1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hamburg (city)

HAMBURG, a seaport of Germany, capital of the free state of Hamburg, on the right bank of the northern arm of the Elbe, 75 m. from its mouth at Cuxhaven and 178 m. N.W. from Berlin by rail. It is the largest and most important seaport on the continent of Europe and (after London and New York) the third largest in the world. Were it not for political and municipal boundaries Hamburg might be considered as forming with Altona and Ottensen (which lie within Prussian territory) one town. The view of the three from the south, presenting a continuous river frontage of six miles, the river crowded with shipping and the densely packed houses surmounted by church towers—of which three are higher than the dome of St Paul’s in London—is one of great magnificence.

The city proper lies on both sides of the little river Alster, which, dammed up a short distance from its mouth, forms a lake, of which the southern portion within the line of the former fortifications bears the name of the Inner Alster (Binnen Alster), and the other and larger portion (2500 yards long and 1300 yards at the widest) that of the Outer Alster (Aussen Alster). The fortifications as such were removed in 1815, but they have left their trace in a fine girdle of green round the city, though too many inroads on its completeness have been made by railways and roadways. The oldest portion of the city is that which lies to the east of the Alster; but, though it still retains the name of Altstadt, nearly all trace of its antiquity has disappeared, as it was rebuilt after the great fire of 1842. To the west lies the new town (Neustadt), incorporated in 1678; beyond this and contiguous to Altona is the former suburb of St Pauli, incorporated in 1876, and towards the north-east that of St Georg, which arose in the 13th century but was not incorporated till 1868.

Emery Walker sc.

The old town lies low, and it is traversed by a great number of narrow canals or “fleets” (Fleeten)—for the same word which has left its trace in London nomenclature is used in the Low German city—which add considerably to the picturesqueness of the meaner quarters, and serve as convenient channels for the transport of goods. They generally form what may be called the back streets, and they are bordered by warehouses, cellars and the lower class of dwelling-houses. As they are subject to the ebb and flow of the Elbe, at certain times they run almost dry. As soon as the telegram at Cuxhaven announces high tide three shots are fired from the harbour to warn the inhabitants of the “fleets”; and if the progress of the tide up the river gives indication of danger, another three shots follow. The “fleets” with their quaint medieval warehouses, which come sheer down to the water, and are navigated by barges, have gained for Hamburg the name of “Northern Venice.” They are, however, though antique and interesting, somewhat dismal and unsavoury. In fine contrast to them is the bright appearance of the Binnen Alster, which is enclosed on three sides by handsome rows of buildings, the Alsterdamm in the east, the Alter Jungfernstieg in the south, and the Neuer Jungfernstieg in the west, while it is separated from the Aussen Alster by part of the rampart gardens traversed by the railway uniting Hamburg with Altona and crossing the lakes by a beautiful bridge—the Lombards-Brücke. Around the outer lake are grouped the suburbs Harvestehude and Pösseldorf on the western shore, and Uhlenhorst on the eastern, with park-like promenades and villas surrounded by well-kept gardens. Along the southern end of the Binnen Alster runs the Jungfernstieg with fine shops, hotels and restaurants facing the water. A fleet of shallow-draught screw steamers provides a favourite means of communication between the business centre of the city and the outlying colonies of villas.

