page_title: Great fire of Hamburg
section_title: In literature
hierarchical_section_title: Great fire of Hamburg / In literature
caption_attribution_description: zeitgenössische Karte des Hamburger Brandes von 1842
context_page_description: The Great fire of Hamburg began early on May 5, 1842, in Deichstraße and burned until the morning of May 8, destroying about one third of the buildings in the Altstadt. It killed 51 people and destroyed 1,700 residences and several important public buildings, necessitating major civic rebuilding and prompting infrastructure improvements. The heavy demand on insurance companies led to the establishment of reinsurance.
context_section_description: Elise Averdieck came into the city from the suburb of St. Georg during the fire and described the scenes in the streets; she also described it in Roland und Elisabeth (1851; repr. 1962), part 2 of her Kinderleben, autobiographical tales for children. The fire is the setting of novels by Carl Reinhardt (Der Brand von Hamburg oder der fünfte Mai. Ein Lebensbild von der Unterelbe, 1874; repr. 1989) and Edgar Maass (Das große Feuer, 1939; repr. 1950) and a story by Paul Schurek ("Der Hamburger Brand", 1922; repr. 1949).
caption: Map of the extent of damage in the Great Fire of Hamburg, from Dr. H. Schleiden's 1843 book on the disaster. Color-shaded lines indicate extent of conflagration at six-hour intervals: salmon, May 5; blue, May 6; pink, May 7; yellow, May 8. Black indicates structures blown up; red, buildings that survived. Arrows indicate wind direction.
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