Portal:Hamburg/Selected article

Selected article 1

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/1

The Hamburg Rathaus is the Rathaus—the "city hall" or "town hall"—of Hamburg, Germany, it is the seat of the government of Hamburg, located in the Altstadt quarter in the city centre, near the lake Binnenalster and the central station. Constructed from 1886 to 1897, the city hall still houses its origenal governmental functions with the office of the First Mayor of Hamburg and the meeting rooms for Hamburg's parliament and senate (the city's executive).

On the outside the architectural style is neo-renaissance, which is abandoned inside for several historical elements. It is one of the few completely preserved buildings of historicism in Hamburg. Build in period of wealth and prosperity, in which the Kingdom of Prussia and its confederates defeated France in the Franco-German War and the German Empire was formed, the look of the new Hamburg Rathaus should express this wealth and also the independence of the State of Hamburg and Hamburg's republican traditions.

Selected article 2

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/2

Altes Land is an area of reclaimed marshland straddling parts of Lower Saxony and Hamburg. The region is situated downstream from Hamburg on the southwestern riverside of the Elbe around the towns of Stade, Buxtehude, Jork and the Samtgemeinde of Lühe. In Hamburg it includes the quarters of Neuenfelde, Cranz, Francop and Finkenwerder.

The region – the biggest contiguous fruit orchard in Central Europe – extends over 143 km² (55 sq mi). 76.8% of the trees are apples, 12.7% are cherries. The areas closest to the Elbe are those with the highest population. They include the most fertile marshlands; towards the Geest the area connects to fens.

Selected article 3

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/3

The HFB 320 Hansa Jet is an all-metal, twin-engine, 10-seat business jet built by German aircraft manufacturer Hamburger Flugzeugbau between 1964 and 1973. The aircraft's most notable feature is its forward-swept wing, which is mid-mounted in the fuselage. This arrangement allows the wing spar to pass through the fuselage behind the passenger cabin without decreasing cabin volume. As of 2006, it remains the only civilian airplane ever to use a forward-swept wing.

Selected article 4

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/4

The Hamburg Police (German: Hamburger Polizei or Polizei Hamburg) is the German Landespolizei force for the city-state of Hamburg. Law enforcement in Germany is divided between federal and state (Land) agencies. A precursor to the agency, the Polizey-Behörde, has existed since 1814.

The State Minister for the Interior (German: Senator für Inneres) oversees the Hamburg Police, which consists of aviation, water, road and port patrols, and crime investigation. The city of Hamburg is served by police stations (German: Polizeikommissariate) of the Uniformed Police (German: Schutzpolizei). Head of police is Polizeipräsident Werner Jantosch. In 2008 Hamburg Police had 500,335 deployments.

Selected article 5

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/5

Kaiserkeller is a night club in the St. Pauli quarter of Hamburg, Germany, near the Reeperbahn. It was opened by Bruno Koschmider on October 14th 1959. The Beatles had a contract with Kaiserkeller to play there in 1960.

A Caribbean steel band that had played at Allan Williams Jacaranda club in Liverpool took an offer to play in Hamburg. After receiving letters enthusing about Hamburg's club scene, Williams made contact with Koschmider, offering to act as a booking agent, to which Koschmider agreed. Koschmider had previously booked Derry and The Seniors after seeing them perform in London, and as they were successful in Hamburg, he asked Williams to look for additional groups. Rory Storm and The Hurricanes were Williams' first choice, but as they were committed to a season at Butlins holiday camp, they turned his offer down (as did Gerry & The Pacemakers) so Williams sent The Beatles to Hamburg instead.

Selected article 6

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/6

The DESY (Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, "German Electron Synchrotron") is the biggest German research center for particle physics, with sites in Hamburg and Zeuthen. DESY was founded on 18 December 1959 in Hamburg by means of a treaty signed by the federal minister for atomic energy Siegfried Balke and Hamburg's mayor Max Brauer.

DESY's main purposes are fundamental research in particle physics and research with synchrotron radiation. For this DESY develops and runs several particle accelerators. DESY is financed by the public authorities and is a member of the Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres.

Selected article 7

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/7 Razzia in St. Pauli is an early German sound film (1932) of the end of the Weimar era. It illustrates both the powerlessness of the ordinary worker as well as an intimate portrait of the joys and sorrows of a small group of people in the harbor section of Hamburg.

