(A. H. S.)
HAMADHĀNĪ,in fullAbū-l Faḍl Aḥmad ibn ul-Ḥusain ul-Hamadhānī(967-1007), Arabian writer, known as Badi‘ uz-Zamān (the wonder of the age), was born and educated at Hamadbān. In 990 be went to Jorjān, where he remained two years; then passing to Nīshapūr, where he rivalled and surpassed the learned Khwārizmī. After journeying through Khorasan and Sijistān, he finally settled in Herāt under the protection of the vizir of Mahmūd, 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 andmaqāmas(seeArabia:Literature, section “Belles Lettres”).
His letters were published at Constantinople (1881), and with commentary at Beirut (1890); hismaqāmasat Constantinople (1881), and with commentary at Beirut (1889). A good idea of thelatter may be obtained from S. de Sacy’s edition of six of themaqāmaswith French translation and notes in hisChrestomathie arabe, vol. iii. (2nd ed., Paris, 1827). A specimen of the letters is translated into German in A. von Kremer’sCulturgeschichte des Orients, ii. 470 sqq. (Vienna, 1877).
His letters were published at Constantinople (1881), and with commentary at Beirut (1890); hismaqāmasat Constantinople (1881), and with commentary at Beirut (1889). A good idea of thelatter may be obtained from S. de Sacy’s edition of six of themaqāmaswith French translation and notes in hisChrestomathie arabe, vol. iii. (2nd ed., Paris, 1827). A specimen of the letters is translated into German in A. von Kremer’sCulturgeschichte 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 theKalahor 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 (naūrah,) 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 854B.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 738B.C.Tiglath Pileser III. reduced the city to tribute, and another rebellion was crushed by Sargon in 720B.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. InA.D.639 the town surrendered to Abu ’Obeida, one of Omar’s generals, and the church was turned into a mosque. InA.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 Königsberg 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 Königsberg, and lived for several years with his father, filling occasional posts in Königsberg 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. TheAufklärung, 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 theKritik 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’sVermischte Schriften, ii. (Werke, Bd. xvii.). On Hamann’s influence on German literature, see J. Minor,J. G. Hamann in seiner Bedeutung für die Sturm- und Drang-Periode(1881).
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. TheAufklärung, 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 theKritik 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’sVermischte Schriften, ii. (Werke, Bd. xvii.). On Hamann’s influence on German literature, see J. Minor,J. G. Hamann in seiner Bedeutung für die Sturm- und Drang-Periode(1881).
HAMAR,orStorehammer(Great Hamar), a town of Norway in Hedemarkenamt(county), 78 m. by rail N. of Christiania. Pop. (1900), 6003. It is pleasantly situated between two bays of the great Lake Mjösen, 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.
ḤAMĀSA(Ḥamāsah), the name of a famous Arabian anthology compiled by Ḥabīb ibn Aus aṭ-Ṭā’ī, surnamed Abū Tammām (seeAbū Tammām). 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 Arabsḥamāsah(briefly paraphrased by at-Tibrīzī asash-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-Ḥamāsa, 261 pieces; (2)al-Marāthī, “Dirges,” 169 pieces; (3)al-Adab, “Manners,” 54 pieces; (4)an-Nasīb, “The Beauty and Love of Women,” 139 pieces; (5)al-Hijā, “Satires,” 80 pieces; (6)al-Aḍyāf wa-l-Madīḥ, “Hospitality and Panegyric,” 143 pieces; (7)aṣ-Ṣifāt, “Miscellaneous Descriptions,” 3 pieces; (8)as-Sair wa-n-Nu’ās, “Journeying and Drowsiness,” 9 pieces; (9)al-Mulaḥ, “Pleasantries,” 38 pieces; and (10)Madhammat-an-nisā, “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 Abū Tammām himself (the latest ascertainable date beingA.D.832), but chiefly of the poets of the Ante-Islamic time (Jāhiliyyūn), those of the early days of Al-Islām (Mukhaḍrimūn), and those who flourished during the reigns of the Omayyad caliphs,A.D.660-749 (Islāmiyyūn). Perhaps the oldest in the collection are those relating to the war of Basūs, 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-Majāz, aboutA.D.534. Of the period of the Abbasid caliphs, under whom Abū Tammām 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 fromqaṣīdas, 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 theḤamāsaare 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 Abū Tammām 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 theḤamāsa, nor are there any from ‘Alqama, Zuhair or A‘shā; Nābigha 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); Ṭarafa by one piece of five verses (id.p. 632); Labīd by one piece of three verses (id.p. 468); and ‘Amr ibn Kulthūm 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 entitledan-Nasīb, containing verses relating to women and love. In the classical age of Arab poetry it was the established rule that allqaṣīdas, or finished odes, whatever their purpose, must begin with the mention of women and their charms (tashbīb), 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 ofqaṣīdas; 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 Abī 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 220A.H.he betook himself to Khorasan, then ruled by ‘Abdallah ibn Ṭāhir, whom he praised and by whom he was rewarded; on his journey home to ‘Irāk he passed through Hamadhān, and was there detained for many months a guest of Abu-l-Wafā, son of Salama, the road onward being blocked by heavy falls of snow. During his residence at Hamadhān, Abū Tammām is said to have compiled or composed, from the materials which he found in Abu-l-Wafā’s library, five poetical works, of which one was theḤamāsa. This collection remained as a precious heirloom in the family of Abu-l-Wafā until their fortunes decayed, when it fell into the hands of a man of Dīnawar named Abu-l-‘Awādhil, who carried it to Iṣfahān and made it known to the learned of that city.
