This is Hamburg

The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg has a lot to offer, as it is the second-largest city in Germany and the eighth-largest city in the European Union. On weekends, Hamburg’s 1.7 million residents and the city’s guests head for the river Elbe, the Alster, the parks and the beautiful surrounding countryside. But there is also a lot to enjoy on a day with bad weather: countless museums, cafés, bars and theatres are waiting to entertain guests. Make sure you check out the harbor area – it is the focus of the city’s business life, although the trading and the media industry are also major influences. The Hamburg harbor is the seventh biggest in the world and the second largest in Europe, after Rotterdam.

As typical for Northern Germany, the original language of Hamburg is Low German, usually referred to as Hamborger Platt (German: Hamburger Platt) or Hamborgsch. It is still in use, albeit by a minority and rarely in public. Nevertheless, you will always hear “Moin” instead of “Hallo” and a couple of other words which are typical for this city-state.

Geographically, Hamburg is located directly between Continental Europe to its south, Scandinavia to its north, the North Sea to its west and the Baltic Sea to its east. As you can see, Hamburg is definitely a perfect base for weekend trips all over Europe or just to the seaside nearby. Hamburg is located on the river Elbe at the confluence with the rivers Alster and Bille. The central city area is situated around the Binnenalster (“Inner Alster”) and the Außenalster (“Outer Alster”) both of which are originally the river Alster but are retained as lakes.

Being a part of the ancient Hanseatic League, Hamburg’s architecture is quite nice, although it lost around 70% of its original buildings in World War II. Visiting the HafenCity, you can observe the construction of a completely new quarter next to the harbor. By the way, who would have guessed that Hamburg is the city with the most bridges in Europe and not Venice? Furthermore, Hamburg won the European Green Capital Award in 2011.

There are over 90 different consulates in Hamburg, which means that the likelihood of your country being represented is very high and cultural life is vibrant.

You can find out more about Hamburg from one of the various guidebooks or on the internet. You can also obtain additional information from a tourist information center once you arrived in Hamburg. These are located at the airport, the central station (exit “Kirchenallee”) and the piers (S- and U-Bahn “Landungsbrücken”) at the port of Hamburg in St. Pauli.

Having all these facts, figures and the nice aspects of the city of Hamburg in mind, it is easy to understand why Universität Hamburg is one of Germany’s most popular student locations.

We hope you are going to be another big fan of our city and its possibilities. If you are not convinced yet, the next two pages offer seven more good reasons why coming to Hamburg was a great choice!