History of Hamburg
Encyclopedia
The history the Hamburg begins with its foundation in the 9th century as a mission settlement to convert the Saxons. Since the Middle Ages
Hamburg
was an important trading centre in Europe. The convenient location of the port and its independence as a city and state for centuries strengthened this position.
The city was member in the medieval Hanseatic trading league
and a free imperial city
of the Holy Roman Empire
. From 1815 until 1866 Hamburg was an independent and sovereign
state of the German Confederation
, then the North German Confederation
(1866–71), the German Empire
(1871–1918) and during the period of the Weimar Republic
(1918–33). In Nazi Germany
Hamburg was a state and a Gau from 1934 until 1945. After the Second World War
Hamburg was in the British Zone of Occupation
and became a state in the western part of Germany
in the Federal Republic of Germany
(Since 1949).
A fortress was named Hammaburg (where burg means fortress). The "Hamma" element remains uncertain. Old High German
includes both a hamma, "angle" and a hamme, "pastureland". The angle might refer to a spit of land or to the curvature of a river. However, the language spoken might not have been Old High German, as Low Saxon
was spoken there later. Other theories hold that the castle was named for the word of a surrounding vast forest, hammen. Hamm as a place name occurs a number of times in Germany, but its meaning is equally uncertain. It could be related to "heim" and Hamburg could have been placed in the territory of the ancient Chamavi
. However, a derivation of "home city" is perhaps too direct, as the city was named after the castle. Another theory is that Hamburg comes from ham which is Old Saxon for “(grassy) river bank” or “meadow/pasture (by a river) ”.
First settlers in the area would have been a hunting and gathering society in the late Upper Paleolithic
and Neolithic
. There are several archaeological documented records in the areas of Wellingsbüttel
, Meiendorf and Rahlstedt
from 20,000 to 8000 BC. In 4000 BC first permanent settlements are recorded in the area of Fischbeker Heide
. The culture of hunters is named Hamburg culture
.
In 808 AD a castle was ordered to be built by Emperor Charlemagne
, as a defense against Slavic and Viking
intrusions. Later Charlemagne's son Louis
built this castle on the old trading path from Hedeby
in the North to Magdeburg
and Bardowick
in 810. On 25 December 831 Ansgar
was consecrated as the archbishop for the Hammaburg. Ansgar became later known as the Apostle of the North. Ebbo, Archbishop of Reims
claimed to have built a baptistery in a small village in this area and this village was named after him Ebbodorp, Eppendorp or Eppendorf
. In 845 Viking
s came up the River Elbe and destroyed Hamburg, at that time a town of around 500 inhabitants. Two years later, Hamburg was united with Bremen
as the bishopric of Hamburg-Bremen. In 880 Hamburg was destroyed again this time by Slavic and Danish soldiers. Pope Benedict V
was deposed and carried off to Hamburg in 964. He died in 965 and was buried in the St. Mary's Cathedral.
In 983, the town was destroyed by King Mstivoj
of the Obodrites. In 1050 Hamburg consisted of four castles, the bishoric castle was built around 1037 by Bezelin. The Wiedenburg was built 1043 by Adalbert. The Alsterburg was built by Bernard II, Duke of Saxony
in 1045 and the new castle built in 1050. After further raids by the Obodrites in 1066 the bishop Adalbert
permanently moved to Bremen.
In 1188 Hamburg adopted the Lübeck law
(Lübsches Recht), a code of rights superseded in some areas in 1900 by the civil code of Germany (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch
), although it is disputed if the law in Hamburg originated from an own law.
A charter
in 1189 by Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
granted Hamburg the status of an Imperial Free City and tax-free access up the Lower Elbe into the North Sea, the right to fish, to cut trees and the freedom of military service. The charter was given orally for Hamburg's backing of Frederick's crusades
, and in 1265 an in all probability forged letter was presented to or by the Rath of Hamburg.
In 1190 the bishop's old city and the count's new city created a noble council (Rath). Valdemar II of Denmark
raided and occupied Hamburg in 1201 and in 1214 Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
declined all claims of property northern of the river Elbe. Hamburg was controlled by Denmark. The Danish governor united the new and the old parts of Hamburg under one law, town hall and court. A series of Danish defeats culminating in the Battle of Bornhöved
on 22 July 1227 cemented the loss of Denmark's northern German territories and liberated Hamburg also. Hamburg submitted to Adolf IV of Holstein
. From 1230 a new fortification was built. Its layout and names can be found in 2008, e.g. Millerntor-Stadion
, named after the western city gate Mildradistor or Mildertor, and the park Planten un Blomen
, build on the old fortification.
In 1264 the senate of Hamburg enacted a law to protect the swan
s of the city. Hard punishments should be given if a swan was beaten to death, insulted, shot or eaten. A popular belief is that Hamburg will be free and hanseatic as long as swans are living on the Alster
river. On 5 August 1284 a great fire destroyed all but one residential houses in Hamburg. The first description of civil, criminal and procedural law for a city in Germany in German language, the Ordeelbook (Ordeel: sentence) was written by the solicitor of the senate Jordan von Boitzenburg in 1270. In 1330 it was prohibited for priests to wear masks and dance in the streets. Also after their trips to the ilse in the Alster river, priests should not run naked through the city. In 1350 the Black Death
, one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, struck in Hamburg killing more than 6,000, half of the population of Hamburg.
Two contracts with Lübeck
in 1241 marks the origin and core of the powerful Hanseatic League
of trading cities. The first contract stated that both cities would defend their freedom and their privileges together. The second contract stated that the road between the two cities will be secured against bandits and that deported émigrés would not find shelter in the other city. In 1264 the East-west route for commerce was cobbled
in Hamburg. It was the third cobbled road in northern Europe and called Steinstraße, which is still the name of a street in Hamburg.
