Hamburg, officially known as the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, is a city-state located in northern Germany. It serves as one of Germany's three city-states, situated at the confluence of the Alster and Bille rivers on the branching River Elbe. The city is bordered by Schleswig-Holstein to the north and Lower Saxony to the south.
As the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin, Hamburg has a population exceeding 1.9 million people. It is also the sixth-largest city in the European Union. The city is home to the Port of Hamburg, which ranks as the largest port in Germany and the third-largest in Europe, following Rotterdam and Antwerp.
The surrounding Hamburg Metropolitan Region has a population of over 5.1 million and represents the tenth-largest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union. The local dialect spoken in the region is a variant of Low Saxon.