Literature Review from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: 2,3, Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh (School of Management and Languages ), language: English, abstract: Table of contents 1.Introduction 2.Definitions 2.1.Financial crisis 2.2.Economical crisis 3.Relevance of the global economic and financial crisis for seaports 4.Economic situation of the German seaports 4.1.Hamburg seaport 4.2.Bremerhaven seaport 5.Development and trends after the global economic and financial crisis 6.Discussion and Conclusion 7.List of references 8.List of further literature 1.Introduction The purpose of this literature review is to detect the state of knowledge about the influence of the global economic and financial crisis on the utilisation of the German seaports Hamburg and Bremerhaven. Firstly, the paper draws attention to the important definitions. The second part deals with the relevance of the crisis for the seaports. The economic situation of the ports before and during the recession will be examined in the following. The fourth part concentrates on the development and the trends after the crisis. Finally, a discussion is given to identify the main findings and to conclude the literature review.