[1] A. Jeremias, _Das A.T. im Lichte des alten Orients_, p. 145,
holds that it represents the situation in the 8th century B.C.
HAM, a small town of northern France, in the department of Somme, 36 m.
E.S.E. of Amiens on the Northern railway between that city and Laon.
Pop. (1906), 2957. It stands on the Somme in a marshy district where
market-gardening is carried on. From the 9th century onwards it appears
as the seat of a lordship which, after the extinction of its hereditary
line, passed in succession to the houses of Coucy, Enghien, Luxembourg,
Rohan, Vendome and Navarre, and was finally united to the French crown
on the accession of Henry IV. Notre-Dame, the church of an abbey of
canons regular of St Augustin, dates from the 12th and 13th centuries,
but in 1760 all the inflammable portions of the building were destroyed
by a conflagration caused by lightning, and a process of restoration was
subsequently carried out. Of special note are the bas-reliefs of the
nave and choir, executed in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the crypt
of the 12th century, which contains the sepulchral effigies of Odo IV.
of Ham and his wife Isabella of Bethencourt. The castle, founded before
the 10th century, was rebuilt early in the 13th, and extended in the
14th; its present appearance is mainly due to the constable Louis of
Luxembourg, count of St Pol, who between 1436 and 1470 not only
furnished it with outworks, but gave such a thickness to the towers and
curtains, and more especially to the great tower or donjon which still
bears his motto _Mon Myeulx_, that the great engineer and architect
Viollet-le-Duc considered them, even in the 19th century, capable of
resisting artillery. It forms a rectangle 395 ft. long by 263 ft. broad,
with a round tower at each angle and two square towers protecting the
curtains. The eastern and western sides are each defended by a
demi-lune. The Constable's Tower, for so the great tower is usually
called in memory of St Pol, has a height of about 100 ft., and the
thickness of the walls is 36 ft.; the interior is occupied by three
large hexagonal chambers in as many stories. The castle of Ham, which
now serves as barracks, has frequently been used as a state prison both
in ancient and modern times, and the list of those who have sojourned
there is an interesting one, including as it does Joan of Arc, Louis of
Bourbon, the ministers of Charles X., Louis Napoleon, and Generals
Cavaignac and Lamoriciere. Louis Napoleon was there for six years, and
at last effected his escape in the disguise of a workman. During
1870-1871 Ham was several times captured and recaptured by the
belligerents. A statue commemorates the birth in the town of General Foy
(1775-1825).
See J. G. Cappot, _Le Chateau de Ham_ (Paris, 1842); and Ch. Gomart,
_Ham, son chateau et ses prisonniers_ (Ham, 1864).
HAMADAN, a province and town of Persia. The province is bounded N. by
Gerrus and Khamseh, W. by Kermanshah, S. by Malayir and Irak, E. by
Savah and Kazvin. It has many well-watered, fertile plains and more than
four hundred flourishing villages producing much grain, and its
population, estimated at 350,000--more than half being Turks of the
Karaguzlu (black-eyed) and Shamlu (Syrian) tribes--supplies several
battalions of infantry to the army, and pays, besides, a yearly revenue
of about L18,000.
Hamadan, the capital of the province, is situated 188 m. W.S.W. of
Teheran, at an elevation of 5930 ft., near the foot of Mount Elvend (old
Persian _Arvand_, Gr. _Orontes_), whose granite peak rises W. of it to
an altitude of 11,900 ft. It is a busy trade centre with about 40,000
inhabitants (comprising 4000 Jews and 300 Armenians), has extensive and
well-stocked bazaars and fourteen large and many small caravanserais.
The principal industries are tanning leather and the manufacture of
saddles, harnesses, trunks, and other leather goods, felts and copper
utensils. The leather of Hamadan is much esteemed throughout the country
and exported to other provinces in great quantities. The streets are
narrow, and by a system called Kucheh-bandi (street-closing) established
long ago for impeding the circulation of crowds and increasing general
security, every quarter of the town, or block of buildings, is shut off
from its neighbours by gates which are closed during local disorders and
regularly at night. Hamadan has post and telegraph offices and two
churches, one Armenian, the other Protestant (of the American
Presbyterian Mission).
