the reeperbahn, hamburg's most famous street, at the spielbudenplatz.
in late january i made my way to hamburg together with my homie l. primarily we went there for a concert of the band years & years ( we always go to places for a happening, that's basically how we roll ;) ). i have never been to hamburg prior to this visit so i was really, really excited. it's one of those cities that have a legendary reputation here in germany, for many reasons, such as the reeperbahn street, which is a very popular party mile / red light district where sex shops and vaudeville clubs and discos line up next to each other and bring a hustle into the streets that's basically incomparable.
or for its harbour by the river elbe, which is so huge and expansive that you will never be able to explore it in one day. or the many architectural gems like the elphi, the huge concert hall that has recently been build in the docks of the harbour or older significant structures like the church st. michaelis or the old elbtunnel ( a tunnel that links hamburg's inner city with the other side of the norderelbe ). hamburg exudes a cosmopolitan charm like no other city in germany, and that's why it has such a magical allure, i think! it is the second-largest city of germany, and even though i always feel a little overwhelmed with such big cities at first i can honestly say that i felt absolutely at ease there, as soon as i entered the city limits. like i was a fish in the water, smoothly swimming through the city and gawking at all the wonders out there. i didn't feel overwhelmed at all. there's only one other city that made me feel like this from the start and that's london. it is so strange right? i actually like smaller cities more, because you have a better overview and it feels more cozy, but i'd definitely make an exemption for cities like hamburg or london. there's something about these cities that have great impact on me, probably because of all the history to be found everywhere, and the way they continue to write history and create interesting concepts for the future. as a lover of architecture these places are a dream come true for me! they are an amalgamation of all kinds of styles, ancient, old and new and the fact that they don't shy away from creating contrasts with more progressive ideas... it is SO enticing to me.
lately i realized the older i get the more i LOVE such contradictions, merging old and new together creating a friction that makes my nerves buzz in excitement. it's true, while i do love nature a whole lot and need it to even myself out, and while i used to dislike cities because of their busy demeanor, i am now at a point where both these contrasts are joining a connecting road and don't give me a hive when i think about them in unison. i absolutely LOVE exploring cities now, but i also love exploring nature. i think of them as two kinds of entities, which both have their charms and magic attractions, despite being so entirely different. as a human being who is constantly searching for a balance of things and weighing pros and cons against each other, trying to find a middle ground ( i am a libra after all, despite my virgo and cancer characteristics that seem more apparent in my personality, lol ), these opposites don't exclude each other anymore, but synergize into some kind of yin and yang in my brain. city and nature, manmade and natural, they both are part of one big whole concept. and to top this off, my ideal concept would be that man-made things and natural conditions fuse into something incredible someday, not excluding the other one, but creating a liaison of the two.
okay, i'm thinking a liiiiiittle big here, let's go back to the topic at hand, hamburg. like i said, hamburg ticked all the necessary check marks for me, i completely and utterly fell in love with it, despite only seeing a fraction of it and some of it only by night ( which is incredible in its own way! ). i hope to be able to visit it again, maybe even for a longer vacation trip? i think i will have to put that on my life list, lol, you know, 'things i want to do before i die' - revisit hamburg for an extended vacation.
we stayed in a hostel on the reeperbahn - yup, in the redlight district - which was perfect as headquarters because you weren't too far away from all the major sights and could walk there. the hostel itself was... average i guess, but i actually didn't care so much about this, as we were out and about most of the time anyway. hostels are hostels, and you shouldn't ever expect anything more than a clean bed to sleep in ( which is what matters the most anyway on such a short and action-filled trip lol ). ( which reminds me of our upcoming trip to london - where we had difficulties to find a decent accommodation, too 🙈 - oh, yes, by the way, london is coming in maaaaaay! )
this post is filled to the brim with hamburg sights and impressions, so without furder ado, let's dive into it! ( with a little background music from years & years because they accompanied us throughout the whole trip with their music ;) )
upon arriving we immediately checked out the surroundings - basically parts of the district st. pauli and the landungsbrücken ( st. pauli piers ). on our way there we stumbled upon this colourful high-rise, the empire riverside hotel. it was built by david chipperfield in 2007.
it snowed on that evening, which was absolutely lovely! unfortunately by the next day the snow turned into rain, which was a little bummer, but it did not deter us from exploring anyway.
down by the landungsbrücken, overlooking the harbours, the norderelbe and the many distinct cranes that define the city's image. it was quite a sight and this image doesn't do it justice. hamburg by night is something else entirely, much like frankfurt! by day it might seem a little grey and a little too industrial, but by night? by night it shines gloriously.
a jetty for boat excursions on the norderelbe ( which is, by the way, an anabranch of the actual river elbe. )
from the st. pauli piers ( which are 688 meters long and consist of the landing piers and several ship stations ) you can enter the old elbtunnel. the building in the front basically is the entry to this. it was built around the time when the tunnel was erected ( from 1907 to 1911 ). it has lots of art nouveau elements and is quite a technical masterpiece of its era, as it has several lifts for automobiles and for passengers. the erection of the tunnel alone was a massive and incredible undertaking for its time, it was generated with pressurized air techniques, which was not very common back then yet.