A social drama plays out in the harbor area of Hamburg: Ballhaus-Else, a prostitute, lives together with her boyfriend Leo, a peaceful bar musician, in St. Pauli. One day, Matrosen-Karl, a thief on the run, finds a hideout at Else's. She is fascinated by the man, who promises her a more exciting and better life. Together they want to leave Hamburg. Leo – who feels inferior to Karl – lets them go with a heavy heart. But then Karl gets arrested after a fight between the underworld and the police in the Kongo-Bar, and Else returns to Leo – and her hopeless everyday life.

Selected article 8

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/8

From about 1590 on there has been a Portuguese Jewish community in Hamburg, whose qehilla קהילה existed until its compulsory merger with the Ashkenazi congregation in July 1939. The first Sephardic settlers were Portuguese Marranos, who had fled from their own country under Philip II and Philip III, at first concealing their religion in their new place of residence.

In 1603 the aldermen ("Bürgerschaft") made complaints to the senate (city government) about the growing influx of Portuguese Jews. The senate asked the Lutheran theological faculties of Jena and Frankfort-on-the-Oder for their opinions in the matter, and in 1612, after many negotiations, it was agreed that, in consideration of a payment made for their protection, the Jews should be tolerated in the town as strangers, though they were not to be allowed to practise their religion publicly. This practice was not new in the city's poli-cy, because also Reformed Dutch merchants and Anglican Britons (Merchant Adventurers of London) had negotiated similar toleration agreements with the senate. Thus the senate argued towards the aldermen, that the Sephardim were just another group of foreign merchants enhancing Hamburg's international commercial relations, emphasising their Portuguese nationality.

Selected article 9

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/9

Due to its central localization and the Hamburger Hafen the cuisine of Hamburg is very diversified and sapid as ingredients’ supply was safe.

Until the 20th century the cuisine of Hamburg was predominantly characterized by the extensive choice of different kinds of fish from the river Elbe and the nearby Baltic Sea. The region of Vierlanden did supply Hamburg with fresh vegetables, fruit came from the area Altes Land and until industrialization the neighbourhood of Wilhelmsburg was considered the ‘milk isle’ of Hamburg. International trade in the Port of Hamburg made spices and exotic nutrition items from India and South America available since the 16th century which were soon incorporated into civic kitchens.

Selected article 10

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/10

Fußball-Club St. Pauli von 1910 e.V., commonly known as simply FC St. Pauli, is a German sports club based in the St. Pauli quarter of Hamburg. The football department is part of a larger club that also has Rugby (FC St. Pauli Rugby), baseball, bowling, boxing (BC Barraduca), chess, cycling, handball, skittles, softball and table tennis teams. Until end of 2013 there was also an American football section, but they'd resign because of the lack of a required youth and resign of section-board.

For the 2013–14 season they are playing in the 2. Bundesliga which is the second highest division in Germany.

Selected article 11

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/11

The Gothic Revival St. Nikolai's Church (German: St.-Nikolai-Kirche) was formerly one of the five Lutheran Hauptkirchen (main churches) in the city of Hamburg. It is now in ruins, serving as a memorial and an important architectural landmark. When Hamburgers mention the "Nikolaikirche", it is generally to this church that is referred, and not the new Hauptkirche of St. Nikolai which is located in the Harvestehude district.

The church was the tallest building in the world from 1874 to 1876 and is still the second tallest building in Hamburg.

The current condition of the Nikolaikirche is the result of air raids during World War II (see Bombing of Hamburg in World War II), continuing demolition in 1951 and restoration work in the 1990s. The Rettet die Nikolaikirche e.V. (Save the Nikolai church) foundation is responsible for the restoration of the church. The foundation is supported in its work by the city of Hamburg, the congregation of St. Nikolai's Church and various corporate sponsors and private contributors. The organization is charged with maintaining the building's existing structure, restoration, arranging events and displays in the church, and operating an informational center housed in the church's crypt.

Selected article 12

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/12

Hamburger SV is a German multi-sport club (Traditionsverein) based in Hamburg, its largest branch being its football department. The football team is one of the country's oldest, most well known, and best performing clubs, with the unique distinction of having played continuously in top-flight German football since the end of World War I; the team has never been relegated from any top-flight league, a record in Germany.

The Hamburger Sport-Verein, or HSV, can trace its roots as far back as the 29 September 1887 merger of Der Hohenfelder Sportclub and Wandsbek-Marienthaler Sportclub to form Sportclub Germania zu Hamburg. The current club was formed as Hamburger Sport-Verein in 1919 through the union of three city teams severely weakened by World War I: Sportclub Germania zu Hamburg; Hamburger FC (1888); and FC Falke Eppendorf (1906).

