Germany at a Glance

20 Harbour and Speicherstadt No other German city is so closely connected to shipping and trade business like Hamburg. This harbour has a history of more than eight hundred years. It is one of Europe's leading transhipment ports and among the leading container ports worldwide. In the northeast of the harbour is the historic, red-brick warehouse city complex, the Speicherstadt , which has been included in the list of the UNESCOWorld Heritage Sites in 2015. This complex, surrounded by myriad harbour canals, was built in the late 19 th century. Shipping merchants built storehouses for goods coming in from overseas. The growth of the “Free Port” provided them greater trade power, particularly when Hamburg joined the German Free Trade Zone in 1888. Since 2015 the Speicherstadt is Hamburg's first World Cultural Heritage site. • www.hamburg.de HafenCity and Elbphilharmonie (Harbour City and Concert Hall) The project of the new district HafenCity – founded in 2004 – represents one of the largest rebuilding projects in Europe in the 21 st century. Spread over 155 hectares, the HafenCity is a very famous city development project and offers more then 40,000 jobs and living place for 12,000 inhabitants. Located directly between the historic Speicherstadt, the warehouse complex, and the river Elbe , the new city is being developed with a cosmopolitan mix of apartments, service businesses, culture, leisure and tourism facilities. The project will be developed further until 2025. Hamburg is recently opened a cultural landmark – the Elbphilharmonie . It is the highest inhabited building of Hamburg, which accommodates one of the best concert halls of the world and also serve as a beckoning lighthouse for the HafenCity. The concert hall is designed on top of an old warehouse and hosts also a hotel. • www.hafencity.com • www.elbphilharmonie.de 3 4