Jungfernstieg, window shop in the Mönckebergstraße and enjoy a concert in the evening in the Elbphilharmonie or in another of the music and concert venues. Hamburg is both the Blankenese villa district spread across the hills and Wilhelmsburg on a dammed up island in the river. Whether it be Wilhelmsburg, Blankenese or Wandsbek – Hamburg is a city of water and parks. And even in our own eastern location of Wandsbek, the Puvogelbrunnen Garden and the Eichtalpark, the Wandsbeker Gehölz and the Botanische Sondergarten invite you to relax and enjoy nature from spring to autumn.
The Hamburg lifestyle – in this city of unexpected possibilities everyone has a different understanding of what this means. In addition to the Reeperbahn and the Schanzen districts where life really only wakes up in the evenings, there are numerous concert halls, clubs, theaters, cinemas and of course a sophisticated restaurant scene for visitors and inhabitants alike to spend their enjoyable and pleasurable leisure time. As a musical location where famous productions such as The Lion King – now in its second decade – are performed, Hamburg ranks just behind New York and London. But there is also a firm place for small-scale and alternative art in the metropolis. The structural change has enabled Hamburg to emerge in a new way as a world-ranking metropolis. This is clearly reflected in the lifestyle of the Hamburgers. That the Hamburgers have still remained grounded and seaworthy and retained their own linguistic uniqueness and also like to mock the ambitious plans of their state government, makes them all the more lovable.
It is not known who was the first person who described Hamburg as the gateway to the world. The simple fact is that anyone who has paced through the town will hardly find a reason to go back out into the world. This is because as the center of a region encompassing about five million people, the city has everything your heart desires, namely the pulsating life of a growing major city on the one hand, and the possibility of relaxing outdoors on the water or in one of the numerous parks on the other.