Hanseviertel: A monument with the most modern shopping flair

An arcade that has been setting standards since 1980

The Hanseatic quarter in the heart of the city is only 39 years old and has already become a monument, as the Grande Dame of Hamburg’s shopping arcades is a post-modern building that is outstanding in terms of urban history, urban planning, and architecture. The urban planning value of the ensemble has been recognized and honored by the Office for the Protection of Historical Monuments, which placed the Hanseatic Quarter under monumental protection in 2018. It is in the tradition of famous historical shopping arcades in major European cities, and at the same time its architecture, materials, and details are consistently oriented towards Hamburg’s architectural culture and city history.

Hardly opened and already a public attraction

In the triangle between Poststrasse, Grosse and Hohe Bleichen/Heuberg, a 45,000 square meter ensemble with around 60 shops was created in only two and a half years of construction between 1978 and 1980, which was unique in Hamburg at the beginning of the 1980s and also unparalleled in Germany.

The public attraction was created by architect Volkwin Marg – one of the namesakes of the globally active office of Gerkan, Marg and Partner (gmp). The ensemble includes a parking garage, office space, apartments, and the Renaissance Hotel Hamburg.

Marg managed to fit the Hanseviertel with its unique arcade structure into the old building stock of the western city center. From the very beginning, the shops have benefited from people who, while shopping, both now and in the past enjoy strolling the 200-meter-long arcade past red brick facades and inviting shop windows. The Hamburg architect used brick from Lauenburg not only for the facades but also as flooring.

Shopping regardless of the weather – that’s what inspired the people of Hamburg

The entire passage is covered by a barrel vault with windows. The highlights are two brilliant glass domes, which like a glass cathedral offer a view of the Hamburg sky. To shop regardless of the notorious Hanseatic weather and still not feel like you are in a shopping mall: With this idea in mind, the architect Marg created something extraordinary, not far from Hamburg's Alster lake.

The striking green of the steel beams of the glass roof structures is one of the trademarks of the Hanseviertel and takes up the green oxidized copper roofs, which are omnipresent in the cityscape, in its design. Bronze emblems are embedded in the floor. Bronze bands with inscriptions in the floor refer to inscriptions in Hamburg documents or to quotations from trade and shipping. Even today, the walls are adorned with lights reminiscent of ship lights.

Architectural details tie in with Hanseatic tradition

If you walk from Hamburg’s Rathausplatz towards the Hanseviertel, you will immediately see the carillon with 23 bronze bells at the main entrance. It plays a different song every hour, thus continuing a tradition common in all Hanseatic cities.

If you look very closely, you can discover an area below the carillon where the word “Poland” can be read in darker clinker bricks. While building the Hanseviertel, bricklayers from Krakow had sorted the bricks according to color, using the lighter ones for the background and the darker ones for the lettering.

A monument within a monument: A 13-ton granite ball in the rotunda

The architect, however, together with a gmp employee, created another monument – one that weighs 13 tons and measures 211 centimeters in diameter. In May 2012, a floating sphere made of 300 million-year-old granite from Brazil was installed in the rotunda. The stone subject is based on the globe. For the surface, the artist Tilman Fulda developed a map of the world including trade routes of major Hamburg shipping companies. Their names are embedded in bronze in the floor.