The worth of theḤamāsaas 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 Abū Tammām 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 theḤamāsais 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 Islām 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 Ḥājjī Khalīfa. Of these the earliest was by Abū Riyāsh (otherwise ar-Riyāshī), who died in 257A.H.; excerpts from it, chiefly in elucidation of the circumstances in which the poems were composed, are frequently given by at-Tibrīzī (Tabrīzī). He was followed by the famous grammarian Abu-l-Fatḥ ibn al-Jinnī (d. 392A.H.), and later by Shihāb ad-Din Aḥmad al-Marzūqī of Iṣfahān (d. 421A.H.). Upon al-Marzūqī’s commentary is chiefly founded that of Abu Zakarīyā Yaḥyā at-Tibrīzī (b. 421A.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 theḤamāsahas been printed in the West; but in 1856 one appeared at Calcutta under the names of Maulavī Ghulām Rabbānī and Kabīru-d-dīn Aḥmad. Though no acknowledgment of the fact is contained in this edition, it is a simple reprint of Professor Freytag’s text (without at-Tibrīzī’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-Tibrīzī’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-Tibrīzī’s commentary, has been reprinted at Būlāq (1870). In 1882 an edition of the text, with a marginal commentary by Munshi ‘Abdul-Qādir ibn Shaikh Luqmān, was published at Bombay.TheḤamāsahas been rendered with remarkable skill and spirit into German verse by the illustrious Friedrich Rückert (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 thescholiaof at-Tibrīzī, as well as the Mu‘allaqas of Zuhair and ‘Antara, theLāmiyyaof Ash-Shanfarà, and the Bānat Su‘ād 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 theḤamāsais spoken of, that of Abū Tammām, as the first and most famous of the name, is meant; but several collections of a similar kind, also calledḤamāsa, exist. The best-known and earliest of these is theḤamāsaof Buhturi (d. 284A.H.), of which the unique MS. now in the Leiden University Library, has been reproduced by photo-lithography (1909); a critical edition has beenprepared by Professor Chlikho at Beyreuth. Four other works of the same name, formed on the model of Abū Tammām’s compilation, are mentioned by Hājjī Khalīfa. Besides these, a work entitledḤamasat ar-Rāh(“the Ḥamāsa of wine”) was composed of Abu-l-‘Alāal-Ma‘arrī (d. 429A.H.).
No fewer than twenty commentaries are enumerated by Ḥājjī Khalīfa. Of these the earliest was by Abū Riyāsh (otherwise ar-Riyāshī), who died in 257A.H.; excerpts from it, chiefly in elucidation of the circumstances in which the poems were composed, are frequently given by at-Tibrīzī (Tabrīzī). He was followed by the famous grammarian Abu-l-Fatḥ ibn al-Jinnī (d. 392A.H.), and later by Shihāb ad-Din Aḥmad al-Marzūqī of Iṣfahān (d. 421A.H.). Upon al-Marzūqī’s commentary is chiefly founded that of Abu Zakarīyā Yaḥyā at-Tibrīzī (b. 421A.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 theḤamāsahas been printed in the West; but in 1856 one appeared at Calcutta under the names of Maulavī Ghulām Rabbānī and Kabīru-d-dīn Aḥmad. Though no acknowledgment of the fact is contained in this edition, it is a simple reprint of Professor Freytag’s text (without at-Tibrīzī’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-Tibrīzī’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-Tibrīzī’s commentary, has been reprinted at Būlāq (1870). In 1882 an edition of the text, with a marginal commentary by Munshi ‘Abdul-Qādir ibn Shaikh Luqmān, was published at Bombay.
TheḤamāsahas been rendered with remarkable skill and spirit into German verse by the illustrious Friedrich Rückert (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 thescholiaof at-Tibrīzī, as well as the Mu‘allaqas of Zuhair and ‘Antara, theLāmiyyaof Ash-Shanfarà, and the Bānat Su‘ād 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 theḤamāsais spoken of, that of Abū Tammām, as the first and most famous of the name, is meant; but several collections of a similar kind, also calledḤamāsa, exist. The best-known and earliest of these is theḤamāsaof Buhturi (d. 284A.H.), of which the unique MS. now in the Leiden University Library, has been reproduced by photo-lithography (1909); a critical edition has beenprepared by Professor Chlikho at Beyreuth. Four other works of the same name, formed on the model of Abū Tammām’s compilation, are mentioned by Hājjī Khalīfa. Besides these, a work entitledḤamasat ar-Rāh(“the Ḥamāsa of wine”) was composed of Abu-l-‘Alāal-Ma‘arrī (d. 429A.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 Lüneburg district of the Prussian province of Hanover and Cuxhaven-Ritzebüttel 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 Lübeck and Hamburg. Administratively the state is divided into the city, or metropolitan district, and four rural domains (orLandherrenschaften), each under a senator aspraeses, viz. the domain of the Geestlande, of the Marschlande, of Bergedorf and of Ritzebüttel with Cuxhaven. Cuxhaven-Ritzebüttel 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, Kirchwärder, Altengamme and Curslack), celebrated for its fruit gardens and the picturesque dress of the inhabitants. Ritzebüttel 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 aBürgerausschuss(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 commonOberlandesgericht, 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 seeHamburg(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 liesto 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.
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,anotherthree 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 thatgive 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 (1-3P.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 ofthe 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, 26¼ 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 23¾ ft. deep, the other 26¼ 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.
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, 26¼ 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 23¾ ft. deep, the other 26¼ 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 theRathdid not obtain, they were excluded in practice. The counts, ofcourse, as over-lords, had theirVogt(advocatus) in the town, but this official, as the city grew in power, became subordinate to theRath, 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 theRathled, 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 theRath, together with the three colleges of theOberalten, 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 theRath. 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 theRathand the commonalty. Frederick IV. of Denmark, who had seized the opportunity to threaten the city (1712), was bought off with a ransom of 246,000Reichsthaler. 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.