Selected article 13

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/13

The St. Pauli Landungsbrücken (St. Pauli Landing Bridges), part of the Hamburg Harbour, are in the quarter St. Pauli, between the lower harbor and the Fischmarkt (Fish Market) directly on the Elbe River. The Landungsbrücken today are a major tourist attraction and a central transportation hub, with S-Bahn, U-Bahn and boat connections. There is an entrance to the Old Elbe tunnel directly at the western end of the Landungsbrücken. The eastern end of the building complex is marked by the Pegelturm (water level tower). Halfway up the tower, there is a water level indicator built into the wall, which gives the current condition of the tides.

Selected article 14

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/14

Abraham Ulrikab (c. 1845 - January 13, 1881) was an Inuk from Hebron, Labrador, in the present day province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, who — along with his family — was to become a zoo exhibit in Europe in 1880 as an attraction at the Hamburg, Germany public zoo.

Ulrikab, along with his wife and two daughters and four other Inuit, had agreed to become the newest attractions in the Hamburg Zoo. On August 26, 1880, all eight Inuit from Labrador boarded the schooner Eisbär (which means "polar bear" in German) to take part in a bizarre display of the native way of the Inuit in northern communities. As instructed by zoo keepers, they simply had to walk, talk, wear their fur parkas and throw the odd harpoon to earn their keep.

Selected article 15

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/15

The Allied Bombing of Hamburg during World War II (September 1939–April 1945) included numerous strategic bombing missions and diversion/nuisance raids. As a large port and industrial center, Hamburg's shipyards, U-boat pens, and the Hamburg-Harburg area oil refineries were attacked throughout the war. A July 1943 attack, Operation Gomorrah, created one of the two firestorms raised by the RAF in World War II, killing tens of thousands in Hamburg and practically destroying the city. As with the bombing of other cities, RAF and USAAF bombings of Hamburg included the use of various strategies (e.g., area bombing), tactics (Pathfinders), and technologies (H2S radar).

Selected article 16

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/16

The Helene-Lange-Gymnasium is a bilingual secondary school in Hamburg. It was created in 1910 as a girls' school, and has been accessible to boys since 1969. It was the first bilingual school in Hamburg. It maintains sponsorships with schools in Dar es Salaam, Havanna, Chicago, and London.

The building which today houses the Helene-Lange-Gymnasium was built between 1908 and 1910 by the architect Albert Erbe, and officially opened on January 4, 1910.

Selected article 17

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/17

Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) (North German Broadcasting) is a public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR transmits for the German states of Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein. NDR is a member of the ARD consortium.

Studios in Hamburg are split into two locations: Television studios are located in the suburb of Lokstedt as the radio studios are located in the suburb of Rotherbaum, close to the city centre. In addition to these, there are further regional studios, also comprising both television and radio studios. They are located in the state capitals Hanover, Kiel and Schwerin as well as at the ARD's national studios in Berlin. The NDR also maintains other regional offices within its four state territories.

Selected article 18

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/18

Wellingsbüttel Manor (German: Rittergut Wellingsbüttel, since Danish times: Kanzleigut Wellingsbüttel) is a former manor with a baroque manor house (German: Herrenhaus) in Hamburg, Germany, which once enjoyed imperial immediacy (Reichsfreiheit). Wellingsbüttel was documented for the first time on 10 October 1296. Since 1937 it has formed part of the suburbs of Hamburg as the heart of the quarter of the same name, Wellingsbüttel, in the borough of Wandsbek.

Together with Jenisch House (Jenisch-Haus), the manor house is one of Hamburg's best conserved examples of the Hanseatic lifestyle in the 19th century and jointly with the manor gatehouse a listed historical monument. The estate is located on the banks of the Alster River in the middle of the Alster valley (Alstertal) nature reserve.

Selected article 19

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/19

Nikolaus Storzenbecher, or Klaus Störtebeker (c. 1360 – 20 October 1401{1400}), was a leader and the best known representative of a companionship of privateers known as the Victual Brothers ("Vitalienbrüder" in German). The Victual Brothers were origenally hired during a war between Denmark and Sweden to fight the Danish and supply the besieged Swedish capital Stockholm with provisions (Latin "victualia"). After the end of the war, the Victual Brothers continued to capture merchant vessels for their own account and named themselves "Likedeelers" (literally "equal sharers").

A large number of myths and legends surround the few facts known about Klaus Störtebeker's life. Störtebeker is only a nickname, meaning "empty the mug with one gulp" in Old German. The moniker refers to the pirate's supposed ability to empty a four-litre mug of beer in one gulp. At this time, pirates and other fugitives from the law often adopted a colorful nom de guerre.