On 8 November 1266 a contract between Henry III
and Hamburg's traders allowed them to establish a hanse in London. This was the first time in history the word hanse was mentioned for the trading guild Hanseatic League
. In May 1368 a fleet of 37 ships and 2,000 armed men, including two cogs
and 200 men from Hamburg, conquered Copenhagen
and razed it to the ground. Hamburg's most important export article was beer. In 1377 a new currency, the Mark, was established by the Wendischer Münzverein (Wend
currency association). The cities Hamburg, Lübeck, Luneburg, Wismar and Rostock formed this association. Three tonnes of beer cost one mark. At this time Hamburg's population was 14,000. Hamburg was the third–largest city in the Hanseatic League (after Lübeck and Cologne). There was no city in Germany with more than 20,000 inhabitants. Due to the fact that pirates were a threat to the trading ships, several campaigns were fought. On 21 October 1401 the pirate Klaus Störtebeker
was executed in Hamburg, although pirates were often thrown overboard to drown or decapitated shortly after their capture.
In 1433 Simon van Utrecht
defeated the pirates and conquered Emden
. Bremen
started a war of capturing ships against Hamburg, Lübeck, Lüneburg and the Netherlands in 1438.
The first constitution of Hamburg
was established on 10 August 1410. A civil commotion caused a compromise (German:Rezeß, literally meaning: withdrawal).
The citizen Hein Brandt has met the duke Johannes IV of Saxe-Lauenburg, who owed Brandt money. Brandt took the duke to task and insulted him. The duke complained to the senate. The senate cited Brandt and he confessed and was arrested. This caused an uproar and citizens formed a council. At this time the senate was formed by richest citizens, not elected and the senate did not need to give account for its decisions. The situation in Hamburg was unstable because in 1408 members of the senate of Lübeck had found asylum in Hamburg, after they were expelled by the citizens of Lübeck.
The formed council of the sixties (German: der Sechzigerrat) demanded to free Brandt and to enter into negotiations. The mayor Kersten Miles and the senate freed Brandt and agreed after four days of negotiantions to a compromise of 20 points. Some of these points were:
It is the considered as the first constitution of Hamburg.
On 15 May 1529 the city embraced Lutheranism
. The senate of Hamburg had asked Martin Luther
to send his friend and colleague Johannes Bugenhagen
to create a new church regularity. Bugenhagen's work created a state church for Hamburg. The service was held in Low German and the parishes elected their own priests. There was no iconoclasm
in Hamburg mostly because of the new priest of St. Petri, who stated the statues of false gods and lying pictures needed to be removed from the churches instantly. He took them down and stored them, so that altarpiece
s by Meister Bertram and others survived, and are now in the city's museums. At the same time on 24 February, the long compromise (German: Langer Rezeß) reorganized the political system. The senate, now 24 aldermen, held the executive and judicial authority. But without the council of the citizens, no laws could be enacted. The councils were elected by the 4 parishes. The parishes were now also administrative divisions of the city. Roman Catholics lost their citizenship and were challenged to leave the city, although remaining Catholics could practice their religion in the small chapels of the diplomatic missions of the Holy Roman Empire
. Not until 1785 did the senate acknowledge a small community.
In 1558 the Hamburg stock market was founded. In 1567 Hamburg asked a group of English traders to settle in the city. This was in conflict with the rules of the Hanseatic League, but Hamburg used the taxes to downsize the public debt. The cause of this debt was Hamburg's contribution to the Schmalkaldic War
(1546–1552) between the Lutheran dukes and cities and the emperor.
arrived—fleeing from Portugal
—and built a Portuguese Jewish community in Hamburg
. In 1610, official lists of the senate counted about 100 Jewish families. Lutheran theologians preached against them, especially the "schools of Satan"—meaning the synagogues—and in 1611 the senate had to ask the Lutheran theological faculties of Jena and Frankfort for their opinions. The faculties attested the senate, that the Jews should be tolerated in the town as strangers. The safety in person were granted, however several assaults, often triggered by Christian homilies, against individual Jews took place. The community were not to be allowed to practise their religion publicly, but small private praying rooms were overlooked. Not until 1660 could the first small synagogue be built.
In 1762 the city was briefly occupied by Danish forces who were trying to raise money to fight a coming war with Russia.
Briefly annexed by Napoleon I
(1810–14), Hamburg was the capital of the department Bouches-de-l'Elbe
, with Amandus Augustus Abendroth
as the new mayor. Hamburg suffered severely during Napoleon's last campaign in Germany but managed to raise two forces to fight against him, the Hamburg Citizen Militia
and Hanseatic Legion
. The city was besieged for over a year by Allied forces (mostly Russian, Swedish and German). Russian forces under General Bennigsen
finally freed the city in 1814.
From 1814 to 1866 Hamburg was a sovereign
country and member of the German Confederation
.
During the first half of the 19th century a patron goddess with Hamburg's Latin name Hammonia emerged, mostly in romantic and poetic references, and although she has no mythology to call her own, Hammonia
became the symbol of the city's spirit during this time.
In 1842, about a quarter of the inner city was destroyed in the "Great Fire". This fire started on the night of the 4 May 1842 and was extinguished on 8 May. It destroyed three churches, the town hall, and countless other buildings. It killed 51 people, and left an estimated 20,000 homeless. Reconstruction took more than 40 years.
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Hamburg experienced its fastest growth during the second half of the 19th century, when its population more than quadrupled to 800,000 as the growth of the city's Atlantic trade helped make it Europe's third-largest port.
