Hamburg

Flag (c. 1600 - 1900)

Coat of Arms (1606)

### Head of State

First recorded mayor:Hartwicus de Erteneborch (1293–1305)Last mayor:Nicolaus Ferdinand Haller (1870-1871)

### Religion

1189-1569 Catholicism1569-1871 Protestantism

### Population

• **1200:** c. 1,500• **1300:** c. 5,000• **1430:** c. 16,000• **1560:** c. 20,000• **1600:** c. 40,000• **1750:** c. 75,000• **1800:** c. 130,000• **1871:** c. 240,251

### Currency

• Taler courant (1667-1725)• Schilling Hamburger Current (1725-1856)• Hamburger Mark(1809-1871)

### Succeeded by

German Empire• Hamburg (State)

**Hamburg,** also known as the **Free Imperial City of Hamburg** was a free city in the Holy Roman Empire until the empire was dissolved, when it became an fully independent and sovereign city state. Later **Hamburg** joined the German Confederation and remained a member until it too, was dissolved, after which **Hamburg** joined the North German Confederation and remained a member until integration into the German Empire in 1871.

## Politics

**Hamburg** was a Free Imperial City under Lübeck Law (Oligarchical Republic).

The Lübeckian-style council was the Senate of Hamburg, which persists to this day. The senate operated under the exact principles of Lübeck law until 1860, when the members of the senate started being elected by members of the Parliament (Hamburgische Bürgerschaft), which was established in 1859.

The senate had up to 60 members, which is more then the usual 20 members predicted by Lübeck Law.

### Mayors

*See List of mayors in Hamburg*

The senate elected up to four mayors *(German: Bürgermeister)* from its members, who shared the power of government.

The "first mayor" *(German: Erster Bürgermeister)*, usually the eldest, acted as the de jure leader of the city, although he held the same power as the other four mayors.

## Wars

* **Hamburg** attacked the Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg in 1393 to conquer the Ritzebüttel castle from the knights Lappe who had previously been the feudal lords ruling over the Land Hadeln exclave of Saxe-Lauenburg. The war was won by Hamburg, which then seized the city and forced the lords to leave the territory. The rest of the exclave then fell into the de facto control of **Hamburg** until the peasants revolted in 1456 and reestablished the de facto Peasants' republic of Land Hadeln as fully independent.
* **Hamburg** went to informal war with the city of Harburg, which was formally part of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, over the corpse of someone who had drowned in the Elbe river, because only the city owing the waters was allowed to bury the corpse, and exactly those waters were a high point of contention between the two cities. A full-on military conflict broke out when both parties claimed the corpse, and thus also the water, as their own.
* **Hamburg** attacked the Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg in the 1404-1420 Vierlande-Bergedorf War in in an alliance with Lübeck, to conquer the Bergedorf and Vierlande territories from Saxe-Lauenburg. In 1420 the Treaty of Perleberg was signed, establishing the Bergedorf Condominium in the Bergedorf, Vierlande, and Geesthacht territories which remain part of Hamburg to this day.

## Sources

* https://www.fahnenversand.de/fotw/flags/de~hhnf1.html
* https://geschichtsbuch.hamburg.de/
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lübeck\_law
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free\_imperial\_city
* http://www.alt-wilhelmsburg.de/geschichte.htm
* https://www.hamburg.de/musik-aus-hamburg/8444/offizielle-hymne-stadt-hamburg/
* https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einwohnerentwicklung\_von\_Hamburg#Von\_950\_bis\_1870
* https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschichte\_Hamburgs#15.\_Jahrhundert
* https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Bergedorf\_verloren\_und\_gewonnen
* https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertrag\_von\_Perleberg