i didn't take a lot of photos inside, because it was under heavy construction ( at the time we visited only one of the two tunnels was traversable ). it still was quite awesome to see such an industrial relict up close. just imagine the efforts and strains the approximately 4000 workers had to go through while building this thing under the river... it was a record-breaking process for sure and not an easy or healthy task for many.
in the back you can see the DWD building - one of the branch offices of the german weather service. it resides in the old school of navigation, where in former times budding ship captains received their education. it was build from 1903 to 1905 by albert erbe.
the view towards the terminal building ( 1907 - 1909 by architects raabe & wöhlecke - the same dudes who also designed the entry building to the old elbtunnel on the left ). the actual piers are on pontoons, which you can only reach via the landing bridges you can see here on the right.
entering the old elbtunnel. it was lined with green and white glazed tiles, some with and some without reliefs that have a reference to things related to the river. for these the builders of the tunnels engaged one hermann perl, who was a well-known ceramicist. the tunnels are 426 meters long and each tunnel has a width of almost 5 meters. the road in the middle ( width: 1,82 m ) was established for wheel gauges of horse-drawn vehicles, and on each side of it are elevated passenger pathways. even though the tunnel was basically made for horse carriages, old automobiles and passengers wanting to get on the other side to work in the harbour, today it still can be used by cars - albeit only in one direction at a time and during special hours. it is not as popular anymore, though, and mostly used by passengers and cyclists these days.
i decided to shoot the tunnel in a creepier light, making it a little more claustrophobic ;)
on the other side of the tunnels in the steinwerder district you can find mostly harbour facilites ( and some theaters ), but since it got late and cold, we decided to head back to st. pauli.
a glimpse into the entry building of the tunnels. oh man, seeing things like this makes me want to go back in time and see it from the eyes of someone who can't believe that this is an actual reality, an industrial accomplishment, basically a glimpse into the future in a time that was full of groundbreaking changes. talk about steampunk atmosphere?
strolling back to st. pauli. the snow sky was incredible, but it also made the light pollution worse ( or better, depends on how you look at it, lol ).
we meandered through the streets of st. pauli a bit before we made it back to the hostel. the whole district is basically a huge party and establishment hub. frieda b. is one of the hundreds of bars and discos you can find throughout the neighborhood. it was once named chikago and was a place were pimps and other shady dudes met up and did what guys like them do. now it is a place were you can mingle with others without having to fear any repercussions, dancing and celebrating is the main enjoyment of people visiting. frieda b. is apparently named after a cartoon figure from the 1930s - a woman who was basically a man-eater. unfortunately i couldn't find anything about this mysterious protagonist so i kinda doubt that she ever existed, lol, but who knows, we can't know about every single thing there is out there, right?
establishments like these are the norm along reeperbahn. we were even invited into these, with an offer we sure couldn't resist, obviously: there were even GIRLS. if that's our sorta thing, they said. go figure 😂
you can also find cabarets and vaudeville venues everywhere. i surely loved this advertisement for hamburg's most exclusive dragshow cabaret, the pulverfass. something so oldschool about it, isn't it?
the next day we set out once more to explore hamburg's streets. here we were passing by the davidwache & the st. pauli theater. the davidwache is a police station ( in case you couldn't tell by the many police cars in the front ;) ) and it's part of the reeperbahn scenery since 1914. the beautiful brick building was built by fritz schumacher and some of the design elements were contributed by richard kuöhl. it is said to be germany's most prominent police station as it appeared in many tv movies and series. the st. pauli theater is another historic building on the spielbudenplatz, exisiting since 1841, which makes it the oldest privately owned theater of hamburg. it is also very renowned for the quality of the stage performances and acts, reaching from dialect theater and cabaret to more ambitious projects with famous actors or directors.
a view on the klubhaus st. pauli and the schmidt theater, two more venues for theatrical and musical performances on the spielbudenplatz. the red building ( erected in 2005 by hohaus sinz seifert architects ) is the schmidt theater, which offers mainly cabaret and humorous plays. the klubhaus in the front with the attention-grabbing screen facade houses a few bars and clubs. it was opened in 2015 and designed by akyol kamps architects. both these buildings together form a really eclectic package amongst the older structure surrounding them ( like the st. pauli theater ).
because i just simply liked the two structures together, here's another perspective! in the back you can make out the 'dancing towers' - another contemporary structure that i will present to you eventually. they're actually two tower buildings looking like one.
a closer look at the glass facade of the schmidt theater. i love quirky elements like these!
