HAMBURG. 



619 



by strong piles, where ships may lie in safety ; it is 

 called ilummelhaven. Canals intersect the lower 

 part of the city in all directions, anil almost all the 

 stores are built upon their banks. In this part of the 

 city, and also in that which lies on the east of the 

 Alster, the streets are, for the most part, narrow and 

 crooked. Many of those in the western or New 

 Town, are broader and straighter. The city con- 

 tains nineteen churches, of which sixteen are Luther- 

 an, one Catholic, and two Calvinistic, with some syn- 

 agogues for 8000 Jews. In the suburb of St George, 

 there are 1200 houses and a Lutheran church. The 

 church of St Michael, with its tower, 456 feet in 

 height, built by Sonnin (q. v.), and intended for as- 

 tronomical observations and for experiments in nat- 

 ural philosophy, was finished in 1786. This building, 

 and some of the private houses, are remarkable lor 

 their architecture. The exteriors of the exchange 

 and the council-house are also handsomely ornamen- 

 ted. Among the most remarkable buildings are the 

 bank, the admiralty buildings, the orphan asylum, 

 the new general hospital, the theatres, the exchange, 

 the city and commercial libraries, Roding's museum, 

 &c. The gymnasium and the Johanneum are excel- 

 lent institutions for education. The building for the 

 school of navigation, opened in 1826, is provided 

 with an observatory, and a botanic garden is also an- 

 nexed to it. In institutions for the relief of the des- 

 titute, for the sick, and for the education of poor 

 children, Hamburg is inferior to no city in Germany. 

 Most of these are under the direction of private in- 

 dividuals, and they are principally supported by vol- 

 untary contributions. 



The constitution of Hamburg is aristocratic. The 

 government consists of four burgomasters and twenty- 

 four counsellors, and fills its own vacancies by an art- 

 ful combination of chance and of choice. Three of 

 the burgomasters and eleven of the counsellors are 

 lawyers ; the rest are merchants. To the senate are 

 attached four syndics and four secretaries. Calvin- 

 ists are excluded from the government of Hamburg, 

 as Lutherans are from that of Bremen. The ordin- 

 ary public business, both internal and external, is 

 transacted by the senate alone ;. matters of more im- 

 portance are regulated in connexion with the citizens 

 possessed of a certain property. These are divided 

 into five parishes, each of which sends thirty-six 

 members to the assembly or college of the 180. From 

 these are chosen the members of the council of sixty, 

 and again from these fifteen elders. Each of these 

 colleges has peculiar privileges. The senate and the 

 elders alone receive salaries. Justice is administered 

 by several courts. The court of appeal of the free 

 cities of the Germanic confederacy, is the supreme 

 tribunal. The public revenues were formerly con- 

 siderable, without the taxes being oppressive ; but 

 the heavy debts incurred by the city, of late years, 

 have greatly increased the taxes. The citizens are 

 provided with arms, and accustomed to military ex- 

 ercises, so as to form a body of infantry, cavalry and 

 artillery, in regular uniform, amounting to about 

 10,000 men. The removal of the old fortifications 

 was commenced, in 1804, and the great French works 

 have also been since demolished. The wall has been 

 turned into a park. 



The territory of Hamburg (116 square miles) is 

 bounded by that of Holstein on the north and west ; 

 the city of Altona, in the territory of Holstein, is not 

 two miles distant from the gates of Hamburg. To- 

 wards the east, the Hamburg territory borders on 

 Lauenburg, and on the south it is separated by the 

 Elbe from the territories of Hanover. Some of the 

 islands in the Elbe belong also, either wholly or in 

 part, to Hamburg, together with the village of Moor- 

 burg on the left bank. Besides this, it has jurisdic- 



tion over the bailiwic of Ritzebuttel, which contains 

 the important town of Cuxhaven, at the mouth of the 

 Elbe. Hamburg, in common with Lubeck, also has 

 jurisdiction over the bailiwic of Bergedorf, with the 

 small town of the same name, over the Vierlands, and 

 a few places in Lauenburg. The population belong- 

 ing to the city of Hamburg is about 122,000, and 

 that of the lands over which it has separate or con- 

 current jurisdiction, about 28,000. 



The city owes its foundation to the emperor Char- 

 lemagne, who, in the beginning of the ninth cen- 

 tury, built a citadel and a church on the heights be- 

 tween the Elbe and the eastern bank of the Alster, 

 as a bulwark against the neighbouring pagans. The 

 adaptation of the place for commerce and fishing, 

 attracted many settlers. Although its barbarous 

 neighbours frequently destroyed this settlement, it 

 was as often re-established, and the city was enlarged 

 by new buildings. It became important as a com- 

 mercial city in the twelfth century, and in the thir- 

 teenth it was one of the founders of the Hanseatic 

 league. Even after the decline of the confederacy, 

 it maintained its freedom and flourishing commerce. 

 The Hanseatic league with Lubeck and Bremen 

 subsisted till 1810, and has been renewed since 1813 

 and 1814. Until 1500, the city was confined to the 

 strip of land between the Elbe and the eastern bank 

 of the Alster. The western bank was gradually 

 built upon, principally by exiles from the Nether- 

 lands. Thus arose the New Town, which was so 

 important, even in the early part of the thirty years' 

 war, that it was enclosed within the fortifications, 

 and thus gave to the city its present extent. In 1618, 

 Hamburg was formally acknowledged a free city of 

 the empire, although the archbishops of Bremen 

 continued to maintain possession of the cathedral, 

 which fell to Sweden at the peace of Westphalia, and 

 was afterwards ceded, with the duchy of Bremen, to 

 Hanover. The thirty years' war, amidst the devas- 

 tations of which Hamburg was spared, increased the 

 number of its inhabitants, as late wars in Europe 

 have also done, during which many persons emigrated 

 there from the Rhine, from the Netherlands, and 

 from France. Its commerce increased in the same 

 proportion, and compensated, in a great degree, for 

 the loss in its manufactures, occasioned by the awak- 

 ened spirit of industry, and by the non-importation 

 acts of foreign powers. Its sugar-refineries, manu- 

 factories of whale-oil, ship-yards, and establishments 

 for printing cotton, are still important. The com- 

 merce of Hamburg was increased, particularly by its 

 direct intercourse with the United States of America, 

 and by the war in the Netherlands and on the Rhine, 

 by which it obtained a considerable share of the 

 commerce of those countries. Thus, at the begin- 

 ning of the present century, Hamburg was one of the 

 richest and most prosperous of the free cities. Its 

 reverses began, in 1803, with the entrance of the 

 French into Hanover. They took possession of 

 Ritzebuttel, and closed the Elbe to the British, who, 

 in turn, closely blockaded the mouth of the river. 

 Hamburg was now obliged to carry on its maritime 

 commerce through Tonningen arid Husum ; and 

 whatever was exported through Hanover and the 

 Elbe, had to be accompanied with certificates that it 

 did not come from British hands, for which certificates 

 the French authorities asked a high price. The city 

 was obliged to advance 2,125,000 marcs banco to the 

 states of Hanover. After the battle of Lubeck, 

 Mortier entered Hamburg (19th Nov. 1806), and, 

 although the French troops evacuated it again after 

 the peace of Tilsit, and it yet retained, for a few 

 years, the shadow of its former independence, it was 

 still, during this period, oppressed in a thousand 

 ways by French commanders. Then came the de- 