Among objects of interest are the alleged tombs of Esther and Mordecai
in an insignificant domed building in the centre of the town. There are
two wooden sarcophagi carved all over with Hebrew inscriptions. That
ascribed to Mordecai has the verses Isaiah lix. 8; Esther ii. 5; Ps.
xvi. 9, 10, 11, and the date of its erection A.M. 4318 (A.D. 557). The
inscriptions on the other sarcophagus consist of the verses Esther ix.
29, 32, x. 1; and the statement that it was placed there A.M. 4602 (A.D.
841) by "the pious and righteous woman Gemal Setan." A tablet let into
the wall states that the building was repaired A.M. 4474 (A.D. 713).
Hamadan also has the grave of the celebrated physician and philosopher
Abu Ali ibn Sina, better known as Avicenna (d. 1036). It is now
generally admitted that Hamadan is the Hagmatana (of the inscriptions),
Agbatana or Ecbatana (q.v., of the Greek writers), the "treasure city"
of the Achaemenian kings which was taken and plundered by Alexander the
Great, but very few ancient remains have been discovered. A rudely
carved stone lion, which lies on the roadside close to the southern
extremity of the city, and by some is supposed to have formed part of a
building of the ancient city, is locally regarded as a talisman against
famine, plague, cold, &c., placed there by Pliny, who is popularly known
as the sorcerer Balinas (a corruption of Plinius).
Five miles S.W. from the city in a mountain gorge of Mount Elvend is the
so-called Ganjnama (treasure-deed), which consists of two tablets with
trilingual cuneiform inscriptions cut into the rock and relating the
names and titles of Darius I. (521-485 B.C.) and his son Xerxes I.
(485-465 B.C.). (A. H. S.)
HAMADHANI, in full ABU-L FADL AHMAD IBN UL-HUSAIN UL-HAMADHANI
(967-1007), Arabian writer, known as Badi' uz-Zaman (the wonder of the
age), was born and educated at Hamadban. In 990 be went to Jorjan, where
he remained two years; then passing to Nishapur, where he rivalled and
surpassed the learned Khwarizmi. After journeying through Khorasan and
Sijistan, he finally settled in Herat under the protection of the vizir
of Mahmud, the Ghaznevid sultan. There he died at the age of forty. He
was renowned for a remarkable memory and for fluency of speech, as well
as for the purity of his language. He was one of the first to renew the
use of rhymed prose both in letters and _maqamas_ (see ARABIA:
_Literature_, section "Belles Lettres").
His letters were published at Constantinople (1881), and with
commentary at Beirut (1890); his _maqamas_ at Constantinople (1881),
and with commentary at Beirut (1889). A good idea of the latter may
be obtained from S. de Sacy's edition of six of the _maqamas_ with
French translation and notes in his _Chrestomathie_ arabe, vol. iii.
(2nd ed., Paris, 1827). A specimen of the letters is translated into
German in A. von Kremer's _Culturgeschichte des Orients_, ii. 470 sqq.
(Vienna, 1877). (G. W. T.)
HAMAH, the Hamath of the Bible, a Hittite royal city, situated in the
narrow valley of the Orontes, 110 English miles N. (by E.) of Damascus.
It finds a place in the northern boundaries of Israel under David,
Solomon and Jeroboam II. (2 Sam. viii. 9; 1 Kings viii. 65; 2 Kings xiv.
25). The Orontes flows winding past the city and is spanned by four
bridges. On the south-east the houses rise 150 ft. above the river, and
there are four other hills, that of the _Kalah_ or castle being to the
north 100 ft. high. Twenty-four minarets rise from the various mosques.
The houses are principally of mud, and the town stands amid poplar
gardens with a fertile plain to the west. The castle is ruined, the
streets are narrow and dirty, but the bazaars are good, and the trade
with the Bedouins considerable. The numerous water-wheels (_naurah_,) of
enormous dimension, raising water from the Orontes are the most
remarkable features of the view. Silk, woollen and cotton goods are
manufactured. The population is about 40,000.
