Hamburg, officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, is the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin, as well as the overall 7th largest city and largest non-capital city in the European Union with a population of over 1.84 million. Hamburg's urban area has a population of around 2.5 million and is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, which has a population of over 5.1 million people in total. The city lies on the River Elbe and two of its tributaries, the River Alster and the River Bille. One of Germany's 16 federated states, Hamburg is surrounded by Schleswig-Holstein to the north and Lower Saxony to the south.
Gabriele Susanne Kerner, better known as Nena, is a German singer and songwriter who rose to international fame in 1983 as the lead vocalist of the band Nena with the Neue Deutsche Welle song "99 Luftballons". In the same year the band re-recorded this song in English as "99 Red Balloons". Nena's re-recording of some of the band's old hit songs as a solo artist, produced by the co-composer of most of them, her former Nena band colleague and keyboard player Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, rekindled her solo career in 2002. Combined with the success of the Nena band years, she has sold over 25 million records, making her the most successful German pop singer in chart history.
The Hamburger Schule is a music movement current in Germany during the 1980s and early 1990s. With some active bands and artists it is still present. It took up traditions of Neue Deutsche Welle and combined them with elements of indie rock, punk, grunge, experimental pop, and intellectual lyrics. It established new grounds for the use of German language in pop music.
Blumfeld was an indie pop band from Hamburg, Germany, formed by singer and songwriter Jochen Distelmeyer. The name of the band was taken from the main character of the short story "Blumfeld, ein älterer Junggeselle" by Franz Kafka. Blumfeld are counted among the most significant representatives of the Hamburger Schule and are considered to be one of the most successful combos of the German indie scene.
The Cologne school massacre was a mass murder that occurred at the Catholic elementary school located in the suburb of Volkhoven in Cologne, West Germany on 11 June 1964. The perpetrator, Walter Seifert, also known as "Der Feuerteufel von Volkhoven", attacked the people at the school with a home-made flamethrower and a spear, killing eight pupils and two teachers, and wounding twenty-two others. When police arrived at the scene, he fled from the school compound and poisoned himself. He was taken to a hospital, where he died the same evening.
The Hamburger Abendblatt is a German daily newspaper in Hamburg.
Gruner + Jahr is a publishing house headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company was founded in 1965 by Richard Gruner, John Jahr, and Gerd Bucerius. From 1969 to 1973, Bertelsmann acquired a majority share in the company and gradually increased it over time. After 2014, the company was a fully owned subsidiary of the Gütersloh-based media and services group. Under the leadership and innovation strategy of Julia Jäkel, Gruner + Jahr evolved into a publishing house producing cross-channel media products for the digital society.
Anja Hajduk is a German psychologist and politician of the Alliance '90/The Greens who has been serving as State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action in the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 2021.
VapianoSE is a German restaurant franchise company headquartered in Cologne. The chain's restaurants offer Italian food adhering to the fast-casual principle. Vapiano was established in 2002 in Hamburg. Its largest shareholder since 2011 is the private equity firm, Mayfair Vermögensverwaltung. Roughly one-third of the restaurants are operated by the company itself, but the majority are run as franchise or as joint ventures. In April 2017, Vapiano had 180 locations in 31 countries, including Australia, China, Egypt and the United States. On 20 March 2020, Vapiano announced its cash-flow insolvency due to a sharp drop in sales after most restaurants had to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wolfgang Kraushaar is a political scientist and historian. After a residency at the Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung from the 1980s until 2015. In 2015 he continued his research at the Hamburg Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Culture also in Hamburg, Germany.
Christa Goetsch is a German politician of the Alliance '90/The Greens party, member of the Hamburg Parliament, and from 2008-2010 was a Senator and Deputy Mayor of Hamburg.
The Japanische Schule in Hamburg e.V. is a Japanese international school located in Halstenbek, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, within the Hamburg Metropolitan Region.
There is a community of Japanese people in Germany consisting mainly of expatriates from Japan as well as German citizens of Japanese descent.
Natias Neutert is a German artist, author, poet, orator, and translator who lives in Hamburg and Berlin.
The 2016 Hamburg stabbing attack, also referred to as Murder at the Alster or Alster Murder, was an attack on 16 October 2016 in the city of Hamburg, Germany. A 23- to 25-year-old man "of southern appearance" was named as the suspect. On 30 October 2016, the Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack, though police later said a terrorist background or motive for the attack was "unlikely".
Jörg Dräger is a German physicist, politician and manager. From 2001 to 2008 he served as a senator in the Hamburg state government. From 2008 to 2021 he has been a member of the Bertelsmann Stiftung Executive Board where he is responsible for the areas of education and integration. Dräger is considered a leading education expert and is the author of numerous books on education policy, including the impacts of digitization.
The Fontenay is a luxury hotel in Hamburg, Germany. The hotel is part of the consortium The Leading Hotels of the World.
Silke Urbanski is an historian, an author and a former politician (SPD). For many years she held a teaching position for Middle-ages history at the Historisches Seminar at the University of Hamburg, but she resigned in 2005 as a protest against the decision by the Hamburg Senate to introduce student tuition fees.
Kirsten Boie is a German children's author and activist. Having worked as a teacher, she began publishing in 1985 and is the author of more than 100 books. Among her best-known works are Paule ist ein Glücksgriff, the Kinder aus dem Möwenweg series, and Ritter Trenk. She has been recognised with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and an honorary citizenship of Hamburg.
