Some five million emigrants from across Europe spent their last days on the continent at BallinStadt, the former emigration station in the Port of Hamburg, waiting to sail to the Americas. Its emigration halls, the Auswandererhallen, served people leaving from the 1850s to the early 1930s. The museum, also known as the Emigration Museum or Port of Dreams, takes its name from Albert Ballin (1857–1918), director general of the Hamburg America Line.
The original Swiss chalet style quarters, built in 1901, gave emigrants shelter, lodging and entertainment. The Nazis closed the station in 1934 and demolished it. The halls seen today were rebuilt true to the original in the early 2000s, after the city of Hamburg approved the project in 2004.
Inside, the exhibition covers the emigrants themselves, their living conditions and their experiences on journeys to and from Hamburg. The museum opened in 2007.
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