How do people really go about discovering a city? I got to know Hamburg in my own special way, because as a child I was fascinated by trams, the boats on the Alster and the underground. I scouted out my home town by travelling every single underground line from end to end. I waited patiently until the driver had finished his break, then I got back in the train and travelled in the opposite direction. I found the tram depots particularly intriguing, as there were often a few ancient tramcars standing around that were either disused or operated only at rush hour. And in May 1959, as a young lad, I went to the Jungfernstieg on the Binnenalster and witnessed the naming of the „Seebek,“ a really modern ship at the time with lots of glass, a „waterbus.“
Even someone from Hamburg who was born after the Second World War notices huge changes in the city since their childhood days: the city has a different face. I notice this whenever I look at old photos or the weekly newsreels from the fifties with all the familiar things that have now disappeared. The trams stopped running years ago and the ferry services on the Alster no longer exist - luckily a sponsor stepped in to help save the Weisse Flotte ships that are now mainly used by tourists.
My „Spiegel“ office overlooks the Speicherstadt. Thank goodness. The other side of the building overlooks the busy East-West artery road that is as boring as its name - an ugly highway that was built in the fifties and cuts through the city. In contrast, the much-photographed Speicherstadt with its red clinker buildings is an architectural jewel, the heart of the planned new Hafencity. This whole area is best appreciated from one of the harbour launches: given the choice, a boat trip through the Hafenstadt is far better than any of the harbour tours. If you prefer a trip along the Elbe, then it has to be with a cruise ship from the Landungsbrücken (landing stages) out to Blankenese - a real pleasure on sunny days, of which there are many, despite what some people say! It's then time to go up the Süllberg, either on foot or by bus. That's the hill with a restaurant on top, including a café terrace with a long tradition. It's now been exquisitely modernized, and it's fairly elegant too - but you can still climb up the building's small round tower. It offers a wonderful view of the River Elbe and the great city spread out in the distance with its church spires.
The people of Hamburg love their city. And it must have been both gripping and horrifying for the people on the Süllberg during those summer nights of 1943 as they watched the blazing destruction of their city. Those were the days and nights when the openminded Hanseatic town had to pay a shocking price for the war that Germany had started and brutally pursued.
In the night of the first great firestorm that cost tens of thousands of lives, they say the column of smoke rose six or seven kilometres into the sky. Writers from Hamburg, such as Hans-Erich Nossack or Wolfgang Borchert, provided eye-witness descriptions of the city's annihilation.
