The Congress Welcome Reception will be held in Hamburg''s impressive City Hall.
The City Hall, which is the sixth in Hamburg's history, is an impressive and eclectic building, which was built in 1897. Located south of the Binnenalster, the City Hall is home to the senate (State government) and the Hamburg Parliament. There are regular guided tours and exhibitions in the Rathausdiele of the City Hall.
It took a while for the plans for the this last hall to be made and, during this period, the Hamburg Parliament and the senate had to meet in other chambers and it was impossible to reach a consensus on the submitted concepts. Only when Martin Haller and six other architects founded the “Federation of the City Hall builders” in 1886 was the planning process accelerated. 4000 wooden poles had to be put into in the Alster lake to be able to carry the weight of the 113 m wide, 70 m low and 112 m tall building.
After 11 years of construction the new City Hall was consecrated in 1897. The back of the building was connected to the “Chamber of Commerce” and the “Stock Exchange”, which was built in 1841. Inbetween these buildings there is a courtyard that is reminiscent of a piazza with its so called “Hygieia-fountain”, which is dedicated to the Greek goddess of health.
The outside of the City Hall is in the Neo-Renaissance style, but inside it is an eclectic mixture of different construction epoches, this is what makes the rooms appear huge.
Delegates at GreenPort Cruise and GreenPort Congress will be invited to attend the Welcome Reception which will be hosted by Hamburg Port Authority on the 13th September 2011.
