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Hamburg
Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany and with the Hamburg Harbour, its principal port. Hamburg is also the second largest port city in the European Union.
The official name Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (German Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg) recalls Hamburg's membership in the mediæval Hanseatic League and the fact that Hamburg is a City State and one of the sixteen Federal States of Germany.
Hamburg is situated on the southern tip of Jutland Peninsula, geographically centered a) between Continental Europe and Scandinavia and b) between North Sea and Baltic Sea. The city of Hamburg lies at the junction of the river Elbe with the rivers Alster and Bille and the city center is beautifully set around Lake Binnenalster and Lake Außenalster.
Hamburg is an international trade city and the commercial and cultural center of Northern Germany. Hamburg is famous for it's sophisticated music scene.

History
The city takes its name from the first permanent building on the site, a fort ordered by Emperor Charlemagne to be built in 808 AD. The fort was build on some rocky ground in a marsh between the Alster and the Elbe as a defence against Slavic incursion. The fort was named Hamma Burg, while "burg" means "fort."
The "Hamma" element remains uncertain. Old High German includes both a hamma, "angle" and a hamme, "pastureland." The angle might refer to a spit of land or to the curvature of a river. However, the language spoken might not have been Old High German, as Plattdüütsch was spoken there later. Other theories are that the fort was named for a surrounding Hamma forest, or for the village of Hamm, later incorporated into the city. Hamm as a place name occurs a number of times in Germany, but its meaning is equally uncertain. It could be related to heim and Hamburg could have been placed in the territory of the ancient Chamavi. However, a derivation of "home city" is perhaps too direct, as the city was named after the castle.
In 834 Hamburg was designated the seat of a bishopric, whose first bishop, Ansgar, became known as the Apostle of the North. In 845 a fleet of 600 Viking ships came up the River Elbe and destroyed Hamburg, at this time a town of around 500 inhabitants. Two years later, Hamburg was united with Bremen as the bishopric of Hamburg-Bremen.
In 1030 the city was burned down by King Mieszko II of Poland. After further raids in 1066 and 1072 the bishop permanently moved to Bremen.
The charter in 1189 by Frederick I "Barbarossa" granted Hamburg the status of a Imperial Free City and tax free access up the Lower Elbe into the North Sea. This and Hamburg's proximity to the main trade routes of the North Sea and Baltic Sea quickly made it a major port in Northern Europe. Its trade alliance with Lübeck in 1241 marks the origin and core of the powerful Hanseatic League of trading cities.
In 1520 the city embraced Lutheranism, and Hamburg subsequently received Protestant refugees from the Netherlands and France. Hamburg was at times under Danish sovereignty while remaining part of the Holy Roman Empire as an Imperial Free City.
Briefly annexed by Napoleon I (1810-14), Hamburg suffered severely during his last campaign in Germany. The city was besieged for over a year by Allied forces (mostly Russian, Swedish and German). Russian forces under General Bennigsen finally freed the city in 1814. During the first half of the 19th century a patron goddess with Hamburg's Latin name Hammonia emerged, mostly in romantic and poetic references, and although she has no mythology to call her own, Hammonia became the symbol of the city's spirit during this time. Hamburg had several great fires, notably in 1284 and 1842.
Hamburg experienced its fastest growth during the second half of the 19th century, when its population more than quadrupled to 800,000 as the growth of the city's Atlantic trade helped make it Europe's third-largest port.
In 1900 Hamburg-America Lines was the World's largest transatlantic shipping company and besides Hamburg was also home to shipping companies to South America, Africa, India and East Asia. Hamburg became a cosmopolitan metropolis based on worldwide trade. Hamburg was the port for most Germans and Eastern Europeans to leave for the New World and became home to trading communities from all over the world (like a small Chinatown in Altona).
After World War I Germany lost her colonies and Hamburg lost many of its trade routs. In 1937 the city boundaries were extended with the Groß-Hamburg-Gesetz (Greater Hamburg Act) to incorporate Wandsbek, Harburg, Wilhelmsburg and Altona. The city counts 1.7 million inhabitants.
During World War II Hamburg suffered a series of devastating air raids which killed 42,000 German civilians (Bombing of Hamburg in World War II). Trough this and the 1960s new zoning guidelines the inner city lost much of it's architectural past.
The Iron Curtain - only 50 kilometers east of Hamburg - seperated the city with most of it's hinterland and further reduced Hamburgs global trade. On February 16, 1962 a severe storm causes the Elbe to rise to an all-time high, thus drowning one fifth of Hamburg and killing more than 300 people.
During German Division from 1945 until 1990 Hamburg happened to be West Germany's only proper World City and by this grew into a prominent cultural role.
After German reunification in 1990 and the accessions of some Eastern European and Baltic States into the EU in 2004, Hamburg Harbour and Hamburg is ambitious in regaining its position as the regions largest deep-sea ports for container shipping and its major commercial and trading center.

Transport
Hamburg is connected by four Autobahnen (motorways) and is the most important railway junction on the route to Northern Europe. Hamburg's international airport is Hamburg Airport, which is the oldest airport in Germany still in operation.
Though large cities in Germany normally only have a one letter prefix (e.g. B for Berlin), Hamburg's vehicle licence plate prefix is "HH" (Hansestadt Hamburg, English: Hanseatic City Hamburg), which underlines Hamburg's historic roots and allows the city of Hannover to use the prefix "H".
Like in most larger German cities, the local public transport is organised by a Verkehrsverbund, basically a joint venture of all public transport companies servicing the area. In and around Hamburg, it's the HVV (Hamburger Verkehrsverbund). Tickets sold by one HVV company are accepted by all other HVV companies.
Nine light rail routes across the city are the backbone of Hamburg public transport. Three lines comprise the U-Bahn and six the S-Bahn system. U-Bahn, short for Untergrundbahn (underground, subway), is a standard German term for a municipally owned electric light rail system. The lesser part of the Hamburg U-Bahn operates through underground tunnels. Most of the U-Bahn tracks are on embankments or viaducts; older residents still speak of the system as the Hochbahn ("elevated railway"). A third light rail system, the AKN connects to satellite towns in Schleswig-Holstein state. Gaps in the light rail network are filled by bus routes, plied by single-deck, two- and three-axle diesel buses. Hamburg has no trams or trolley-buses, but is experimenting in using hydrogen fuelled busses.
Finally, regional trains of Germany's major railway company Deutsche Bahn AG and the regional Metronom trains may be used with a HVV public transport ticket, too. Except at the three bigger stations in the center of Hamburg, the regional trains hardly stop again inside the area of the city.
A day and night bus network operates as frequently as 2 minutes at important places to 30 minutes in suburban areas. Another rather unique means of transportation are 5 ferry lines along the river Elbe, operated by the HADAG. While mainly needed by Hamburg citizens and dock workers they can also be used for sightseeing tours at the (relatively) low fees of a HVV public transport ticket.

Wikipedia.org