Hamburg

See the discussion of the statues with the adjacent photo.

The available sources on this building next to Chilehaus were confusing. The Wikipedia page, in German, indicates that the building was constructed from 1922 to 1924 and was called the Balli house for Albert Ballin, the founder of HAPAG shipping line (now HAPAG-Lloyd). Since Ballin was Jewish, the building was renamed in 1938 for the nearby road, Meßberghof. The confusion is about the statues. The reason I took the picture was the statues that are above the ground floor and continue around the building (see adjacent picture). Per the UNESCO site (below), the statues were by Ludwig Kunstmann, are of Elbe sandstone, and were designed when the building was built. The doesn't seem to describe the statues that were my focus. Per the Wikimedia page the figures are by Lothar Fischer who was not born until 1933, after the building was finished. I could not find an English-language page to verify this about Fischer, but other works by him suggest that the statues are by him. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meßberghof whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1367 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Kontorhausviertel

The Chilehaus building, see the description with picture #2971:

I had never heard of Chilehaus and it was not mentioned in any guides that I used, I just happened to notice it when wandering around Speicherstadt. The vaguely chocolate color and the lines along the walkways on the top level looked interesting from afar, so I came over to investigate. My pictures do not begin to capture the beauty of the building, or the other buildings near it. The harmony in the lines, the colors (sort of like a chocolate/mint ice cream with white flakes), and the intricacy of the detail, were quite captivating. Hopefully the next few photos convey at least some sense of it. Per the Wikipedia page (link below), it was finished in 1924 and is considered to be an exceptional example of 1920's Brick Expressionism. The building has a reinforced concrete structure and the outer walls are dark Oldenburg bricks. The Wikipedia page has an aerial view where you can see that the building is quite large and shaped roughly like a ship. Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilehaus There is also a UNESCO page with excellent detail on the design of this building and other nearby buildings: whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1367

The ship's bow portion of the Chilehaus building.

The ornamentation on the ship's bow portion of the Chilehaus building.

A striking, and strikingly over-budget, concert hall/hotel/apartment complex/shopping mall, in the HafenCity redevelopment project. The people I talked with mentioned how much it was behind schedule and 10 times over-budget, but admitted it would be a dramatic addition to the harbor area.

Entering into the HafenCity (harbor city) / Speicherstadt (warehouse city) area, with the Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall as a back drop. Hafen City is a major redevelopment of the inner port area into housing and commercial locations and Speicherstadt is a historic area of warehouses within HafenCity that are being converted to housing and commerical uses. Both conversions are due to changes in shipping which made the inner harbor out-of-date.

Interesting graffiti on the bridge... kein mensch ist illegal / no man is illegal

The view right here is down the tracks from Landungsbrücken u-bahn station towards the construction of Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall (more on that later). Visiting Hamburg actually dates back to my childhood – I was raised in a port city and spent quite a bit of time around the waterfront as a child, so was curious about Hamburg. Luckily it was a very easy day-trip from Berlin since the train takes just 2 hours and the station in Hamburg is close to the port. Like everywhere else, there were far more tourists than I expected, but it was an overall quite enjoyable day of exciting scenery and friendly, helpful, locals. Updated 7/21/2015: Thanks for links from Kiezkickerde (in comments below), there's some important WWII additions here. Based on the awkward Google translations of German webpages, here's my summary. The round building in the distance is what is called a Zombeck tower (bunker). Such towers were built between 1939 and 1942 to provide shelter for citizens from air raids. The bunkers are unique in that the inside is basically a spiraling ramp, a design that provided shelter for up to 1000. After the war there were plans to demolish the shelters, but as Germany moved into the Cold War, the shelters were kept.

The St. Pauli Landungsbrücken Harborfront. Once the passenger terminal area for Hamburg, still that but for commuter ferries and sightseeing boats. Lots of bustle, but still quite interesting, particularly the domed building (see nearby photos). The slideshow on the link below has fasincating pictures of the harbor (including this area) from around 1900. www.hafencity.com/en/overview/on-historic-ground.html

The harbor from St. Pauli Landungsbrücken Harborfront. Somehow I don't think the "Louisiana Star" sternwheeler cruise boat is a replica of an authentic German boat :)

You can't go to Hamburg to get away from American commercialism.....not only is McDonald's everywhere, but also Disney. There were Disney shops everywhere in Germany and Poland, and in Hamburg Der König der Löwen (Lion King) musical. Here a packed ferry to the hall, just across the harbor.

Bridge to a dock in the harbor.

The towers that look like they might be broken are the Tanzende Türme (Dancing Towers).

From what I can determine, the church tower in scaffolding is St. Michaelis, at 306 meters (1004 feet) one of the highest points in Hamburg.

I had tried multiple times to see the harbor by getting on one of the commuter ferries crossing the harbour, but they were always packed. Finally at 4PM I was able to get on one, and luckily happened to be next to a friendly local group that pointed out various things (in English). This is the Dockland cruise ship terminal.

Part of the Dockland cruise ship terminal, plus a ferry landing.