Host City: Hamburg
Hamburg is also the 13th largest German state. Its population is over 1.7 million people, and the Hamburg Metropolitan Region (including parts of the neighbouring Federal States of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein) has more than five million inhabitants. The city is situated on the river Elbe.
Hamburg is a transport hub and is an affluent city in Europe. It has become a media and industrial center, with plants and facilities belonging to Airbus, Blohm and Voss and Aurubis. It is also home to the radio and television broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk and publishers of several top magazines. Hamburg has been an important financial center for centuries and is the seat of the world’s second oldest bank, Berenberg Bank.
The city is a notable tourist destination for both domestic and overseas visitors; it ranked 16th in the world for livability in 2015. That same year, the famous Speicherstadt – Warehouse district – was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in July 2015.
In 2017, the famous concert venue, the Elbphilharmonie, was inaugurated, and has become a key touristic venue in the city.
Venue: Rothenbaum Stadium
Rothenbaum Stadium is better known as a tennis venue, as the Internationa German Tennis open has been played there since 1892. However, it is no stranger to beach volleyball as, since 2016, the clay court has been replaced on 3 occasions by the golden sand of beach volleyball.
It was in front of a packed stadium that the German air Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst won the FIVB World Tour Major Series event. That was the first time an FIVB World Tour event took place in the city.
In 2017, Rothenbaum Stadium witnessed the local team, Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst, win the FIVB World Tour Finals, just after winning the FIVB World Championships 2017 in Vienna. In 2018, the venue welcomed once again the FIVB World Tour Finals 2018.