The streets enclosing the Binnen Alster are fashionable promenades, and leading directly from this quarter are the main business thoroughfares, the Neuer-Wall, the Grosse Bleichen and the Hermannstrasse. The largest of the public squares in Hamburg is the Hopfenmarkt, which contains the church of St Nicholas (Nikolaikirche) and is the principal market for vegetables and fruit. Others of importance are the Gänsemarkt, the Zeughausmarkt and the Grossneumarkt. Of the thirty-five churches existing in Hamburg (the old cathedral had to be taken down in 1805), the St Petrikirche, Nikolaikirche, St Katharinenkirche, St Jakobikirche and St Michaeliskirche are those that give their names to the five old city parishes. The Nikolaikirche is especially remarkable for its spire, which is 473 ft. high and ranks, after those of Ulm and Cologne, as the third highest ecclesiastical edifice in the world. The old church was destroyed in the great fire of 1842, and the new building, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 13th century Gothic, was erected 1845–1874. The exterior and interior are elaborately adorned with sculptures. Sandstone from Osterwald near Hildesheim was used for the outside, and for the inner work a softer variety from Postelwitz near Dresden. The Michaeliskirche, which is built on the highest point in the city and has a tower 428 ft. high, was erected (1750–1762) by Ernst G. Sonnin on the site of the older building of the 17th century destroyed by lightning; the interior, which can contain 3000 people, is remarkable for its bold construction, there being no pillars. The St Petrikirche, originally consecrated in the 12th century and rebuilt in the 14th, was the oldest church in Hamburg; it was burnt in 1842 and rebuilt in its old form in 1844–1849. It has a graceful tapering spire 402 ft. in height (completed 1878); the granite columns from the old cathedral, the stained glass windows by Kellner of Nuremberg, and H. Schubert’s fine relief of the entombment of Christ are worthy of notice. The St Katharinenkirche and the St Jakobikirche are the only surviving medieval churches, but neither is of special interest. Of the numerous other churches, Evangelical, Roman Catholic and Anglican, none are of special interest. The new synagogue was built by Rosengarten between 1857 and 1859, and to the same architect is due the sepulchral chapel built for the Hamburg merchant prince Johann Heinrich, Freiherr von Schröder (1784–1883), in the churchyard of the Petrikirche. The beautiful chapel of St Gertrude was unfortunately destroyed in 1842.

Hamburg has comparatively few secular buildings of great architectural interest, but first among them is the new Rathaus, a huge German Renaissance building, constructed of sandstone in 1886–1897, richly adorned with sculptures and with a spire 330 ft. in height. It is the place of meeting of the municipal council and of the senate and contains the city archives. Immediately adjoining it and connected with it by two wings is the exchange. It was erected in 1836–1841 on the site of the convent of St Mary Magdalen and escaped the conflagration of 1842. It was restored and enlarged in 1904, and shelters the commercial library of nearly 100,000 vols. During the business hours (1–3 p.m.) the exchange is crowded by some 5000 merchants and brokers. In the same neighbourhood is the Johanneum, erected in 1834 and in which are preserved the town library of about 600,000 printed books and 5000 MSS. and the collection of Hamburg antiquities. In the courtyard is a statue (1885) of the reformer Johann Bugenhagen. In the Fischmarkt, immediately south of the Johanneum, a handsome fountain was erected in 1890. Directly west of the town hall is the new Stadthaus, the chief police station of the town, in front of which is a bronze statue of the burgomaster Karl Friedrich Petersen (1809–1892), erected in 1897. A little farther away are the headquarters of the Patriotic Society (Patriotische Gesellschaft), founded in 1765, with fine rooms for the meetings of artistic and learned societies. Several new public buildings have been erected along the circuit of the former walls. Near the west extremity, abutting upon the Elbe, the moat was filled in in 1894–1897, and some good streets were built along the site, while the Kersten Miles-Brücke, adorned with statues of four Hamburg heroes, was thrown across the Helgoländer Allee. Farther north, along the line of the former town wall, are the criminal law courts (1879–1882, enlarged 1893) and the civil law courts (finished in 1901). Close to the latter stand the new supreme court, the old age and accident state insurance offices, the chief custom house, and the concert hall, founded by Karl Laeisz, a former Hamburg wharfinger. Farther on are the chemical and the physical laboratories and the Hygienic Institute. Facing the botanical gardens a new central post-office, in the Renaissance style, was built in 1887. At the west end of the Lombards-Brücke there is a monument by Schilling, commemorating the war of 1870–71. A few streets south of that is a monument to Lessing (1881); while occupying a commanding site on the promenades towards Altona is the gigantic statue of Bismarck which was unveiled in June 1906. The Kunst-Halle (the picture gallery), containing some good works by modern masters, faces the east end of Lombards-Brücke. The new Natural History Museum, completed in 1891, stands a little distance farther south. To the east of it comes the Museum for Art and Industry, founded in 1878, now one of the most important institutions of the kind in Germany, with which is connected a trades school. Close by is the Hansa-fountain (65 ft. high), erected in 1878. On the north-east side of the suburb of St Georg a botanical museum and laboratory have been established. There is a new general hospital at Eppendorf, outside the town on the north, built on the pavilion principle, and one of the finest structures of the kind in Europe; and at Ohlsdorf, in the same direction, a crematorium was built in 1891 in conjunction with the town cemeteries (370 acres). There must also be mentioned the fine public zoological gardens, Hagenbeck’s private zoological gardens in the vicinity, the schools of music and navigation, and the school of commerce. In 1900 a high school for shipbuilding was founded, and in 1901 an institute for seamen’s and tropical diseases, with a laboratory for their physiological study, was opened, and also the first public free library in the city. The river is spanned just above the Frei Hafen by a triple-arched railway bridge, 1339 ft. long, erected in 1868–1873 and doubled in width in 1894. Some 270 yds. higher up is a magnificent iron bridge (1888) for vehicles and foot passengers. The southern arm of the Elbe, on the south side of the island of Wilhelmsburg, is crossed by another railway bridge of four arches and 2050 ft. in length.

