German Cities Hamburg

One of the largest German cities, and therefore designated as a Stadtstaaten by the German federal government, is Hamburg. Spread over an area of 292 square miles (755 sq. km.), Hamburg boasts over 1.75 million inhabitants, and is the most populous non-capital city in the entire European Union. Hamburg borders on the Federal States of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, and is the largest functioning port in Europe. The city’s full name is “The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,” which refers to its status as a member of the Hanseatic League during the Medieval Era, as well as a “free” city of the Holy Roman Empire. Hamburg is the most important of the German cities in terms of trade, transportation, and culture.

As with many other German cities, Hamburg has a long and diverse history. The city of Hamburg was established around the year 808 CE, when Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne constructed a castle in a marsh between the Alster and Elbe rivers in order to repel Slavic attacks. Twenty-six years later, Hamburg became the seat for a Roman Catholic Bishop, but renounced its loyalty to the Catholic Church in 1529, when Lutheranism became the preferred religion of the city. As such, many Dutch and French Protestant refugees fled their home countries and settled in Hamburg during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Hamburg was granted the status of Imperial Free City by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I in 1189, which made it a major port city in Northern Europe. With the developments of the Industrial Revolution, Hamburg’s population tripled, and the city became a center of world trade. Much of Hamburg was destroyed, and many of its citizens were killed, in Allied bombings during the Second World War.

Many German cities are significant because of their architecture, and Hamburg is no different in this respect. More than thirteen centuries of construction have lent Hamburg a wide architectural variety. Many of its most prominent buildings are churches, such as St. Nicholas’s Church, a neo-Gothic building that was nearly destroyed during World War II air raids and was refurbished in the late 1960s. Other significant churches include Saint Michael’s, Saint Peter’s, Saint James’s, and St Catherine’s.

Hamburg is also notable among the German cities as a center of tourism. This valuable business contributes enormously to the city’s economy. It is estimated that the tourism industry yields more than 9.3 billion Euros in revenue per year. More than three million tourists visited Hamburg in 2007 alone, with 700,000 of them from foreign nations. Popular tourist destinations include St. Michael’s Church, the old warehouse district, and the harbor promenade. It is possible to tour the canals of Hamburg via boat tours, as well as the city’s red light district, the Reeperbahn, where tourists can take in strip clubs, bars, and nightclubs.