1936 On the Continent

greatest river, the Elbe, and the network of railways that terminate at Hamburg. The warehouse district alone is so large that it has been reckoned that 30,000 people could be lodged there comfortably. A forest of cranes are at work in Hamburg harbour, and their outlines, together with the smoke stacks and masts of the ships, are an integral and fundamental part of the whole harbour.
    The largest shipbuilding yard in Germany, that of Blohm und Voss, where amongst others the
Europa
was built, is situated in the harbour district. Eighty different large and small yards are associated with it. Hamburg has nearly 1,200,000 inhabitants. Of these about a third are partially or altogether engaged in shipping or export trade work.
    The large Prussian town of Altona has become one with Hamburg. Although it still has nothing to do with Hamburg’s civic administration, the boundaries between the two towns have long disappeared. When you walk through the famous St. Pauli quarter you will certainly not notice that you have left the territory of the one-time Patrician Republic and are now in Prussia. St. Pauli, the amusement quarter for seafarers, with its main street, the Reeperbahn, where a hundred places of entertainment of very varied character jostle each other, was once not merely famous but infamous. To-day St. Pauli has lost much of its former character and the dark, dangerous drinking places have almost entirely disappeared. The Reeperbahn is still amusing, but in its side streets I could not find any of the gruesome sights which my friends, who had been in Hamburg before the War, described to me so vividly. Like our Whitechapel, Hamburg’s St. Pauli has been disciplined into order and security.
Hamburg: Cafés and the Zoo
    One still finds in St. Pauli some unique small drinking places of an exotic character, but the most common are the light-flooded entertainment palaces, amongst which is the Alkazar, one of the best varieties in Germany, with very up-to-date stage devices. Its non-stop programme lasts from the afternoon till the early morning. The northern people of Hamburg have, like all northerners, a certain yearning for southern cheerfulness. Thus in the Reeperbahn there are Bavarian and Tyrolese resorts such as the Zillertal, which with their noisy crowds are very popular. In the funny little Hippodrome, the “beauties” of the district ride round on gentle horses, and even if the reputation of these places has somewhat faded, you can still find seafaring men of all nations drinking their glass of beer and keeping an eye open for their girl.

    The name of Hagenbeck is closely bound up with Hamburg; the Hagenbeck family invented the new kind of animal park, where the animals are not kept in cages as formerly, but in comparative freedom in their own natural surroundings. The Hagenbeck animal park at Stellungen, which is not in Hamburg but in Altona, is the most beautiful zoo I have yet seen. Here also there are good cafés and beer gardens, but Hamburg has so many of these that it is difficult to say which are the best. The Alsterpavillon, a charming café built in the Alster, is one of the chief centres of Hamburg life and, particularly in summer, is extremely attractive. Here in the midst of a great town, only a few steps from the principal shopping streets, gathers a crowd of sporting young people of Hamburg, and countless rowing and sailing boats circle round, the seagulls of the Alster flap through the air and sweet music plays.
    One must undertake a longer journey to get to the Uhlenhorster Fährhaus, but it is certainly worth going there by carriage or tram. One of the finest inns in Germany is to be found there in very beautiful country.
    Hamburg can offer so much that I shall miss in London: you can sit and eat and drink in the open air. I had to taste the most celebrated speciality of Hamburg cooking, the eel-soup, which with its complicated preparation is only to be compared with the
bouillabaisse
of Marseilles. If less than 2 lb. of the thickest eels are used for this soup, the true Hamburger scorns it. Very good too are Hamburger Rundstücke, warm rolls spread with meat and covered with a brown sauce.
    The Hamburg shops are as restrained as the town generally, but the initiated can find in the Jungfernstieg and its neighbouring streets, Alter Wall, Neuer Wall and Grosse Bleiche, a lot of good old-established firms which deal in the best quality goods.
    Though in Hamburg I felt so much at home, I was