Economy
Due to its geographical location, Hamburg benefited from the reunification of Germany and the reform processes in Central and Eastern Europe. In the structural change of the last quarter of a century, Hamburg’s economy has changed from maritime, resource-oriented and labor-intensive industries to technology-oriented manufacturing, modern services and the logistics and media industry (service metropolis). Visit sunglasseswill for Germany Agriculture.
87.2% of those in employment (place of work is Hamburg, including commuters) worked in the service sector in 2017, but only 12.7% in the manufacturing industry including construction. The share of the manufacturing industry, including construction, in gross value added (GVA) has been falling steadily for years and amounted to 18.1% in 2017, the share of the service sector was 81.9% (trade, hospitality, transport, information and communication 31.9 %, Financing, insurance, rental and corporate service providers 32.1%, public and private service providers 17.9%). Overall economic output, the gross domestic product (GDP), rose in Hamburg between 2000 and 2017 from € 76.4 billion to € 117.6 billion. Hamburg thus contributes 3.6% to Germany’s overall economic performance. With a GDP per resident of € 64,567, Hamburg is at the top of all federal states (average for Germany € 39,477). While the unemployment rate for Hamburg in this millennium until 2007 was slightly below the national average, it has been slightly above it since 2008. In September 2018, 6.5% of all civilian labor force were registered as unemployed (national average: 5.0%).
Industry: Of the (2016) 85,986 employees in the manufacturing sector, 16,000 worked in the field of repair and installation of machines and equipment, 16,641 in the manufacture of vehicles, vehicle parts and other vehicle construction, 10,761 in mechanical engineering, 4,908 in production of data processing equipment, electronic and optical products, 3,730 in petroleum processing, 3,839 in the manufacture of chemical products and 3,381 in the manufacture of rubber and plastic goods. Hamburg is the largest German center of the civil aviation industry and next to Toulouse the most important in Europe (Airbus – including participation in the construction of the Airbus A380, Lufthansa [repair center]).
Services: The areas of trade, transport, hospitality, information and communication are of particular importance (share of GVA 2017: 31.9%). This is due to the media industry, in which Hamburg is one of the leading countries in Germany (press and book publishers, music and film industry), logistics, trade fair and congresses, as well as the culture and leisure industry. Equally important are the areas of finance, insurance and business services, real estate and housing (32.1% of GVA). Hamburg is the most important German banking center after Frankfurt am Main and the third largest German insurance center after Munich and Cologne.
In the past few years, tourism in Hamburg has seen considerable growth rates. While the capacity of the accommodation establishments was 27,700 beds in 2000, it was 63,000 beds in 2017, during the same period the number of guests rose from 2.7 to 6.78 million and the number of overnight stays from 4.9 to 13, 8 million
Hamburg is a center of German trade. The foreign trade of the state of Hamburg reached a value of 66 billion euros in 2017 for imports (this is 6.3% of total imports to Germany) and 51 billion euros for exports (3.99% of the federal result). The second largest online retailer in Germany after the market leader Amazon, Otto GmbH & Co KG, is based in Hamburg.
Agriculture: Agriculture used 14 637 hectares in 2016. Of around 625 farms, around 440 farms mainly cultivate horticultural products. Spatial agricultural focal points are the Vier- und Marschlande in the south-east of the city (with pronounced cultivation of ornamental plants and vegetables, mostly under glass) and in the south-west the fruit-growing area “Altes Land”. With its wholesale markets for fruit and vegetables, flowers, meat and fish, Hamburg is an important marketing center.
Administrative and cultural institutions
Hamburg is the seat of the state authorities and the Senate (state government); International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (since 1996) as the most important UN institution in Germany; Seat of several federal institutions, including: Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, location of the German Weather Service, locations of the Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute – Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forests and Fisheries (Institutes for Fisheries Ecology, Sea Fisheries, Wood Research and International Forestry and Forest Economics).
Institute for the History of the German Jews, a large number of universities and colleges in state and private sponsorship as well as two others supported by the Federal Ministry of Defense and the Evangelical Church, some are branches of educational institutions from other federal states; numerous libraries.
The diverse museum landscape (including the Hamburger Kunsthalle with Contemporary Gallery, Deichtorhallen, Museum for Art and Commerce Hamburg, Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg, Archaeological Museum Hamburg – Stadtmuseum Harburg / Helms-Museum, Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, Altonaer Museum, Museumshafen Oevelgönne, Museum der Work, German Customs Museum, Spicy’s Spice Museum, Speicherstadtmuseum) is very popular. There is also the planetarium and the miniature wonderland Hamburg.
Other important cultural institutions are: Hamburg State Opera (oldest German opera, founded 1678) and Hamburg Philharmonic, Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Thalia Theater and numerous private theaters, the Botanical Garden and Hagenbeck Zoo. The city is known for its musical stages.
Hamburg is the seat of a Catholic archbishop and the regional bishop (Sprengel Hamburg and Lübeck) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany.
