Fish market Hamburg-Altona
| Fish market Hamburg-Altona GmbH
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| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1934 |
| Seat | Hamburg , Germany |
| management | Matthias Funk (Managing Director) |
| Number of employees | 40 employees, Fish market area in total: |
| sales | 11 million euros, Fish market area total: |
| Branch | service |
| Website | www.fischmarkt-hamburg.de |
The Fish Market Hamburg-Altona GmbH (FMH) develops and manages the area of the fishing port in Altona and provides services in the frozen food logistics. It has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hamburger Hafen und Logistik Aktiengesellschaft ( HHLA ) since 1989 .
Every year 36,000 tons of fresh fish are handled on the premises of the FMH . 57 fish and gastronomic businesses with a total of 750 employees and an annual turnover of around 280 million euros are located on the site. Many of them deliver nationwide. Around 14 percent of Germany's total fresh fish supply is handled via Hamburg.
The FMH has meanwhile made itself independent of the water-side landings in order to be able to ensure a continuous supply for trade and end consumers through foreign submissions .
history
Due to the ongoing competition between Hamburg and Altona for decades, efforts have been made to merge them into a single, common market since the establishment of the two fish markets in the 19th century. In fact, the only difference between the two markets was the official administrative boundary: the Altona fish auction hall , which went into operation in 1896, was only a few hundred meters away from the Hamburg hall in St. Pauli , which stood in its place until 1971.
After years of negotiations, the two cities were finally able to agree on the modalities of the merger, and in June 1934, the United Fish Markets Altona and Hamburg GmbH started operations as an operating company. On the political side, this process was completed when the Greater Hamburg Law, which had been discussed for several years, came into force on April 1, 1937 and the formerly Prussian Altona was united with Hamburg together with Wandsbek and Harburg-Wilhelmsburg , while Hamburg was the city in return Geesthacht , some smaller communities and its fishing port Cuxhaven had to cede to Prussia . In this context, the company was renamed Fischmarkt Hamburg-Altona GmbH (FMH) in March 1938.
The joint Hamburg-Altona fish market soon became Germany's most important fishing port alongside the large Weser markets . It became the leading market for game fish , the largest transhipment point for herring and at times the dominant location for the German fish industry.
In the course of the following years and decades, profound changes in the international fish and fishing industry resulted in the core business of FMH gradually shifting. It is true that the FMH succeeded in developing the Altona fish market into a specialized location for high-quality seafood products, whose auction in the fresh fish sector covered a good third of the consumption in the greater Hamburg area. At the same time, however, the development and marketing of commercial areas for companies in the fishing industry became increasingly important. The aim here was to continue to concentrate the fishing industry on the fish market in the future and to secure the jobs of the FMH and the companies at the fishing port. Against this background, FMH was sold to Hamburger Hafen und Logistik Aktiengesellschaft (HHLA) in December 1989 .
The FMH today
The FMH is developing office and commercial space on around 62,800 square meters, which is tailored to the local tenants in the fish and port industry. At the same time, it offers services in the field of frozen food logistics and in the fish trade, as well as a range of restaurants. In total, there are around 130 tenants from a wide range of industries on the site.
In addition, the fish market has become a tourist attraction. In 2007 the city council decided to build a new cruise terminal at Edgar-Engelhard- Kai. In order to be able to establish these and other additional uses, the decision was made in 2006 to release the area from the Port Development Act and thus enable an orderly urban development. The basic idea for future developments today is the opening of the area to the general public and the further development of the specific milieu of the fishing industry into an architectural attraction. In this context, the FMH guarantees that the Hamburg fishing industry will remain concentrated at the fishing port in the future.
From a closed commercial area to an open quarter
With the rediscovery of the northern bank of the Elbe, the northern edge of the harbor had slowly moved out of its purely commercial seclusion since the beginning of the eighties and was placed in the "pearl necklace" between Neumühlen and HafenCity . Several buildings from the early days of the fishing port have now been included in the planning. In July 1992, Speicher D was entered in the city's list of monuments, after being the first old warehouse on the site to be converted and re-used by the FMH in 1980-82. In 1993/94 the residential building Augustinum in the former Union- Kühlhaus in Neumühlen was completed and occupied. Between 1998 and 1999, FMH developed the " Elbkaihaus " from the former cooling hall III . In the summer of 2003 the machine house, which adjoins the former Hall III in the west, was rebuilt. At the western end of the equipment quay, the Dockland office building was built in 2005 . All of these projects go back to tenders and plans from the second half of the 1980s. The current plan is to demolish the two cooling halls IV and V and to close this last gap in the “pearl necklace”. For the future building and development of the property, the FMH announced an architectural competition, the results of which were presented in July 2010. FMH, which intends to invest around 75 million euros in this project, is planning to start construction in 2013.
While the FMH accompanies the change from a closed, fishing business area to an open quarter, at the same time it remains a guarantee for the continued existence of the Hamburg fish industry at the location. The two deep-freeze halls IV and V on the banks of the Elbe will be demolished, but a new building with a glass fish factory is to be built on the opposite slope of the Geest .
literature
- FMH: Butt from Altona: From the first Elbe fisherman to a modern service provider. The history of the Hamburg-Altona fish market . ELBE & FLUT EDITION + Junius Verlag, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-88506-444-2