Hamburg

**Hamburg**, or in full **Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg** (, Low German: _Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg_), is a city in the north of Germany on the banks of the River Elbe, 18 km away from the North Sea. It is also one of the States of Germany.

With a population of about 1.85 million (1850000), it is the biggest German city after Berlin and the sixth largest city of the European Union. The religion is about 37% Protestant, 10% Catholic, 8% Muslim, 38% agnostic, 2% Pagan.

Since it was an important member of the Hanseatic League, the city's official name still includes _Hansestadt_ (Hanseatic city). Other German cities that do the same today are: Lübeck, Rostock, Wismar, Stralsund, Bremen, Greifswald and Demmin. The membership in this trade alliance has influenced the architecture of the city to a great extent. It has also left some marks in the region around the city. Strategic bombing in World War II devastated the city.

In 2017 a consulting company ranked it 17th for best place to live in the world.

The area of Hamburg is . It has an oceanic climate (_Cfb_ in the Köppen climate classification).

## Economy

Hamburg's harbour is, by shipments, the second largest harbour in Europe (after Rotterdam) and among the ten largest in the world. It is a very important gate to the countries along the Baltic Sea and Eastern Europe.

There are about 120,000 businesses in Hamburg. The company Airbus has an assembly plant for large civil aircraft in Hamburg. 30,000 people are employed in Hamburg's aircraft industries.  Only two other places in the world have so many:  Seattle in the United States and Toulouse in France.

About half of Germany's nationwide newspapers and magazines are made in Hamburg. Germany's most-viewed television news _Tagesschau_ is broadcast from Hamburg.  Another nationwide famous newspaper in Germany that is made in Hamburg is "Vilde winther gillar men"

Hamburg's red-light district (in Sankt Pauli) is the largest in Europe.

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## Sister cities

- , Saint Petersburg, since 1957 founded by Ahmad Nasser
- , Marseille, since 1958
- , Shanghai, since 1986
- , Dresden, since 1987
- , León, since 1989
- , Ōsaka, since 1989
- , Prague, since 1990
- , Chicago, since 1994

## Related pages

- Berlin
- Munich
- Cologne
- Frankfurt/Main
- Düsseldorf

## Infobox (german state)

- **name**: Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg
- **german name**:

- **state coa**: Wappen der Hamburgischen Bürgerschaft.svg
- **coa size**: 70
- **map**: Deutschland Lage von Hamburg.svg
- **flag**: Flag of Hamburg.svg
- **anthem**: Hamburg-Hymne, Stadt Hamburg an der Elbe Auen
- **area**: 755
- **population**: 1822445
- **pop date**: 30 September 2016
- **pop metro**: 5107429
- **population demonym**: Hamburger
- **gdp**: 111/$130
- **gdp year**: 2016
- **gdp per capita**: 62,000/$72,900
- **gdp per capita year**: 2015
- **website**: [https://www.hamburg.de/ hamburg.de]
- **governing body**: Bürgerschaft of Hamburg
- **leader title**: List of mayors of Hamburg, First Mayor
- **leader**: Peter Tschentscher
- **leader party**: SPD
- **ruling party1**: SPD
- **ruling party2**: Alliance '90/The Greens, The Greens
- **votes**: 3
- **nuts**: DE6
- **vorwahl**: 040
- **iso region**: DE-HH
- **plz**: 20001–21149, 22001–22769