Hamburg Speicherstadt

I just returned from Hamburg. As (surprise, surprise) this year’s summer in Germany is somewhat of a disaster I essentially only managed to explore Hamburg’s Speicherstadt 😦 In any case, I thought I’d share my shots with you. Wikipedia on Hamburg’s Speicherstadt:

The Speicherstadt (lit. city of warehouses, meaning warehouse district) in Hamburg, Germany is the largest timber-pile founded warehouse district in the world. It is located in the port of Hamburg—within the HafenCity quarter—and was built from 1883 to 1927.

The district was built as a free zone to transfer goods without paying customs. As of 2009 the district and the surrounding area is under redevelopment.

History

Since 1815, the independent and sovereign city of Hamburg was a member of the German Confederation—the association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna—but not member of the German Customs Union. With the establishment of the German Empire in 1871, Hamburg could not be a customs free zone and part of the German Empire. Due to treaties of 1888 Hamburg was part of the German customs zone and a free port was established.^[1]

In 1883 the demolition of the Kehrwieder area began and more than 20,000 people needed to be relocated. From 1885 to 1888 the first part was built and managed by the Freihafen-Lagerhaus-Gesellschaft (the predecessor of the Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG) During the Second World War the Speicherstadt was half-destroyed and partly reconstructed. Since 1991 it is listed a heritage site in Hamburg,^[2] and since 2008, part of the HafenCity quarter.^[3] In an attempt to revitalize the inner city area, the Hamburg government initiated the development of the HafenCity area, for example with the construction of the Elbe Philharmonic Hall.^[4]

Here is a cross-section view of the Speicherstadt from 1888.

So enough history for today – here are my favorites (not only of the Speicherstadt but a few more). Many more shots can be found below in the gallery.

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I decided to give the wordpress gallery a try to remove some clutter from my posts. Let me know what you think and whether you would prefer to have the pictures separately or as gallery.

For the gear heads: All shots taken with an Olympus E-PM 1 and a Panasonic 2omm f/1.7.