Hamburg Museums and Attractions
From:
Hamburg City Guide
ABOVE: Between 1901 and 1939, millions of Eastern
Europeans passed through Ballinstadt, the "port of dreams" for emigrants to the
New World.
Museums
As you might expect of a prosperous city with nearly 2 million
people, Hamburg has museums for every taste. Here are just a few:
 Hamburger
Kunsthalle is the city's leading art museum, with three buildings that house
paintings, scultpure, and other works from medieval through modern times. It's
conveniently located in the city center, next to the main railroad station.
Just across from the station is the
Museum für Kunst und
Gewerbe (informally known as the MKG), which
focuses on art, applied art, and design from ancient times to the present day.
 The
International Maritime
Museum, which opened in 2008, has "ten decks, ten thousand exhibits" in a
renovated brick warehouse surrounded by water in the Speicherstadt. Its boat
models and other exhibits portray "the infinite expanse of the maritime world."
 Ballinstadt
(see photo at top of page) is the settlement where emigrants bound for the New
World waited to board HAPAG passenger ships from 1901 until the 1930s. You can
visit the restored dormitories and learn about the estimated 5 million German
and Eastern European emigrants who used Hamburg as their gateway to a better
life.
 Submarine:
U-434 was a Russian "sub hunter" until 2002. The retired boat is now a
museum with a permanent berth at the St. Pauli Fishmarkt (inset photo).
Miniatur
Wunderland is the world's largest model railway, with 64 computers
overseeing trains on 12 km (7½ miles) of track. It's built inside a former
warehouse in the Speicherstadt. Guided "Behind the Scenes Tours" are available,
but book ahead--each tour is limited to 6 participants. (See an
amazing YouTube
video of Miniatur Wunderland.)
 Rickmer
Rickmers is Hamburg's oldest (and arguably most famous) museum ship.
The 19th Century windjammer began life on the trade route between Germany and
Hong Kong, and it later served as a Portuguese naval training ship after being
seized in the Azores in 1916.
Another museum ship, the
Cap San Diego, is open daily except for Christmas Eve. The retired freighter
was built in the 1960s and was in service until 1981. The ship (which doubles as
a floating B&B) is moored at the Überseebrücke, and you can reach it directly by
boats of the Maritime Circle Line.
Back on land,
Prototyp is an automotive museum in HafenCity (see below) that displays some
40 classic sports cars, with an emphasis on Porsche. If you're a car enthusiast,
you'll enjoy the "Timeline" and other interactive features on Prototyp's
handsome Web site.
Other attractions
 The
Elbtunnel, or Old River Elbe Tunnel, is a car, bicycle, and pedestrian
tunnel that was built in 1907 to connect the St. Pauli district with the
Steinwerder docks. (See
tunnel
profile diagram.) Before the tunnel was built, small ferries carried up to
80,000 workers a day across the river: 60,000 to the docks, and another 20,000
to shipyards on the south side of the Elbe.
 HafenCity,
which we mentioned on our Sightseeing
page, is Europe's largest inner-city redevelopment project, occupying 157
hectares or 388 acres of former industrial land next to the historic
Speicherstadt warehouse district.
Projects at the HafenCity include apartment houses, office
buildings, a new philharmonic concert hall, and public parks, squares, and
promenades.
 When
HafenCity is complete in 2020-2030 (or possibly even later), it will have
increased Hamburg's inner-city area by 40 percent. You can visit the
Kesselhaus InfoCenter, take a guided tour on foot or by bicycle, and enjoy a
360-degree panorama of HafenCity from the free
ViewPoint observation tower.
For more information about Hamburg's museums and attractions,
visit Hamburg Tourism's
"Museums & Exhibitions" and
"Hamburg Maritime" pages.
Next page:
Hamburg culture and entertainment
1st, 4th, 5th, 8th inset photos copyright © Marc
Fishcher.
2nd inset photo copyright © International Maritime Museum.
4th
inset photo copyright © Andreas Weber.
6th, 7th inset photos copyright © Nikada.
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