In the year 854 B.C. Hamath was taken by Shalmaneser II., king of
Assyria, who defeated a large army of allied Hamathites, Syrians and
Israelites at Karkor and slew 14,000 of them. In 738 B.C. Tiglath
Pileser III. reduced the city to tribute, and another rebellion was
crushed by Sargon in 720 B.C. The downfall of so ancient a state made a
great impression at Jerusalem (Isa. x. 9). According to 2 Kings xvii.
24, 30, some of its people were transported to the land of N. Israel,
where they made images of Ashima or Eshmun (probably Ishtar). After the
Macedonian conquest of Syria Hamath was called Epiphania by the Greeks
in honour of Antiochus IV., Epiphanes, and in the early Byzantine period
it was known by both its Hebrew and its Greek name. In A.D. 639 the town
surrendered to Abu 'Obeida, one of Omar's generals, and the church was
turned into a mosque. In A.D. 1108 Tancred captured the city and
massacred the Ism'aileh defenders. In 1115 it was retaken by the
Moslems, and in 1178 was occupied by Saladin. Abulfeda, prince of Hamah
in the early part of the 14th century, is well known as an authority on
Arab geography.
HAMANN, JOHANN GEORG (1730-1788), German writer on philosophical and
theological subjects, was born at Konigsberg in Prussia on the 27th of
August 1730. His parents were of humble rank and small means. The
education he received was comprehensive but unsystematic, and the want
of definiteness in this early training doubtless tended to aggravate the
peculiar instability of character which troubled Hamann's after life. In
1746 be began theological studies, but speedily deserted them and turned
his attention to law. That too was taken up in a desultory fashion and
quickly relinquished. Hamann seems at this time to have thought that any
strenuous devotion to "bread-and-butter" studies was lowering, and
accordingly gave himself entirely to reading, criticism and philological
inquiries. Such studies, however, were pursued without any definite aim
or systematic arrangement, and consequently were productive of nothing.
In 1752, constrained to secure some position in the world, he accepted a
tutorship in a family resident in Livonia, but only retained it a few
months. A similar situation in Courland he also resigned after about a
year. In both cases apparently the rupture might be traced to the
curious and unsatisfactory character of Hamann himself. After leaving
his second post he was received into the house of a merchant at Riga
named Johann Christoph Behrens, who contracted a great friendship for
him and selected him as his companion for a tour through Danzig, Berlin,
Hamburg, Amsterdam and London. Hamann, however, was quite unfitted for
business, and when left in London, gave himself up entirely to his
fancies, and was quickly reduced to a state of extreme poverty and want.
It was at this period of his life, when his inner troubles of spirit
harmonized with the unhappy external conditions of his lot, that he
began an earnest and prolonged study of the Bible; and from this time
dates the tone of extreme pietism which is characteristic of his
writings, and which undoubtedly alienated many of his friends. He
returned to Riga, and was well received by the Behrens family, in whose
house he resided for some time. A quarrel, the precise nature of which
is not very clear though the occasion is evident, led to an entire
separation from these friends. In 1759 Hamann returned to Konigsberg,
and lived for several years with his father, filling occasional posts in
Konigsberg and Mitau. In 1767 he obtained a situation as translator in
the excise office, and ten years later a post as storekeeper in a
mercantile house. During this period of comparative rest Hamann was able
to indulge in the long correspondence with learned friends which seems
to have been his greatest pleasure. In 1784 the failure of some
commercial speculations greatly reduced his means, and about the same
time he was dismissed with a small pension from his situation. The
kindness of friends, however, supplied provision for his children, and
enabled him to carry out the long-cherished wish of visiting some of his
philosophical allies. He spent some time with Jacobi at Pempelfort and
with Buchholz at Walbergen. At the latter place he was seized with
illness, and died on the 21st of June 1788.
