The virtual office to start and grow your business in Hamburg

Hamburg is a city of distinct quarters wrapped around the Alster lakes and the Elbe, and the district you choose says something about your business. Here is where you can get an Olea address today, and how the city’s central business areas compare:

• Hamburg-Altstadt – the historic old town and the city’s commercial and civic heart, gathered around the Rathaus and the Binnenalster. Our Alter Wall location sits on a restored listed sandstone ensemble between the Rathaus and the Alsterfleet, directly opposite the Neuer Wall luxury shopping mile, with Jungfernstieg, the Speicherstadt and the Elbphilharmonie close by. It’s the most prestigious, blue-chip option – ideal for law firms, finance, consultancies and media businesses that want an instantly recognisable Hanseatic address.
• Neustadt – the old town’s western twin, running from the Gänsemarkt and the Großneumarkt down towards the harbour. Our Ludwig-Erhard-Straße location sits opposite the Hamburger Michel, a couple of minutes from the Großneumarkt and a block from the Stadthausbrücke S-Bahn, within walking distance of the harbour and the Reeperbahn. Central and superbly connected, but a touch more relaxed than the Altstadt – well suited to freelancers, startups, consultancies and financial-services firms.

Weighing up the rest of the city? HafenCity is Europe’s largest inner-city regeneration district, anchored by the Elbphilharmonie and increasingly popular with corporates and digital firms; St. Pauli and the Schanzenviertel are Hamburg’s creative, media and startup quarter; Altona and Ottensen form a media-and-tech cluster west of the centre; and City Süd (Hammerbrook) is the established office district south-east of the Hauptbahnhof. These are areas we are expanding into as we add locations. Wherever you choose, every Olea location includes the same complete virtual office – only the address and the price change.

Hamburg is the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg), Germany’s second-largest city with around 1.9 million residents and the hub of a metropolitan region of more than 5 million. Its economy is built on the Port of Hamburg – Germany’s largest seaport and Europe’s third-largest, after Rotterdam and Antwerp – and the trade and logistics that flow through it, which earned the city its name as Germany’s "Tor zur Welt" (Gateway to the World). But it is far more diversified than the port alone: Hamburg is Germany’s media and publishing capital (Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Gruner + Jahr) and a centre of advertising and the creative industries; the world’s third-largest civil-aviation location, where Airbus runs its largest German site alongside Lufthansa Technik; and home to blue-chip headquarters including the Otto Group (one of the world’s largest e-commerce and mail-order groups), Beiersdorf (Nivea), the shipping line Hapag-Lloyd, copper producer Aurubis and New Work SE (XING). It also sustains a lively startup and digital scene and growing clusters in renewable energy, life sciences and healthcare.

It’s a prosperous, international city – one of Germany’s wealthiest – and exceptionally well connected. Hamburg Airport (HAM) is linked to the centre in around 25 minutes by the S1 S-Bahn; Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is one of Germany’s busiest stations and a major long-distance and high-speed rail hub; and an extensive U-Bahn and S-Bahn network ties the city together. It’s a base that works for everyone from a solo founder to an expanding international corporate.

Whatever you are setting up, an Olea Hamburg address is a serviceable address (ladungsfähige Anschrift) accepted by all the relevant authorities:

• GmbH or UG (company formation) – your company is entered in the Handelsregister (commercial register) kept by the Amtsgericht Hamburg, the central registry court (Registergericht) for the entire city-state. You will need a notary, and we provide the consent-to-use documentation they require.
• Gewerbe (trade registration) – Hamburg has no single central trade office. Sole traders and trading companies file a Gewerbeanmeldung with the Fachamt Verbraucherschutz, Gewerbe und Umwelt of the Bezirksamt responsible for their business address; the city is divided into seven boroughs (Bezirke), and both our Altstadt and Neustadt addresses fall under Bezirksamt Hamburg-Mitte. Registration can be completed online through the Hamburg Service portal.
• Tax registration – your competent Finanzamt issues your tax number (Steuernummer); registration is completed online via ELSTER (the Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung), which must be submitted within a month of starting your activity.
• Freelancers (Freiberufler) – genuinely freelance professions skip the Gewerbeanmeldung and register directly with the Finanzamt.

In every case you can use your Olea Hamburg address, keep your home address private, and rely on us to receive and digitise the official post these authorities send.