eventually we made our way toward hafencity and speicherstadt, two neighborhoods that are basically the figurehead of hamburg. the speicherstadt ( city of warehouses ) is very unique, it is the biggest warehouse district in the world and sits on timber-pile foundations out of oak logs, which is amazing if you ask me and which you wouldn't guess when you look at it from this perspective. the speicherstadt is also interlaced with lots of canals as it was built on two former islands ( kehrwieder & wandrahm ) between 1883 and 1927. these are all former warehouses built by georg thielen in 1887/88. they were not only functional buildings but also had representative character, looming majestically in front of you in a neo-gothic style, with patterns in the clinker facade and little turrets. also, you can find glazed tile elements again, which seems to be a recurring theme in hamburg architecture. the speicherstadt was mostly planned by one engineer, though, andreas meyer. of course he had help from more engineers and architects like the aforementioned georg thielen or carl johann christian zimmermann, but the overall planning was in his hands.
the sandtorhafen - one of the many harbours in the hafencity district. you can find some historic ships and boats here.
the speicherstadt lies within the hafencity quarter, which is generally known for being super modern. it is a very young district, officially established in 2008. historically the area had been a residential district, but when the speicherstadt was built they relocated all the citizens living there ( 20.000 people, mind you! ) and opened up more harbours, which consequently grew to be the old free port of hamburg. due to growing turnovers it became clear that the port would not be able to keep growing any further, as the harbours and the industrial complexes were pretty outdated. so it was decided to transfer the port a bit further down the elbe river, where it had more room to grow and start an urban development project to revitalise the area. and that's basically the reason why you will encounter a super slick and polished modern, almost futuristic cityscape here, sitting directly to the time-honoured speicherstadt ( which is a world heritage site, by the way! ).
strolling along the sandtor harbour you will make out an alien-looking building from afar: the elphi ( short for elbphilharmonie ). it's hamburg's newest concert hall, completed in 2016 after a construction time of almost 10 years. its distinct outlines are an absolute eye-catcher... and i fell in love with it immediately 😅 i have more to tell you about this gem of architecture, but first, let's explore hafencity a little bit more. by the way, far in the back you can make out parts of the port of hamburg ( particularly the steinwerder district ), characteristic are the many cranes reaching up into the sky.
looking back to the speicherstadt this interesting see-through chimney catches your eye. it's part of the former boiler house - it was a power station basically for the speicherstadt. today it is an information center for the hafencity, teaching the broad public all there is to know when it comes to the newly developing district. the old ( lost ) chimneys were replaced with lattice work during the transformation to the info center.
another view back to the elphi.
there were a lot of housing developments everywhere, and while they were individually different, it all formed a coherent big picture. on the left you can see the oval tower ( ingenhoven architects, 2009 ), in the middle home 4 ( hadi teherani architects, 2008 ) and on the right kai_12 ( tchoban voss architects, 2009 ).
this building was a favourite of mine. it's called baufeld10 and was built by LOVE architecture and urbanism, & by a little local architecture firm called überNormalNull in 2008. i love the cantilevered balconies and little gazebos, and also the softly rounded window cut-outs! this feels sort of tetris inspired, which is always a plus in my book, 'cause i love tetris games.
another detail i absolutely adored were the clinker mosaics on the dwelling mound walls! they depicted various fish, which i thought added such a quirky atmosphere. i think they were developed by a spanish architecture company called miralles tagliabue EMBT.
before we made our way to the elbphilharmonie we passed by the old storehouses again. inside this building you can find the speicherstadtmuseum - a museum that tells you about the history of the speicherstadt, the goods and wares that were stored in magazines like these and about what it was like to work in the speicherstadt.
finally, we checked out the most prominent structure at the sandtorkai, the slaying elphi. this monumental concert hall is quite controversial amongst society, and has been from the beginning. it got built in 10 years, which in modern times is quite an unusual span of time, basically rendering it synonymous with cathedral buildings of yore ( that often needed decades before they were even remotely finished ). well, this wasn't the only remarkable thing about the concert hall. initially it was estimated to be finished in 2010, so basically about three years after the first stone laying AND it should've 'only' cost about 77 million euro. when it was finally opened in 2017 the whole endeavour sold for 860 million squids. quite a price increase, right?
the foundation for the elphi existed already before the official start of construction. the red bunker like cuboid below the added glass superstructure had formerly been a warehouse, the work of one werner kallmorgen, who built it in 1963 on top of another old warehouse that was destroyed in world war 2. basically only the exterior of that warehouse is still standing, the inside is completely new ( and houses a parking space amongst other facilities ) as is the structure above it. it is supposed to look like either a hoisted sail or waves, but it looks damn well like an iceberg or a crystal. i guess, you can see what you want to see ;)
the architects responsible for this masterpiece ( it is one in my eyes, despite the naysayers and the opulent costs of this behemoth ) are herzog & de meuron, a swiss team that is pretty famous world-wide. they built structures like the tate modern, the museum of natural sciences in barcelona, san francisco's de young museum or the beijing national stadium. so you see, their stuff has always been quite groundbreaking.
