The Elbe, the Michel, and the course are always good!

Moin, Moin! To be clear, in this article you will probably stumble across a few words and anecdotes that will not seem proper German to you. Well, Hamburg has always been a city with its own narrative, and as we try to bring a bit of the „Hansestadts“ (Hanseatic town) flair to you, we want to use the right language. So „Moin, Moin“ translates to “good morning” but since the word moin comes from mooi, meaning good and beautiful, people in Hamburg and around just use it all day. Not the only thing tourists wonder about when they come to the city in Germanys north. Let’s get to it.

It’s one of those days, well it is a regular day with Schietwetter (just the usual Hamburg weather really.. moist and rainy)? Good thing nowhere else the sky is so beautifully grey. Whichever way you look at it: people stay in true connectedness and only start to complain about the rain when the herrings swim by at eye level. Or you just say „Tschüss“ (ciao, bye bye, smell you later) because that’s how you say it in Hamburg, but whoever leaves dreams a lifetime of coming back. In „exile“ a Hamburger (yes it is funny) dreams of the beautiful Michel (a church), the Dom (a fair that happens two times a year) and Franzbrötchen (the Hamburg approach of cinnamon rolls). The thoughts wander to Speicherstadt (historical storage district – actually the biggest historical one in the world), to the Elbphilharmonie (philharmonic orchestra – we are being a bit sarcastic as it took the city quite „a while“ to build that) or to the Elbe (the river floating through the city) and the gigantic harbor.

Klönschnack* and family: Hamburg in Fall

When the long-established Hamburg is not in a traffic jam on the way to the office or looks at the rain through their windows, it is probably the weekend. You wander along the Elbe, with a golden retriever and Friesennerz (traditional fishermen raincoat – usually yellow) down to the riverside in Teufelsbrücke. On the right you have the beautiful panorama of Övelgönne and on the other side the quay wall of Burchardkai: wherever you look, one eye-catcher after the other. You will listen to beautiful symphonies there, and the best thing is they are for free: the deep basses of bucking engine rooms mix themselves into a slight sea-breeze and the crying of the seagulls. Best served with a culinary highlight: a bite from a Fischbrötchen (mainly any fish in bread) makes your heart skip a beat. Through Jenischpark the Hamburger continues his way into his home in the Hamburg Westend, or pass the office to the flat in Hafencity.

House call from Joseffson

Entry of the Joseffson collectiveour photographic double of the three tenors winds see air. The creative troop has been planning to add some Hanseatic flair to their portfolio for a while. So it was time to come to Hamburg and make that happen.

At first, the production was planned to be a shooting with a single model. Then one thing leads to the other and it became a family affair: that’s just the way the Hamburg ticks (still laughing at that?)! Instead of only one female model the husband, two daughters and family dog completed the cast and instead of one location the photographers visited three spots. The small business shooting turned into a business and lifestyle production – city tour included.

City tour at work

What would be the perfect city vacation for many tourists the Joseffson and the family did on the side working on the production. The team started early in the morning at the Blankenese beach in the west of Hamburg. At sunrise, there was still some coldness forced into everyone’s bones, but at the first sight of the blue sky, the family from Hamburg switched into summer mode: the Josefsson trio was a bit, but a typical Hamburger is known to enjoy sunny days to their full potential.

After a bath in the morning sun, the production crew headed into town, more specific to the earlier mentioned Speicherstadt. The canals and bridges between the old storage houses are maybe the most photographed scene in Hamburg. A lot of museums, coffee-roasters, and agencies have made themselves at home over the years and keep the area the melting pot it always was. Through an excellent contact to one of the agencies based there the team got the possibility to shoot the business part of the production inside the traditional storage houses with a few on the old town canals: Hamburg flair at it’s best.

Hanseatic Lifestyle at home

After the trip into Speicherstadt, the production team switched from business into lifestyle mode and accompanied the family to their house. The last pictures of the Hanseatic production were shot in the living room and the garden. This is where you can really see the beautiful atmosphere at the set. We like to end this short production-report-city-guide article with the words of the Joseffson collective: „It was a well-rounded day with nice people and beautiful locations – topped with late summer flair.“ What do we want more?

*Klönschnack = chitchat

To lightbox "hanseatic lifestyle"

Sebastian Bentzin

For over ten years Sebastian works in the digital media field. The Hamburg-based social media manager combines his professional background with his interest in photography contributing to the Westend61 outlets.