A major outbreak of cholera
in 1892 was very badly handled by the city government, which still retained an unusual degree of independence for a German city at the time. About 8,600 died in the largest German epidemic
of the late 19th century, and the last major cholera epidemic in an important city in the Western world. The Hamburg water supply from the Elbe did not meet modern standards, and the authorities long continued to deny there was an epidemic, or implement the new understanding of the germ theory of disease
. The Imperial government used the scandal to greatly reduce the powers of the city authorities.
as its director the Hamburg-America Line became the world's largest transatlantic shipping company at the turn of the century, and Hamburg was also home to shipping companies to South America, Africa, India
and East Asia
. Hamburg became a cosmopolitan metropolis based on worldwide trade. Hamburg was the port for most Germans and Eastern Europeans to leave for the New World
and became home to trading communities from all over the world (like a small Chinatown
in Altona, Hamburg).
In 1903, the world's first organised club for social and family nudism
, Freilichtpark (Free-Light Park) was opened in Hamburg. It was located on a lake formed by the Alster River in the southern part of the city, adjoining a bathing beach. After World War I
Germany lost her colonies and Hamburg lost many of its trade routes.
movement in Hamburg was repressed by Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck
in 1919.
by the Nazi regime
, administrative powers were significantly altered. The Gesetz über den Neuaufbau des Reiches (Law concerning the reconstruction of the Reich) (30 January 1934) abandoned the concept of a federal republic
. The political institutions of the Länder were practically abolished altogether, passing all powers to the central government. The German constituent states
were replaced in 1935 by regional districts (German: Gau) led by Nazi Party officials who obeyed the central government's orders. On 16 May 1933 Karl Kaufmann
(1900–1969) was appointed as Reichsstatthalter
(imperial governor or imperial lieutenant) in Hamburg. The Hamburg Senate had resigned in March 1933 and the Hamburg Parliament
elected Carl Vincent Krogmann
(NSDAP) as mayor.
In 1938 the city boundaries were extended with the Greater Hamburg Act to incorporate Wandsbek
, Harburg, Wilhelmsburg and Altona
. On 1 April 1938 Constitution of Hamburg was suppressed through an Imperial Law (German: Reichsgesetz), the Hamburg Senate was dissolved and the position of First Mayor of Hamburg abolished. Hamburg was named Hansestadt Hamburg.
During World War II
Hamburg suffered a series of devastating air raids
which killed 42,000 German civilians. Through this, and the new zoning guidelines of the 1960s, the inner city lost much of its architectural past. From 1938 until 1945 a concentration camp
was established in the Neuengamme
quarter of Hamburg, the Neuengamme concentration camp, some of the buildings have been preserved and as of 2008 serve as a memorial. From 1939 until 1945 more than 500,000 men, women and children — including prisoners of war
— were forced to work at more than 900 companies, living in more than 1,200 camps all over Hamburg. Some of these camps held only 7 inmates, others were known for more than 1,500 inmates.
Hamburg was a British-occupied from 1945 to 1949. Specially George Ayscough Armytage and Governor Henry V. Berry identified with the city and worked through the indirect rule
, asking prospective Hamburg inhabitants to resume office in the administration. Denazification
and rebuilding of the society proceeded, e.g. in Hamburg were the important trials for war crimes (Hamburg Ravensbrück Trials) held at the Curio house in Rotherbaum
quarter, and Radio Hamburg
, a public broadcasting radio station, was established on 4 May 1945, even before the capitulation.
The Iron Curtain
— only 50 kilometres (31.1 mi) east of Hamburg — separated the city from most of its hinterland and further reduced Hamburg's global trade. On 16 February 1962 a severe storm
caused the Elbe to rise to an all-time high, inundating one fifth of Hamburg and killing more than 300 people.
in 1990, and the accession of some Eastern European and Baltic States into the EU
in 2004, Hamburg Harbour
and Hamburg have ambitions for regaining their positions as the region's largest deep-sea port for container shipping and its major commercial and trading centre.
A group of radical Islamists
that included students who eventually came to be key operatives in the 9/11 attacks, according to U.S.
and German
intelligence agencies, was called the Hamburg cell
.
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
was an important trading centre in Europe. The convenient location of the port and its independence as a city and state for centuries strengthened this position.
The city was member in the medieval Hanseatic trading league
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
and a free imperial city
Free Imperial City
In the Holy Roman Empire, a free imperial city was a city formally ruled by the emperor only — as opposed to the majority of cities in the Empire, which were governed by one of the many princes of the Empire, such as dukes or prince-bishops...
of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
. From 1815 until 1866 Hamburg was an independent and sovereign
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
state of the German Confederation
German Confederation
The German Confederation was the loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries. It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia...
, then the North German Confederation
North German Confederation
The North German Confederation 1866–71, was a federation of 22 independent states of northern Germany. It was formed by a constitution accepted by the member states in 1867 and controlled military and foreign policy. It included the new Reichstag, a parliament elected by universal manhood...
(1866–71), the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
(1871–1918) and during the period of the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
(1918–33). In Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
Hamburg was a state and a Gau from 1934 until 1945. After the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Hamburg was in the British Zone of Occupation
Allied Occupation Zones in Germany
The Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four occupation zones for administrative purposes during 1945–49. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, US forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed boundaries for the...
and became a state in the western part of Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
in the Federal Republic of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
(Since 1949).
