The traders' patter
Theatrical auctioneering by the basket.
Dietmar Rabich — CC BY-SA 4.0 · GZagatta — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Huhu Uet — CC BY 3.0 · Thomas Dahlstrøm Nielsen — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Fish Auction Hall is an 1896 steel-framed building with a glazed roof standing directly on the bank of the Elbe, built when Altona was an independent city competing with Hamburg in the fish trade. The actual auction ceased decades ago, but the building became the centre of the city's best-known weekly tradition. The Altona fish market runs every Sunday at dawn: it starts at five in the morning in summer (seven in winter) and ends at half past nine exactly. Traders on the quay sell fish, fruit, flowers and clothing in the shouting, theatrical auctioneering style they are famous for — selling by the full basket at prices that fall as the hours pass. Inside the hall it is something else entirely: live bands play from dawn and a crowd eats breakfast — a unique social mix of those who rose early to shop and those who have not yet slept after a night in the nearby Reeperbahn bars. The whole experience is free and there is nothing else like it in Germany.
Theatrical auctioneering by the basket.
Bands playing from dawn inside the hall.
Grosse Elbstrasse 9, 22767 Hamburg
U-434 Submarine MuseumA real ninety-metre submarine moored at the St. Pauli fish market: U-434 is a So3 minutes walk4.6
Beatles-PlatzA circular square at the entrance to Große Freiheit in the St Pauli district, op8 minutes walk3.6
Old Elbe TunnelThe Old Elbe Tunnel is a pedestrian tunnel running beneath the river Elbe, opene12 minutes walk4.6
St. Pauli LandungsbrückenThe Landungsbrücken — the "landing bridges" — are Hamburg's face to its harbour:12 minutes walk4.6
Altonaer BalkonThe Altonaer Balkon is a small park on the edge of a bluff above the Elbe in Alt14 minutes walk4.5Yes, all year without interruption, but the start shifts two hours later in the cold months, beginning at seven rather than five, while the finish stays at half past nine. Winter is far less crowded and more comfortable, though the atmosphere is quieter than at the height of summer.