Royal Highnesses,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I’m extremely happy to welcome you here today on behalf of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. We will be talking a lot about the future in the next few days about joint projects and cooperation and we are able to do so because the relations between us are sound and excellent already, and we have a rich common history.

For Hamburg and its metropolitan region, Denmark is an important neighbour and partner in numerous fields. The close cooperation with Copenhagen and its region is a tremendous asset to us on many levels. Geographically, we are very close, too:

as the bird flies, Copenhagen is not much farther away than Berlin, and in many ways we face similar challenges. We are both working hard to meet our responsibility for the environment, and we are both seeking modern, sustainable solutions for our cities. Solutions that will reconcile innovation and economic strength with protection of the climate. One sign of this is that both our cities have been awarded the title of European Green Capital. We in Hamburg are proud of being a central location for the wind energy industry in Germany.

And of course we appreciate the strong neighbourly ties with our Danish friends, who have taken on a pioneering role in the field of renewable energy. It is very gratifying to know that we have common objectives, and to experience how we are helping one another achieve them. The wind energy fair to be held here in Hamburg every two years has already created an important new pillar of cluster cooperation between Denmark and Germany.

Denmark and Germany indeed, as both countries posess most distinguished places and regions outside the two cities as well. Esbjerg, for instance, is turning into a major offshore base port, and as far as I know, there are plans to get a ferry connection to England going again. Holidaymakers from Germany, of course, have the Danish isles much nearer to them several of which are of splendid beauty, including the white cliffs of Møn.

Wind park projects, both offshore and onshore, require some elbow room and from their headquarters in Jylland companies like DONG Energy see to it that they can find it. Their
offshore planning office in Hamburg may help some, as we hope.

There are impressive instances of cooperation in the sciences, too. Some of them involve Sweden as our mutual partners. As an example I need only mention the European Spallation Source, ESS, in Lund; a joint Swedish and Danish venture, if I may so call it, which also cooperates with DESY in Hamburg.

The town and transport planners in Copenhagen and Hamburg maintain close contacts in order to learn from each other. That applies to inner-city traffic in particular, and in that field we in Hamburg can benefit from the way the use of bicycles is handled in the centre of Copenhagen in the context of mobility in the city, but also as a contribution to protection of the environment and better quality of life in our growing metropolis.
We cooperate in matters like urbanization, urban development and population growth, too challenges our cities have to meet because they are so popular and successful. It’s because we think along similar lines but sometimes go about things in different ways   that we have the chance to learn such a lot from each other.

When planning major building projects in Hamburg we have decided to make one flat in three a municipal housing unit subsidized by the government. I know that Copenhagen is watching our experience in this field with great interest, because we´re all aware that an amalgam of people is one of the things that bring life to our cities. Long-time residents and new arrivals, young and old, people with more money or less they are all part of this, and they must all be able to make their particular contribution to the community.
For some time, Hamburg and Copenhagen have been faced with the challenge of re-developing whole districts. We in Hamburg are doing this in the Hafencity and the centre of Altona; in Copenhagen there is a similar project in Nordhavn. Both cities are considered good examples of modern urban development.

It is a charming detail of our common history that 150 years ago, Altona was still part of the Danish Helstaten. The Danish influence on Hamburg’s townscape can be seen and felt to this day: in Altona, whole streets are flagged with the Danebrog during international sports events; in the traditional core of Hamburg, one of the most impressive buildings on the edge of the Hafencity is the new headquarters of the news magazine Der Spiegel, designed by the prominent Danish architect Henning Larsen.

In the sphere of culture the first example that comes to mind is the exhibition Denmark’s Breakthrough to Modernism” at the Kunsthalle art gallery, which was a great success with the public, but there are also the joint productions of Hamburg’s Hip Hop Academy and Denmark’s Dansekapellet”. There have been exhibitions by young photographers who have presented their view of the Hamburg district of Wilhelmsburg in Copenhagen and Hamburg, and numerous other joint projects and activities organized by cultural institutions in Denmark and Hamburg.

So you see: we work together hand in hand.

We are neighbours, and we value our close ties.

As we all know, one of the big topics of the next few days will be how we will draw even closer together geographically in the future: I mean, with the fixed Fehmarn Belt Link. Once this great, historic infrastructure project is finished, Hamburg and Copenhagen will virtually have moved some 160 kilometres closer together in terms of transport. And certainly in terms of time! That is an enormous and important step forward for cooperation between North Germany and Scandinavia. Our clusters in logistics and our tourism experts are already working together. We still have a fair amount of work ahead of us you know that too but I’m convinced we shall master it. The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg will certainly make its contribution.

On that note I would like to say, Welcome to Hamburg!” I’m extremely pleased that you are doing us the honour of your visit, and while you are here I hope you will have the warm feeling and certainty that you are visiting not just neighbours but partners and friends.

Mange Tak!

Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.