Railways.—The through railway traffic of Hamburg is practically confined to that proceeding northwards—to Kiel and Jutland—and for the accommodation of such trains the central (terminus) station at Altona is the chief gathering point. The Hamburg stations, connected with the other by the Verbindungs-Bahn (or metropolitan railway) crossing the Lombards-Brücke, are those of the Venloer (or Hanoverian, as it is often called) Bahnhof on the south-east, in close proximity to the harbour, into which converge the lines from Cologne and Bremen, Hanover and Frankfort-on-Main, and from Berlin, via Nelzen; the Klostertor-Bahnhof (on the metropolitan line) which temporarily superseded the old Berlin station, and the Lübeck station a little to the north-east, during the erection of the new central station, which occupies a site between the Klostertor-Bahnhof and the Lombards-Brücke. Between this central station and Altona terminus runs the metropolitan railway, which has been raised several feet so as to bridge over the streets, and on which lie the important stations Dammtor and Sternschanze. An excellent service of electric trams interconnect the towns of Hamburg, Altona and the adjacent suburbs, and steamboats provide communication on the Elbe with the riparian towns and villages; and so with Blankenese and Harburg, with Stade, Glückstadt and Cuxhaven.

Trade and Shipping.—Probably there is no place which during the last thirty years of the 19th century grew faster commercially than Hamburg. Its commerce is, however, almost entirely of the nature of transit trade, for it is not only the chief distributing centre for the middle of Europe of the products of all other parts of the world, but is also the chief outlet for German, Austrian, and even to some extent Russian (Polish) raw products and manufactures. Its principal imports are coffee (of which it is the greatest continental market), tea, sugar, spices, rice, wine (especially from Bordeaux), lard (from Chicago), cereals, sago, dried fruits, herrings, wax (from Morocco and Mozambique), tobacco, hemp, cotton (which of late years shows a large increase), wool, skins, leather, oils, dyewoods, indigo, nitrates, phosphates and coal. Of the total importations of all kinds of coal to Hamburg, that of British coal, particularly from Northumberland and Durham, occupies the first place, and despite some falling off in late years, owing to the competition made by Westphalian coal, amounts to more than half the total import. The increase of the trade of Hamburg is most strikingly shown by that of the shipping belonging to the port. Between 1876 and 1880 there were 475 sailing vessels with a tonnage of 230,691, and 110 steam-ships with a tonnage of 87,050. In 1907 there were (exclusive of fishing vessels) 470 sailing ships with a tonnage of 271,661, and 610 steamers with a tonnage of 1,256,449. In 1870 the crews numbered 6900 men, in 1907 they numbered 29,536.

