Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin, 8th largest city in the European Union with a population of over 1.84 million, and also Europe's third-largest port. Located on the River Elbe at its confluence with the Alster and Bille, it is at a sheltered natural harbour on the southern fanning-out of the Jutland Peninsula, between Continental Europe to the south and Scandinavia to the north, with the North Sea to the west and the Baltic Sea to the northeast. The name Hamburg comes from the first permanent building on the site, a castle which the Emperor Charlemagne ordered constructed in AD 808.
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