Hamburg, 1350–1815

Originally, Hamburg was a borough around the cathedral of the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen and a mercantile port city founded by the counts of Holsatia. In the 13th century both towns were united, given privileges supporting port and trade, and granted an ample political autonomy. As a member of the Hanseatic League, the city grew economically and demographically, particularly when Dutch and Sephardic refugees transferred their capital, know-how, and commercial networks after the fall of Antwerp in 1585. By that time, Hamburg’s merchants had already begun to link the markets around the Baltic and North Seas with the Iberian Peninsula and the Mediterranean. The extraordinary upturn around 1600 is evidenced by a rapid population growth and the huge sums that were spent on public buildings, which reflected Dutch influence, like the fortification and a number of welfare institutions as well as the stock exchange and the bank which turned Hamburg into an international hub of finance and trade ranking next to Amsterdam and London. During the 18th century her port became one of the most important emporia for French colonial goods until the 1790s, when the effects of the revolutionary wars made it crucial for British (re-)exportation to central Europe. The economic development was supported by Hamburg’s extraordinary constitutional setting. In 1618, the city’s status as a Free Imperial City was confirmed, whereas the kings of Denmark relinquished their claims on the city not until 1768, which resulted in strict neutrality policies of an independently acting city state whose rather exceptional republican constitution had been agreed upon by magistrate and citizens’ assembly in 1529, together with adopting the Reformation. Hamburg’s “state church” became a stronghold of orthodox Lutheranism. Since late 17th century, religious pluralism spread and Hamburg became one of the centers of the Enlightenment in the German-speaking lands, not least fostered by its republican political and civic culture. While the French revolution was hailed among the city’s elites, the effects of the French occupation in 1806 and the integration into the Napoleonic Empire in 1811 cooled down any enthusiasm. Although this nourished a considerable current of national patriotism, politics as well as civic identity resulted from the patriotic self-consciousness of a sovereign, independent city state trading with the rest of the world.

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