Industries.—The development of manufacturing industries at Hamburg and its immediate vicinity since 1880, though not so rapid as that of its trade and shipping, has been very remarkable, and more especially has this been the case since the year 1888, when Hamburg joined the German customs union, and the barriers which prevented goods manufactured at Hamburg from entering into other parts of Germany were removed. Among the chief industries are those for the production of articles of food and drink. The import trade of various cereals by sea to Hamburg is very large, and a considerable portion of this corn is converted into flour at Hamburg itself. There are also, in this connexion, numerous bakeries for biscuit, rice-peeling mills and spice mills. Besides the foregoing there are cocoa, chocolate, confectionery and baking-powder factories, coffee-roasting and ham-curing and smoking establishments, lard refineries, margarine manufactories and fish-curing, preserving and packing factories. There are numerous breweries, producing annually about 24,000,000 gallons of beer, spirit distilleries and factories of artificial waters. Yarns, textile goods and weaving industries generally have not attained any great dimensions, but there are large jute-spinning mills and factories for cotton-wool and cotton driving-belts. Among other important articles of domestic industry are tobacco and cigars (manufactured mainly in bond, within the free harbour precincts), hydraulic machinery, electro-technical machinery, chemical products (including artificial manures), oils, soaps, india-rubber, ivory and celluloid articles and the manufacture of leather.

Shipbuilding has made very important progress, and there are at present in Hamburg eleven large shipbuilding yards, employing nearly 10,000 hands. Of these, however, only three are of any great extent, and one, where the largest class of ocean-going steamers and of war vessels for the German navy are built, employs about 5000 persons. There are also two yards for the building of pleasure yachts and rowing-boats (in both which branches of sport Hamburg takes a leading place in Germany). Art industries, particularly those which appeal to the luxurious taste of the inhabitants in fitting their houses, such as wall-papers and furniture, and those which are included in the equipment of ocean-going steamers, have of late years made rapid strides and are among the best productions of this character of any German city.

Harbour.—It was the accession of Hamburg to the customs union in 1888 which gave such a vigorous impulse to her more recent commercial development. At the same time a portion of the port was set apart as a free harbour, altogether an area of 750 acres of water and 1750 acres of dry land. In anticipation of this event a gigantic system of docks, basins and quays was constructed, at a total cost of some £7,000,000 (of which the imperial treasury contributed £2,000,000), between the confluence of the Alster and the railway bridge (1868–1873), an entire quarter of the town inhabited by some 24,000 people being cleared away to make room for these accessories of a great port. On the north side of the Elbe there are the Sandtor basin (3380 ft. long, 295 to 427 ft. wide), in which British and Dutch steamboats and steamboats of the Sloman (Mediterranean) line anchor. South of this lies the Grasbrook basin (quayage of 2100 ft. and 1693 ft. alongside), which is used by French, Swedish and transatlantic steamers. At the quay point between these two basins there are vast state granaries. On the outer (i.e. river) side of the Grasbrook dock is the quay at which the emigrants for South America embark, and from which the mail boats for East Africa, the boats of the Woermann (West Africa) line, and the Norwegian tourist boats depart. To the east of these two is the small Magdeburg basin, penetrating north, and the Baaken basin, penetrating east, i.e. parallel to the river. The latter affords accommodation to the transatlantic steamers, including the emigrant ships of the Hamburg-America line, though their “ocean mail boats” generally load and unload at Cuxhaven. On the south bank of the stream there follow in succession, going from east to west, the Moldau dock for river craft, the sailing vessel dock (Segelschiff Hafen, 3937 ft. long, 459 to 886 ft. wide, 261/4 ft. deep), the Hansa dock, India dock, petroleum dock, several swimming and dry docks; and in the west of the free port area three other large docks, one of 77 acres for river craft, the others each 56 acres in extent, and one 233/4 ft. deep, the other 261/4 ft. deep, at low water, constructed in 1900–1901. In 1897 Hamburg was provided with a huge floating dock, 558 ft. long and 84 ft. in maximum breadth, capable of holding a vessel of 17,500 tons and draught not exceeding 29 ft., so constructed and equipped that in time of need (war) it could be floated down to Cuxhaven. During the last 25 years of the 19th century the channel of the Elbe was greatly improved and deepened, and during the last two years of the 19th century some £360,000 was spent by Hamburg alone in regulating and correcting this lower course of the river. The new Kuhwärder-basin, on the left bank of the river, as well as two other large dock basins (now leased to the Hamburg-American Company), raise the number of basins to twelve in all.

