Hamburg is home to some of the best museums in Germany. From modern art and maritime history to exotic exhibits in the Spice Museum, Hamburg has museums to enliven all your senses.
And if you are here in spring, check out the long Hamburg museums night ( Die lange Nacht der Museen ) when Hamburg’s art galleries, museums and cultural institutions stay open after midnight and offer many special exhibitions, readings, concerts and film screenings.
Here are the museums not to be missed on your next trip to Hamburg.
Kunsthalle Hamburg
Hamburg is home to a trio of architectural gems that house one of the most impressive art collections in Germany. Kunsthalle Hamburg is dedicated to more than 700 years of European art from medieval altars to modern paintings by German artists Gerhard Richter and Neo Rauch. Museum highlights include 17th-century Dutch masterpieces by Rembrandt, art from the Romantic period in Germany by Caspar David Friedrich, as well as an excellent collection by painters from the Bruecke art group.
Located in the Altstadt district, between the Hauptbahnhof (central station) and the Alster lakes, the name ‘Kunsthalle’ indicates the museum’s history as an art hall when it was founded in 1850. It consists of three connected buildings dating from 1869.
International Maritime Museum
The International Maritime Museum, which opened in a historic warehouse in Hamburg’s Hafencity, celebrates the city’s nautical heritage and brings its 3,000-year-old naval history to life.
Displayed on more than 10 floors, the museum displays 26,000 ship models, 50,000 construction plans, 5,000 paintings and graphics, and many nautical devices. It provides a fascinating visit for visitors of all ages, from boaters to established sailors.
Deichtorhallen
The Deichtorhallen is one of the largest centers for contemporary art in Germany. It unites the House of Photography as well as an exhibition hall for international art exhibitions under its roof.
The two former market halls with their grand architecture of glass and steel have become an impressive backdrop, where art exhibitions are regularly held in Warhol, Chagall or Baselitz.
Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial
KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme is located in a former brick factory on the outskirts of Hamburg. It was once the largest camp in northern Germany, made up of 80 satellite camps between 1938 and 1945.
In May 2005, on the 60th anniversary of Neuengamme’s liberation, a redesigned memorial site was opened on the grounds of the former camp. It includes several exhibits that document the history of the site and recall the suffering of the more than 100,000 people who were imprisoned here, including 20 children who were taken from Auschwitz and used for medical experiments. Children have their own monument dedicated to their memory.
Fifteen historic concentration camp buildings are preserved on the site. If this has piqued your interest in Germany’s darkest chapter in history, discover more Holocaust and concentration camp memorial sites in Germany.
Museum of applied arts
The Hamburg Museum Fuer Kunst und Gewerbe (Museum of Applied Arts) is dedicated to fine, applied and decorative arts from ancient times to the present day.
Founded in 1874 and following the example of the famous Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Applied Arts in Hamburg presents masterpieces of design, photography, Hamburg in the 1980s, fashion, furniture, Islamic art and musical instruments … just for name a few.
Spice museum
Hamburg is one of the most important port cities in Europe, and among the many products that arrive daily are spices from all over the world. So it stands to reason that the city has a fantastic Spicy Museum (Gewürzmuseum de Spicy ), the only one of its kind.
Housed in a former warehouse near the port, you can see, smell, and of course taste 500 years of exotic spices while learning about their cultivation, processing, and packaging.
Take home some spices as souvenirs to enjoy the international flavor of Hamburg.
Ballinstadt Emigration Museum
It wasn’t just spices that traveled through Hamburg. Between 1850 and 1939, more than 5 million people from all over Europe emigrated from Hamburg to the New World.
The Deutsches Haus der Migration in Ballinstadt recreates this life-changing journey on historic grounds. You can visit the original emigration rooms, and the extensive interactive exhibition (in English and German) offers a wealth of information on emigration in the 19th and 20th centuries. You can even track your own family’s journey by studying the original passenger lists and the world’s largest genealogical database.
