Eisbeinessen may be the showpiece event but Hamburg is alive during the run-up to the evening, with shipbrokers, shipowners, managers, agents, operators and others staging their own parties.
Guests are drawn from all corners of the world to mix business with pleasure.
Surprisingly, almost everyone survived days of meetings and drinking at offices, bars and restaurants to make the main event, which this year was held at the Hamburg Messe instead of the port city’s Congress Centre as it is being rebuilt.
