The smuggling devices
False-bottomed cases and dismantled cars.
--Nightflyer (talk) 08:10, 30 August 2016 (UTC) — CC BY 4.0 · --Nightflyer (talk) 08:13, 30 August 2016 (UTC) — CC BY 4.0 · Dguendel — CC BY 4.0 · Pauli-Pirat — CC BY-SA 4.0
Because Hamburg joined the German customs union in 1888 on condition of keeping a duty-free area inside its port, protecting its entrepôt trade. An entire residential quarter was demolished and thousands displaced to build the brick warehouses on tidal canals. Goods could be stored and processed there without duty unless they entered the German market.
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The German Customs Museum occupies a genuine customs office building in the Speicherstadt — the brick warehouse district inscribed on the World Heritage list. The location makes complete sense: the Speicherstadt was itself built as a duty-free zone, so the history of the quarter and the history of customs are one. The exhibits are far more entertaining than the museum's name suggests: real seizures from decades of work — suitcases with false bottoms, cars dismantled to hide goods inside their bodywork, hollowed-out statues, and smuggling devices ingenious enough to impress despite their purpose. There is also a section on the trafficking of endangered animals and their products. The second half explains how customs work: scanning equipment, detection dogs, patrol boats and border procedure. Entry is free and the museum is small — an hour covers it — and it sits on a canal inside the Speicherstadt, so it slots easily into a walk through the district.
False-bottomed cases and dismantled cars.
A district built as a duty-free zone.
Alter Wandrahm 16, 20457 Hamburg