Fischmarkt Hamburg Altona

About this audio guide

This guide to Fischmarkt in Hamburg's Altona district follows the market criers who have turned selling eels, coconuts and oranges into stand-up comedy for three centuries, ever since Altona's fishermen needed to offload their catch before church in 1703. It traces how revelers stumbling out of St. Pauli's clubs at dawn became the criers' toughest audience, then turns to the iron and glass auction hall behind the stalls, built in 1894 in the style of a Roman basilica and left half-ruined for decades after wartime bombing. You'll hear what Hamburg gave the hall a new use for in the 1980s. Come at five in the morning, before the crowd, to hear the crier's pitch build.