Hamburg Rathaus

The ornate, neo-Renaissance Town Hall of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg is a good place to get your bearings and a grip on the city’s proud, prosperous identity. At the heart of the Altstadt, the elaborate, towering building is a vast sandstone statement of wealth, sovereignty and Hamburg’s historic membership in the Hanseatic League, a confederation of independent city states which dominated Baltic maritime trade for some three centuries. The building is fronted by a mosaic of Hamburg’s patron goddess, Hammonia, as well as the city’s coat of arms and the Latin city motto: Libertatem quam peperere maiores digne studeat servare posteritas, “The descendants shall seek worthily to maintain the freedom achieved by their forebears.” The Rathaus is one of the few historic buildings in Hamburg to have survived Allied air raids during World War II, including the infamous “Operation Gomorrah,” which killed 42,600 Hamburg citizens.