Speicherstadt - a unique warehouse city in Hamburg

Do you know where all the hipsters get after death? To heaven! Not only to the one whose gates are being guarded by Peter, but to the one that they built in Hamburg. In this loft eden, each of the “not like everyone else” needs to tighten up his tightened pants, put on hats with huge round brim so that Mexican cowboys nervously smoke aside, well, trendy glasses without diopters of an exclusively recognizable brand will become a basic accessory here. But what if you are not like that, and all this is alien to you? Then boldly close your eyes to these prejudices and also enjoy the most beautiful district of Hamburg - Speicherstadt.

Everyone who danced under the downhole notes of the Megapolis group in the Karl-Marx-Stadt track in the 80s knows that the name of the philosopher raised by the Communists was added not just a word, but a German designation of the city. But in order to decipher the word "Speicher" inherent in the name of this region and completely draw a picture, we turn to history.

I feel like the readers who accidentally came after these words moved the mouse cursor to a cross in the corner of the screen, but this will be an emotionally ill-considered act, because in front there are full warehouses of rum, tobacco and overseas sweets, and it’s not Uncle Wasserman who will tell you the story.

Friedrich Barbarossa, whose surname for modern people is associated exclusively with piracy, a monkey and smuggling, was actually the king of Germany, and on May 7, 1189, evaluating the strategic location of the islands on the Elbe River, he signed a decree on the duty-free storage of goods in these lands. Merchants flocked here like flies, and from the barns packed to failure, the sweet life spreads all over the okrug. An amazing event for the city, but the day of that order is the official date of birth of Hamburg itself.

Thanks to this favorable law, local, slightly cunning merchants became richer at times than eminent princes, because they delivered haggled products all over the world, and brought back the most outlandish things, selling them at exorbitant prices, giving birth to capitalism and globalization in a single port.

700 years have passed under the auspices of such frauds, the city grew like a belly of the same happy merchants, but there was absolutely no place for it, and the privilege zone with the advent of the North German customs union was reduced to a catastrophically small, equivalent to the size of the port. What to do?

According to the technology beloved by the Venetians and the Dutch, oak piles began to be driven into the waters off the coast and they already began to lay out a warehouse city from the famous Hanseatic brick in which it would be possible to store stocks of spicy spices, aromatic coffee, intoxicating rum and sweet tobacco.

In the global restructuring, the historical part of the port suffered, and as a result, almost 20 thousand people lost their housing or workplace. Is this possible for modern Germany? And in those years, many lived in cramped rented apartments, there was no talk of any monetary compensation, and people could not dare to hint at them. The ringing of doubloons, relying from the state for demolished houses, was heard only by homeowners, and the rest went for a walk around the world with bare booty.

Thus, conquering space in pieces from water verses, the world's largest warehouse city appeared with convenient channels for passage of ships and cargo hatches, decorated with stately iron hooks for comfortable unloading / loading, and, as you might have guessed, the German word " Barn "-" Speicher "gave the first part of the designation of this area.

And if a reader who knows German, from the very beginning knew what I was talking about, then for a less knowledgeable subscriber, I hope I managed to withstand a little intrigue and teach Speicherstadt more beautifully.

By the way, the hooks remaining in the windows were very fond of local traders, including hucksters with carpets, who remained here by inheritance along with established trade routes and new refugees.

Judging by the number of carpet shops opened here, it seems to me that in modern Germany the Soviet tradition has remained once a year to gather with the whole family on the couch and take pictures on the background of a precious product, so that your friends do not think that you live poorly, then every couple of years this the carpet is customary to change.

Or is it the perfect wedding present?

The Miniatur Wunderland Museum, which was housed in one of the warehouses, helped to make these buildings famous all over the world, which became the ancestor of all such museums, a true miniature icon. In his image and likeness, followers appeared around the world, by the way, including our St. Petersburg Grand Layout Russia.

Well, the modern wheel of history has turned everything back to its origins, and for several years the warehouse port of Hamburg has been transported to the Altona area connected to the city, and apartment houses, museums, cafes and restaurants are slowly returning to Speicherstadt.

In conclusion, I want to note that most of the premises are still used as warehouses and are protected by UNESCO from interventions and transformations.