Hamburg Cruise Center

04 October 2007 14:49

New tourist attraction for Cruise Passengers in the Port of Hamburg

With a grand opening, the first mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Ole von Beust, inaugurated this morning the BallinStadt museum. He was assisted by Duane Butcher, consul general of the United States of America, Michael Behrendt, executive chairman of the Hapag-Lloyd AG and Dr Werner Marnette, executive chairman of the Norddeutsche Affinerie AG About 650 guests attended the festivities, which took two hours and were filled by speeches and music played by the state orchestra of Hamburg.

The Museum of Emigration, called BallinStadt museum, is located on the peninsula Veddel amid the Port of Hamburg. Visitors are able to experience emigrant's way of life at the original historical scene. Over 150 years ago the emigrants started from here for a new world far away. To reconstruct the past, the visitors can walk through six different theme halls, where all phases of emigration, from leaving home, crossing the Atlantic to the arrival in New York and the beginning of a new life are presented in an engaging, interactive form.

The world's most comprehensive database, featuring more than 600 million entries enables visitors to research the emigration history of their ancestors. About 58 million Americans have German ancestors.

For the cruise passengers the BallinStadt museum is an attractive point of interest. Either as a pre or post program, as well as a shore excursion during a transit call, it is easily to reach from the Hamburg Cruise Center. It takes 15 minutes by boat or 10 minutes by bus.