The City Center
The city center, which lies between the Außenalster Lake and the Elbe, sets the pace for the rest of the city commercially, politically and socially. Its magnificent boulevards are lined with shops—you would never guess that most of the area lay devastated at the end of World War II. Those in search of culture need look no further: the Hamburger Kunsthalle und Galerie der Gegenwart, Hamburgische Staatsoper & Ballettcompagnie John Neumeier and the two main theaters (the Thalia Theater and the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg) are here, as too are the Stock Exchange and the extravagant Town Hall.