Etymology
The first term for the present city was following the reports of Claudius Ptolemy “Treva”.A fortress was named Hammaburg (where burg means fortress). The "Hamma" element remains uncertain. Old High German
Old High German
The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
includes both a hamma, "angle" and a hamme, "pastureland". The angle might refer to a spit of land or to the curvature of a river. However, the language spoken might not have been Old High German, as Low Saxon
Low Saxon
Low Saxon may refer to:In political or territorial respect:*Of or relating to Lower Saxony*Of or relating to Saxe-Lauenburg*Of or relating to Lower Saxon CircleIn linguistic respect:*Any West Low German speech variety*The Northern Low Saxon dialect...
was spoken there later. Other theories hold that the castle was named for the word of a surrounding vast forest, hammen. Hamm as a place name occurs a number of times in Germany, but its meaning is equally uncertain. It could be related to "heim" and Hamburg could have been placed in the territory of the ancient Chamavi
Chamavi
The Chamavi were a Germanic tribe of Late Antiquity and the European Dark Age. They first appear under that name in the 1st century AD Germania of Tacitus as a Germanic tribe that, for most of their history, existed along the North bank of the Lower Rhine in the region today called Hamaland after...
. However, a derivation of "home city" is perhaps too direct, as the city was named after the castle. Another theory is that Hamburg comes from ham which is Old Saxon for “(grassy) river bank” or “meadow/pasture (by a river) ”.
First steps until 1189 AD
Upper Paleolithic
The Upper Paleolithic is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. Very broadly it dates to between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, roughly coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity and before the advent of...
and Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
. There are several archaeological documented records in the areas of Wellingsbüttel
Wellingsbüttel Manor
Wellingsbüttel Manor is a former manor with a baroque manor house in Hamburg, Germany, which once enjoyed imperial immediacy . Wellingsbüttel was documented for the first time on 10 October 1296...
, Meiendorf and Rahlstedt
Rahlstedt
Rahlstedt is a quarter in the Wandsbek borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg in northern Germany. In 2006, the population was 86,413.-History:...
from 20,000 to 8000 BC. In 4000 BC first permanent settlements are recorded in the area of Fischbeker Heide
Neugraben-Fischbek
Neugraben-Fischbek is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany belongs to the borough Harburg. The quarter consists of the old settlements Neugraben and Fischbek, and the more recently constructed area Neuwiedenthal.-History:-History of Fischbek:...
. The culture of hunters is named Hamburg culture
Hamburg culture
The Hamburg culture was a Late Upper Paleolithic culture of reindeer hunters in northwestern Europe during the last part of the Weichsel Glaciation and beginning of the Meiendorf Interstadial...
.
In 808 AD a castle was ordered to be built by Emperor Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
, as a defense against Slavic and Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
intrusions. Later Charlemagne's son Louis
Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious , also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813...
built this castle on the old trading path from Hedeby
Hedeby
Hedeby |heath]]land, and býr = yard, thus "heath yard"), mentioned by Alfred the Great as aet Haethe , in German Haddeby and Haithabu, a modern spelling of the runic Heiðabý was an important trading settlement in the Danish-northern German borderland during the Viking Age...
in the North to Magdeburg
Magdeburg
Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....
and Bardowick
Bardowick
Bardowick is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is three miles north of Lüneburg on the navigable river Ilmenau. Bardowick is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde Bardowick.-History:The town was first mentioned in AD 795 and was raised to city status in AD 972 by...
in 810. On 25 December 831 Ansgar
Ansgar
Saint Ansgar, Anskar or Oscar, was an Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen. The see of Hamburg was designated a "Mission to bring Christianity to the North", and Ansgar became known as the "Apostle of the North".-Life:After his mother’s early death Ansgar was brought up in Corbie Abbey, and made rapid...
was consecrated as the archbishop for the Hammaburg. Ansgar became later known as the Apostle of the North. Ebbo, Archbishop of Reims
Ebbo, Archbishop of Reims
Ebbo was archbishop of Rheims from 816 until 835 and again from 840 to 841. He was born a German serf on the royal demesne of Charlemagne. He was educated at his court and became the librarian and councillor of Louis the Pious, king of Aquitaine, son of Charlemagne...
claimed to have built a baptistery in a small village in this area and this village was named after him Ebbodorp, Eppendorp or Eppendorf
Eppendorf, Hamburg
Eppendorf is one of thirteen quarters in the Hamburg-Nord borough of Hamburg, Germany, and lies north of the Außenalster. In 2007 the population was 23,021.-History:...
. In 845 Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
s came up the River Elbe and destroyed Hamburg, at that time a town of around 500 inhabitants. Two years later, Hamburg was united with Bremen
Archbishopric of Bremen
The Archdiocese of Bremen was a historical Roman Catholic diocese and formed from 1180 to 1648 an ecclesiastical state , named Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen within the Holy Roman Empire...
as the bishopric of Hamburg-Bremen. In 880 Hamburg was destroyed again this time by Slavic and Danish soldiers. Pope Benedict V
Pope Benedict V
Pope Benedict V , Pope in 964, was elected by the Romans on the death of Pope John XII . However the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I did not approve of the choice and had him deposed after only a month and the ex-Pope was carried off to Hamburg and was placed under the care of Adaldag, Archbishop of...
was deposed and carried off to Hamburg in 964. He died in 965 and was buried in the St. Mary's Cathedral.
In 983, the town was destroyed by King Mstivoj
Mstivoj
Mstivoj was an Obodrite prince from 965 or 967 until his death. He inherited his position along with his brother Mstidrag from their father Nako in an unknown year.-Name:...
of the Obodrites. In 1050 Hamburg consisted of four castles, the bishoric castle was built around 1037 by Bezelin. The Wiedenburg was built 1043 by Adalbert. The Alsterburg was built by Bernard II, Duke of Saxony
Bernard II, Duke of Saxony
Bernard II was the Duke of Saxony , the third of the Billung dynasty, a son of Bernard I and Hildegard. He had the rights of a count in Frisia....
in 1045 and the new castle built in 1050. After further raids by the Obodrites in 1066 the bishop Adalbert
Adalbert of Hamburg
This article is about Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen. For other uses, see Adalbert .Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen was a German prelate, who was Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen from 1043 until his death...
permanently moved to Bremen.