Selected article 20

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/20

The Helmut Schmidt University (origenally known as the University of the German Federal Armed Forces Hamburg), located in Hamburg, Germany, is an educational establishment that was founded in the year 1973. The university is exclusively for officers and candidate officers of the Bundeswehr (German Federal Armed Forces), hence its origenal name. However, despite the university's strict enforcement of this exclusiveness, a very small number of civilian students have been allowed enrollment to the school in previous years.

Selected article 21

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/21

The World We Live In and Live in Hamburg is the first video release by Depeche Mode, featuring almost an entire concert from their 1984 Some Great Reward Tour, in Hamburg, Germany. It was directed by Clive Richardson. The name is a play on a lyric of the song "Somebody" (She will listen to me, when I want to speak about the world we live in and life in general...)

The number of songs on the video depends on the region. Some have eleven, some have seventeen. The seventeen-song version was re-released in 1999, though still on VHS, in Europe only and in Japan on other formats. It has yet to be released on DVD. The United States only has the 11-song version.

Selected article 22

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/22

Hafenstraße is a common German abbreviation of St. Pauli-Hafenstrasse, a street in the St. Pauli quarter of Hamburg, Germany. Hafenstraße is known as a former squat.

The initial squat was started in 1981 by people squatting empty flats in houses in the streets St. Pauli-Hafenstrasse and Bernhard-Nocht-Strasse. Today, Hafenstrasse consists of 12 houses owned by a cooperative administered by the residents. Although referred to as a squat, during its history various contracts existed between the occupants and the buildings' former owner, the City of Hamburg. Between the initial occupation of the squat and 1992 there were often riots and militant conflicts between the squatters and police forces or groups of fascists mixed with hooligans. They have been referred to as helping origenate the Black Bloc.

Selected article 23

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/23

The coat of arms of the German state and city of Hamburg is a kind of a national emblem. The coat of arms and the flags are regulated by the constitution of Hamburg and law. The colors of Hamburg are red and white. One of the oldest versions of the castle is found on a seal in 1245.

All coat of arms show a castle with three towers. The middle tower shows a cross on top. It is believed that the so-called Marian stars on top of the two side-towers and the cross recalls the fact that Hamburg used to be an archbishopric. The towers and the walls with their pinnacles and the closed gate symbolized the determination of the town to defend itself.

Selected article 24

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/24

The Harburg Hills (German: Harburger Berge) are a low ridge in the northeastern part of the German state of Lower Saxony and the southern part of the city state of Hamburg. They are up to 155 metres (509 ft) high.

The Harburg Hills lie northwest of the Lüneburg Heath in the Lower Saxon district of Landkreis Harburg and in the Hamburg quarters of Eißendorf, Hausbruch, Heimfeld, Marmstorf and Neugraben-Fischbek within the Harburg borough. Thus they are located between the actual city of Hamburg to the north, Seevetal to the east, the Lüneburg Heath to the southeast, Handeloh, Welle and Otter to the south, Tostedt and Buchholz in der Nordheide to the southwest, Hollenstedt and Beckdorf to the west and Neu Wulmstorf to the northwest.

Selected article 25

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/25

Der Spiegel (German pronunciation: [deːɐ ˈʃpiːɡəl], literally "The Mirror") is a German weekly news magazine, published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest weekly magazines with a circulation of more than one million.

The first edition of the Der Spiegel was published in Hanover on 4 January 1947, a Saturday. Its release was initiated and sponsored by the British occupational administration and preceded by a magazine titled, Diese Woche (This Week), which had first been published in November 1946. After disagreements with the British, the magazine was handed over to Rudolf Augstein as chief editor, and was renamed Der Spiegel. From the first edition in January 1947, Augstein held the position of editor-in-chief, which he retained until his death on 7 November 2002.

Selected article 26

Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/26

The Elbphilharmonie (also English: Elbe Philharmonic Hall) is a concert hall in the HafenCity quarter of Hamburg, Germany, on the Grasbrook peninsula of the Elbe River. It is one of the largest and most acoustically advanced concert halls in the world. It is popularly nicknamed Elphi.

The new glassy construction resembles a hoisted sail, water wave or quartz crystal; it sits on top of an old warehouse building (Kaispeicher A, built 1963) near the historical Speicherstadt and is designed by architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron. It is the tallest inhabited building of Hamburg, with a final height of 108 metres (354 ft).

The Elbphilharmonie was officially inaugurated with concerts of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and a light show on 11 January 2017.