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The Hanseatic city of Hamburg has a strong cultural life which is mainly based on private initiatives of its inhabitants. Until the 1930s Hamburg did not concentrate much on its cultural policy. Already existing institutions got only financial support if the locals had invested enough by themselves already and could verify the necessity of the institution. Nowadays, Hamburg has numerous museums of all kinds and a rich musical landscape. Beside the German National Opera which is well known for the world premiere of Lessing’s “Minna von Barnhelm” in 1767, Hamburg has the reputation of being THE musical capital of Germany.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s „Cats“ was performed here for the first time in Germany. More recent productions are “The Lion King”, “Dirty Dancing” or “Mamma Mia!”. But Hamburg has also been a lively stage for young bands and streams like the “Hamburger Schule” (Hamburg School), punk rock and Hip Hop. An important influence came from the political culture which resulted from the occupation of houses in the Hafenstraße in the 1980s as well as the left milieu in the Schanzenviertel quarters. Musical festivals include Wutzrock which is an open air festival in the east of Hamburg and Dockville, an artistic and musical festival which took place for the first time in 2007.
Apart from that Hamburg is an important media city with many publishing houses like Axel Springer AG, Gruner + Jahr, the Jahreszeiten-Verlag and the publishing groups Bauer and Milchstraße. About half of the national press products of German media is produced in Hamburg. Also many TV programmes are broadcasted from the Hamburg Studios of the NDR. The seats of internationally renowned advertising agencies (Scholz & Friends, Springer & Jacoby, Jung von Matt,) and design companies (Peter Schmidt Group, Landor Associates and Factor Design) make Hamburg an important location for the advertising and design industry.
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