In 1188 Hamburg adopted the Lübeck law
Lübeck law
The Lübeck law was the constitution of a municipal form of government developed at Lübeck in Schleswig-Holstein after it was made a free city in 1226. The law provides for self-government. It replaced the personal rule of tribal monarchs descending from ancient times or the rule of the regional...
(Lübsches Recht), a code of rights superseded in some areas in 1900 by the civil code of Germany (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch
Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch
The Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch is the civil code of Germany. In development since 1881, it became effective on January 1, 1900, and was considered a massive and groundbreaking project....
), although it is disputed if the law in Hamburg originated from an own law.
On the way 1189–1529
Charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...
in 1189 by Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick I Barbarossa was a German Holy Roman Emperor. He was elected King of Germany at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March, crowned King of Italy in Pavia in 1155, and finally crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian IV, on 18 June 1155, and two years later in 1157 the term...
granted Hamburg the status of an Imperial Free City and tax-free access up the Lower Elbe into the North Sea, the right to fish, to cut trees and the freedom of military service. The charter was given orally for Hamburg's backing of Frederick's crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
, and in 1265 an in all probability forged letter was presented to or by the Rath of Hamburg.
In 1190 the bishop's old city and the count's new city created a noble council (Rath). Valdemar II of Denmark
Valdemar II of Denmark
Valdemar II , called Valdemar the Victorious or Valdemar the Conqueror , was the King of Denmark from 1202 until his death in 1241. The nickname Sejr is a later invention and was not used during the King's own lifetime...
raided and occupied Hamburg in 1201 and in 1214 Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...
declined all claims of property northern of the river Elbe. Hamburg was controlled by Denmark. The Danish governor united the new and the old parts of Hamburg under one law, town hall and court. A series of Danish defeats culminating in the Battle of Bornhöved
Battle of Bornhöved (1227)
The Battle of Bornhöved took place on 22 July 1227 near Bornhöved in Holstein. Count Adolf IV of Schauenburg and Holstein — leading an army consisting of troops from the cities of Lübeck and Hamburg, about 1000 Dithmarsians and combined troops of Holstein next to various north German nobles —...
on 22 July 1227 cemented the loss of Denmark's northern German territories and liberated Hamburg also. Hamburg submitted to Adolf IV of Holstein
Counts of Schauenburg and Holstein
The Counts of Schauenburg and Holstein were titles of the Holy Roman Empire. The dynastic family came from Schauenburg near Rinteln on the Weser in Germany...
. From 1230 a new fortification was built. Its layout and names can be found in 2008, e.g. Millerntor-Stadion
Millerntor-Stadion
The Millerntor-Stadion is a multi-purpose stadium in Hamburg St. Pauli, Germany. It is mainly used for football matches and is the home stadium of FC St. Pauli. It is on the Heiligengeistfeld, near the Reeperbahn, the red light district of Hamburg. The stadium had a capacity of 32 000 when it...
, named after the western city gate Mildradistor or Mildertor, and the park Planten un Blomen
Planten un Blomen
Planten un Blomen is a park with a size of 47 hectares in the center of Hamburg. The name is Low German for plants and flowers.-Overview:The first plant was a Platanus, planted by Johann Georg Christian Lehmann in November 1821...
, build on the old fortification.
In 1264 the senate of Hamburg enacted a law to protect the swan
Swan
Swans, genus Cygnus, are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae...
s of the city. Hard punishments should be given if a swan was beaten to death, insulted, shot or eaten. A popular belief is that Hamburg will be free and hanseatic as long as swans are living on the Alster
Alster
The Alster is a right tributary of the River Elbe in Northern Germany. It has its source near Henstedt-Ulzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, flows roughly southwards and reaches the Elbe in Hamburg. In the centre of Hamburg the Alster has been dammed...
river. On 5 August 1284 a great fire destroyed all but one residential houses in Hamburg. The first description of civil, criminal and procedural law for a city in Germany in German language, the Ordeelbook (Ordeel: sentence) was written by the solicitor of the senate Jordan von Boitzenburg in 1270. In 1330 it was prohibited for priests to wear masks and dance in the streets. Also after their trips to the ilse in the Alster river, priests should not run naked through the city. In 1350 the Black Death
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
, one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, struck in Hamburg killing more than 6,000, half of the population of Hamburg.
Hanseatic league
Lübeck
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
in 1241 marks the origin and core of the powerful Hanseatic League
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
of trading cities. The first contract stated that both cities would defend their freedom and their privileges together. The second contract stated that the road between the two cities will be secured against bandits and that deported émigrés would not find shelter in the other city. In 1264 the East-west route for commerce was cobbled
Cobblestone
Cobblestones are stones that were frequently used in the pavement of early streets. "Cobblestone" is derived from the very old English word "cob", which had a wide range of meanings, one of which was "rounded lump" with overtones of large size...
in Hamburg. It was the third cobbled road in northern Europe and called Steinstraße, which is still the name of a street in Hamburg.
