Hamburg (Day 2)

Saturday! This morning at our tour of the city, the best part of our "German history in five minutes" talk was pirate Klaus Stoertebeker's story. 

The first part of the story is fairly predictable-- pirates don't get famous for sharing and making daisy bracelets. Around 1400, Klaus looted, pillaged, and plundered the living daylights out of the German fleets until they couldn't take it anymore and so, after much high seas action, they finally captured Klaus and his men. As was appropriate and fair, the victors then led the pirates through the streets in chains and lined them up to be beheaded one by one. Klaus, in a desperate situation, offered them his hidden treasure in exchange for their freedom, but the level-headed Germans weren't having any of it-- they'd eventually stumble across it once he was dead anyway. 

Now though, it gets interesting. Klaus, finally accepting his fate, asked his final request. After he is beheaded, he will (somehow) stand his headless body up and start running past the line of his crew members. Whoever he manages to run past must be spared. According to our tour guide's version of the legend, Klaus's body made it past fifteen of his men, all of whom the Germans set free.

Klaus, as featured in one of the charming and certainly historically 
accurate posters that Hamburg Dungeon had hanging all over town

Our first actual stop on the tour was Hauptkirche St. Petri (St. Peter's).



Overshadowing every building we visited in this older section was the Great Fire of 1842, which burned about a fourth of the entire city to the ground. However, one of the really special things about St. Petri's is that these two bronze lion door knockers survived (dating back to about 1340) and are still hanging on the main doors of the church today.

This forlorn looking bridge has a history about as spooky as it looks too. The "Trostbrücke" bridge first and foremost is important because it spans the gap between old Hamburg and new Hamburg--a statue of the first archbishop looks out at his work (the old town), a statue of Graf Adolf III looks out at his new town. However, translated, Trostbrücke means "Comfort Bridge," apparently because before prisoners were executed, they were allowed to pause on this bridge on their way to the chopping block.

The Zum Brandansfang, now a restaurant, was originally a cigar factory. More specifically, it was the cigar factory where the massive fire that ate up the originals of most of our tourist destinations began, presumably by arson (though to this day they have no idea who might have been stupid enough to set a cigar factory on fire).

We also visited some equally dark but more recent places, the first of which was a factory building that, during the Holocaust, produced Zyclon B, a poisonous gas. No guesses what it was used for. The plaque on the building's wall reads (loosely), "Do not destroy the wicked of the earth, let them destroy themselves!" It then lists the names of the concentration camps where the gas was shipped. 

This plaque has apparently caused some debate to flair up, especially since the people working there now already resent the ghostlike statues surrounding the building's facade--essentially, they don't like being reminded of the building's twisted history every morning as they walk in to work. Whereas I can understand how it wouldn't add much sunshine to your Mondays, it hasn't even been a full century since all the tragedy and atrocity... a plaque in acknowledgement seems a small concession.

"Stolpersteine" were also all over the city. These small gold plaques translate as "stumbling stones" --this was such a beautifully humble word for these simple memorials, especially in light of the intense weight these actually hold. Essentially, they simply bear the names of individuals taken away during the Holocaust, and are placed (upon request of remaining family or friends) in front of the individual's old home or place of work. Our guide told us that in some neighborhoods, the sidewalks in front of homes can seem as if they are paved with these- something like 2,500 have been put in place just last year.

The most brilliant monument I have ever seen in my entire life, though, was this: the charred remains of the St. Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Cathedral). Minimally restored only for structural integrity, the memorial itself is literally the still standing remains of the cathedral's outer structure and steeple. The steeple itself was used as a target point during the final air raids of WWII. Whereas everything else in the city was rebuilt, restructured, cleaned back up and put back on the ''moving forward'' track, these ruins were kept just as they were. We visited this again on Sunday though, so more photos and thoughts on this stunning scene later.

 Finally, we reached the edge of old Hamburg, rimmed by warehouses and old factories.

Across the bridge, Hamburg is now attempting to construct a sort of city within a city, a new residential area. The buildings are each completely unique, and this whole stretch is basically an architect's playground, since everything is new. The huge building under construction you can see here in the background is going to be the masterpiece. The "Elbphilharmonie" (Symphony Hall), though it's costing Hamburg a freaking fortune right now, claims it will be the world's next "Sidney Opera House," and when it is finally completed should earn it's weight in gold as a tourist destination. Many people seemed highly skeptical that this new area would ever succeed what with how much it will cost to live there, but I can't help but think it will survive until a time when people when be able to afford these places again.

 Finally, after our magnificent tour ended, we went to check out the Miniature Wunderland nearby. It seems that one of Germany's many great accomplishments is actually being home to the world's largest miniature, well, world. It was pretty gimmicky, but hey, it was warm, and there were lots of pretty funny little details sewn into the landscapes-- the people who were creating this thing must have had to do something to keep themselves from going completely nuts.

Ah! Can't say how happy I was for dinner that night! Deer meat, cabbage, mashed potatoes- that plate was clean in something like fifteen minutes. That night we decided to just chill out in the hostel bar, which wound up being a perfectly relaxing end to a very long day.