Hamburg's new HafenCity quarter drawing in the tourists

By Andreas Heimann Nov 15, 2011, 3:06 GMT

Hamburg - The HafenCity quarter in the northern German port city of Hamburg has been under construction for the last decade but despite, or perhaps even because, of its unfinished look has still managed to become a tourist attraction.

Visitors to the area on the Elbe river island which was once home to old port warehouses can now stroll past offices, hotels, shops, museums and restaurants.

The International Maritime Museum with its over 40,000 exhibits and 1 million photographs opened in a former warehouse in 2008 and is already a popular attraction for visitors to the area. The museum houses Peter Tamm's collection of model ships, construction plans, uniforms, and maritime art.

Others come just to see the Elbphilharmonie, a controversial concert hall under construction on top of an old warehouse and designed by Herzog & de Meuron.

The project was supposed to be the 'cultural lighthouse' of the city, but has been plagued by huge cost overruns and is not due to be finished before 2103 - around three years behind schedule.

The German customs museum, the spice museum, the Hamburg dungeon and the largest model railway in the world have long been attractions in the area surrounding the new HafenCity quarter.

The neighbouring Speicherstadt, meanwhile, is the largest timber-pile founded warehouse district in the world and only a small distance from St Pauli from where it is possible to hop on a boat tour of the harbour.

'We estimate that by 2025 around 80,000 tourists a day will visit the HafenCity,' believes Susanne Buehler of HafenCity GmbH. It is hoped that many visitors will also stay the night as several new hotels are planned. The design hotel 25hours opened its doors in July.

Buehler is standing in front of the International Maritime Museum, which is housed in a warehouse dating back to 1878 and located on a harbour quay where ships once unloaded their cargoes. 'It depicts 3,000 years of maritime history and is already a tourist attraction,' she says.

The heart of HafenCity is Ueberseequartier, where the first shops and restaurants opened in 2010. 'There are already 300 companies here, including (news magazine) Spiegel and (shipping and energy company) German Lloyd,' explains Buehler.

One of the objectives of the project is to encourage inner-city living. 'Around 5,800 apartments for 12,000 residents are planned. At the moment, 14,000 people live in the inner city.' There is also a primary school for the children of the area's new residents.

Buehler feels that HafenCity is a classic docklands project except that, in Hamburg's case, the docklands are in the middle of the city just 900 metres from the town hall. 'That's something special,' she says.

The Hamburg city authorities made the decision to construct the HafenCity quarter near the Elbe in 1997 and building work began over a decade ago.

Initially, construction was only to take place in the eastern section where around 1,800 homes are due to be completed by 2018. A new bridge linking HafenCity with the city centre is due to open in 2013 while an underground line will start running a year earlier.