the glass facade is really peculiar, the indented effects surely are something else. they are designed in a way to reflect the sky, the sun and the water surrounding it. inside the building you can find the concert hall that gave it its name, but there is also a hotel, another recital hall, some music studios, restaurants and quite a few appartments hidden inside! the platform you can glimpse here is called the plaza, and it can be viewed as the welcoming level, where you can enter the heart of the building after transcending an escalator that's 80 meters long. the big cut-out curve is called the 'white gate', basically an opening that leads in and out of the plaza.
close-up.
the elphi sits directly next to the vespucci house ( 1993, kpf architects ), which is part of the hanseatic trade center. the elphi's highest point, by the way, is 110 meters tall, making it the tallest inhabited building in hamburg!
a closer look at the curved window facade. the cut-out parts are basically little balconies!
the foundation of the elphi. it sits on about 1700 concrete piles in the elbe river, which is... unbelievable. i mean, this building is probably weighing about 20.000 tonnes, for a layman like me, this is sheer madness. how this building does not have any problems with statics is beyond my understanding.
the roof of the elphi is probably my most favourite thing of the whole building, because it has such a really cool structure. first of all, what stands out the most is the resemblance to waves of the ocean/ the sea/ a lake. that alone is already pretty neat. when you get a distance from the building you will notice something else, the structure of the top of the roof. it looks like a surface with riveted bolts out of metal! i researched about it and had to realize that it wasn't made out of shiny metal at all, but some sort of plastic material, and the riveted bolts are not riveted, but they got attached to a metal construction on the roof. despite now knowing that it's not as fancy as i thought, the overall effect is pretty awesome. oh, you can also see a roof terrace in this image, it's on the top right.
here's a close-up of the roof.
we didn't enter the elphi ( though i would really like to someday! ), but instead continued our walk through hamburg. for further information ( and more details, you should definitely check out the official website of the elbphilharmonie, which is pretty well-made and super interesting!
the view over the norderelbe towards the steinwerder hafen ( harbour of steinwerder ).
and towards hafencity again, with strandkai and kleiner grasbrook, a small island that houses even more port facilities.
walking towards the strandkai quarter we discovered some more cute clinker mosaics. the structure and texture afficionado within me squealed in delight! these were heavily inspired by the clinker buildings of the speicherstadt who also showcase similar patterns in their facades.
discovered some sparrows sitting in line! cuties ❤
instead of the sandtorkai we now strolled over a different quay, the dalmannkai. like everything in the hafencity, it's distinguishably modern. this building is called 'BF21' and is the product of SML architects. it was completed pretty 'early' on in the history of the hafencity, in 2006. i love how it kinda resembles cargo that just got unloaded and then stands around kind of scattered.
the oval tower from a different perspective - this time from below the vasco da gama square.
i couldn't get enough of those clinker facades 😍 this was part of the dalmanncarée ( MRLV architects, 2007 ).
from the same square you are able to look over to the strandkai, where there's even more interesting architecture to be found. the quay is still in full construction mode, it's not fully developed yet. here you can see the absolutely awesome ferro-concrete structure that is the marco polo tower ( behnisch architekten, 2010 ). every level is shifted a few degrees around the central axis, creating a sculpture, sort of. there are apartments inside, but also a few little restaurants. i heard that the hamburg citizens call this building 'kebab skewer'... the resemblance is on point 😂
behind the tower you can glimpse the smaller unilever building ( 2009 ), another quirky structure of interest and designed by the same company as the marco polo tower. it's the headquarter office for the german branch of unilever - a consumer goods company that you probably heard of already. it owns food, hygiene and beauty producers like knorr ( seasonings ), magnum ( ice cream ) or dove ( beauty products ) etc. etc. it's one of those companies that has their hands in EVERYTHING and that you sometimes get suspicious of, lol. the unilever building's facade basically is a membrane construction of ETFE film, a fluorine-based plastic that's supposed to have high corrosion resistance. the building looks a little like it is embraced by an air cushion.
the two buildings behind the unilever one build an ensemble and are the headquarter of the real estate company engel & völkers ( pretty prominent throughout germany ). it was designed by the american architect richard meier and should've been completed in 2019 ( though i am not sure if it was by the time we visited ).
better view of the marco polo tower. it's quite an exclusive residence tower, definitely not affordable for normal citizens.
we could've spent even more time in the hafencity, but when you only have one day in hamburg you try to squeeze in as much as you can, right? so we said goodbye to this modern district and decided to return to the inner city / older parts of town. overpasses like these are part of the speicherstadt everywhere and make it even more charming. this is the kibbelsteg bridge, which leads over two town canals, the brooksfleet and the zollkanal.
the brooksfleet is lined with lots and lots of warehouses on each side. the uniformity of this ensemble is really gorgeous and part of the reason why the speicherstadt is a world heritage site. there's nothing comparable to this kind of cityscape anywhere in the world!
the brooksfleet into the direction of the st.-annen-fleet, another canal flowing through the speicherstadt. the buildings in this part of the brooksfleet are all part of the coffee exchange. they still house coffee trading companies to this day. in the far you can see more historic buildings that are part of the brooktorkai and even a glimpse of the ericus quarter ( another part of the hafencity ).
