Hamburg: Gateway to the North Sea

Hamburg, the Free and Hanseatic City, was the principal port of the Hanseatic League on the North Sea and, in many ways, the gateway through which the goods of the Baltic reached the markets of the West. The city was founded in 808 by Charlemagne as a fortress against the Slavs, and it grew rapidly in the early Middle Ages to become one of the most important commercial centres of northern Europe. Hamburg’s merchants dominated the trade with England, Flanders, and France, and the city’s kontor was the principal channel through which the League’s relations with the English crown were managed.

Hamburg was, in many ways, the counterpart of Lübeck. Lübeck was the capital of the League on the Baltic, and Hamburg was the capital of the League on the North Sea. Lübeck’s merchants dominated the trade with the East, and Hamburg’s merchants dominated the trade with the West. Lübeck was the seat of the Hansetag, and Hamburg was the principal port for the Hansetag’s communications with the rest of Europe. The two cities were rivals, and they were also partners, and the relationship between them shaped the politics of the League for most of its history.

The founding of Hamburg

Hamburg was founded in 808 by Charlemagne, who built a fortress on the site of an earlier Saxon settlement to protect the northern frontier of his empire. The fortress was known as the Hammaburg, and it gave its name to the city that grew up around it. The fortress was destroyed by the Slavs in 811, and it was rebuilt several times in the following centuries, but the city survived and grew, thanks to its position on the Elbe.

Hamburg’s early history was marked by the struggle against the Slavs, the Vikings, and the Hungarians, all of whom threatened the city in the ninth and tenth centuries. The city’s Christianity was established by the missionary Ansgar, who was appointed archbishop of Hamburg in 831, and the city’s archbishopric was, in the early Middle Ages, the ecclesiastical capital of northern Germany. The archbishopric was later merged with the archbishopric of Bremen, and the archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen was, for several centuries, one of the principal ecclesiastical powers of the Holy Roman Empire.

A useful background: the archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen is one of the older institutions in northern Germany, predating the League by several centuries. The archbishopric was a major landowner and a major political player, and the archbishop’s relations with the city council were a recurring source of tension — the kind of medieval church-versus-council conflict that was common across Europe. The archbishop was, in effect, the “lord” of the city, and the council was the commune that had grown up against the lord.

Hamburg and the League

Hamburg joined the Hanseatic League in the late thirteenth century, and it quickly became one of the most important members. The city’s merchants had long traded with England and Flanders, and the city’s privileges in these regions were extensive. In 1241, the city concluded the agreement with Lübeck that is often cited as the founding moment of the League, and in 1266 the city was granted the right to levy customs duties on the Elbe, a right that was to be a major source of the city’s wealth for several centuries.

Hamburg’s principal role in the League was as a gateway to the West. The city’s merchants controlled the lower Elbe, the principal waterway from the interior of Germany to the North Sea, and the city’s port was the principal port for the goods of the Baltic on the North Sea. The city’s merchants also controlled the English trade, and the city was the seat of the kontor that managed the League’s relations with the English crown.

A useful comparative: Hamburg’s 16th-century embrace of the Atlantic trade contrasted sharply with Lübeck’s reluctance. Hamburg granted the English Merchant Adventurers a kontor in 1567, in the very years when Lübeck was refusing to follow Hamburg’s lead. By 1700, Hamburg had become the great Atlantic entrepôt of northern Europe, surpassing Lübeck in both population and wealth. The two cities’ divergent trajectories in the 17th and 18th centuries are one of the great counterfactuals of Hanseatic history.

The trade of Hamburg

Hamburg’s principal trade was with England, Flanders, and France, and the city’s merchants were the principal channel through which the goods of the Baltic reached these markets. The city’s principal exports were the grain, the timber, and the furs of the Baltic, and the city’s principal imports were the cloth of Flanders, the wool of England, and the wine of France.

The trade of Hamburg was closely linked to the trade of Lübeck. Goods that arrived in Lübeck from the East were carried by sea to Hamburg, and from Hamburg by river to the markets of the West. Goods that arrived in Hamburg from the West were carried by river to the markets of the interior, and from the interior to the Baltic. The two cities were, in effect, the two ends of a great commercial system, and the merchants of the two cities were partners as well as rivals.

The political institutions of Hamburg

Hamburg was, in its internal politics, a model of the Hanseatic city. The city was governed by a council, presided over by a number of Bürgermeister, and the council was elected by the city’s citizens. The city’s archbishop had, in principle, a role in the government, but the archbishop’s power was gradually reduced in the course of the Middle Ages, and by the fifteenth century the archbishop had only a ceremonial role.

The city’s council was elected annually, and the elections were the principal political event of the year. The council made the laws, levied the taxes, appointed the officials, commanded the city militia, and represented the city in dealings with other cities and foreign powers. The council also appointed the city’s delegates to the Hansetag, and the council was bound by the decisions of the Hansetag to the extent that it chose to be.

The political institutions of Hamburg were, in many ways, similar to those of Lübeck, and they served as a model for the other cities of the North Sea coast. The institutions were, however, also adapted to the particular circumstances of Hamburg, and they had their own distinctive features. The most distinctive feature of Hamburg’s institutions was the role of the Erbgesessene Bürgerschaft, the hereditary citizenry, which was a body of citizens who had a special role in the government of the city.

A specific note: the Erbgesessene Bürgerschaft of Hamburg is one of the older forms of restricted citizenship in Germany. The concept is older than the Hanseatic period, but the League era was when the Erbgesessene acquired its formal character. The body was, in effect, the principal political institution of the city from the 14th century onward.

The architecture of Hamburg

Hamburg was, in the Middle Ages, a great brick city, and the city’s architecture was characterised by the brick Gothic style that the city’s builders developed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The most important of the city’s buildings was the Mariendom, the cathedral of the city, which was built in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and which was one of the largest churches in northern Germany. The cathedral was rebuilt after a fire in 1842, and the new cathedral is a fine example of the neo-Gothic style.

Hamburg’s other important medieval buildings were mostly destroyed in the Great Fire of 1842, and the city’s architectural heritage is, as a result, less well preserved than that of Lübeck. The most important of the surviving medieval buildings is the Nikolaikirche, the parish church of the old town, which was built in the thirteenth century. The church was rebuilt after the fire, but the original Gothic tower was preserved.

Hamburg as a free imperial city

Hamburg was, from 1189 onward, a Free Imperial City, subject to the emperor alone and not to any intermediate lord. The city’s status as a Free Imperial City was confirmed by several imperial charters, and the city retained the status until 1806, when it was annexed by Napoleon’s empire. After the Napoleonic Wars, the city became a Free City of the German Confederation, and it was one of the four Free Cities of the German Empire until 1937.

Hamburg today

Hamburg is today the second-largest city in Germany, with about 1.9 million inhabitants, and it is one of the most important commercial centres of Europe. The city’s port is the largest in Germany and the third-largest in Europe, and the city’s economy is based on the port, on the media, on the aviation industry (the city is the headquarters of Airbus), and on the food industry. The city’s Hanseatic heritage is celebrated in the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, the Speicherstadt (the historic warehouse district), and the Kontorhaus district, both of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites (inscribed 2015).

A specific note: Hamburg’s port is, by some measures, the largest in Germany and the third-largest in Europe (after Rotterdam and Antwerp). The Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, was built between 1885 and 1927 on timber-pile foundations driven into the Elbe, and it is the principal Hanseatic revival in the city. The UNESCO inscription describes the Speicherstadt and the adjacent Kontorhaus district as “an outstanding example of a historic urban landscape.”