What would the poet Heinrich Heine, whose death 150 years ago is commemorated this year, have thought of Hamburg today? His ambivalent attitude to the city in which he failed to become a banker or businessman under his uncle's tutelage might have been tempered by the city's increasingly global outlook and international population. Former Chinese colonial connections are being resuscitated by sponsored cultural exchanges for mutual trade advantages and Hamburg, as Europe's second largest container terminal, is now twinned with Shanghai, China's biggest container port. Germany is experiencing a boom in exports, so while the national purse may be empty, Hamburg's export businesses are thriving.
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