a hop on/hop off boat making its way towards st. annen-fleet. for my next visit i absolutely want to do a boat tour like this! ( really, i probably need to make it a 1 week vacation, in order to get to experience all i want to :P )
i don't know about you, but my heart vibrates when seeing all these brickstone structures together 😍 the building on the right side is actually a parking garage, though it probably was a warehouse in the past. the little bridge you see in the back is an overpass leading from the parking garage to the other side.
the zollkanal is basically the border between hamburg's inner city and the speicherstadt. it was a customs border until 2013 when the speicherstadt was still part of the free port, meaning that when you were inside the vicinity of the speicherstadt you were out of german custom limits.
a view into the pickhuben - a tiny street that also leads to the st.annen-fleet. by now it had started to rain ( and it wouldn't let up until the evening... BUT we were not letting this keep us from continueing to explore ).
crossing the kibbelstegbrücke to the other side you will have a fantastic view on the warehouses of the speicherstadt!
this smiley was on top of the kibbelstegbrücke and is a project by three artists ( julius von bismarck, benjamin maus & richard wilhelmer ). it's called 'public face' and is supposed to announce the general happiness of the people inside the city quarter. they are only able to do that via public surveillance cameras that capture the faces of people and then send the gathered information to the smiley sculpture via a software. and all of this in real time. the mechanics of the smiley then translates the info into an emotion, so you can actually see how happy people are at that time ( or sad, or indifferent or angry or whatever ). it's pretty cool, though it is slightly strange to know that your face probably contributed to the outcome of the smiley's facial expression. surveillance can be both negative and positive, and i think this project definitely creates questions and a discourse about them.
reaching the other side i discovered something curious, a really narrow futuristic insertion between two old structures.
that tiny part from the photo prior to this belongs to a bigger building! you can find the actual main building on the other side, on a different street. s11 is the work of jürgen mayer h., an architect who specializes on extremely daring projects with extraordinary facades! this building ( 2009 ) is the epitome of cool, i think. the facade is made out of a ceramic cladding and the windows seem like they are sort of fluid, mirroring buildings on the other site of the street. it's super futuristic and inbetween two old buildings it definitely sticks out and creates quite a contrast.
slightly different perspective that also shows you the upper part of the building.
not far away from the futuristic house you will find a beautiful old church: st. catherine's. since it rained quite a bit outside we took shelter inside. when i went through my photos during the editing process i realized i didn't even made any pictures of the church itself, even though it is quite an impressive ( and overshadowing ) building. it's the second oldest building in hamburg ( number one being the lighthouse on an exclave island called neuwerk in the north sea ). the inside is not too overcharged with decorational elements, quite minimalistic for a church this old. that's because of a simple reason. during world war II the church was bombarded and only the external walls and the base of the spire were still standing after this. the church got reconstructed in the 1950ies, and from 2007 to 2012 it received even more repairs, giving it back some of its former glory, but since many historic elements got lost, it was refurbished with more modern elements.
the bare whitewashed brick walls certainly added to the minimalist appearance.
st. catherine's was first mentioned in 1256 and has always been the church of the seamen, traditionally, especially since it was so close to the elbe river and the harbours.
the altar and the windows were from the 1950ies. there are only very few historic decorational elements left, a lot was from the time when the church was repaired in the mid-1950ies. of course i liked that situation a lot ;) the colourful window of the apse was designed by hans gottfried von stockhausen in 1956. the absolutely gorgeous altar was made by otto münch, also in 1956. it depicts the distribution of the holy spirit. by the way, i kinda loved the star lamps everywhere, it felt so festive!
another side aisle view.
this window is called 'awake, the voice is calling us'.
so gorgeous! i especially love the hidden 8, being a symbol of infinity. also, even though the window looks so chaotic from further away, when you look closer the details are incredible!
other windows inside the church were less colourful, but still contributed to a special atmosphere. by the way, how cool is this lamp?
this side portal was re-discovered during the renovations from 2007 to 2012. it's of late gothic origin ( from 1340 ). it's protected by some sort of outer display case that lets light in and therefore illuminates the historic entry. in some places you can still witness non-renovated parts of the church, which i thought of as charming as it kinda helps with remembering how things were in the past and keeping history alive by showing the state of the church before destruction and renovation.
the body of christ altar is a work of helmut lander from 1983, depicting jesus with his disciples ( even judas is there, albeit he looks away ), sharing bread. i think this piece is utterly remarkable, jesus is kind of disrupted ( is that a way to show the fragility of life, the disruption of existence? ), his hands are attached to a split wooden block, symbolizing the surmounted wearing of the cross. behind him are all of his disciples, they are supposed to be the religious community, partaking in the communion. since i am not religious, my first impression of this altar was a different one, i didn't see the religious meaning behind it, but looked at a person who was split into a lot of personalities, one of them being a disruptive one. the cuffed hands symbolized to me the inability to take proper actions, being chained to whatever holds you back ( the many personalities? ). it is interesting to me how you can view something from a totally different perspective than is initially intended. i love that about art in general, that you can make of it whatever you want to, depending on your own life experiences and where you come from in life, even when you are not part of the addressed community. if you don't know the story behind something, if you don't know the intention for it, you can find a different meaning to things, one that is more important to you and your view on the world ( or yourself ). after all, art is there to provide insight into whatever keeps you preoccupied and concerned.