Emigration.—Hamburg is one of the principal continental ports for the embarkation of emigrants. In 1881–1890, on an average they numbered 90,000 a year (of whom 60,000 proceeded to the United States). In 1900 the number was 87,153 (and to the United States 64,137). The number of emigrant Germans has enormously decreased of late years, Russia and Austria-Hungary now being most largely represented. For the accommodation of such passengers large and convenient emigrant shelters have been recently erected close to the wharf of embarkation.

Health and Population.—The health of the city of Hamburg and the adjoining district may be described as generally good, no epidemic diseases having recently appeared to any serious degree. The malady causing the greatest number of deaths is that of pulmonary consumption; but better housing accommodation has of late years reduced the mortality from this disease very considerably. The results of the census of 1905 showed the population of the city (not including the rural districts belonging to the state of Hamburg) to be 802,793.

Hamburg is well supplied with places of amusement, especially of the more popular kind. Its Stadt-Theater, rebuilt in 1874, has room for 1750 spectators and is particularly devoted to operatic performances; the Thalia-Theater dates from 1841, and holds 1700 to 1800 people, and the Schauspielhaus (for drama) from 1900 people, and there are some seven or eight minor establishments. Theatrical performances were introduced into the city in the 17th century, and 1678 is the date of the first opera, which was played in a house in the Gänsemarkt. Under Schröder and Lessing the Hamburg stage rose into importance. Though contributing few names of the highest rank to German literature, the city has been intimately associated with the literary movement. The historian Lappenberg and Friedrich von Hagedorn were born in Hamburg; and not only Lessing, but Heine and Klopstock lived there for some time.

History.—Hamburg probably had its origin in a fortress erected in 808 by Charlemagne, on an elevation between the Elbe and Alster, as a defence against the Slavs, and called Hammaburg because of the surrounding forest (Hamme). In 811 Charlemagne founded a church here, perhaps on the site of a Saxon place of sacrifice, and this became a great centre for the evangelization of the north of Europe, missionaries from Hamburg introducing Christianity into Jutland and the Danish islands and even into Sweden and Norway. In 834 Hamburg became an archbishopric, St Ansgar, a monk of Corbie and known as the apostle of the North, being the first metropolitan. In 845 church, monastery and town were burnt down by the Norsemen, and two years later the see of Hamburg was united with that of Bremen and its seat transferred to the latter city. The town, rebuilt after this disaster, was again more than once devastated by invading Danes and Slavs. Archbishop Unwan of Hamburg-Bremen (1013–1029) substituted a chapter of canons for the monastery, and in 1037 Archbishop Bezelin (or Alebrand) built a stone cathedral and a palace on the Elbe. In 1110 Hamburg, with Holstein, passed into the hands of Adolph I., count of Schauenburg, and it is with the building of the Neustadt (the present parish of St Nicholas) by his grandson, Adolph III. of Holstein, that the history of the commercial city actually begins. In return for a contribution to the costs of a crusade, he obtained from the emperor Frederick I. in 1189 a charter granting Hamburg considerable franchises, including exemption from tolls, a separate court and jurisdiction, and the rights of fishery on the Elbe from the city to the sea. The city council (Rath), first mentioned in 1190, had jurisdiction over both the episcopal and the new town. Craft gilds were already in existence, but these had no share in the government; for, though the Lübeck rule excluding craftsmen from the Rath did not obtain, they were excluded in practice. The counts, of course, as over-lords, had their Vogt (advocatus) in the town, but this official, as the city grew in power, became subordinate to the Rath, as at Lübeck.

