3301 GERMANY (Hamburg) - Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg

Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin, 8th largest city in the European Union with a population of over 1.84 million, and also Europe's third-largest port. Located on the River Elbe at its confluence with the Alster and Bille, it is at a sheltered natural harbour on the southern fanning-out of the Jutland Peninsula, between Continental Europe to the south and Scandinavia to the north, with the North Sea to the west and the Baltic Sea to the northeast. The name Hamburg comes from the first permanent building on the site, a castle which the Emperor Charlemagne ordered constructed in AD 808.

Hamburg was destroyed and occupied several times. In 845, 600 Viking ships sailed up the River Elbe and destroyed Hamburg, at that time a town of around 500 inhabitants. In 1030, King Mieszko II Lambert of Poland burned down the city. Valdemar II of Denmark raided and occupied Hamburg in 1201 and in 1214. The Black Death killed at least 60% of the population in 1350. Hamburg experienced several great fires in the medieval period. In 1189, by imperial charter, Frederick I "Barbarossa" granted Hamburg the status of a Free Imperial City and tax-free access up the Lower Elbe into the North Sea.

Its trade alliance with Lübeck in 1241 marks the origin and core of the powerful Hanseatic League of trading cities. In 1529, the city embraced Lutheranism, and it received Reformed refugees from the Netherlands and France. Upon the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Free Imperial City of Hamburg was not incorporated into a larger administrative area while retaining special privileges, but became a sovereign state with the official title of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.

Hamburg became a member of the North German Confederation (1866-1871) and of the German Empire (1871-1918), and maintained its self-ruling status during the Weimar Republic (1919-1933). During WWII, Hamburg suffered a series of Allied air raids and which devastated much of the city and the harbour. The Inner German border - only 50 kilometres east of Hamburg - separated the city from most of its hinterland and reduced Hamburg's global trade. Since German reunification in 1990, the Port of Hamburg has restarted ambitions for regaining its position as major commercial and trading centre.

About the stamp
The stamp is part of the series Blumen, about which I wrote here.

References
Hamburg - Wikipedia

Sender: Jorn Hegner (direct swap)
Sent from Hamburg (Hamburg / Germany), on 30.12.2017
Photo: Jochen Knobloch