Hamburg

This article is about the city in Germany. For other uses, see Hamburg (disambiguation).

Hamburg
Hamborg (Low German)
Municipality and state
Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg
Inner Alster Lake at dusk
Inner Alster Lake at dusk
City hall
St. Pauli Piers
Hafencity
HafenCity
Speicherstadt
Speicherstadt
Elbe Philharmonic Hall
Elbe Philharmonic Hall
St. Michael's Church
St. Michael's Church
City hall
City hall
Flag of Hamburg
Flag
Coat of arms of Hamburg
Coat of arms
Official logo of Hamburg
Brandmark
Hamburg highlighted in Germany
Hamburg highlighted in Germany
Hamburg is located in Germany
Hamburg
Hamburg
Hamburg is located in Europe
Hamburg
Hamburg
Coordinates: 53°33′N 10°00′E / 53.550°N 10.000°E / 53.550; 10.000
CountryGermany
Government
 • BodyHamburg Parliament
 • First MayorPeter Tschentscher (SPD)
 • Second MayorKatharina Fegebank
 • Governing partiesSPD / Greens
 • Bundesrat votes3 (of 69)
 • Bundestag seats16 (of 736)
Area
 • City755.22 km2 (291.59 sq mi)
Population
 (2023-12-31)[2]
 • City1,964,021
 • Density2,600/km2 (6,700/sq mi)
 • Urban
2,496,600[1]
 • Metro
5,425,628
Demonym(s)German: Hamburger (male), Hamburgerin (female)
English: Hamburger(s),[3] [4] Hamburgian(s)
GDP
[5]
 • City€144.220 billion (2022)
 • Per capita€76,910 (2022)
Time zoneUTC+1 (Central (CET))
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (Central (CEST))
Postal code(s)
20001–21149, 22001–22769
Area code(s)040
ISO 3166 codeDE-HH
Vehicle registration
  • HH (1906–1945; again since 1956)
  • MGH (1945)
  • H (1945–1947)
  • HG (1947)
  • BH (1948–1956)
NUTS RegionDE6
HDI (2021)0.972[6]
very high · 1st of 16
Websitehamburg.com

Hamburg (German: [ˈhambʊʁk] ⓘ,[7] locally also [ˈhambʊɪ̯ç] ⓘ; Low Saxon: Hamborg [ˈhambɔːç] ⓘ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,[8][9] is the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and 6th-largest in the European Union with a population of over 1.9 million.[10][1] The Hamburg Metropolitan Region has a population of over 5.1 million and is the eighth-largest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union.

At the southern tip of the Jutland Peninsula, Hamburg stands on the branching River Elbe at the head of a 110 km (68 mi) estuary to the North Sea, on the mouth of the Alster and Bille. Hamburg is one of Germany's three city-states alongside Berlin and Bremen, and is surrounded by Schleswig-Holstein to the north and Lower Saxony to the south. The Port of Hamburg is Germany's largest and Europe's third-largest, after Rotterdam and Antwerp. The local dialect is a variant of Low Saxon.

The official name reflects Hamburg's history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League and a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. Before the 1871 unification of Germany, it was a fully sovereign city state, and before 1919 formed a civic republic headed constitutionally by a class of hereditary Grand Burghers or Hanseaten. Beset by disasters such as the Great Fire of Hamburg, North Sea flood of 1962 and military conflicts including World War II bombing raids, the city has managed to recover and emerge wealthier after each catastrophe.

Major regional broadcaster NDR, the printing and publishing firm Gruner + Jahr and the newspapers Der Spiegel and Die Zeit are based in the city. Hamburg is the seat of Germany's oldest stock exchange and the world's oldest merchant bank, Berenberg Bank. Media, commercial, logistical, and industrial firms with significant locations in the city include multinationals Airbus, Blohm + Voss, Aurubis, Beiersdorf, Lufthansa and Unilever. Hamburg is also a major European science, research, and education hub, with several universities and institutions, including the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron Laboratory DESY. The city enjoys a very high quality of living, being ranked 19th in the 2019 Mercer Quality of Living Survey.[11]

Hamburg hosts specialists in world economics and international law, including consular and diplomatic missions such as the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the EU-LAC Foundation, and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, multipartite international political conferences and summits such as Europe and China and the G20. Former German chancellors Helmut Schmidt and Angela Merkel were both born in Hamburg. The former Mayor of Hamburg, Olaf Scholz, has been the current German chancellor since December 2021.

Hamburg is a major international and domestic tourist destination. The Speicherstadt and Kontorhausviertel were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 2015.[12] Hamburg's rivers and canals are crossed by around 2,500 bridges, making it the city with the highest number of bridges in Europe,[13] and with 5 of the world's 29 tallest churches standing in Hamburg, it is also the city with the highest number of churches surpassing 100 metres (330 ft) worldwide. Aside from its rich architectural heritage, the city is also home to notable cultural venues such as the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle concert halls. It gave birth to movements like Hamburger Schule and paved the way for bands including the Beatles. Hamburg is also known for several theatres and a variety of musical shows. St. Pauli's Reeperbahn is among the best-known European red light districts.

  1. ^ a b citypopulation.de quoting Federal Statistics Office. "Germany: Urban Areas". Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  2. ^ "Bevölkerung in Hamburg am 31.12.2023 nach Stadtteilen". Statistisches Amt für Hamburg und Schleswig-Holstein. May 2024.
  3. ^ "Definition of HAMBURG". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  4. ^ "What are Hamburg people called? – SidmartinBio". www.sidmartinbio.org. Archived from the original on 6 March 2022. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  5. ^ "Bruttoinlandsprodukt, Bruttowertschöpfung | Statistikportal.de". Statistische Ämter des Bundes und der Länder | Gemeinsames Statistikportal (in German). Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  6. ^ "Sub-national HDI – Area Database – Global Data Lab". hdi.globaldatalab.org. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  7. ^ Krech, Eva Maria; Stock, Eberhard; Hirschfeld, Ursula; Anders, Lutz-Christian (2009), Deutsches Aussprachewörterbuch, Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, p. 565, ISBN 978-3-11-018202-6
  8. ^ (German: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; Low Saxon: Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg)
  9. ^ Verfassung der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg [Constitution of Hamburg] (in German) (11th ed.), 6 June 1952, archived from the original on 10 June 2007, retrieved 21 September 2008.
  10. ^ "Hamburg in Zahlen". hamburg.de (in German). Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  11. ^ "Quality of Living City Ranking". mercer.com. Mercer. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  12. ^ Media release on the website of Hamburg Marketing, retrieved on 19 March 2016.
  13. ^ "Anzahl der Brücken in Städten Europas". Statista (in German). Retrieved 19 May 2020.