The wealth of the town was increased in 1189 by the destruction of the flourishing trading centre of Bardowieck by Henry the Lion; from this time it began to be much frequented by Flemish merchants. In 1201 the city submitted to Valdemar of Schleswig, after his victory over the count of Holstein, but in 1225, owing to the capture of King Valdemar II. of Denmark by Henry of Schwerin, it once more exchanged the Danish over-lordship for that of the counts of Schauenburg, who established themselves here and in 1231 built a strong castle to hold it in check. The defensive alliance of the city with Lübeck in 1241, extended for other purpose by the treaty of 1255, practically laid the foundations of the Hanseatic League (q.v.), of which Hamburg continued to be one of the principal members. The internal organization of the city, too, was rendered more stable by the new constitution of 1270, and the recognition in 1292 of the complete internal autonomy of the city by the count of Schauenburg. The exclusion of the handicraftsmen from the Rath led, early in the 15th century, to a rising of the craft gilds against the patrician merchants, and in 1410 they forced the latter to recognize the authority of a committee of 48 burghers, which concluded with the senate the so-called First Recess; there were, however, fresh outbursts in 1458 and 1483, which were settled by further compromises. In 1461 Hamburg did homage to Christian I. of Denmark, as heir of the Schauenburg counts; but the suzerainty of Denmark was merely nominal and soon repudiated altogether; in 1510 Hamburg was made a free imperial city by the emperor Maximilian I.

In 1529 the Reformation was definitively established in Hamburg by the Great Recess of the 19th of February, which at the same time vested the government of the city in the Rath, together with the three colleges of the Oberalten, the Forty-eight (increased to 60 in 1685) and the Hundred and Forty-four (increased to 180). The ordinary burgesses consisted of the freeholders and the master-workmen of the gilds. In 1536 Hamburg joined the league of Schmalkalden, for which error it had to pay a heavy fine in 1547 when the league had been defeated. During the same period the Lutheran zeal of the citizens led to the expulsion of the Mennonites and other Protestant sects, who founded Altona. The loss this brought to the city was, however, compensated for by the immigration of Protestant refugees from the Low Countries and Jews from Spain and Portugal. In 1549, too, the English merchant adventurers removed their staple from Antwerp to Hamburg.

The 17th century saw notable developments. Hamburg had established, so early as the 16th century, a regular postal service with certain cities in the interior of Germany, e.g. Leipzig and Breslau; in 1615 it was included in the postal system of Turn and Taxis. In 1603 Hamburg received a code of laws regulating exchange, and in 1619 the bank was established. In 1615 the Neustadt was included within the city walls. During the Thirty Years’ War the city received no direct harm; but the ruin of Germany reacted upon its prosperity, and the misery of the lower orders led to an agitation against the Rath. In 1685, at the invitation of the popular leaders, the Danes appeared before Hamburg demanding the traditional homage; they were repulsed, but the internal troubles continued, culminating in 1708 in the victory of the democratic factions. The imperial government, however, intervened, and in 1712 the “Great Recess” established durable good relations between the Rath and the commonalty. Frederick IV. of Denmark, who had seized the opportunity to threaten the city (1712), was bought off with a ransom of 246,000 Reichsthaler. Denmark, however, only finally renounced her claims by the treaty of Gottorp in 1768, and in 1770 Hamburg was admitted for the first time to a representation in the diet of the empire.