Hamann's works resemble his life and character. They are entirely
unsystematic so far as matter is concerned, chaotic and disjointed in
style. To a reader not acquainted with the peculiar nature of the man,
which led him to regard what commended itself to him as therefore
objectively true, they must be, moreover, entirely unintelligible and,
from their peculiar, pietistic tone and scriptural jargon, probably
offensive. A place in the history of philosophy can be yielded to
Hamann only because he expresses in uncouth, barbarous fashion an idea
to which other writers have given more effective shape. The
fundamental thought is with him the unsatisfactoriness of abstraction
or one-sidedness. The _Aufklarung_, with its rational theology, was to
him the type of abstraction. Even Epicureanism, which might appear
concrete, was by him rightly designated abstract. Quite naturally,
then, Hamann is led to object strongly to much of the Kantian
philosophy. The separation of sense and understanding is for him
unjustifiable, and only paralleled by the extraordinary blunder of
severing matter and form. Concreteness, therefore, is the one demand
which Hamann expresses, and as representing his own thought he used to
refer to Giordano Bruno's conception (previously held by Nicolaus
Curanus) of the identity of contraries. The demand, however, remains
but a demand. Nothing that Hamann has given can be regarded as in the
slightest degree a response to it. His hatred of system, incapacity
for abstract thinking, and intense personality rendered it impossible
for him to do more than utter the disjointed, oracular, obscure dicta
which gained for him among his friends the name of "Magus of the
North." Two results only appear throughout his writings--first, the
accentuation of belief; and secondly, the transference of many
philosophical difficulties to language. Belief is, according to
Hamann, the groundwork of knowledge, and he accepts in all sincerity
Hume's analysis of experience as being most helpful in constructing a
theological view. In language, which he appears to regard as somehow
acquired, he finds a solution for the problems of reason which Kant
had discussed in the _Kritik der reinen Vernunft_. On the application
of these thoughts to the Christian theology one need not enter.
None of Hamann's writings is of great bulk; most are mere pamphlets of
some thirty or forty pages. A complete collection has been published
by F. Roth (_Schriften_, 8vo, 1821-1842), and by C. H. Gildemeister
(_Leben und Schriften_, 6 vols., 1851-1873). See also M. Petri,
_Hamanns Schriften u. Briefe_, (4 vols., 1872-1873); J. Poel, _Hamann,
der Magus im Norden, sein Leben u. Mitteilungen aus seinen Schriften_
(2 vols., 1874-1876); J. Claassen, _Hamanns Leben und Werke_ (1885).
Also H. Weber, _Neue Hamanniana_ (1905). A very comprehensive essay on
Hamann is to be found in Hegel's _Vermischte Schriften_, ii. (Werke,
Bd. xvii.). On Hamann's influence on German literature, see J. Minor,
_J. G. Hamann in seiner Bedeutung fur die Sturm- und Drang-Periode_
(1881).
HAMAR, or STOREHAMMER (GREAT HAMAR), a town of Norway in Hedemarken
_amt_ (county), 78 m. by rail N. of Christiania. Pop. (1900), 6003. It
is pleasantly situated between two bays of the great Lake Mjosen, and is
the junction of the railways to Trondhjem (N.) and to Otta in
Gudbrandsdal (N.W.). The existing town was laid out in 1849, and made a
bishop's see in 1864. Near the same site there stood an older town,
which, together with a bishop's see, was founded in 1152 by the
Englishman Nicholas Breakspeare (afterwards Pope Adrian IV.); but both
town and cathedral were destroyed by the Swedes in 1567. Remains of the
latter include a nave-arcade with rounded arches. The town is a centre
for the local agricultural and timber trade.
