Hamburg

thumb|300px|right|Silent footage of Jim Henson & Jerry Juhl at the Hamburg Town Hall (1961).

Hamburg is Germany's second largest city (after the country's capital Berlin), and the European Union's eight-largest city. Though even older, the city takes its name from the "Hammaburg," a fortress ordered built on the site by Roman Emperor Charles the Great in 808 AD.

The city is also home to Studio Hamburg, a production house that has been involved in several Muppet projects over the decades.

Muppet Connections

 * Between November 10 and 19, 1961, Jim Henson and Jerry Juhl performed various Muppet routines at the US Agriculture's Food Fair at the Hamburg Town Hall, as chronicled in Jim Henson's Red Book.
 * In 1973, Sesamstrasse, the first international co-production of Sesame Street, began to air as a dubbed version, produced at Studio Hamburg. In 1977, a German set and puppets were added. Caroll Spinney has made several visits to the city to appear on the show as Bibo.
 * Early on in his career, Muppet photographer John E. Barrett lived and worked in Hamburg as an apprentice photojournalist for German photo news agency Conti-Press.
 * In 1984, Große Show für kleine Leute was taped in Hamburg. Uncle Traveling Matt appeared on the show, still stunned from his visit to the city's red-light district St. Pauli - Reeperbahn.
 * For the 1993 special Sesame Street Stays Up Late!, Sesamstrasse characters Tiffy, Samson and Finchen roamed the streets of Buxtehude (a small town that is part of the greater Hamburg Metropolitan Region).
 * The German language version of Dog City was dubbed at Studio Hamburg.
 * The Vision of Jim Henson was a Muppet exhibition that visited Hamburg twice, showcasing Sesamstrasse characters among the regular Muppets on display during its second visit:
 * From June 23 to September 10, 1995: at the Chilehaus am Borchardplatz
 * Sometime in 1996: at the HEW (Hamburgische Electricitäts-Werke) Haus (admission free)


 * For Sesamstrasse's 30th anniversary special in 2003, Ernie and Bert were shipped to Hamburg to make special appearances not only on the special, but every now and then throughout the coming seasons. The Elmo puppet was used on promotional photos, but not during the actual show; Kevin Clash had brought the puppet along, while overseeing the training of Ernie and Bert's German Muppeteers. The two characters have since appeared all throughout the city for outdoor inserts.
 * For the annual KI.KA Sommer Tour, Hamburg is the only city to feature live appearances of all three original puppet versions of Samson, Ernie and Bert. Other cities showcase walk-around versions of the characters.
 * nachtmagazin, a national nightly news broadcast from Hamburg, had Ernie on as a special guest to comment on Sesame Street's 40th Anniversary, as reports from the Sesame Street Day event in New York City were shown.
 * Eine Möhre für Zwei, the first German Sesame spin-off show, was produced in Hamburg in 2010.
 * Local news program Hamburg Journal aired a behind-the-scenes feature on Eine Möhre für Zwei to promote the series in 2010.