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Hamburg hoping for changeBy CNN's Charles Hodson Charles Hodson is traveling around Germany by train to test the mood of business people, trade unionists and ordinary voters ahead of Sunday's election.  Hamburg is Germany's biggest seaport. YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSSPECIAL REPORT
HAMBURG, Germany (CNN) -- It's hard to get the hang of today's Berlin. I lived here for four years after reunification in 1990. But whereas the new government quarter suggests a dynamic forward-looking nation, the reality is slow growth, high unemployment and fear of the future. So I'm off to the four corners of Germany to ask voters what they think of the various economic policies on offer. I am not going to round up the usual soundbite suspects -- I want to hear from real people. My first stop is Hamburg. This is Germany's second city, with 1.75 million people. I wonder what is uppermost in their minds. Those strolling along the picturesque waterfront agree: The economy. But why all that worrying? Hamburg is rich -- the biggest seaport in the world's top exporting nation says it is on course to handle 120 million tons of cargo this year. Downtown, I meet someone responsible for quite a few of those: Nikolaus Schüess, chairman of a shipping company. "This is where the port of Hamburg started, 780 years ago," he said. Business and political leaders have always got on here, he says; the city hall and the chamber of commerce actually adjoin each other across this courtyard. Over lunch we talk politics. Schüess favors the Christian Democratic challenger Angela Merkel over Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder -- because he is confident she will reform employment laws faster and more thoroughly. "The problem with the Chancellor Schroeder is that the steps he did take were the right direction but first not strong enough, not forceful enough, and secondly he has not the whole parliamentarian group of his own party behind him. This is why he failed," Schuess said. "It's absolutely time for a change. But generally speaking, our environment, business-wise, has to be more liberal, more free, more free trade. And the Social Democrats, from their historic origins, tend to be more protectionist." Walking off lunch by the harbor and reflecting on the country's 4.8 million unemployed, I can't help wondering whether switching governments will be enough. After tea at the rather civilized "Anglo-German club" I meet Gunter Mengers, who runs an insurance brokerage. I ask him who has the right answers this time. "I think in fact nobody but you need some new spirits, some new ideas. I think it's very hard, it's very difficult, I am quite sure that the new government, when we get a new government, has many problems as well." I ask him if he is optimistic with regard to this election, in terms of what's going to come out of it. "There must a strong winning party. If there's a narrow margin of victory that could be very bad ... it will freeze it again. It will freeze it." So business here in Hamburg hopes voters will opt for a strong new government to make it easier to hire new workers, deregulate, boost the economy and hand them even more goods to export. But what of those whose jobs are potentially going to be exported? I'm off west now on the next stage of my journey: To the country's traditional heavy industrial heartland, the Ruhr. 
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