"It is a popular misconceptuion that Hamburg is a coastal city. Despite being Europe's second-biggest port, [the city] lies some 65 miles from the North Sea. Its lomgstanding iamge as a city wityhout cyulture is also something of a myth. When the poet [Heinrich] Heine remarked that in Hamburg "the customs are English", he was referring to its no-nonsense mercantile ethos, which dates back to the era odf the Hanseatic League. Yet even in Heine's day the celebrated philistinism of the city fathers was balanced by a tradition of private philanthropy: Hamburg has long been a city of culture as well as commerce. ..."--Back cover.

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