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A world in constant flux TEXT
Oliver Driesen
The port of Hamburg is a symphony, a maritime medley made up of shifting tides, passing faces, deals being done. Creative energy has enabled Germany’s top trading port to adapt to the winds of time. Yet here too, in the shadows of the gantry cranes, the coronavirus pandemic has left its scars. Shortly before midnight on the final day of 2020, a near-empty subway train pulls into Baumwall station at Hamburg’s waterfront. Here, where tens of thousands would normally be teeming to see the New Year’s fireworks on the far shore, a middle-aged couple disembarks along with a handful of other passengers. A few paces later, they pause on the platform. From the riverside road where emergency vehicles speed along with lights flashing, a disembodied voice can be heard booming up to the newcomers: “This is Hamburg Police! In line with the COVID -19 restrictions, public assemblies and alcohol are banned along the banks of the Elbe River. Fireworks are strictly forbidden!” The couple exchange glances but then resume their stroll towards the Elbphilharmonie concert hall, descending to the river that flows as dark as the night sky. At the stroke of midnight, the two of them withdraw into the deepest recesses of the deserted historic harbor, part of the HafenCity; they toast with champagne in plastic cups on the gently rocking pontoon. Suddenly they are joined by a young man who has emerged from a nearby apartment building. Keeping a safe distance, he introduces himself. “Hi, I’m Linus. Would you mind if I set off a rocket here?” No, they wouldn’t mind at all. A few seconds later, high above the masts of a vintage sailing ship, a single orange and yellow plume blossoms with poetic grandeur against the night sky. And at least one spark of joy rings in the new year at the Elbe. Centuries of growth and expansion The Port of Hamburg has seen many a dark day, though, and has always risen from the ashes. It has bravely faced hitherto unknown adversity and, if necessary, simply reinvented itself. For instance in 1862, when the triumphant rise of the steam engine radically changed the world. Not only could the railways now be used
to exchange goods with the hinterland; more and more steam-powered vessels were chugging inland along the Elbe from the sea. That required a completely different transhipment infrastructure than the old-time commercial sailing ships from the Baroque era. But what? Docks like in London, with brick-built locks to regulate the fluctuating water levels? Instead Hamburg chose a more elaborate solution: a tidal port. Albeit without its own locks, but brimming with warehouses, cranes and quayside railway sidings. The groundwork was laid for further growth – in every direction under the sun. Even the catastrophic air raids of World War Two could not keep this phoenix from rising to a new challenge. In 1945 some 3,000 shipwrecks had rendered the port’s waters nearly impassable – and some 90 percent of the facilities had been destroyed, catapulting its potential back to pre-tidal times. Yet the reconstruction commenced without delay. Thanks to new transhipment technology such as the forklift, and thousands of hard-working day laborers, just a scant decade later the harbor was primed to usher in the heyday of general cargo ships. Loaded with sacks and crates of spices, coffee and bananas, they set out across the seven seas, destined for Hamburg. The tin box revolution The first container vessels followed around 1970, signaling a revolution in logistics. They bade farewell to warehouses and hello to so-called terminals. Ever since, these dockside storage areas have been filled with stacked metal boxes that keep arriving at the port of Hamburg on ever-larger container ships. In retrospect, the open tidal port has proven a good choice; London was forced to close its final lock in 1980 because the latest gener ation of freighters were too large. Hamburg is and will remain by far Germany’s most important trading port: its throughput in 2020 was 8.5 million TEU s (short for a 20-foot standard container). This was a mere 7.9 percent less than the previous year, notwith standing the temporary slump brought by the pandemic. However, on the international stage, Hamburg has been losing ground to its
