The Speicherstadt in Hamburg

When the friend of my wife visited us, one of the first places she wanted to visit in Hamburg was the Speicherstadt. One of Hamburg's must famous landmarks, the Speicherstadt is a warehouse complex in downtown, built with distinctive red-orange slightly burned bricks typical not only of this area but of some other buildings of the city.

The Speicherstadt used to be the area where ships loaded and unloaded their cargo. Someone told me that it used to be outside of the customs area, and was tax free; but I honestly don't understand 100% the benefits of this privilege. I could imagine that it motivated commerce somehow, though.

Currently, there are few companies who still use the spaces in the Speicherstadt as a warehouse. You can still see some companies selling tapestries, but some important companies have their offices here. Walking around, we found that Warner Brothers Germany has offices here in the Speicherstadt, as well as Timberland, software company SAP, etc. And of course, several trade companies who buy and sell commodities from all over the world have the main offices here.

In the Speicherstadt there are also some nice restaurants, coffee shops, some museums and galleries. My wife told me that some people even have their apartments here. But what makes the Speicherstadt one of the most interesting walks in Hamburg, and in Germany, is the canals, the bridges, the views, the tall buildings and the distinctive red-orange colours. You can see some of this in the photos above.

And just behind the Speicherstadt, as I mentioned in previous posts, a huge complex of apartments and offices is built. It is very exciting to see how quick everything is growing as weeks pass by. I will show you some of the photos I took in the next post.