Hamburg ,.I. A free state of the German empire, comprising the city of Hamburg with its suburbs, the district of Geest, and the bailiwicks of Bergedorf and Ritzebuttel; area, 158 sq. m.; pop. in 1871, 338,974, of whom the greater part are Lutherans, with 7,748 Roman Catholics and 13,796 Jews. The principal towns belonging to the territory of Hamburg are Barmbeck, Bergedorf, Borgfelde, Cuxha-ven, Eilbeck, Eimsbuttel, Hamm, Hohenfelde, Ritzebuttel, and Uhlenhorst. The state has one vote in the federal council, and sends three deputies to the German Reichstag. Its army is incorporated with the Prussian army, and its burgher guard no longer exists, having been disbanded in 1868. By the constitution which went into force Jan. 1, 1861, the government consists of a senate of 18 members and a house of burgesses of 192 members. The members of the senate are elected for life, though a senator may retire after ten years. The senators elect from among themselves a first and a second burgomaster, who hold their office for one year. Nine senators must have studied law, and the other nine are usually merchants.

Of the burgesses, 84 are chosen by general election, 48 are owners of real estate elected by the property holders, and 60 are representatives of the courts and the administration; their term is six years, and half the number are elected every three years. The revenue is derived mainly from direct taxes, principally the income tax, and the disbursements include the maintenance of unobstructed navigation of the Elbe, over which from the port to the mouth Hamburg has entire jurisdiction. The budget for 1873 estimated the revenue at $4,-716,000, the expenditure at $4,924,000, and the public debt at $9,051,000. II. One of the three free cities of Germany, on the N. bank of the Elbe, at the mouth of the Alster, 60 m. N. E. of Bremen, and 33 m. S. W. of Lubeck; lat. 53° 32' 51" N, Ion. 9° 58' 33" E.; pop. in 1871, 240,251. The Alster, a tributary of the Elbe, flows through the city and forms two basins, the outer and the inner Alster, and numerous canals intersect the city and communicate with both rivers. A magnificent bridge, begun in 1868 and finished in 1872, crosses the Elbe, and 60 other bridges span the rivers and canals. The old and new Jungfernstieg around the inner Alster, the Alsterdamm, and the Wall are the fashionable promenades, and the environs are places of resort.

One of the finest buildings is the exchange, which contains a mercantile library of 40,000 volumes. Other important edifices are the government house, with its great hall for civic feasts; the new museum, with a collection of modern pictures; the Johanneum college, containing the city library of 200,000 volumes and 5,000 manuscripts; the great hospital in the suburb of St. Georg, with accommodations for more than 4,000 patients; the orphan asylum, educating and providing for 000 pupils; the Jewish hospital, endowed by Salomon Heine in 1840, and now open to all denominations; and the Rauhes Haus, at Horn, near the city, founded in 1883 by Johann Heinrich Wichern, for the care and training of depraved and abandoned children. There are numerous other charitable and educational institutions, and the botanic and zoological gardens are among the most extensive in Germany. The church of St. Catharine dates from the 14th century; St. Nicholas and St. Peter are both modern Gothic edifices; St. James has a tower 343 ft. high; St. Michael is surmounted by a steeple 428 ft. high, one of the loftiest in Europe; the new synagogue for the orthodox Jews was opened in 1859. - Hamburg communicates by railway with the leading German cities, and by steamship with the principal ports of Europe, and with New York, New Orleans, Havana, and Brazil. The port is extensive; vessels drawing 14 ft. come up to the city, and their cargoes, discharged into barges, are distributed by the canals to the warehouses; larger ships discharge at Cux-haven. The emigration, mostly to the United States, amounted in 1870 to 32,556, in 1871 to 42,224, in 1872 to 74,406; and from 1846 to 1872 the total was 740,874. At the end of 1872 the merchant marine comprised 402 vessels, including 62 steamers, of an aggregate of upward of 200,000 tons; the entrances of sea-going vessels were 5,913, of which 728 were in ballast; the clearances were 5,872, of which 2,163 were in ballast; the number of steamers was 2,740. The imports in 1871 amounted to $442,000,000, and the maritime exports in 1872 (the official reports giving weights only) amounted to 13,448,000 cwt.

The principal articles of import are cotton, wool, woollen and worsted stuffs, yarn, silk, hides, hardware, iron, coffee, sugar, wine, brandy, rum, tobacco, indigo, dye woods, tea, pepper, and coal. The exports consist of the same articles, except coal, Hamburg being mainly a centre of distribution. The manufacturing industry is important, and comprises ship building, sugar refining, distilling, calico printing, dyeing, the preserving of provisions, and the manufacture of sail cloth, ropes, leather, woollen goods, cigars, cutlery, musical instruments, carriages, furniture, hats, soap, glue, etc.; and the banking, insurance, and publishing interests are enormous. - Hamburg is a very ancient city. Charlemagne built a castle here about 809. During its growth from a village into a town it was several times destroyed. The emperor Otho IV. (1215) made it an imperial city, and in 1241 a commercial treaty with Lubeck laid the foundation of the Hanseatic league. The reformation was formally introduced about 1529. During the early part of the 16th century, although recognized as a state of the empire, it was without a seat or vote in the diet, and was troubled by the kings of Denmark, who claimed sovereignty over it as counts of Holstein. By convention with Denmark in 1768 its rights were conceded, and in 1770 it was confirmed as a free city of the Germanic empire.

In 1803 it fell under the power of the French, who after repeated exactions annexed it to the French empire as the capital of the department of Bouches d'Elbe. In 1813-14 the French, under Marshal Davoust, sustained in it that terrible siege in which upward of 30,000 citizens were driven out in midwinter, and 1,100, whose monument is to be seen near Altona, perished of hunger. On June 8, 1815, it joined the Germanic confederation as a free Hanse town. On May 5, 1842, a conflagration broke out, and continued four days, destroying one third of the city; the rebuilding of the burnt district after a general plan has added greatly to the beauty of many of its streets and public buildings. The city hall, which escaped from that casualty, was destroyed by fire in 1859, but has since been rebuilt. The constitution of the North German confederation, and likewise that of the German empire, left Hamburg at liberty to remain outside of the Zollverein as long as it wished. When Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg had joined that league, Hamburg was on all sides surrounded by the territory of the Zollverein, and therefore found it to its advantage to join it for one portion of its rural districts, embracing 124 sq. m. and 32,792 inhabitants.

The remainder, in union with the neighboring Prussian city Altona, continues a free port territory.

Hamburg.