GERMANY : HAMBURG
Hamburg is a major
city port 120 km inland on the Elbe and germany's gateway to the world.
It is Germany's principal seaport and largest overseas trade and
transshipment centre as exemplified by the fact that some 130 Japanese
and more than 20 Chinese trading companies are represented there. The
port's industrial area encompasses shipyards, refineries and processing
plant for raw materials from abroad. In addition to these port-related
activities, the aerospace, electronics, precision engineering, optical
and chemical industries play an increasingly important role in this
city-state.
Within the city are
innumerable trees, parks and lakes, giving it an open, green feel. The
city's wealth is apparent in the smart houses and appartments,
especially around the Alster lake, and in the smart shops in the
Hanseviertel district. Hamburg's nightlife is world-famous, and the
infamous Reeperbahn red light district is only a small part of this. Add
to all this some superb architecture, excellent museums, and a quality
cultural scene to suit every taste, and Hamburg is a city to spend some
time in, armed with a good guide book.
Hamburg began to
flourish as a commercial town in 1189, when it was granted customs and
commercial rights. One of the first members of the Hanseatic League, it
soon became the main transshipment port between the North Sea and the
Baltic Sea. In 1460, and then finally in 1510, Hamburg was raised to the
status of an imperial city - an autonomous status it has retained to
this day. However, the devastating fire of 1842 and the Second World War
spared but few of this commercial centre's medieval buildings.
A green industrial
city. Hamburg is Germany's second largest industrial centre with a
population of 2.8 million. Nonetheless the spacious parks (e.g. 'Planten
un Blomen') and gardens, woodlands, moors and heaths, have retained its
character as one of Germany's 'greenest cities'. As a result of
Germany's unification, the port of Hamburg, with its ramified links with
the waterway network, has regained its old hinterland. This enhances the
city-state's prospects of becoming the hub of trade, services and
communications between east and west as in former times. Hamburg is also
the banking and service centre for northern Germany. The fact that it is
the world's principal consular city after New York underscores its
international status. The Congress Centre, venue for many international
exhibitions, is one of the most modern conference centres in Europe.
Hamburg's role as a
media city is uncontested. It is home to Germany's largest periodicals,
the German Press Agency (dpa), and various television and radio networks
and studios.
Hamburg has always been an attractive cultural city as
well. It was here that Germany's first permanent opera house was
established in 1678, where Georg Friedrich Handel (1685-1759) staged his
first opera ('Almira'). One of the city's famous sons was the composer
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). In 1767 the Deutsches Nationaltheater was
founded. It was linked with the name of Lessing and achieved fame
chiefly on account of its performances of Shakespeare. At that time
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803) and Matthias Claudius
(1740-1815) were Hamburg's 'literary institutions'.
In the present
century Rolf Liebermann, director of Hamburg's opera house, and Gustaf
Grundgens the actor, gave to opera and the theatre respectively a strong
international flavour with their avant-garde productions. Today the
city is also host to musical productions, such as Andrew Lloyd Webber's
'Phantom of the Opera', for which a new theatre 'Neue Flora' was
specially built. Public generosity stemming from civic pride, and a
far-sighted buying policy, have given Hamburg's Kunsthalle, Museum fur
Kunst und Gewerbe and Volkerkunde museum, to name only three,
outstanding collections.
(information
courtesy : europe-today: Germany )
