Hamburg's international maritime museum occupies a converted 1879 red-brick warehouse on the eastern edge of HafenCity. Nine floors trace the entire history of seafaring — from prehistoric dugouts and Roman triremes to the Hanseatic cogs, the East India Companies, the great age of sail, modern container shipping, and naval warfare.
The collection began with Peter Tamm, a shipping journalist who spent six decades amassing what is reputedly the world's largest private maritime archive: 40,000 model ships, 2,000 paintings, 1.5 million books and a dense thicket of charts, instruments and uniforms. The fifth-floor model warships, including a 1:30 scale Bismarck, draw an unexpectedly devoted following. Plan at least three hours; the building is hot and you may want a coffee break in the basement café halfway through.