the main organ looks pretty ancient, but it is deceiving you! the old organ was destroyed in world war II - a new one was built in 2013 using some of the old pipes from the original. it was also built to look like the original organ from 1720, but behind that exterior the whole hardware is modern.
the last photo i took of st. catherine's church was of the southern portal ( 'ecce homo - behold, what a man' designed by fritz fleer in 1963 ). i have a thing for heavy bronze portals, especially from that era, they are somehow so simple in execution, yet so incredibly powerful.
this little scenery shows you the laeiszhof ( left ), an old office building from 1897/1898 that was built for the shipping company f. laeisz. it is situated by the nicolaifleet, a town canal that was once important for the development of the hamburg port. on the right side of it ( the classicist building ) is the 145 year old former headquarter of the commerzbank. it was designed by martin haller, who also was responsible for the city hall ( which i'm gonna show you later ). unfortunately there are plans to tear down this building, it is not listed because of several reconstructions that altered the original fabric of the building. the commerzbank is not using the building anymore, therefore there is no one around who would try to save it from the demolition. apparently they want to build something modern, which is kind of unfortunate i think, because the whole ensemble only works with its historic look and it would be a shame to destroy it, given that this particular area is basically the historic center of hamburg, where once the old city hall stood and where other worldly institutions resided, like the weigh house and the old stock exchange. in the back you can see the famous trostbrücke, a bridge that has been in that spot for centuries as well ( albeit this version dates back to 1881/82 ). the brick building behind the old commerzbank is the house of the patriotic society ( 1845 - 1847 ), which sits now at the spot were the old city hall used to be ( it was destroyed in 1842 in the great fire ).
these sculptures grace the house of the patriotic society. they probably are from the 50ies, added after the second world war was over ( the building was struck as well and it got renovated in 1957 ).
next, we ended up at a different church, this time one that wasn't rebuilt after the war, but instead kept as it was to serve as a memorial. st. nikolai is one of the 5 main churches in hamburg, though this particular church building isn't used anymore (a new church has been built for the parish in harvestehude, a different district of hamburg ). the church was founded in 1195, but the building isn't that old. after the great fire in 1842 the neo-gothic structure got built between 1846 and 1874 by the english architect george gilbert scott. its church spire ( 147 m ) was the tallest structure of the world at its completion until in 1877 the cathedral of rouen topped that record. in 1943 the british and american army bombarded hamburg during operation gomorrha and st. nicolai was one of the main aims. it got almost completely destroyed, only the spire and some walls of the nave and choir remained standing. one of the most beautiful churches of hamburg then ceased to exist and the city of hamburg decided against rebuilding it and using it as a memorial. today there's a museum inside the cellar of the church, explaining the history of it and you can take a lift up the spire for a 360 degree view of hamburg at the altitude of 76 m. the church grounds are also used for showcasing sculptures and public installations, concerts & other events.
surrounding the old church you can now find a lot of modern buildings, which is owed to the heavy air raids of the second world war that mostly destroyed the district.
some of the beautiful elements and statues of st. nikolai survived the bombings, but you can still see some impact wounds to the structure by shrapnels ( as seen on the figure on the right ). i loved the addition of these photos to the spire by the way, they show some stone figures that can still be found on the remaining parts of the church, but are not so visible to the visitor. they are kind of spooky, aren't they? i love spooky. the installation was created by nic fey.
i'm sure this guy has a name, but since i'm not well-versed in religion, he will stay anonymous here. by now it rained pretty heavily and i had a hard time taking pictures without any raindrops obscuring my lense. so please excuse the smudges.
open your mouth for the mute and for the matter of all that are lost.
a pretty importan slogan even today.
the glass windows of the church could all be saved, but they were built into other hamburg churches after the war. the architect had put great importance to the windows, st. nikolai was probably absolutely gorgeous from within, when the light entered it.
the spire has a built in carillon that got constructed in 1993. the little cubicle right underneath it is the operating console, so it can actually be played by an organist. however, with an electronically controlled mechanism the carillon plays a tune 4 times a day on its own as well. behind the carillon you can make out the lift that transports you up to the viewing platform.
a view into the nave towards the choir. behind the former altar you can see the back facade of the aforementioned laeiszhof.
the statue in the back is called 'prüfung' ( ordeal ). it was created by edith breckwoldt and is dedicated to the 50.000 humans who died at the stalag X-B in sandbostel, a prisoner-of-war-camp. the bricks the figure sits on are actually bricks that belonged to the barracks there.
