Hamburg is both Europe’s second-largest shipping port and a serious contender for “Venice of the North,” with a stunning lake and a latticework of canals. Emblematic of this is the €638-million Elbphilharmonie, a spectacular concert hall that combines 19th-century marine trade warehouses with the crystalline architecture and acoustics of the future. Hamburg’s commitment to the arts powers it to #13 in Europe in our Culture subcategory. Its nightlife (made famous by the nascent Beatles in the early 1960s) hasn’t lost a beat, ranking #19. Hamburg comes by its opulence and sophistication honestly, as a commercial hub ranking #11 in our Large Companies subcategory, powered by its booming semiconductor industry and ongoing investments from multinationals like Netherlands-based Nexperia, which keeps pouring in hundreds of millions to develop the next generation of semiconductors locally. And this being Germany, inclusion is the price of doing business, evident in the city’s signature redevelopment project, HafenCity, set to open in 2026. In Europe’s biggest inner- city urban development—which, over more than a decade, is transforming 250 hectares of tumbledown docks along the port area into a buzzing shopping and residential area—a third of housing is subsidised while another third is rental.