Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [599]
Keep an eye out for special exhibitions in the museums along Hamburg’s Kunstmeile (Art Mile), extending from Glockengiesserwall to Deichtorstrasse between the Alster Lakes and the Elbe, such as contemporary art and photography in the converted market halls of the Deichtorhallen (Map; 321 030; Deichtorstrasse 1-2; adult/under 18yr €7/free; 11am-6pm Tue-Sun).
Hamburg’s Great Fire of 1842 broke out further west in Deichstrasse, which features a few restored 18th-century homes, most now housing restaurants.
Nearby St Nikolai (Map; 371 125; Ost-West-Strasse; adult/child €3.70/2; 10am-8pm May-Sep, 10am-6pm Oct-Apr), not to be confused with the new Hauptkirche St Nikolai in Harvestehude, was the world’s tallest building from 1874 to 1876, and remains Hamburg’s second-tallest structure (after the TV tower). Badly damaged in WWII, it now houses a war memorial. A glass lift zips you up to its 75.3m-high viewing platform inside the surviving spire.
At the eastern edge of the Altstadt, near the Hauptbahhof and St Georg neighbourhood, are some of the city’s best museums. A treasure trove of art from the Renaissance to the present day, Hamburg’s Kunsthalle (Map; 428 131 200; www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de; Glockengiesserwall; adult/concession/under 18yr €8.50/5/free; 10am-6pm Tue, Wed & Fri-Sun, to 9pm Thu) spans two buildings – one old, one new – linked by an underground passage. The main building houses works ranging from medieval portraiture to 20th-century classics, such as Klee and Kokoschka. There’s also a memorable room of 19th-century landscapes by Caspar David Friedrich. Its stark white new building, the Galerie der Gegenwart, showcases contemporary German artists, including Rebecca Horn, Georg Baselitz and Gerhard Richter, alongside international stars, including David Hockney, Jeff Koons and Barbara Kruger. The view out of the gallery’s huge picture windows is also worthy of framing. Special exhibitions incur an extra charge.
The Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Museum of Arts & Crafts; Map; 428 542 732; www.mkg-hamburg.de; Steintorplatz 1, St Georg; adult/student/under 18yr €8/5/free, adult from 5pm Wed & Thu €5; 11am-6pm Tue & Fri-Sun, to 9pm Wed & Thu) isn’t quite so exalted, but is still lots of fun. Its vast collection of sculpture, furniture, fashion, jewellery, posters, porcelain, musical instruments and household objects runs the gamut from Italian to Islamic, Japanese to Viennese and medieval to pop art, and includes an art-nouveau salon from the 1900 Paris World Fair. The museum cafe is integrated into the exhibition space.
North of the Altstadt, the newly refurbished, Museum für Völkerkunde (Museum of Ethnology; 01805-308 888; www.voelkerkundemuseum.com; Rothenbaumchaussee 64; adult/concession/under 17yr €7/3/free; 10am-6pm Tue, Wed & Fri-Sun, to 9pm Thu; Hallerstrasse) demonstrates seafaring Hamburg’s acute awareness of the outside world. Modern artefacts from Africa, Asia and the South Pacific are displayed alongside traditional masks, jewellery, costumes and musical instruments, including carved wooden canoes and giant sculptures from Papua New Guinea, and a complete, intricately carved Maori meeting hall. The approach is refreshingly respectful of the cultures it presents.
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Speicherstadt
The seven-storey redbrick warehouses lining the Speicherstadt archipelago are a well-recognised Hamburg symbol, stretching to Baumwall in the world’s largest continuous warehouse complex. Their neo-Gothic gables and (mostly) green copper roofs are reflected in the narrow canals of this free-port zone.
A separate free port became necessary when Hamburg joined the German Customs Federation on signing up to the German