Port of Hamburg Port of Hamburg The Port of Hamburg (German: "Hamburger Hafen") is a sea port on the river Elbe in Hamburg, Germany, 110 kilometres from its mouth on the North Sea. It's Germany's largest port and is named the country's "Gateway to the World" (Tor zur Welt). In terms of TEU throughput, Hamburg is the third-busiest port in Europe (after Rotterdam and Antwerp) and 15th-largest worldwide. In 2014, 9.73 million TEUs (20-foot standard container equivalents) were handled in Hamburg. The harbour covers an area of 73.99 km² (64.80 km² usable), of which 43.31 km² (34.12 km²) are land areas. The location
Accession of Hamburg to the German Customs Union (Zollverein) Instead of the old international treaties, a constitution bound the states together and solidified the union. Thus the fears of the Hanseatic cities had become groundless. But now it became clear that the other grounds alone were strong enough to keep them away from the Customs Union. Following the Second Schleswig War of 1864, Schleswig and Holstein became a Prusso-Austrian condominium, with Prussia occupying the former and Austria the latter, but on 8 June 1866, Prussian general Von Manteuffel crossed the river Eider into Holstein, which bordered Hamburg on the north. Having warned Austria he was exercising Prussia's condominate right