one of oskar kokoschka's designs made it to this mosaic from 1975, which was realized by sergio cicognani. it's called 'ecce homo'. it seems like that theme was following me that day, as i also took a photo of a similar scene at st. catherine's.
the spire mirroring itself in the pavement.
that stand-alone structure is surely impressive.
another sculpture by edith breckwoldt called 'earth angel'. it is so elegant!
detail of a door that's still on the ground of the church.
again, we didn't enter the museum or had a more detailed look at everything as hamburg has so much to offer and we wanted to make the most of our time.
leaving st. nikolai you encounter a modern building on the other side of the street, the headquarters of the hamburg-süd line, a marine transportation company. the building was constructed between 1959 and 1964 by cäsar pinnau. the turquoise windows were my favourite detail of the whole structure.
under that enclosure hides a fountain by kurt kranz, that is also part of the ensemble and listed as heritage. it's called globusbrunnen ( globe fountain - here's how it looks unwrapped ).
another interesting building, the main administration of the bundesbank in hamburg, mecklenburg-pommern and schleswig-holstein ( part of the german central bank ). it was completed in 1981 by two architects, hannes westermann and hans-joachim pysall. both were known to be proponents for brutalist architecture. i like how you can see the spire of st. nikolai in the windows.
chilling out on a railing were these doves! they looked kinda good in this environment, blending in with the greys.
meet the city hall, a massive neo-renaissance structure from 1897 ( yes, between the destroying of the old city hall and the erection of the new one was a time span of 44 years, during which the council met up in a former orphanage ). it is one of hamburg's most splendiferous buildings and it is absolutely iconic for the city. the dimensions of it are also incredible ( 17,000 squaremeter ). i had problems taking photos of it, because it was kind of too big for my small lense 😂
the front of the city hall with the 112 meter tall tower is especially impressive. its facade ( 111 meter long ) is decorated with statues of 20 kings and emperors of the old german state and also 4 virtues are emblazoning the middle tower as well.
that's about the best i could do with capturing the whole city hall! and this is only the front facade!
right next to the city hall you can find the little alster, which links the binnenalster with the alsterfleet canal. we met some gulls there that were being fed by people, unfortunately gulls love human food 🙈. the alster, by the way, is another river that flows through hamburg, it is another tributary arm of the elbe river.
along the little alster ( which is basically a little basin ) you find some mundane looking buildings, like the alsterarkaden ( the white arcades ). it is part of hamburg's most luxurious retail quarters ( which includes the jungfernstieg around the corner at the binnenalster lake, which we didn't check out ). the arcaded sidewalk was designed in 1843 by alexis de chateauneuf, who was an actual german architect, despite his name ( he was the son of french emigrants ). the houses behind the sidewalk were later additions ( built in 1846 ). the stele you see near the schleusenbrücke is dedicated to the war victims of the first world war.
the alsterarkaden into the direction of the reesendamm bridge, where the little alster flows into the binnenalster. i loved how there was still ice on the water from the days prior. i would love to see hamburg in a really icy setting!
a lovely art nouveau facade embellished with porcelain tiles ( they are actually called grés flammés ) 😍 this building was constructed from 1904 to 1905 ( by the architecture duo freijtag & wurzbach ) for a porcelain company called weitz. they still reside in this building today!
the old postal office (1847, alexis de chateauneuf again ) is a really prominent building along the bleichenfleet canal. its atypical look was inspired by the italian renaissance and it reminds many of cities like florence or venice. chateauneuf had been in italy during his academic studies and the impressions he collected there reflect this in his designs.
we felt like going for a coffee and some cake and found a little cafe inside this shopping arcade from 1980 called hanseviertel ( gerkan, marg & partner ). i loved the use of the brickstones in an otherwise pretty postmodern conducted structure. the addition of the little glockenspiel is also pretty cute.
inside the shopping arcade the brickstone style from outside can be found again. the skylights added a real cool element as well.
we found a seat inside cafe rouge, a little establishment under the biggest dome of the arcade, which is a glass/steel construction of epic degree. another eye-catcher is the swimming globe, isn't it?
we occupied the tiniest table ever, but it was charming nonetheless :)
after warming us up and with deliciously filled bellies we ventured out into the city again. the dude you see here who wears such a lovely little bird on his head is gotthold ephraim lessing, one of germany's most acclaimed writers of the enlightenment. he had been a dramaturg at the first hamburg national theater, which was situated in the area his memorial now resides in - the gänsemarkt.
a gorgon mask was one of the pedestal embellishments of the memorial - symbolic for the tragic/comedic muse.
the gänsemarkt square with the lessing memorial in the middle and some gorgeous city houses in the back. the brickstone corner building is the former office of the tax authorities ( 1919 - 1926, fritz schumacher ). on its left side the lessinghaus ( 1908 - 1909, albert lindhorst & emil schaudt ) can be seen with its modern roof system that gives it the feeling of a light-flooded building.
