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Music and Media

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Home of Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Buback and other music labels, bands, magazines and publishers, Hamburg is known as a media hub.

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www.mediaserver.hamburg.de / Christian Spahrbier

Print media

When you travel to Hamburg, it is easy to spot the headquarters of Germany’s leading media companies. From the plane, you can see the Axel Springer publishing house towering over the city centre. It is home to Germany’s biggest daily tabloid: BILD. On the way to Hamburg Central Station, most trains will pass the looming building of Der Spiegel, which is prominently positioned on the edge of the HafenCity Hamburg business district. The weekly magazine and popular news website is a heavyweight among the publishers in Germany. 

If you’re sailing into the harbour on the Elbe river, you can't miss the futuristic Gruner+Jahr building just below the famous dome of St. Michael’s church. G+J is famous for publishing iconic fashion and lifestyle magazines. Finally, in the heart of the city, there is Die Zeit. Germany’s leading weekly newspaper was co-published by former chancellor Helmut Schmidt until his passing in 2015 at the age of 96.

Finally, Oetinger publishing house, Germany's foremost publisher of children's books, is just one of the many literary publishing houses that call Hamburg home. 

Music labels

Attracting media professionals from all over the World, Hamburg has gained a reputation for being a music hot spot. Leading dance label Kontor Records represents popular dance artists like Tiësto and Scooter, while Grand Hotel van Cleef and Audiolith are Germany’s leading indie labels. Booking agencies like FKP Skorpio, Hamburg Konzerte and Kingstar operate from their Schanzenviertel offices. Buback Tonträger represents Hamburg headliners Deichkind and Jan Delay, while US giant Warner Music has chosen Hamburg for its German headquarters.

TV

Hamburg is also a TV-hub: Germany’s national news programme Tagesschau is broadcast across the country at 8 p.m. every night from Hamburg, while game shows, talk shows and documentaries are produced in studios throughout the city. Finally, Germany’s national Sunday night crime show Tatort also has a popular team of Hamburg-based investigators.