Comment by skytreader | Hacker News Reader

Comment by skytreader | Hacker News Reader

Me: Moved to Hamburg this year, has 320 days on Duolingo and finished an actual beginner's German course so far.

I can only partially agree to the statements made in this thread about the quality of this list but I've been fascinated with German words that have no English counterparts, at least not completely. My favorite one so far is "Waldeinsamkeit"--literally "forest soltitude" but the translation does not capture the "calm, contemplative atmosphere amidst a beautiful setting"[1]. Before moving to Hamburg I used to camp a handful of times a year for stargazing and I _feel_ that I understand this concept somehow.

On a more "Auslander" observation: when I moved in to Hamburg I was struck by how early the city sleeps, how dark the streets are at night. Sure there are streetlights[2] but for the second largest city in a European hub such as Germany, they might as well be lighting a residential village! For my connotation of a metropolitan area, Hamburg at night just ain't cutting it.

Until, I learned about "Waldeinsamkeit". Again this is probably just the Auslander talking but I have since thought that Waldeinsamkeit is the philosophy behind Hamburg's urban design. They may have urbanized for 20th century living but, if I may be poetic, they still want that beautiful serenity of darkness.

[1] https://blogs.transparent.com/german/untranslatable-german-w... [2] though there are nooks and crannies in Hamburg that are notably really dark, sometimes only lighted by the apartments along the street.

Fellow Hamburg immigrant here. I admire your optimism and the will to perceive an intention behind the darkness (which was also one of my first impressions of Hamburg). Unfortunately, I don't see it that way, but more as general unfriendliness of the city towards a random individual. Other things in the same vain that I noticed (coming from the Balkans, if important) are: very few overhangs that the buildings offer as means of shade from the rain - often there is no place for a pedestrian to shelter from the rain, which is absurd with amount of wet days Hamburg has. Another thing that irks me is the lack of public water taps. Such a basic and affordable civilization achievement - and yet not a single one in a 2M city.

Of course, I adore and enjoy the city, these are just few things that I can't really understand.

Interesting. I didn’t even know public water tap is a common thing in other countries.

There is the concept of light pollution, Lichtverschmutzung. If a city is too bright, you won't see the stars, animals would have difficulty to sleep, etc... The city has areas which are lighted, but in other areas it's darker. See the link to the Lichtkonzept I've put in another comment.

> public water taps

That's an interesting question. A few decades ago this was more common, but it has been removed over the years. I think there is a fear of pollution and also costs involved. There are only a few in the city:

https://www.hamburgwasser.de/privatkunden/themen/trinkwasser...

The Aussenalster is a popular jogging training track and it has public water there.

Currently there are plans of the local government to install hundred public water taps in the city in the coming years and two hundred in schools. That's already a movement in various other cities, too: Blue Communities.

Pffft. Zuckerpüppchen! Go get some Gore-Tex or something like that. "Es gibt kein schlechtes Wetter! Nur schlechte Kleidung." :-)

That water thing is not entirely true:

[1] https://www.hamburgwasser.de/privatkunden/themen/trinkwasser...

[2] https://www.trinkwasser-unterwegs.de/startseite/

[3] https://refill-deutschland.de/

There a few, as you can see, and locations marked with a sticker where you can ask for a free refill of your bottle as described in [3].

Personally i wouldn't trust public water springs for hygienic reasons. Maybe a cultural thing, i'm not used to them. I can't really remember of having seen them anywhere in Germany since my childhood. They are a 'new thing' to us.

Hamburg has a Lichtkonzept: https://www.hamburg.de/contentblob/3486350/1bb71bada5b286281...

My German is not at this level yet but this is fascinating to learn. Thanks for linking this!

Funny. When i came to HH in 2004 it was the city where there were no real dark places. Depends on where you are i guess. The lack of 'night life' apart from a few (touristy) clusters is true, visually. You have to know the places, they are not obvious from the outside. You could also look into "Protestantische Arbeitsethik", which may explain that (culturally).

As the night owl that i am, i should know.

How do you percieve the traffic lights/Ampeln? (There! Another thing, Ampel!) For me they are way too bright during darkness. Its like a cone of colored light painting the houses up to a few hundred meters away, even irritating when i'm bicyling a little faster (because empty streets!), and don't have them in direct line of sight, only overlapping hazes of red and green, with maybe flashes of orange around some corner, curve, ridge.

Btw. Stargazing. I miss that. The 'seeing' here is pathetic most times. Can't be helped really, except by going into the outskirts. Though i have no telescope nor binoc anymore, i sometimes cycle to the

[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbekreuzung_2

and depending on the weather and tide enjoy an 'unearthly' atmosphere ...err Stimmung. Because when you go down from the dike you stand in wafting fog up to your hips, while small waves splash in the reeds, and all that sometimes tinted red from the 'Flugwarnbefeuerung' high above on the masts.

Added bonus: some large ship floating by with deep rumbling engine, illuminated only by navigation lights and the ghostly sheen of screens on the bridge.

And some birds.

Anyways, i'm sure there are other interesting places, but this one i know, and thought i should share ;-)

The traffic lights don't really bother me but then I take the bus so I don't interact with them directly. The closest thing I can comment is I'm relieved the street crossing signals are bright enough even for summer days when the sun is high and you are viewing them at very tight angles.

I gotta try going to the Elbekreuzung too then! I notice it is acceptably dark around Bahrenfeld. I got to take this last summer, during my first month here: https://flic.kr/p/2i7ML2V . Not ideal for a photo--there's way too much ambient light pollution from the nearby apartments--but at least you could make out the stars, which is more than what I can say for other urban settings. (Maybe I should retry this shot with a narrower focal length, i.e., not fisheye.)

Incidentally, the handful "nooks and crannies" I've been referring to as having almost no streetlight are all around Bahrenfeld.

When you are located in Bahrenfeld, then there is another nice place to be, not so far away. I noticed that by chance one summer night, walking down the Baron-Vogt-Straße from the S-Bahn Station Klein-Flottbek (Botanischer Garten). I could see many stars and even some meteors, while walking down to the Elbe, and then thought why not enter the park here?

[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenischpark

It has downsloped open spaces, and the glare from Airbus Industries and parts of the harbour on the other side of the Elbe are visible, but the field of view from straight up to maybe 50° above horizon is ok. It's better than Altonaer Volkspark or Lise-Meitner-Park in my experience.

Hamburg is more of a place to work than a place to live.

This highly influences traffic (patterns), structure of neighborhoods in the residential areas and so on.

Maybe this explains why the city sleeps so early - the working population is off to their homes in the suburbs.

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