symbol of the good fight. The city’s St Pauli football club unites a social movement under the rather piratey emblem, which seems to finds its way onto every banner, T-shirt and window sticker in town. The club, notorious for its vociferous fans, social activism, ban on right-wing nationalists, and punk spirit, encapsulates Hamburg’s feisty side. The club’s spirit can be considered


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an embodiment of the Reeperbahn, the notorious dockside strip of red lights, happily unsophisticated bars and live music venues that has half its visitors clutching a beer and the other half at their pearls. This is where the Beatles honed their


craſt, playing marathon sets night aſter night, before they hit the big time. That was over half a century ago, but Hamburg’s mix of hard graſt and feel-good entertainment still courses through the city’s veins. There are some parts of town where creative bohemianism wins out — St Georg is gay- friendly and wine-drinking and increasingly artisan, while Schanzenviertel plays it unrepentantly grungy. But, most of the time, it’s uncomplicated, rather raucous fun that drives Hamburg’s aſter-dark personality. For Germans, this is the home of musical theatre, with massive arenas built on the banks of the River Elbe to host the likes of Mary Poppins and The Lion King. By day, however, the Elbe is home to the


city’s serious side. For every docker letting his hair down, there’s a sober merchant checking the ledgers. Germany’s second- largest city has been about financial gain for most of its existence — in the 13th century, it became a key member of the Hanseatic League, a network of port cities across Northern Europe with a focus on prosperity through trade. Hamburg’s port, on the banks of the Elbe,


welcomes the biggest ships on Earth via the North Sea and still funds many a luxurious lakeside house. The third-busiest in Europe aſter Rotterdam and Antwerp, it’s an awe- striking model of mechanised gigantism. Hulking machinery, allied to 21st-century technology, means shipping containers are processed at a phenomenal rate. Behind the city’s good-natured rowdiness is a higher logistical being – an engine room of ruthlessly efficient globalisation. Hamburg’s beating, mostly automated


heart is astonishingly impressive, and not just for the more geekily-inclined visitor. And while a plethora of maritime museums means those visitors are well catered-for, Hamburg’s soul is something very different altogether, and it comes wrapped in a skull and crossbones scarf.


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n any other city, repeatedly seeing a skull and crossbones flag flying might be a little intimidating. But in Hamburg, it’s a


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