Hamburg harbor tours
Hamburg harbor tours are tourist offers for visiting the Hamburg harbor, especially by barge or pleasure boat. As a rule, the widely ramified port facilities and the development and functioning of port handling are presented. In addition to the traditional "Great Harbor Tour" , operated by the city's own HADAG Seetouristik und Fährdienst AG since 1921 , numerous private boat owners and companies offer tours of various orientations and lengths. Since the mid-1980s, there have also been a number of so-called alternative harbor tours , during which certain topics are in the foreground and the development of the port, its history, working and environmental conditions are critically examined.
history
With the expansion of the Port of Hamburg and its expansion to several former Elbe islands and areas on the opposite bank of the North Elbe , a ferry and barge service was established from the 1880s, primarily for the transport of port and shipyard workers. Even before the end of the 19th century, many ship owners were offering sightseeing tours for tourists in order to use their port ships to capacity outside of the peak working hours. Both ferries and converted tugboats were used , the starting point, then as now, was mostly the St. Pauli landing stages or the port gate .
After the opening of the St. Pauli Elbe Tunnel in 1911, the need for passenger transport by ship declined rapidly, and the resulting competitive pressure among providers of harbor tours led on the one hand to shady discount offers and on the other hand, tips were extorted from unsuspecting customers using brutal methods. In order to counteract these conditions, the financial deputation of the Hamburg Senate granted HADAG the sole concession for the "Great Harbor Tour" on July 1, 1921. This contract was linked to safety requirements for the harbor cruise ships as well as their equipment with seats and weather protection devices such as "Relingskleidje" (splash protection) and sun sails. Another requirement was the accompaniment of the paid tours by a "port explainer" who was supposed to provide information about the special features and details of the port. This function was awarded to former dock workers and seafarers, who with a special Hamburg " Schnack " enriched the facts and figures about the port with anecdotes, dontjes and seaman's thread . From this the term “ He lücht ” (he lies) , which is still used today, developed for the tourist guides in the Port of Hamburg.
For decades, the harbor tours have contributed to the fact that the Port of Hamburg is not only seen as a handling and work place, but is also regarded as an “experience space for visitors and tourists”. They are therefore a central component of city marketing and tourism as the city's growing economic sector. Since the end of the 1970s, parallel to the restructuring of the port through containerization and the dissolution of the HADAG monopoly via the "Great Harbor Tour", numerous other providers have been able to establish themselves. In addition to the classic port launch , larger types of ships were increasingly used, for example disused type ships from HADAG , restaurant ships built especially for harbor tours or replicas of paddle steamers in the nostalgic southern style .
Tours
The large number of harbor tours offered differ in the different types of ship as well as in the length of time, the standard tours last one to two hours, special themed tours up to five hours. Trips with barges differ from tours with larger ships because the smaller ships can also enter the narrower and flatter canals. A visit to the Speicherstadt from the water is only possible with the barges, but these are also restricted by the tides and the low water levels at low tide . The general program includes driving past the Großer Grasbrook , which has now been converted into the HafenCity district , with the former Sandtorhafen , the former heart of the Port of Hamburg, an entrance to the Hansahafen in Kleiner Grasbrook with a RoRo loading quay , and a tour of the last shipyards at Blohm + Voss and downstream as well as in the Köhlbrand the insight into the container terminals . Many of the harbor tours also lead through the extensive network of disused and fallow harbor basins, river ports, locks and canals in the eastern part of the harbor or out to the pilot house Seemannshöft on the Bubendeyufer and into the western port expansion areas of Altenwerder and Waltershof .
Barges in the Zollkanal in front of the Speicherstadt
Sandtorhafen and Elbphilharmonie
Blohm + Voss floating dock
Altona harbor with the Louisiana Star , a stern wheel boat in the style of a paddle steamer
Container terminal on Burchardkai and HADAG type ship
Seaman's yard with pilot house
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Alternative harbor tours
A special feature are the so-called alternative harbor tours , which have been developed since the mid-1980s , in which certain problem areas of the port development are taken up and presented. They take place at regular intervals from April to October, especially on Fridays, and are aimed at residents of Hamburg and the surrounding area and interested tourists. The Hafengruppe Hamburg has been running regular tours since 1986, covering topics from Hamburg's colonial policy to migration / racism to current trading conditions with the Third World . For just as long, the DGB-Jugend has been offering barge tours from the perspective of dock workers and seafarers, and the initiative Rettet die Elbe Umwelt-Hafenrundfahrten on environmental policy , port expansion, Elbe deepening and water pollution . Since the mid-1990s, the places of persecution and resistance during the Nazi era have been thematized by a harbor tour that takes place several times a year, organized by the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial .
See also
literature
- Renate Hücking, Ekkehard Launer: Tutes & bubbles. Hamburg harbor tours through eight centuries. Galgenberg Verlag, Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-925387-42-0 .
- Jürgen Ruszkowski, Jörn Hinrich Laue: The great harbor tour in Hamburg. Volume 33 in the yellow maritime series, 2nd edition. Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-022046-3
- Heiko Möhle: Brandy, Bibles and Bananas: German Colonialism in Africa - A Search for Traces24 . Hamburg, January 2011
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Harry Braun, Klaus Rahn: The port of Hamburg. A journey through time in pictures. Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-86680-365-7 , p. 12 f.
- ^ Ernst Christian Schütt: Chronicle Hamburg. 2nd updated edition. Bertelsmann Lexikon-Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 1997, ISBN 3-577-14443-2 , p. 413.
- ↑ Janine Schemmer: Working Worlds in Transition - The Port of Hamburg. In: Contemporary history in Hamburg. News from the Research Center for Contemporary History in Hamburg (FZH) 2009 ( Memento of the original from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.3 MB), accessed on May 19, 2011.
- ^ Port group Hamburg , accessed on September 13, 2016
- ↑ Alternative harbor tour of the DGB-Jugend ( Memento of the original from September 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 20, 2011
- ↑ Save the Elbe: Harbor tours , accessed on May 20, 2011
- ↑ Alternative harbor tour: satellite concentration camps, forced labor and resistance in the port of Hamburg 1933–1945. ( Memento of the original from August 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.6 MB), accessed on May 20, 2011
