German Customs Museum

The German Customs Museum in Hamburg sits inside a real former customs post at the Kornhausbrücke, working until 1985 on the edge of the city's old tax-free port. This guide follows the long contest that building refereed: smugglers hiding gold in washing machines and cigars in prams, and customs officers answering with X-rays and trained dogs. Along the way it traces the building itself, from a working checkpoint on the free port's edge to the quieter room it became after 1992. Look for the old customs launch Oldenburg waiting on the canal outside.