On 8 November 1266 a contract between Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
and Hamburg's traders allowed them to establish a hanse in London. This was the first time in history the word hanse was mentioned for the trading guild Hanseatic League
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
. In May 1368 a fleet of 37 ships and 2,000 armed men, including two cogs
Cog (ship)
A cog is a type of ship that first appeared in the 10th century, and was widely used from around the 12th century on. Cogs were generally built of oak, which was an abundant timber in the Baltic region of Prussia. This vessel was fitted with a single mast and a square-rigged single sail...
and 200 men from Hamburg, conquered Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
and razed it to the ground. Hamburg's most important export article was beer. In 1377 a new currency, the Mark, was established by the Wendischer Münzverein (Wend
Wends
Wends is a historic name for West Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It does not refer to a homogeneous people, but to various peoples, tribes or groups depending on where and when it is used...
currency association). The cities Hamburg, Lübeck, Luneburg, Wismar and Rostock formed this association. Three tonnes of beer cost one mark. At this time Hamburg's population was 14,000. Hamburg was the third–largest city in the Hanseatic League (after Lübeck and Cologne). There was no city in Germany with more than 20,000 inhabitants. Due to the fact that pirates were a threat to the trading ships, several campaigns were fought. On 21 October 1401 the pirate Klaus Störtebeker
Klaus Störtebeker
Nikolaus Storzenbecher, or Klaus Störtebeker , was a leader and the best known representative of a companionship of privateers known as the Victual Brothers...
was executed in Hamburg, although pirates were often thrown overboard to drown or decapitated shortly after their capture.
In 1433 Simon van Utrecht
Simon of Utrecht
Simon of Utrecht was a warship captain of the Hanseatic League during the Middle Ages. He was probably born in Flanders, but emigrated to Hamburg, Germany, where he received citizenship in 1400...
defeated the pirates and conquered Emden
Emden
Emden is a city and seaport in the northwest of Germany, on the river Ems. It is the main city of the region of East Frisia; in 2006, the city had a total population of 51,692.-History:...
. Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
started a war of capturing ships against Hamburg, Lübeck, Lüneburg and the Netherlands in 1438.
First constitution
Constitution of Hamburg
The Constitution of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg is the basic governing document of the German city-state of Hamburg. It was approved on 6 June 1952...
was established on 10 August 1410. A civil commotion caused a compromise (German:Rezeß, literally meaning: withdrawal).
The citizen Hein Brandt has met the duke Johannes IV of Saxe-Lauenburg, who owed Brandt money. Brandt took the duke to task and insulted him. The duke complained to the senate. The senate cited Brandt and he confessed and was arrested. This caused an uproar and citizens formed a council. At this time the senate was formed by richest citizens, not elected and the senate did not need to give account for its decisions. The situation in Hamburg was unstable because in 1408 members of the senate of Lübeck had found asylum in Hamburg, after they were expelled by the citizens of Lübeck.
The formed council of the sixties (German: der Sechzigerrat) demanded to free Brandt and to enter into negotiations. The mayor Kersten Miles and the senate freed Brandt and agreed after four days of negotiantions to a compromise of 20 points. Some of these points were:
- Article 1. No citizen, poor or rich, is to be arrested without a hearing at the senate or a court.
- Article 6. The senate is not allowed to begin a war without a hearing of the citizens.
- Article 10. The senate cannot grant safe conduct for a person who owes a citizen of Hamburg.
- Article 13. In case of disputes between the senate and the citizens, these disputes need to be corrected immediately and are not to be delayed by jurists.
- Article 15. Disloyal public servants need to be discharged.
It is the considered as the first constitution of Hamburg.
The Lutheran church law and its consequences
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
. The senate of Hamburg had asked Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
to send his friend and colleague Johannes Bugenhagen
Johannes Bugenhagen
Johannes Bugenhagen , also called Doctor Pomeranus by Martin Luther, introduced the Protestant Reformation in the Duchy of Pomerania and Denmark in the 16th century. Among his major accomplishments was organization of Lutheran churches in Northern Germany and Scandinavia...
to create a new church regularity. Bugenhagen's work created a state church for Hamburg. The service was held in Low German and the parishes elected their own priests. There was no iconoclasm
Iconoclasm
Iconoclasm is the deliberate destruction of religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually with religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes...
in Hamburg mostly because of the new priest of St. Petri, who stated the statues of false gods and lying pictures needed to be removed from the churches instantly. He took them down and stored them, so that altarpiece
Altarpiece
An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...
s by Meister Bertram and others survived, and are now in the city's museums. At the same time on 24 February, the long compromise (German: Langer Rezeß) reorganized the political system. The senate, now 24 aldermen, held the executive and judicial authority. But without the council of the citizens, no laws could be enacted. The councils were elected by the 4 parishes. The parishes were now also administrative divisions of the city. Roman Catholics lost their citizenship and were challenged to leave the city, although remaining Catholics could practice their religion in the small chapels of the diplomatic missions of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
. Not until 1785 did the senate acknowledge a small community.
In 1558 the Hamburg stock market was founded. In 1567 Hamburg asked a group of English traders to settle in the city. This was in conflict with the rules of the Hanseatic League, but Hamburg used the taxes to downsize the public debt. The cause of this debt was Hamburg's contribution to the Schmalkaldic War
Schmalkaldic War
The Schmalkaldic War refers to the short period of violence from 1546 until 1547 between the forces of Emperor Charles I of Spain and V of the Holy Roman Empire, commanded by Don Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba, and the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League within the domains of the Holy Roman...
(1546–1552) between the Lutheran dukes and cities and the emperor.
17th and 18th centuries
In the late 80s of the 16th century, the first Sephardi JewsSephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
arrived—fleeing from Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
—and built a Portuguese Jewish community in Hamburg
Portuguese Jewish community in Hamburg
From about 1590 on there has been a Portuguese Jewish community in Hamburg, whose qehilla קהילה existed until its compulsory merger with the Ashkenazi congregation in July 1939...
. In 1610, official lists of the senate counted about 100 Jewish families. Lutheran theologians preached against them, especially the "schools of Satan"—meaning the synagogues—and in 1611 the senate had to ask the Lutheran theological faculties of Jena and Frankfort for their opinions. The faculties attested the senate, that the Jews should be tolerated in the town as strangers. The safety in person were granted, however several assaults, often triggered by Christian homilies, against individual Jews took place. The community were not to be allowed to practise their religion publicly, but small private praying rooms were overlooked. Not until 1660 could the first small synagogue be built.