HAMASA (HAMASAH), the name of a famous Arabian anthology compiled by
Habib ibn Aus at-Ta'i, surnamed Abu Tammam (see ABU TAMMAM). The
collection is so called from the title of its first book, containing
poems descriptive of constancy and valour in battle, patient endurance
of calamity, steadfastness in seeking vengeance, manfulness under
reproach and temptation, all which qualities make up the attribute
called by the Arabs _hamasah_ (briefly paraphrased by at-Tibrizi as
_ash-shiddah fi-l-amr_). It consists of ten books or parts, containing
in all 884 poems or fragments of poems, and named respectively--(1)
_al-Hamasa_, 261 pieces; (2) _al-Marathi_, "Dirges," 169 pieces; (3)
_al-Adab_, "Manners," 54 pieces; (4) _an-Nasib_, "The Beauty and Love of
Women," 139 pieces; (5) _al-Hija_, "Satires," 80 pieces; (6) _al-Adyaf
wa-l-Madih_, "Hospitality and Panegyric," 143 pieces; (7) _as-Sifat_,
"Miscellaneous Descriptions," 3 pieces; (8) _as-Sair wa-n-Nu'as_,
"Journeying and Drowsiness," 9 pieces; (9) _al-Mulah_, "Pleasantries,"
38 pieces; and (10) _Madhammat-an-nisa_, "Dispraise of Women," 18
pieces. Of these books the first is by far the longest, both in the
number and extent of its poems, and the first two together make up more
than half the bulk of the work. The poems are for the most part
fragments selected from longer compositions, though a considerable
number are probably entire. They are taken from the works of Arab poets
of all periods down to that of Abu Tammam himself (the latest
ascertainable date being A.D. 832), but chiefly of the poets of the
Ante-Islamic time (_Jahiliyyun_), those of the early days of Al-Islam
(_Mukhadrimun_), and those who flourished during the reigns of the
Omayyad caliphs, A.D. 660-749 (_Islamiyyun_). Perhaps the oldest in the
collection are those relating to the war of Basus, a famous legendary
strife which arose out of the murder of Kulaib, chief of the combined
clans of Bakr and Taghlib, and lasted for forty years, ending with the
peace of Dhu-l-Majaz, about A.D. 534. Of the period of the Abbasid
caliphs, under whom Abu Tammam himself lived, there are probably not
more than sixteen fragments.
Most of the poems belong to the class of extempore or occasional
utterances, as distinguished from _qasidas_, or elaborately finished
odes. While the latter abound with comparisons and long descriptions, in
which the skill of the poet is exhibited with much art and ingenuity,
the poems of the _Hamasa_ are short, direct and for the most part free
from comparisons; the transitions are easy, the metaphors simple, and
the purpose of the poem clearly indicated. It is due probably to the
fact that this style of composition was chiefly sought by Abu Tammam in
compiling his collection that he has chosen hardly anything from the
works of the most famous poets of antiquity. Not a single piece from
Imra 'al-Qais (Amru-ul-Qais) occurs in the _Hamasa_, nor are there any
from 'Alqama, Zuhair or A'sha; Nabigha is represented only by two pieces
(pp. 408 and 742 of Freytag's edition) of four and three verses
respectively; 'Antara by two pieces of four verses each (id. pp. 206,
209); Tarafa by one piece of five verses (id. p. 632); Labid by one
piece of three verses (id. p. 468); and 'Amr ibn Kulthum by one piece of
four verses (id. p. 236). The compilation is thus essentially an
anthology of minor poets, and exhibits (so far at least as the more
ancient poems are concerned) the general average of poetic utterance at
a time when to speak in verse was the daily habit of every warrior of
the desert.
To this description, however, there is an important exception in the
book entitled _an-Nasib_, containing verses relating to women and love.
In the classical age of Arab poetry it was the established rule that all
_qasidas_, or finished odes, whatever their purpose, must begin with the
mention of women and their charms (_tashbib_), in order, as the old
critics said, that the hearts of the hearers might be softened and
inclined to regard kindly the theme which the poet proposed to unfold.
The fragments included in this part of the work are therefore generally
taken from the opening verses of _qasidas_; where this is not the case,
they are chiefly compositions of the early Islamic period, when the
school of exclusively erotic poetry (of which the greatest
representative was 'Omar ibn Abi Rabi'a) arose.
