Hamburg , locally also [ˈhambʊɪ̯ç] ; Low Saxon: Hamborg [ˈhambɔːç] ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg , is the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and 7th largest city in the European Union with a population of over 1.84 million.One of Germany's 16 federal states, it is surrounded by Schleswig-Holstein to the north and Lower Saxony to the south. The city's metropolitan region is home to more than five million people. Hamburg lies on the River Elbe and two of its tributaries, the River Alster and the River Bille.
The official name reflects Hamburg's history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League and a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. Before the 1871 Unification of Germany, it was a fully sovereign city state, and before 1919 formed a civic republic headed constitutionally by a class of hereditary grand burghers or Hanseaten. Beset by disasters such as the Great Fire of Hamburg, North Sea flood of 1962 and military conflicts including World War II bombing raids, the city has managed to recover and emerge wealthier after each catastrophe.
Hamburg is Europe's third-largest port. Major regional broadcaster NDR, the printing and publishing firm Gruner + Jahr and the newspapers Der Spiegel and Die Zeit are based in the city. Hamburg is the seat of Germany's oldest stock exchange and the world's oldest merchant bank, Berenberg Bank. Media, commercial, logistical, and industrial firms with significant locations in the city include multinationals Airbus, Blohm + Voss, Aurubis, Beiersdorf, and Unilever. Hamburg is also a major European science, research, and education hub, with several universities and institutions. The city enjoys a very high quality of living, being ranked 19th in the 2019 Mercer Quality of Living Survey.Hamburg hosts specialists in world economics and international law, including consular and diplomatic missions as the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the EU-LAC Foundation, and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, multipartite international political conferences and summits such as Europe and China and the G20. Both former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and Angela Merkel, German chancellor since 2005, were born in Hamburg.
Hamburg is a major international and domestic tourist destination. The Speicherstadt and Kontorhausviertel were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 2015. Hamburg's rivers and canals are crossed by around 2,500 bridges, making it the city with the highest number of bridges in Europe. Aside from its rich architectural heritage, the city is also home to notable cultural venues such as the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle concert halls. It gave birth to movements like Hamburger Schule and paved the way for bands including The Beatles. Hamburg is also known for several theatres and a variety of musical shows. St. Pauli's Reeperbahn is among the best-known European entertainment districts.
The Historical Museum of Bamberg is a museum in Bamberg, Germany, located in the Alte Hofhaltung next to the city's cathedral.
Together with the Villa Dessauer and the Collection Ludwig, a collection of porcelain and faience, it belongs to the museums of the city.
The Invalids' Cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in Berlin. It was the traditional resting place of the Prussian Army, and is regarded as particularly important as a memorial to the German Wars of Liberation of 1813–15.
The Kulturforum is a collection of cultural buildings in Berlin, Germany. It was built up in the 1950s and 1960s at the edge of West Berlin, after most of the once unified city's cultural assets had been lost behind the Berlin Wall. The Kulturforum is characterized by its innovative modernist architecture; several buildings are distinguished by the organic designs of Hans Scharoun, and the Neue Nationalgalerie was designed by Mies van der Rohe. Today, the Kulturforum lies immediately to the west of the redeveloped commercial node of Potsdamer Platz.
The Berlin Art Library is an agency of the Berlin State Museums under the auspices of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. It has approximately 400,000 volumes and ranks among Germany's leading institutions specializing in the literature of Art History. The library is located on the Kulturforum in Berlin-Tiergarten, Germany and attracts 35,000 visitors annually.The Library also has a comprehensive photographic collection. Its holdings date back to the very early days of photography, through Pictorialism around the late 19th and early 20th centuries, through the Neues Sehen or New Vision of the 1920s, to the new artistic styles of the present day. Since June 2004, the collection has held exhibitions under the same roof as the Helmut Newton Foundation at the Museum of Photography opposite the Zoologischer Garten station. After a complete restoration of the Kaisersaal, the Art Library Photographic Collection now has its own exhibition space.
Selections of works from the library's many other collections are regularly presented in special exhibitions. The neighboring Kupferstichkabinett Berlin concentrates primarily on fine art drawings and prints. The Art Library does not circulate, but its collections can be viewed upon request in the Art Library's study room.
The Kunsthalle Kiel is an art museum in the German city of Kiel. With 2.000 m² of display space, it is the largest museum in the city. It is north of the city centre on Düsternbrooker Weg. It has a lecture hall, a small cafe and a sculpture garden.