The trade of Hamburg received its first great impulse in 1783, when the United States, by the treaty of Paris, became an independent power. From this time dates its first direct maritime communication with America. Its commerce was further extended and developed by the French occupation of Holland in 1795, when the Dutch trade was largely directed to its port. The French Revolution and the insecurity of the political situation, however, exercised a depressing and retarding effect. The wars which ensued, the closing of continental ports against English trade, the occupation of the city after the disastrous battle of Jena, and pestilence within its walls brought about a severe commercial crisis and caused a serious decline in its prosperity. Moreover, the great contributions levied by Napoleon on the city, the plundering of its bank by Davoust, and the burning of its prosperous suburbs inflicted wounds from which the city but slowly recovered. Under the long peace which followed the close of the Napoleonic wars, its trade gradually revived, fostered by the declaration of independence of South and Central America, with both of which it energetically opened close commercial relations, and by the introduction of steam navigation. The first steamboat was seen on the Elbe on the 17th of June 1816; in 1826 a regular steam communication was opened with London; and in 1856 the first direct steamship line linked the port with the United States. The great fire of 1842 (5th-8th of May) laid in waste the greatest part of the business quarter of the city and caused a temporary interruption of its commerce. The city, however, soon rose from its ashes, the churches were rebuilt and new streets laid out on a scale of considerable magnificence. In 1866 Hamburg joined the North German Confederation, and in 1871, while remaining outside the Zollverein, became a constituent state of the German empire. In 1883–1888 the works for the Free Harbour were completed, and on the 18th of October 1888 Hamburg joined the Customs Union (Zollverein). In 1892 the cholera raged within its walls, carried off 8500 of its inhabitants, and caused considerable losses to its commerce and industry; but the visitation was not without its salutary fruits, for an improved drainage system, better hospital accommodation, and a purer water-supply have since combined to make it one of the healthiest commercial cities of Europe.

Further details about Hamburg will be found in the following works: O. C. Gaedechens, Historische Topographie der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg (1880); E. H. Wichmann, Heimatskunde von Hamburg (1863); W. Melhop, Historische Topographie der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg von 1880–1895 (1896); Wulff, Hamburgische Gesetze und Verordnungen (1889–1896); and W. von Melle, Das hamburgische Staatsrecht (1891). There are many valuable official publications which may be consulted, among these being: Statistik des hamburgischen Staates (1867–1904); Hamburgs Handel und Schiffahrt (1847–1903); the yearly Hamburgischer Staatskalender; and Jahrbuch der Hamburger wissenschaftlichen Anstalten. See also Hamburg und seine Bauten (1890); H. Benrath, Lokalführer durch Hamburg und Umgebungen (1904); and the consular reports by Sir William Ward, H.B.M.’s consul-general at Hamburg, to whom the author is indebted for great assistance in compiling this article.

For the history of Hamburg see the Zeitschrift des Vereins für hamburgische Geschichte (1841, fol.); G. Dehio, Geschichte des Erzbistums Hamburg-Bremen (Berlin, 1877); the Hamburgisches Urkundenbuch (1842), the Hamburgische Chroniken (1852–1861), and the Chronica der Stadt Hamburg bis 1557 of Adam Tratziger (1865), all three edited by J. M. Lappenberg; the Briefsammlung des hamburgischen Superintendenten Joachim Westphal 1530–1575, edited by C. H. W. Sillem (1903); Gallois, Geschichte der Stadt Hamburg (1853–1856); K. Koppmann, Aus Hamburgs Vergangenheit (1885), and Kammereirechnungen der Stadt Hamburg (1869–1894); H. W. C. Hubbe, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Stadt Hamburg (1897); C. Mönckeberg, Geschichte der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg (1885); E. H. Wichmann, Hamburgische Geschichte in Darstellungen aus alter und neuer Zeit (1889); and R. Bollheimer, Zeittafeln der hamburgischen Geschichte (1895).