Hamburg Places: Speicherstadt

With its numerous brick-lined buildings, the Speicherstadt in Hamburg's harbour now is one of the most typical sites of Hamburg and a must-see for tourists.


The building works of the Speicherstadt started in 1885. This part of the new free port of Hamburg should be used for the storage of goods. In order to create space for the project, thousands of people had to leave their homes.

For the loading of the goods, the houses were designed in such a way that they were accessible by canals on the one side and by streets on the other side.

Now, the houses are still used for the storage of goods such as spices, tea, coffee etc. In addition, there are many museums in the Speicherstadt.

As some of the buildings do not serve its original purpose any more because containers are used instead, modern companies moved in.