BALLINSTADT - MUSÉE DE L'ÉMIGRATION

This museum commemorates the 5.6 million Europeans who, between 1850 and 1938, left their home countries and passed through Hamburg before trying their luck in the New World. Coming mainly from Central and Eastern Europe, these men, women and children nurtured the hope of a better life elsewhere. Hamburg was their last stop on the Old Continent. Here, in the historic halls that welcomed the would-be departures in the days and weeks before the embarkation, a museum opened its doors some 15 years ago. All the signs and screens are in German. You can use a French audio guide on your smartphone, but the mechanical voice makes listening very quickly painful.

The 1st^er hall is dedicated to the history of the place: after being submitted to a medical examination, the candidates for departure were admitted to this large reception complex. Men and women slept in separate dormitories. For fear of epidemics, all outings were forbidden. The first room also tells the story of Albert Ballin, the founder of the place.

The 2nd^e hall, with a lot of figures and graphs, retraces the global history of migration from the 16th century to the present day: the great waves of emigration from Europe to the New World, the 11 million "displaced persons" after 1945, the great migrations of today, etc.

The 3rd^e hall is dedicated to temporary exhibitions. Café, store.