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) that were previously uncompetitive, now grew extensively. The citizens of Hamburg were driven to make use of articles of German origin much more freely than before, as many of them were cheaper than corresponding foreign articles which were now weighted with a Customs duty. As predicted, the new conditions favoured the development of manufactures in Hamburg itself. With the free port, Hamburg became the leading port in continental Europe and the world's fourth largest after New York, London and Liverpool. This continued the increase of trade prior to the accession, which in 1873- 1887 grew by 44.2%. Nevertheless, outside the