☰Schanzenviertel

Hamburg's left-wing, alternative quarter, just north of St. Pauli around the Schulterblatt and Schanzenstrasse. Once a working-class area, gentrified hard in the 2010s but still home to the Rote Flora — a former theatre squatted since 1989 and one of Germany's best-known autonomous social centres. The streets are lined with Portuguese, Turkish and Eritrean restaurants, independent shops, and bars that get going late. The May Day demonstrations every year are a Hamburg ritual and not always peaceful.