The compiler was himself a distinguished poet in the style of his day,
and wandered through many provinces of the Moslem empire earning money
and fame by his skill in panegyric. About 220 A.H. he betook himself to
Khorasan, then ruled by 'Abdallah ibn Tahir, whom he praised and by whom
he was rewarded; on his journey home to 'Irak he passed through
Hamadhan, and was there detained for many months a guest of Abu-l-Wafa,
son of Salama, the road onward being blocked by heavy falls of snow.
During his residence at Hamadhan, Abu Tammam is said to have compiled or
composed, from the materials which he found in Abu-l-Wafa's library,
five poetical works, of which one was the _Hamasa_. This collection
remained as a precious heirloom in the family of Abu-l-Wafa until their
fortunes decayed, when it fell into the hands of a man of Dinawar named
Abu-l-'Awadhil, who carried it to Isfahan and made it known to the
learned of that city.
The worth of the _Hamasa_ as a store-house of ancient legend, of
faithful detail regarding the usages of the pagan time and early
simplicity of the Arab race, can hardly be exaggerated. The high level
of excellence which is found in its selections, both as to form and
matter, is remarkable, and caused it to be said that Abu Tammam
displayed higher qualities as a poet in his choice of extracts from the
ancients than in his own compositions. What strikes us chiefly in the
class of poetry of which the _Hamasa_ is a specimen, is its exceeding
truth and reality, its freedom from artificiality and hearsay, the
evident first-hand experience which the singers possessed of all of
which they sang. For historical purposes the value of the collection is
not small; but most of all there shines forth from it a complete
portraiture of the hardy and manful nature, the strenuous life of
passion and battle, the lofty contempt of cowardice, niggardliness and
servility, which marked the valiant stock who bore Islam abroad in a
flood of new life over the outworn civilizations of Persia, Egypt and
Byzantium. It has the true stamp of the heroic time, of its cruelty and
wantonness as of its strength and beauty.
No fewer than twenty commentaries are enumerated by Hajji Khalifa. Of
these the earliest was by Abu Riyash (otherwise ar-Riyashi), who died
in 257 A.H.; excerpts from it, chiefly in elucidation of the
circumstances in which the poems were composed, are frequently given
by at-Tibrizi (Tabrizi). He was followed by the famous grammarian
Abu-l-Fath ibn al-Jinni (d. 392 A.H.), and later by Shihab ad-Din
Ahmad al-Marzuqi of Isfahan (d. 421 A.H.). Upon al-Marzuqi's
commentary is chiefly founded that of Abu Zakariya Yahya at-Tibrizi
(b. 421 A.H., d. 502), which has been published by the late Professor
G. W. Freytag of Bonn, together with a Latin translation and notes
(1828-1851). This monumental work, the labour of a life, is a treasure
of information regarding the classical age of Arab literature which
has not perhaps its equal for extent, accuracy, and minuteness of
detail in Europe. No other complete edition of the _Hamasa_ has been
printed in the West; but in 1856 one appeared at Calcutta under the
names of Maulavi Ghulam Rabbani and Kabiru-d-din Ahmad. Though no
acknowledgment of the fact is contained in this edition, it is a
simple reprint of Professor Freytag's text (without at-Tibrizi's
commentary), and follows its original even in the misprints (corrected
by Freytag at the end of the second volume, which being in Latin the
Calcutta editors do not seem to have consulted). It contains in an
appendix of 12 pages a collection of verses (and some entire
fragments) not found in at-Tibrizi's recension, but stated to exist in
some copies consulted by the editors; these are, however, very
carelessly edited and printed, and in many places unintelligible.
Freytag's text, with at-Tibrizi's commentary, has been reprinted at
Bulaq (1870). In 1882 an edition of the text, with a marginal
commentary by Munshi 'Abdul-Qadir ibn Shaikh Luqman, was published at
Bombay.
The _Hamasa_ has been rendered with remarkable skill and spirit into
German verse by the illustrious Friedrich Ruckert (Stuttgart, 1846),
who has not only given translations of almost all the poems proper to
the work, but has added numerous fragments drawn from other sources,
especially those occurring in the _scholia_ of at-Tibrizi, as well as
the Mu'allaqas of Zuhair and 'Antara, the _Lamiyya_ of Ash-Shanfara,
and the Banat Su'ad of Ka'b, son of Zuhair. A small collection of
translations, chiefly in metres imitating those of the original, was
published in London by Sir Charles Lyall in 1885.
