Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/428

Rh 408 HAMBURG was afterwards extended to Schwerin and Berlin, and a branch, line was constructed to Liibeck. The Hamburg- Liibeck direct line was opened in 1865, and in the following year a line was constructed between Altona and Hamburg. Direct communication with Paris by way of Harburg, Bremen, Osnabriick, andVenloo was obtained only in 1872. Though as early as 1862 a scheme was set on foot for such a line, the projectors could not come to terms with the Hanoverian Government, which objected to the duchy of Oldenburg obtaining a share in the advantages of the scheme, and wished to keep to itself the whole authority over the bridges on the Elbe while leaving the cost of their construction wholly to Hamburg. In 1866 the Hano verian Government was swept away by Prussia, and in 1867 the new rulers formed a treaty for the construction of the line. The two main branches of the Elbe, the north and the south, are crossed by two great bridges on the system named after Lohse, which had never before been employed in Germany. As the soil is unstable, the pillars had to be founded on a bed of concrete 17 or 18 feet thick resting on piles. The Hamburg or north bridge has three spans each 334 feet wide, and the Harburg bridge has four spans. The total weight of iron employed was 84,651 cwts. (36,152 for the one and 48,499 for the other). For internal locomotion the city has a system of tramway lines which run out to Wandsbeck and other neighbour ing villages, and a still more extensive omnibus system. Small steamers plying on the Outer Alster give easy access to the places along its shores. In 1811 the population of Hamburg (Stadt and Vorstadt) was 106,983; in 1834 it was 145,418; and by 1861 it had reached 198,214. Its subsequent increase is shown in the following table : 1866. 1867. 1871. 1875. Increase 1866-75. Pei- cent. Inner town and harbour St George s 158,296 30,371 160,772 32,423 160.989 37,097 171,558 43,911 13,262 13,540 8-4 44-6 St Paul s 29,135 31 775 41,021 49 206 20071 68-8 217,802 224,970 239,107 264,675 46,873 21-5 If we include in our survey the suburban hamlets or Vororte, and Altona, Ottensen, and Wandsbeck, we find that there were clustered together 458,585 persons. In 1871 the proportion of males to females in the whole Hamburg territory was 100 to 105, and in 1875 it was 100 to 103. The number of females in pro portion to the males is much greater among the native than among the immigrant part of the population ; and the proportion of natives to immigrants is a steadily decreasing one, 76 per cent, in 1867, 68 per cent, in 1871, and 65 in 1875. Most of the strangers are from the neighbouring parts of Germany: 43,523 in 1871 were from Holstein, 30, 945 from Hanover, and 15,686fromMecklenburg- Schwerin. The following table shows the occupations of the people in 1871 : Mules. Females. Total. 7,483 7,092 14 575 69,878 65 792 135 670 48701 51 589 100290 Giving personal service Other callings Without calling 19.816 10,370 8,739 18756 11,266 17 913 38,572 21,606 20 Go2 Not returned 319 1 260 1,579 The number of marriages, partly in consequence of the changes in the marriage laws, is rapidly increasing (8 29 to every thousand inhabitants in 1861, and 12 26 to eveiy thousand in 1875), and a similar increase is observable in the births. The death rate varied from 26 to 30 per thousand per annum from 1872 to 1875. Consumption and acute diseases of the respiratory organs are the most prevalent causes of death. Between 1831 and 1873 there were 14 visitations of cholera, by far the most violent being thoso of 1832 and 1848, which carried off respectively 1652 and 1765 of the population. History. Hamburg, or, as the older documents have it, Hamma- burg, appears to have taken its rise as a frontier block-house or castle on the Slavonic borders of Germany, which in the 9th century lay thus far to the west. The block-house, which may have been preceded by some insignificant hamlet, was founded by Charles the Great in 808 ; and he was just on the point of making the newly erected church the seat of a bishopric when he died in 814. His scheme was ultimately carried out by his son Louis the Pious in 831, and three years later a charter was issued at Aix-la-Chapelle and confirmed by Gregory IV. raising the bishopric to the rank of an archbishopric, which was to include not only the surrounding dis trict of Germany, but Iceland, Greenland, and the whole Scandi navian territory. Ansgarius, the first occupant of the see, founded a monastery and a school, but in 837 (or 839 according to other accounts) his labours were rudely interrupted by the Norman pirates, who laid the little settlement in ashes. Other disasters followed : a large portion of the original territory of the archbishopric fell away from its allegiance ; and in 847 it was decided at a synod at Mainz under the presidency of Hrabanus Maurus that Hamburg should be attached to the bishopric of Bremen, and the seat of the archbishop be in the latter city. The title of archbishop of Ham burg remained in use till 1223, though that of archbishop of Bremen appears as early as the 12th century. All through the 10th century Hamburg continued to suffer from the inroads of the Danes and the Slavonians, and the latter indeed were