Hamburg

Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg
Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg; Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg
	— State of Germany —
	1st row: View of the Binnenalster; 2nd row: Große Freiheit, Speicherstadt, River Elbe; 3rd row: Alsterfleet; 4th row: Port of Hamburg, Dockland office building
; Flag	; Coat of arms
	Position of Hamburg within Germany
	Coordinates: 53°34′07″N 10°02′17″E / 53.5686°N 10.038°ECoordinates: 53°34′07″N 10°02′17″E / 53.5686°N 10.038°E
Country	Germany
Capital	Hamburg
	Government
• First Mayor	Olaf Scholz (SPD)
• Governing party	SDP
	Area
• City	755 km2 (292 sq mi)
	Population (November 2006)
• City	1,754,317
• Density	2,323.6/km2 (6,018/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
NUTS Region
Website	hamburg.de

Hamburg Jungfernstieg in 1895

Hamburg 1800

Hamburg or in full Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (German: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg), is a city in the north of Germany on the banks of the River Elbe, 180 km away from the North Sea.

With a population of about 1.73 million (1730000) 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.

The area of Hamburg is 755.16 km² (291.6 sq mi).^[1]

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. The city is ranked 17th for best place to live in the world.^[2]

Economy [change]

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

The company Airbus has an assembly plant for large civil aircrafts in Hamburg. 30,000 people are employed in Hamburg's aircraft industries. There are only two other locations worldwide in this scale, Seattle in the United States and Toulouse in France.

About half of Germany's nation-wide newspapers and magazines are made in Hamburg. Germany's most-viewed television news Tagesschau is broadcast from Hamburg. There is 120.000 businesses in Hamburg.^[3]