When I visited Hamburg for the first time, I was with a group of young political activists - visiting and staying with members of our sister party in Germany. The most unoriginal joke that was repeated on that trip concerned the name of the building in the picture. The Rathaus (Rat - Advisory Assembly, Parliament - as in Bundesrat) is the city hall - so the joke was about a house for rats (politicians).
It is a beautiful building - and I have many photographs of it. I sadly didn't have time to tour it on last July's visit - but next time!
Outside is the Rathausmarkt. Our visit coincided with an outdoor film festival. While waiting for the late night film to start, music was played through the loudspeakers. I really enjoyed the selection of French music that played. There were food and drink stalls around the square - selling food from the various traditions within Europe. The audience was also made up of people from many nations. Less than two decades before I was born, bombs brought by aircraft built in the region of my birth had been targeted on this city. Small plaques on the streets of Hamburg commemorate the people who had once lived there - but were taken away to concentration camps, from which many never returned. A moving statue outside the Bahnhof Dammtor recalls the Kindertransport - which brought many refugee children to Britain in the months preceding the outbreak of World War II. It was a timely reminder of how much had been achieved in the 20th Century after evil had visited our continent. A reminder of why we mustn't let history repeat itself.
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