When the _Hamasa_ is spoken of, that of Abu Tammam, as the first and
most famous of the name, is meant; but several collections of a
similar kind, also called _Hamasa_, exist. The best-known and earliest
of these is the _Hamasa_ of Buhturi (d. 284 A.H.), of which the unique
MS. now in the Leiden University Library, has been reproduced by
photo-lithography (1909); a critical edition has been prepared by
Professor Chlikho at Beyreuth. Four other works of the same name,
formed on the model of Abu Tammam's compilation, are mentioned by
Hajji Khalifa. Besides these, a work entitled _Hamasat ar-Rah_ ("the
Hamasa of wine") was composed of Abu-l-'Alaal-Ma'arri (d. 429 A.H.).
(C. J. L.)
HAMBURG, a state of the German empire, on the lower Elbe, bounded by the
Prussian provinces of Schleswig-Holstein and Hanover. The whole
territory has an area of 160 sq. m., and consists of the city of Hamburg
with its incorporated suburbs and the surrounding district, including
several islands in the Elbe, five small enclaves in Holstein; the
communes of Moorburg in the Luneburg district of the Prussian province
of Hanover and Cuxhaven-Ritzebuttel at the mouth of the Elbe, the island
of Neuwerk about 5 m. from the coast, and the bailiwick (_amt_) of
Bergedorf, which down to 1867 was held in common by Lubeck and Hamburg.
Administratively the state is divided into the city, or metropolitan
district, and four rural domains (or _Landherrenschaften_), each under a
senator as _praeses_, viz. the domain of the Geestlande, of the
Marschlande, of Bergedorf and of Ritzebuttel with Cuxhaven.
Cuxhaven-Ritzebuttel and Bergedorf are the only towns besides the
capital. The Geestlande comprise the suburban districts encircling the
city on the north and west; the Marschlande includes various islands in
the Elbe and the fertile tract of land lying between the northern and
southern arms of the Elbe, and with its pastures and market gardens
supplying Hamburg with large quantities of country produce. In the
Bergedorf district lies the Vierlande, or Four Districts (Neuengamme,
Kirchwarder, Altengamme and Curslack), celebrated for its fruit gardens
and the picturesque dress of the inhabitants. Ritzebuttel with Cuxhaven,
also a watering-place, have mostly a seafaring population. Two rivers,
the Alster and the Bille, flow through the city of Hamburg into the
Elbe, the mouth of which, at Cuxhaven, is 75 m. below the city.
_Government._--As a state of the empire, Hamburg is represented in the
federal council (_Bundesrat_) by one plenipotentiary, and in the
imperial diet (_Reichstag_) by three deputies. Its present constitution
came into force on the 1st of January 1861, and was revised in 1879 and
again in 1906. According to this Hamburg is a republic, the government
(_Staatsgewalt_) residing in two chambers, the Senate and the House of
Burgesses. The Senate, which exercises the greater part of the executive
power, is composed of eighteen members, one half of whom must have
studied law or finance, while at least seven of the remainder must
belong to the class of merchants. The members of the Senate are elected
for life by the House of Burgesses; but a senator is free to retire from
office at the expiry of six years. A chief (_ober-_) and second
(_zweiter-_) burgomaster, the first of whom bears the title of
"Magnificence," chosen annually in secret ballot, preside over the
meetings of the Senate, and are usually jurists. No burgomaster can be
in office for longer than two years consecutively, and no member of the
Senate may hold any other public office. The House of Burgesses consists
of 160 members, of whom 80 are elected in secret ballot by the direct
suffrages of all tax-paying citizens, 40 by the owners of house-property
within the city (also by ballot), and the remaining 40, by ballot also,
by the so-called "notables," i.e. active and former members of the law
courts and administrative boards. They are elected for a period of six
years, but as half of each class retire at the end of three years, new
elections for one half the number take place at the end of that time.