In 1762 the city was briefly occupied by Danish forces who were trying to raise money to fight a coming war with Russia.
19th century
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
(1810–14), Hamburg was the capital of the department Bouches-de-l'Elbe
Bouches-de-l'Elbe
Bouches-de-l'Elbe is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Germany that survived three years. It is named after the mouth of the river Elbe...
, with Amandus Augustus Abendroth
Amandus Augustus Abendroth
Amandus Augustus Abendroth was a German jurist and mayor of Hamburg.He was the son of Abraham Augustus Abendroth, a lower court procuraton from Eisenberg, Saxony. Beginning in 1787, he studied law in Erlangen and Göttingen, where he was awarded a doctorate on 30 March 1790. He married in Venice...
as the new mayor. Hamburg suffered severely during Napoleon's last campaign in Germany but managed to raise two forces to fight against him, the Hamburg Citizen Militia
Hamburg Citizen Militia
The Hamburg Citizen Militia or Hanseatic Citizen Guard was a citizen militia of the free cities and Hanseatic city of Hamburg, formed from conscripted citizens and inhabitants of the city. It was formed in 1814 and dissolved in 1868....
and Hanseatic Legion
Hanseatic Legion
The Hanseatic Legion was a military unit, first formed of a group of citizens of Hamburg. They had met in 1813 on the instigation of General Friedrich Karl von Tettenborn, in order to fight in the War of the Sixth Coalition...
. The city was besieged for over a year by Allied forces (mostly Russian, Swedish and German). Russian forces under General Bennigsen
Levin August, Count von Bennigsen
Levin August Gottlieb Theophil , Count von Bennigsen was a German general in the service of the Russian Empire....
finally freed the city in 1814.
From 1814 to 1866 Hamburg was a sovereign
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
country and member of the German Confederation
German Confederation
The German Confederation was the loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries. It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia...
.
During the first half of the 19th century a patron goddess with Hamburg's Latin name Hammonia emerged, mostly in romantic and poetic references, and although she has no mythology to call her own, Hammonia
Hammonia
-Patron goddess of Hamburg:The figure of Hammonia as patron goddess of Hamburg first appears in art and literature in the 18th century. Up until the Reformation, the city's patroness had been the Virgin Mary....
became the symbol of the city's spirit during this time.
A major outbreak of cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
in 1892 was very badly handled by the city government, which still retained an unusual degree of independence for a German city at the time. About 8,600 died in the largest German epidemic
Epidemic
In epidemiology, an epidemic , occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in a given human population, and during a given period, substantially exceed what is expected based on recent experience...
of the late 19th century, and the last major cholera epidemic in an important city in the Western world. The Hamburg water supply from the Elbe did not meet modern standards, and the authorities long continued to deny there was an epidemic, or implement the new understanding of the germ theory of disease
Germ theory of disease
The germ theory of disease, also called the pathogenic theory of medicine, is a theory that proposes that microorganisms are the cause of many diseases...
. The Imperial government used the scandal to greatly reduce the powers of the city authorities.
20th century
With Albert BallinAlbert Ballin
Albert Ballin was a German businessman. He was born into a modest Jewish family of Hamburg with origins in Denmark.- Business :...
as its director the Hamburg-America Line became the world's largest transatlantic shipping company at the turn of the century, and Hamburg was also home to shipping companies to South America, Africa, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and East Asia
East Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
. Hamburg became a cosmopolitan metropolis based on worldwide trade. Hamburg was the port for most Germans and Eastern Europeans to leave for the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
and became home to trading communities from all over the world (like a small Chinatown
Chinatown
A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...
in Altona, Hamburg).
In 1903, the world's first organised club for social and family nudism
Naturism
Naturism or nudism is a cultural and political movement practising, advocating and defending social nudity in private and in public. It may also refer to a lifestyle based on personal, family and/or social nudism....
, Freilichtpark (Free-Light Park) was opened in Hamburg. It was located on a lake formed by the Alster River in the southern part of the city, adjoining a bathing beach. After World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Germany lost her colonies and Hamburg lost many of its trade routes.
German Revolution
The CommunistCommunism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
movement in Hamburg was repressed by Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck
Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck
Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck was a general in the Imperial German Army and the commander of the German East Africa campaign. For four years, with a force that never exceeded about 14,000 , he held in check a much larger force of 300,000 British, Belgian, and Portuguese troops...
in 1919.
In Nazi Germany
After the takeover of powerMachtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
by the Nazi regime
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, administrative powers were significantly altered. The Gesetz über den Neuaufbau des Reiches (Law concerning the reconstruction of the Reich) (30 January 1934) abandoned the concept of a federal republic
Gleichschaltung
Gleichschaltung , meaning "coordination", "making the same", "bringing into line", is a Nazi term for the process by which the Nazi regime successively established a system of totalitarian control and tight coordination over all aspects of society. The historian Richard J...
. The political institutions of the Länder were practically abolished altogether, passing all powers to the central government. The German constituent states
Constituent country
Constituent country is a phrase sometimes used in contexts in which a country makes up a part of a larger entity. The term constituent country does not have any defined legal meaning, and is used simply to refer to a country which is a part Constituent country is a phrase sometimes used in contexts...
were replaced in 1935 by regional districts (German: Gau) led by Nazi Party officials who obeyed the central government's orders. On 16 May 1933 Karl Kaufmann
Karl Kaufmann
- External links :* in Der Deutsche Reichstag, Wahlperiode nach d. 30. Jan. 1933, Bd.: 1938, Berlin, 1938...
