Mr. Mayor,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It’s a great pleasure to have you here as our guest in Hamburg today, and I welcome you most warmly on behalf of the Senate. 

When I visited Copenhagen last June we already spoke about how trains on the Altona-Kiel Railway commissioned by Christian VIII have been chugging along untiringly ever since those early days first under steam, then by electric power. How long, exactly, we are sure to hear from you in a few minutes. But we shall hear, too, that there is now a faster connection between Hamburg and Copenhagen via Fehmarn and that we intend to make it faster still. 

A much discussed new film takes us back even further in time than the construction of the railway. A Royal Affair” (Die Königin und der Leibarzt) is running successfully in Hamburg too. The story of Johann Friedrich Struensee, who came from Altona and worked in Copenhagen, is true in principle in spite of being re-arranged and dramatized for filming.

Hamburg was no more than an onlooker in the changeful history of Denmark and Holstein at that time, because Altona was Denmark’s second-largest city. That brings two things to my mind, that I would like to tell you about. First the more sober one:

The fact that I can start my welcome address with this topic in my capacity as the First Mayor of Hamburg and also as a citizen of Altona without triggering a diplomatic incident has not been a matter of course for very long. For what is half a century in the whole of Europe’s history? 

But this half-century or a little more has passed since the Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations. The Kingdom of Denmark and the Federal Republic of Germany can now rightly claim that they were among the first countries to take concrete action towards European unity. Namely, by making peaceful co-existence normal for everyone on both sides of the border.

The Dybbøl fortifications (Düppeler Schanzen) have become a joint tourist attraction. That may seem a bit macabre to some, but what matters is that Danes and Germans meet there and eat ice cream together. And the fast railway link between Copenhagen and Hamburg, that we hope to make faster still, avoids this place for quite different reasons.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

the second thing that occurs to me on the subject of Altona” I shall keep for the end of my speech. Before that I would like to mention, in all modesty, the joint declaration we made last year. On 29th July 2011 the two mayors signed the Hamburg-Copenhagen Declaration on cooperation. In this declaration we agreed on a joint study group of the two cities and various cooperation projects. 

Our two cities, and our two metropolitan regions, are natural partners. They both see each other that way, too, and cooperation between them has become much closer. Later this year the Senator for Culture, Barbara Kisseler, the State Secretary for the Environment, Holger Lange, and the Minister of Science and Second Mayor, Dorothee Stapelfeld, will each visit Copenhagen after the parliamentary summer recess. 

From Copenhagen we are expecting the Environmental Mayor Ayfer Baykal in June. The Mayor of Culture, Pia Allerslev, already visited Hamburg last year. On the work level, coordination meetings take place regularly. 

Moreover, Copenhagen has taken on the role of an observer in the STRING Cooperation, the framework for trans-boundary partnership between Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Zealand (Seeland), the metropolitan region and Scania (Schonen).

The focus of our cooperation will continue to be on:

• Infrastructure. Although the construction work on the tunnel under the Fehmarn Belt will start later than both sides had hoped, one thing at least has entered the political discussion: the need to create a link between the two cities that will permit a travelling time of 2 ½ hours at most. 
• The initiative to raise European funds. Here we are already in the final phase, the budget negotiations. In a consortium with Vienna, Amsterdam and Lyon, Hamburg and Copenhagen will have access to funds of about five million euros for innovative urban development from the Commission’s Smart Cities” programme. That will mean a one hundred percent grant, without part-financing out of the regional budget. 
• Urban development. Copenhagen and Hamburg work together well and exchange conceptional approaches. So this evening, Mr. Mayor, you will present an exhibition on the planning of new buildings in Copenhagen. In December, Hamburg’s IBA and Hafencity GmbH will hold an exhibition with special events at the Copenhagen Architecture Museum; in return, your city will present its projects to the Hamburg public next year. 
• Renewable energy sources. I’m sure we shall hear more about Green Growth” from Mayor Jensen in a few moments. Hamburg is progressing well in this field wind power is just one topic and our city is always interested in cooperation and good examples from the wind land” Denmark, in particular. In fact, we are Germany´s wind capital”, too.
• Culture. Here there are already very exciting plans for joint projects of the historical museums of the two cities, the Hamburg Hip-Hop Academy and the Danish Dancetheatre in Copenhagen, the various jazz festivals, design projects, and cooperation in the field of cultural offers for children. Also ideas on how abandoned industrial buildings can be put to use for the arts. 
• Tourism; the sciences, for example material science the keyword here is the major research facility European Spallation Source Scandinavia, which is currently under construction; general environmental policy; these are further joint projects.

Later on you shall already use the boat trip to the IBA dock for new talks on environmental topics. Of course Hamburg would be very pleased if Copenhagen were to become our next-but-two successor as the European Green Capital in 2014. I hear it has reached the round of the last three competitors way ahead of the others. 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

back to Altona, to the Volkspark Stadium, where we shall be able to welcome a concrete cooperation project at the end of May: not only will Denmark’s last test match before the European Football Championship take place there, against Brazil; it will also be marketed jointly. We are expecting a large number of Danish tourists in Altona for that reason and in the whole of Hamburg once the game is over. 

And much as we respect Brazilian football in both our countries: on that day the whole of Altona and at least half of Hamburg will support Danish Dynamite”. 

I’m looking forward to further dynamic cooperation and wish you a pleasant time in Hamburg today.