Alster Canal

In Alsterdorfer Strasse, new-build glass fronts, well-kept town houses, stucco-decorated Gründerzeit houses and small-town houses with distinctive gables form a harmonious coexistence. A few historical half-timbered houses push into the street scenery. Old craft buildings have survived in some backyards. Scattered across Alsterdorf are the typical red brick housing estates in the Bauhaus style, for example on Carl-Cohn Strasse. Some thatched houses on the Alsterkrugchaussee are reminiscent of the original farming village.
Bebelallee runs through the district as an important traffic artery. Despite the heavy traffic, the partly four-lane street looks like a posh boulevard. Many beautiful single-family houses in clinker or townhouse style with spacious gardens line the street. To relax, you simply go to the Alster, which flows through the middle of the district. Sometimes the banks of the Alster only consist of a tree-lined path, then it expands into a spacious green area, on whose brick river bank you can watch the canoeists and rowers gliding past. Families have a barbecue, others relax or walk the dogs - the banks of the Alster are always busy. The Alster hiking trail is part of the North German Way of St. James, and there is also a cycling Alster trail.

Until the 1960s, Hamburg's canals formed an important transport network for public transport (Alster shipping) and freight traffic. Today, only a few companies are supplied by inland waterway vessels. A key task of the canals was to create an overflow for Hamburg's combined sewer system. The earthworks created during construction were needed for the construction of railway facilities.