love the patterns of the brickstone facade of the tax authority building 😍 it was also embellished with terracotta statues and decorations, but i didn't take a picture of those unfortunately :( they were really pretty, though, here's a link that also shows these decorations.
the third church we visited that day is an iconic one: st. michael's. it is called 'michel' in the vernacular and basically is the religious pride of hamburg, a baroque pearl of great importance. as you can see, it doesn't look dark and gloomy, but glorious and elegant. it was originally constructed in 1762/86 by johann leonard prey & ernst georg sonnin ( although it was the second church building on the site, the first one burned down in 1750 due to a lightning strike ). the michel you see today, though is also not the original one, it is a reconstruction of the second church ( rebuilt 1906 -1912 ), which burned down again in 1906 because of a brazing mistake on the spire. it got destroyed again in 1944/45 because of the air raids, but quickly rebuilt after that. i think they really did a wonderful job on reconstructing and restoring the baroque structure.
it's not designed like a usual church building, it's central-planned, so it basically has a rounder layout than is habitual. it still has the form of a cross, but it's not as distinct. everything is painted in white, with pastel-blue highlights inbetween and of course the incredible amount of golden decor taking this interior to another level. since it was raining outside it was also darker inside, but usually the place is really bright and flooded with light, making it a very elucidated and kind of cheerful place.
the altar is 20 meter high and of course shows jesus ( crucified & revived ). it is built on exquisite marble.
the pulpit on the left is from 1910 and it was inspired by the baroque history of the michel. the organ on the southern gallery in the back is dedicated to carl philipp emmanuel bach ( a son of johann sebastian bach ) who worked as church music director in hamburg.
the star lamps we had seen at st. catherine's were also present at st. michael's.
the windows were not tinted in any colours so they could let in the natural light which helps highlight the white interior better.
these cabins were quite strange to me, i have never seen anything like it in any other church to be honest. they're actually loges, like you can find in a theater. they were probably constructed for the upperclass citizens of hamburg, though when i look at this church, i feel like the whole church wasn't made for the masses anyway. maybe they were reserved for the nobility?
the main organ was made by the organ company steinmeyer and it's only about 60 years old! it is inspired by the predecessor, a piece by walcker orgelbau and it inserts absolutely perfectly into the interior surroundings! up on the galleries you can see even more loges. by now you can see that a lot of people can fit in here, 2.000 to be exact, which makes it the biggest church in hamburg. the whole venue seems to be made for concerts, instead of religious practices. this is also the reason why this church is of such great importance, it had always been a place to celebrate religious ( but also worldly ) music. several prominent musicians have operated here, amongst them were the aforementioned carl philipp emmanuel bach. johannes brahms was actually baptized in this church. musical pieces of händel & haydn were performed here for centuries and still get played today. as a place for concerts this church is basically irreplaceable as it also adds a wonderful atmosphere to the performances.
the stucco work was really dreamy!
looking into the different direction, on the northern gallery, there is yet another organ ( the church has 5! ), the marcussen organ ( named after the constructing company marcussen ).
we sat down for a few minutes to let the atmosphere sink in a little and enjoy the splendor of this incredible building.
when you leave the church through the entrance hall you get to enjoy a wonderfully intricate glass window, a gorgeous example of art nouveau. it's called 'god's blessing upon hamburg'.
after our visit at this church we decided to head back to our hostel, but before that we would have dinner at a vietnamese restaurant. it was called NOM, which is basically the sound i make when i see something delicious and want to eat it, haha.
i had sweet potato chips and vietnamese yeast dumplings with minced meat inside and it was truly delicious. can i go back immediately to have another round?
the dessert were three cute mochis filled with sweet bean paste and powdered with matcha, sesame & taro.
it didn't stop raining at all on our way back, but instead of being mopey about it i kind of enjoyed it, as it drenched the city into a special foggy mood. back on the reeperbahn we passed by the 'dancing towers' (2012 ). hadi teherani was responsible for this high-rise that is basically comprised of two towers. you can't see it from the perspective i took of it, but its most distinct feature is the flexed facade construction, which makes it appear like two figures are dancing together.
unfortunately i was not really able to capture this interesting tower the way i wanted to, so you could all see the actual 'dancing' going on. i guess some things just have to be experienced live?
directly next to the towers the arcotel onyx hotel greets you with its smooth, futurist facade. it's also part of the dancing towers complex.
not far away from that we found some delicate-looking fishies. 'water for all, all for water!'; these two are telling you.
and the final picture of this slightly too massive blogpost concludes our hamburg trip by returning to the klubhaus st. pauli. after our long walk through the city we would head out once more, but only to see the band live we came to hamburg for. it was a wonderful ending to an already eventful day, with years & years giving a splendid and most colourful show.
i was indeed sad to say goodbye to hamburg the next day, and promised to myself to return again and have a much more detailed look at it and experience some of the things hamburg has to offer. until that happens i will always hold the memory of this city close to my heart, in the way i experienced it last year ❤
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