(1900–1969) was appointed as Reichsstatthalter
Reichsstatthalter
The term Reichsstatthalter was used twice for different offices, in the imperial Hohenzollern dynasty's German Empire and the single-party Nazi Third Reich.- "Statthalter des Reiches" 1879-1918 in Alsace-Lorraine :...
(imperial governor or imperial lieutenant) in Hamburg. The Hamburg Senate had resigned in March 1933 and the Hamburg Parliament
Hamburg Parliament
The Hamburg Parliament is the unicameral legislature of the German state of Hamburg according to the constitution of Hamburg. As of 2011 there were 121 members in the parliament, representing a relatively equal amount of constituencies...
elected Carl Vincent Krogmann
Carl Vincent Krogmann
Carl Vincent Krogmann was a German banker, industrialist and Nazi Party politician. He served as Mayor of Hamburg for the majority of the Nazi period of government.-Early years:...
(NSDAP) as mayor.
In 1938 the city boundaries were extended with the Greater Hamburg Act to incorporate Wandsbek
Wandsbek
Wandsbek is the second-largest of seven boroughs that make up the city of Hamburg, Germany. The name of the district is derived from the river Wandse which passes here. The quarter Wandsbek, which is the former independent city, is urban and, with the quarters Eilbek and Marienthal part of the...
, Harburg, Wilhelmsburg and Altona
Altona, Hamburg
Altona is the westernmost urban borough of the German city state of Hamburg, on the right bank of the Elbe river. From 1640 to 1864 Altona was under the administration of the Danish monarchy. Altona was an independent city until 1937...
. On 1 April 1938 Constitution of Hamburg was suppressed through an Imperial Law (German: Reichsgesetz), the Hamburg Senate was dissolved and the position of First Mayor of Hamburg abolished. Hamburg was named Hansestadt Hamburg.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Hamburg suffered a series of devastating air raids
Bombing of Hamburg in World War II
The Allied bombing of Hamburg during World War II included numerous strategic bombing missions and diversion/nuisance raids. As a large port and industrial center, Hamburg's shipyards, U-boat pens, and the Hamburg-Harburg area oil refineries were attacked throughout the war...
which killed 42,000 German civilians. Through this, and the new zoning guidelines of the 1960s, the inner city lost much of its architectural past. From 1938 until 1945 a concentration camp
Nazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...
was established in the Neuengamme
Neuengamme
The Neuengamme concentration camp, a Nazi concentration camp, was established in 1938 by the SS near the village of Neuengamme in Bergedorf district within the City of Hamburg, Germany. It was in operation from 1938 to 1945. By the end of the war, more than half of its estimated 106,000 prisoners...
quarter of Hamburg, the Neuengamme concentration camp, some of the buildings have been preserved and as of 2008 serve as a memorial. From 1939 until 1945 more than 500,000 men, women and children — including prisoners of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
— were forced to work at more than 900 companies, living in more than 1,200 camps all over Hamburg. Some of these camps held only 7 inmates, others were known for more than 1,500 inmates.
After the Second World War
After the end of the Second World War until the end of the BesatzungsstatutOccupation statute
The Occupation Statute of Germany of April 10, 1949 specified the roles and responsibilities of the newly created German government and the Allied High Commission in West Germany...
Hamburg was a British-occupied from 1945 to 1949. Specially George Ayscough Armytage and Governor Henry V. Berry identified with the city and worked through the indirect rule
Indirect rule
Indirect rule was a system of government that was developed in certain British colonial dependencies...
, asking prospective Hamburg inhabitants to resume office in the administration. Denazification
Denazification
Denazification was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist ideology. It was carried out specifically by removing those involved from positions of influence and by disbanding or rendering...
and rebuilding of the society proceeded, e.g. in Hamburg were the important trials for war crimes (Hamburg Ravensbrück Trials) held at the Curio house in Rotherbaum
Rotherbaum
Rotherbaum is a quarter of Eimsbüttel, a borough of Hamburg, Germany. In 2006 the population was 16,853.In German, "roter Baum" means red tree. The "th", which in general was abolished in the spelling reform of 1900, was preserved in names...
quarter, and Radio Hamburg
Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk
Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk was the organization responsible for public broadcasting in the German Länder of Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia from 22 September 1945 until 31 December 1955. Until 1954, it was also responsible for broadcasting in West Berlin...
, a public broadcasting radio station, was established on 4 May 1945, even before the capitulation.
The Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
— only 50 kilometres (31.1 mi) east of Hamburg — separated the city from most of its hinterland and further reduced Hamburg's global trade. On 16 February 1962 a severe storm
North Sea flood of 1962
The North Sea flood of 1962 was a natural disaster affecting mainly the coastal regions of Germany and in particular the city of Hamburg in the night from 16 February to 17 February 1962...
caused the Elbe to rise to an all-time high, inundating one fifth of Hamburg and killing more than 300 people.
In the 2000s
After German reunificationGerman reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
in 1990, and the accession of some Eastern European and Baltic States into the EU
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
in 2004, Hamburg Harbour
Hamburg Harbour
-External links:* * Port of Hamburg: Facts, figures, and outlook* * Currently under construction in the HafenCity* *...
and Hamburg have ambitions for regaining their positions as the region's largest deep-sea port for container shipping and its major commercial and trading centre.
A group of radical Islamists
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
that included students who eventually came to be key operatives in the 9/11 attacks, according to U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
intelligence agencies, was called the Hamburg cell
Hamburg cell
The Hamburg cell was, according to U.S. and German intelligence agencies, a group of radical Islamists based in Hamburg, Germany that included students who eventually came to be key operatives in the 9/11 attacks...
.
External links
- Official website. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
- Official website. More detailed German website. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
- History of Hamburg. (In German)