Both parts of the nomination, the Speicherstadt and the Kontorhausviertel, are easily covered by foot and can be visited in a short few hours. I started my tour with the two most emblematic buildings of the Kontrohausviertel: Chilehaus, which used to be an independent candidate for a WHS, and the neighbouring Sprinkerhof. In fact, the entire district is small and can easily be covered. In fact, it is difficult to spend a lot of time at the Kontorhausviertel because it still fills its original function as a business district. All buildings are occupied by offices and unfortunately you cannot get into most of the buildings. I did manage to get into the Chilehaus to discover a doorway reminiscent of the Bauhaus architecture. It greatly reminded me of the Bauhaus University in Weimar. All buildings in the district are made of the typical red bricks and many are covered with traditional marine motives. Both of these trait link the modern architecture to Hamburg's past. Despite being modern for their time and architecturally impressive I did not find the buildings very appealing.

The nearby Speicherstadt was largely destroyed in WWII so most of what we can visit now is a post-war reconstruction. You can read about it in a trail with explanatory plaques going through the complex. Only the central blocks were reconstructed apart from the oldest one which is outside the core zone and now houses the Maritime Museum. Similar to the Kontorhausviertel, the Speicherstadt preserved its original function, albeit to a lesser extent. It still serves as the largest concentration of oriental carpets in the world. It was funny to see the names though: Armenian, Persian, Turkish, but no Germans at all. Interesting architectural aspects were again the incorporation of maritime motives and the attempt to emulate aspects of the traditional Hanseatic architecture. This was done on a very abstract level, as the Speicherstadt does not stylistically resemble the old houses you can see at nearby Deichsstraße.

A little peculiarity was the inclusion of Christian elements such as Maria icons on the warehouses. I guess their function was purely ornamental since making the secular buildings church-like suited the historicist idealism.

In general I found the WHS interesting, although it is certainly not my favourite in Germany.