in possession from 983 to 987. In spite of all the settlement advanced : Archbishop Alebrand built a cathedral in 1037, Archbishop Adalbert not long after a castle ; and the havoc wrought by Jarl Kruko of Denmark in 1072 was promptly repaired. In lllOthe counts of Schauenburg got possession of Holstein and Hamburg, an event which bore in many ways fruit for centuries after. In return for a contribution to a crusade, Adolf III. obtained for the town from the emperor Frederick I. in 1189 the right of a separate court and jurisdiction, freedom from toll to the mouth of the Elbe, and right of fishing in the river. Merchants from Flanders now began to visit the place, and its importance as a commercial centre was increased by the destruction of the flourishing town of Bardewijk in 1189 by Henry the Lion. After passing under the lordship of Waldemar of Schleswig (1201) and Albert of Orlamiinde (1216), it was recovered by the Schauenburg counts, who erected a strong castle over against it (1231). The alliance with Liibeck, commenced in 1241, and consummated by the treaty of 1255, practically laid the basis of the great Hanseatic League, of which Hamburg continued to be one of the principal members. While its foreign relations were thus improved, its internal organization was also rendered more stable by the new constitution of 1270, and the recognition of the municipal autonomy of the counts of Schauenburg in 1292. The domain of the city was increased in the 14th century by the purchase of Eppendorf, Ritzebiittel, &c. ; in the 15th the Frisian pirates who had harassed the merchants at the mouth of the Elbe were completely defeated. The claims of the Danish crown to the homage of the city were rejected, and the imperial diet of 1510 under Maxi milian I. declared that it was a city of the empire. Not long after two great changes took place. By the so-called &quot; Long Recess&quot; of 1529 the Reformation was introduced, and disagreements with Liibeck set the city free to follow her own path of progress. Through the troubles of the Thirty Years War Hamburg escaped almost unscathed ; but it suffered from the effects of its own bigoted Lutheranisrn, which drove many of its dissentient religionists forth to become the founders of the neighbouring Altona. In 1603 it received a code of exchange, and in 1615 the first imperial post. Its population was not long after increased and its commerce quickened by a number of the Jews who had been expelled from Spain and Portugal. The course of the 17th century was marked by discord and strife between the senate and the lower classes, which ultimately brought about the interference of the empire and the publication of the &quot;Great Recess&quot; of 1712. Though the courts of the empire had decided in 1618 against the claims of the Danish crown, and had confirmed this decision in 1630 and 1643, Christian V. of Denmark made another attempt to take Hamburg by threat of arms ; but he accepted a ransom of 280,000 rixdollars, and at length in 1768 by the treaty of Gottorp the Danish crown renounced all its chains, and in 1770 the delegates of the city took their place in the &quot; Rhenish bench &quot; of the imperial diet. From the Seven Years War and the war of American independence the commerce of Hamburg drew new life but it suffered terribly during the years of the French ascend en cy. The town was not only obliged in 1803 to pay 2,125,000 francs to the Hanoverian estates, but in 1806 it had to admit a French garri son within its walls, and to feel the effects of the British blockade of the Elbe. In 1810 indeed it had the honour of being incorpo rated in the French empire as the chief town of the department of the &quot;Mouths of the Elbe;&quot; but the retreat of the French com mandant Carra Saint-Cyr on 12th March 1813, and the subsequent entrance of the Russian Tenterborn on the 18th, were welcomed by the citizens with joy. But their joy was premature, for by the 30th of May the enemy was again in possession. Davoust, the new general, not only demanded a contribution of 48,000,000 francs, but confiscated the 7,506,956 marks banco (of about Is. 6d.) at that time in the bank, forced the inhabitants to work at the new forti fications, and drove 20,000 or 30,000 of them out of the city amid the cold of winter. In spite of the attacks of the Russians under Benningscn, Davoust maintained his position till the close of the war. The whole loss of the city from 1806 to 1814 is estimated at 10,500,000 sterling. In 1815 Hamburg became an independent state of the German federation, and formed with Liibeck, Bremen, and Frankfort the curia of the free cities. Its trade rapidly revived, and when in 1842 the great fire destroyed 4219 buildings and rendered nearly 20,000 persons homeless, its credit was sufficient to secure a loan of 34 million marks banco. The old oligarchical constitution had been restored after the recovery of independence ; and the internal history of the town from 1840 till 1860 is mainly a protracted contest between the conservative and innovative parties. The year 1858 was remarkable for a great commercial crisis, and for the meeting in the town of the commission of the navigation of the Elbe, and of the delegates appointed by the principal German states to consider maritime law. By the new