Portal:Hamburg

Razzia in St. Pauli is an early German sound film (1932) of the end of the Weimar era. It illustrates both the powerlessness of the ordinary worker as well as an intimate portrait of the joys and sorrows of a small group of people in the harbor section of Hamburg.

A social drama plays out in the harbor area of Hamburg: Ballhaus-Else, a prostitute, lives together with her boyfriend Leo, a peaceful bar musician, in St. Pauli. One day, Matrosen-Karl, a thief on the run, finds a hideout at Else's. She is fascinated by the man, who promises her a more exciting and better life. Together they want to leave Hamburg. Leo – who feels inferior to Karl – lets them go with a heavy heart. But then Karl gets arrested after a fight between the underworld and the police in the Kongo-Bar, and Else returns to Leo – and her hopeless everyday life.

View of the Elbe river in Hamburg, in the middle of the photo is the clock tower of the Landungsbrücken.

Photo credit: Martina Nolte

• ... that the city hall Hamburg Rathaus (pictured), constructed from 1886 to 1897, has 647 rooms, six rooms more than Buckingham Palace, and still functions as the seat of the government of Hamburg?
• ... that 80% of the taxis used for transport in Hamburg are driver-owned?
• ... that Hamburg's Wellingsbüttel Manor was the former home of Duke Friedrich Karl of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck, and used as a student's resident hall from 1964 till 1996?
• ... that most of the exhibits at the International Maritime Museum Hamburg are from the private collection of Peter Tamm, who started collecting when he was six years old?
• ... that 20th-century composers including Kagel, Ligeti, and Xenakis wrote music for cellist Siegfried Palm?
• ... that the Punch of the Hamburg Police has educated children in road traffic safety since 1948?

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