The House of Burgesses is represented by a _Burgerausschuss_ (committee
of the house) of twenty deputies whose duty it is to watch over the
proceedings of the Senate and the constitution generally. The Senate can
interpose a veto in all matters of legislation, saving taxation, and
where there is a collision between the two bodies, provision is made for
reference to a court of arbitration, consisting of members of both
houses in equal numbers, and also to the supreme court of the empire
(_Reichsgericht_) sitting at Leipzig. The law administered is that of
the civil and penal codes of the German empire, and the court of appeal
for all three Hanse towns is the common _Oberlandesgericht_, which has
its seat in Hamburg. There is also a special court of arbitration in
commercial disputes and another for such as arise under accident
insurance.
_Religion._--The church in Hamburg is completely separated from the
state and manages its affairs independently. The ecclesiastical
arrangements of Hamburg have undergone great modifications since the
general constitution of 1860. From the Reformation to the French
occupation in the beginning of the 19th century, Hamburg was a purely
Lutheran state; according to the "Recess" of 1529, re-enacted in 1603,
non-Lutherans were subject to legal punishment and expulsion from the
country. Exceptions were gradually made in favour of foreign residents;
but it was not till 1785 that regular inhabitants were allowed to
exercise the religious rites of other denominations, and it was not till
after the war of freedom that they were allowed to have buildings in the
style of churches. In 1860 full religious liberty was guaranteed, and
the identification of church and state abolished. By the new
constitution of the Lutheran Church, published at first in 1870 for the
city only, but in 1876 extended to the rest of the Hamburg territory,
the parishes or communes are divided into three church-districts, and
the general affairs of the whole community are entrusted to a synod of
53 members and to an ecclesiastical council of 9 members which acts as
an executive. Since 1887 a church rate has been levied on the
Evangelical-Lutheran communities, and since 1904 upon the Roman
Catholics also. The German Reformed Church, the French Reformed, the
English Episcopal, the English Reformed, the Roman Catholic, and the
Baptist are all recognized by the state. Civil marriages have been
permissible in Hamburg since 1866, and since the introduction of the
imperial law in January 1876 the number of such marriages has greatly
increased.
_Finance._--The jurisdiction of the Free Port was on the 1st of January
1882 restricted to the city and port by the extension of the Zollverein
to the lower Elbe, and in 1888 the whole of the state of Hamburg, with
the exception of the so-called "Free Harbour" (which comprises the port
proper and some large warehouses, set apart for goods in bond), was
taken into the Zollverein.
_Population._--The population increased from 453,000 in 1880 to 622,530
in 1890, and in 1905 amounted to 874,878. The population of the country
districts (exclusive of the city of Hamburg) was 72,085 in 1905. The
crops raised in the country districts are principally vegetables and
fruit, potatoes, hay, oats, rye and wheat. For manufactures and trade
statistics see HAMBURG (city).
The military organization of Hamburg was arranged by convention with
Prussia. The state furnishes three battalions of the 2nd Hanseatic
regiment, under Prussian officers. The soldiers swear the oath of
allegiance to the senate.
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.
[Illustration: Map of Hamburg.]
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-Brucke. Around the outer lake are grouped the suburbs
Harvestehude and Posseldorf 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 Gansemarkt, 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 Schroder (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-Brucke, adorned with statues of four Hamburg heroes, was thrown
across the Helgolander 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-Brucke 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-Brucke. 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-Brucke, 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 Lubeck 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-Brucke. 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, Gluckstadt 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 L7,000,000
(of which the imperial treasury contributed L2,000,000), 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, 26-1/4 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 23-3/4 ft. deep, the other
26-1/4 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
L360,000 was spent by Hamburg alone in regulating and correcting this
lower course of the river. The new Kuhwarder-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 Gansemarkt. Under
Schroder 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 Lubeck 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 Lubeck.
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 Lubeck 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, _Lokalfuhrer 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 fur
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,
_Beitrage zur Geschichte der Stadt Hamburg_ (1897); C. Monckeberg,
_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).