Hamburg, a constituent state of the German empire, includes the free city of Hamburg, the towns Bergedorf and Cuxhaven, and several suburbs and communes, with a total area of 158 sq. m. The free Hanseatic city of Hamburg is situated on the Elbe, about 75 miles from the German Ocean, 112 N. of Hanover, and 177 NW. of Berlin. Hamburg was founded by Charlemagne in 808, and for three centuries had to struggle hard to maintain itself against the marauding Danes and Slavs. It was made a bishopric in 831, and three years later an archbishopric. This last dignity was transferred to Bremen in 1223. The commercial history of Hamburg began in 1189-90, when the emperor granted it various privileges, amongst others a separate judicial system and exemption from customs dues. In 1241 it joined with Lübeck in laying the foundation of the Hanseatic League (q.v.), and from 1259 associated itself closely with Bremen also. From that time it increased rapidly in wealth and commercial importance, augmenting its territory by the purchase of the township of Ritzebüttel, at the mouth of the Elbe (where the harbour of Cuxhaven is now situated), and of several villages and islands in the vicinity of the town. Under the protection of the German emperors Hamburg soon became powerful enough to defend itself and its commerce both by sea and land, and carried on war for a considerable period against sea-rovers and the Danes. In 1510 it was made an imperial town by Maximilian I. It early embraced the doctrines of the Reformation. During the stormy period of the Thirty Years' War it never had an enemy within its walls. All through the years from 1410 to 1712 there were repeated risings of the populace against the governing classes. The disputes with Denmark finally ceased in 1768, that power renouncing all claim to Hamburg territory. The rapid commercial success and steadily increasing prosperity of the city were only momentarily checked by a severe commercial crisis in 1763. On the other hand, the French Revolution drove many of the émigrés to Hamburg, and the ranks of its merchants were still further strengthened by refugees from Holland, when that country was overrun by the French in 1795. But eleven years later Hamburg itself was occupied by the French, and with that event there commenced for the city a period of great tribulation. In 1810 it was annexed to the French empire, but at the same time lost its commerce and its shipping trade. For having in 1813 admitted the Russians within its walls the city was cruelly treated by Davoût, Napoleon's general; and the cup of its misery was filled to the brim by the siege which Bennigsen began in that same year.
Between 1806 and 1814, when the French occupation came to an end by the capitulation of Davoût to the allies, the population decreased by nearly one-half, namely to 55,000, and had to endure losses of property estimated at £7,000,000. In the following year Hamburg joined the German Confederation as one of the four free cities, and its prosperity began rapidly to revive. Another calamity overtook the town in 1842: in three days one-third of Hamburg was destroyed by fire, and more than two millions sterling worth of property lost. That part of the town was, however, immediately rebuilt in modern style. The older portion is intersected by canals, which serve as waterways between the river and the warehouses. The ramparts have been converted into gardens and promenades. In 1843 an agitation was set on foot for a reform in the constitution, a step which it took eighteen years to carry into effect. On 1st October 1888 Hamburg entered the German Customs Union, though still retaining part of its territory as a 'free port.' This change has necessitated extensive alterations in the harbour: several quays have been built, warehouses constructed, steam-cranes erected, and the railway communication with the chief industrial centres of Germany improved. In 1890 new docks were in course of construction at Cuxhaven for the use of the great ocean-going steamers. The finest public buildings are the 'school house' (containing the town library of 400,000 volumes and 5500 MSS., and a natural history museum), town-house, picture-gallery, exchange, bank, post-office, and some churches. Of these last four are noticeable—St Nicholas, built from designs by Sir Gilbert Scott, as a memorial of the fire of 1842, a handsome Gothic building, with a spire 482 feet high; St Michael's, an 18th-century Renaissance church, with a spire 469 feet high; and St Catherine's and St James's, both Gothic edifices of the 14th and 15th centuries. In addition to numerous excellent schools and charitable institutions, Hamburg possesses a school of navigation, with which is connected an observatory, a zoological and a botanical garden, and several museums and art-galleries. Hamburg has played an important part in the history of the German stage.
Hamburg is the busiest commercial city on the continent of Europe, and the principal commercial seaport of Germany. Next to London it has the largest money-exchange transactions in Europe; the bank of Hamburg was founded so long ago as 1619. As a commercial centre its only rivals are London, Liverpool, Antwerp, and New York. Its manufactures, though a long way inferior in value to its commerce, are not unimportant. The principal are cigar-making, distilling of spirits, sugar-refining, brewing, engineering, iron-founding, manufacture of chemicals, india-rubber wares, furniture, starch, and jute, and shipbuilding. In 1865 the number of vessels that entered the port was 5186, with a gross burden of 1,223,000 tons; these figures rose to 5260 vessels and 2,118,000 tons in 1875, and to 6790 vessels and 3,704,000 tons in 1885, whilst in 1887 they were 7308 vessels and 3,990,000 tons. The number and tonnage of the vessels that cleared were about the same in the corresponding years. Of the vessels entering in 1887 about 36 per cent. were British. The imports have increased at an extraordinarily rapid rate: in 1864 they were valued at £57,976,000, in 1875 at £85,050,000, in 1885 at £102,300,000, and in 1887 at £111,948,800. These returns do not include bullion. The total value of the trade of Hamburg with Great Britain and her possessions amounted to £28,000,000 in 1887. Of the imports about one-half represent the value of goods brought into Hamburg by rail and river (Eibe) from the interior of the country. Next after Great Britain the countries with which Hamburg has commercial transactions of the greatest magnitude are the United States, the countries on the west and east coasts of South America, France, Holland and Belgium, Central America, Russia, the East Indies and China, and the east and west coasts of Africa. Hamburg owes a large part of its trade to its position as a distributing centre for commodities brought from distant parts of the world, to be afterwards sent to the different countries of Europe. In 1891 the total imports (without bullion) were valued at £138,270,000, and the exports at £121,795,000. Hamburg is a great port for emigration. The city was severely visited by cholera in autumn of 1892; there were 17,000 cases and 9000 deaths. In 1880 the population of the state was 518,468. In 1890 the population was, in the city, 323,923; suburbs, 245,337; rest of the territory, 53,270; total of the state, 622,530. There were 23,351 Catholics, and 17,877 Jews.
See Mönckeberg, Geschichte der Freien und Hanse-Stadt Hamburg (1885); Gaedechens, Historische Topographie der Freien und Hanse-Stadt Hamburg (1880); and two historical works by Gallois (1856-57 and 1861-65).