The first edition took place in 1986 with about 8,000 participants. The Hamburg Marathon was named for the sponsoring companies Hansemarathon (1986–1990), Shell-hanse-Marathon (1991–1997), Shell-Marathon (1998–1999), Hansaplast-Marathon (2000–2002), Olympus-Marathon (2003–2005), Conergy Marathon (2006–2008) and 2009–2010 Möbel Kraft Marathon Hamburg, with 13.938 participants. Several championships are integrated in the marathon, the Hamburg Championships, the Hamburger Betriebssport- Meisterschaften, the Hamburger Polizei- Meisterschaften. In 1988, 1995 and 1999, the German Championships, and in 2006 and 2007, the German Championships for the blind and partially sighted were competed during the Hamburg Marathon.[3]
It is one of Germany's largest road running competitions and a total of 15,174 runners participated in the 25th edition in 2010.[4] The record participation for the event came in 2005 when a total of 17,502 runners completed the course.[5]
Internals disagreements within the organising group and pull-outs from high-profile sponsors affected the race between 2009 and 2011. A new organising group was established for the 2012 race and Hamburger Sparkasse ("Haspa", a regional bank) became the title sponsor. This coincided with a resurgence in the elite level race, as both men's and women's course records were broken.[6]
The 2020 edition of the race was postponed to 2021 due to the coronaviruspandemic, with all entries automatically remaining valid for 2021.[7]
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