FACTS, DATES AND NUMBERS
GERMAN UNITY IN HIGHLIGHTS
So much happened, so much changed. We’ve collected some interesting figures, facts and background info about German Unity – from 1989 to 2023.
25
Is the distance between Hamburg’s boundary and the former border crossing at Lauenburg Horst.
329 days, less than a year, was the time span between the Fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 and German Reunification on 3 October 1990.
3
Aller guten Dinge
In 2023, the Festival of German Unity takes place in Hamburg for the third time – after 1991 and 2008. Three Chancellors will have been in attendance (Helmut Kohl, Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz) and three First Mayors (Henning Voscherau, Ole von Beust and Dr. Peter Tschentscher).
100.000
People from the GDR visited Hamburg on the first weekend after the Berlin Wall fell.
20.000
In 1989 and 1990, Hamburg gained thousands of new inhabitants from the (former) GDR.
500 TRABIS
Hamburg was abuzz with the sound of Trabant cars, and the Mönckebergstraße was temporarily closed for traffic. On 18 November 1989, more than 500 Trabi drivers and passengers spent the night sleeping in their cars at the main station.
18.11.
In November 1989, shops were allowed to stay open after 6:30 pm at the weekend, allowing vistors from the GDR and locals to shop to their heart’s content.
6%
Six percent of Hamburg’s residents were born in East Germany: between 1991 and 2019, 199,000 people moved here from Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia; in the same period 102,000 people moved from Hamburg to the easten states.