111-433: Barmbek ( German pronunciation ), until 27 September 1946 Barmbeck , is the name of a former village that was absorbed into the city of Hamburg , Germany. In 1951 it was divided into the quarters Barmbek-Süd , Barmbek-Nord and Dulsberg in the borough Hamburg-Nord . It was first recorded in 1271 as "Bernebeke" . Up until 1946 it was written with a 'c' as Barmbeck. Barmbeck and Barmbek are pronounced with
222-543: A sovereign state with the official title of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg . Hamburg was briefly annexed by Napoleon I to the First French Empire (1804–1814/1815). Russian forces under General Bennigsen finally freed the city in 1814. Hamburg re-assumed its pre-1811 status as a city-state in 1814. The Vienna Congress of 1815 confirmed Hamburg's independence and it became one of 39 sovereign states of
333-675: A Swiss dispatch to Swedish newspapers gave a figure of 152,000 killed in the Hamburg bombing, but without supplying an explanation for the source of the number. Just a few months after the European war's conclusion, newspaper accounts described the findings of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS), publicly released on 30 October 1945, which gave the German estimates of 60,000–100,000 deaths in
444-412: A day before the firestorm raid took place, that emphasized the large size and coordinated British-American nature of the bombing campaign against the city. The destruction of Hamburg became a major news story at the time and caused a great impression as to the extent of the damage and loss of life. By 3 August 1943, just as the raids were concluding, military expert George Fielding Eliot was analyzing
555-468: A depot and barracks ship were hit and sunk. German flak damaged 78 aircraft; ten of the damaged bombers that had to leave the formation were finished off by fighters. Over the North Sea on the way back to bases, the formation was attacked by eight night-fighters operating from Holland but they achieved nothing, whilst losing one of their number Air reconnaissance on 25 July at 18:30 revealed that Hamburg
666-584: A district in Hamburg called the Portugiesenviertel [ de ] (Portuguese quarter) where many Portuguese people settled and which has a variety of Portuguese restaurants, cafes and shops that attract many tourists. There are several statues, squares and streets in Hamburg that are named after Portuguese historical figures. These include the Vasco da Gama statue on the Kornhaus bridge, which
777-563: A figure of about 143,200 Muslim migrants in Hamburg, making up 8.4% percent of the population. As of 2021 , there were more than 50 mosques in the city, including the Ahmadiyya run Fazle Omar Mosque , which is the oldest in the city, and which hosts the Islamic Centre Hamburg . A Jewish community also exists. As of 2022, around 2,500 Jews live in Hamburg. The city of Hamburg is one of 16 German states , therefore
888-550: A headquarters in the United Kingdom ready for the deployment of American units to Britain. Roosevelt was optimistic that bombing had war-winning potential, despite his appeal to Hitler in September 1939 to avoid bombing civilians. Winston Churchill was similarly enthusiastic to bomb Germany. This gave both air forces the political support to deal, at this stage, with criticism of their ineffectiveness. The build up of
999-460: A huge inferno with winds of up to 240 km/h (150 mph) reaching temperatures of 800 °C (1,470 °F) and up to altitudes in excess of 300 metres (1,000 ft), incinerating more than 21 square kilometres (8 sq mi) of the city. Asphalt streets appeared to burst into flame (in fact, it was the phosphorus from the fire bombs that was burning), and fuel oil from damaged and destroyed ships, barges and storage tanks spilled into
1110-749: A long e, similar to the English "Barm Bake". The village of Barmbeck had been under Hamburg administration since 1830, and it became a suburb of Hamburg in 1894, while the area of Barmbek-Nord was incorporated into Hamburg in 1937 with the Greater Hamburg Act . near Habichtstraße (Hamburg U-Bahn station) 53°34′58″N 10°02′28″E / 53.58278°N 10.04111°E / 53.58278; 10.04111 Hamburg Hamburg ( German: [ˈhambʊʁk] , locally also [ˈhambʊɪ̯ç] ; Low Saxon : Hamborg [ˈhambɔːç] ), officially
1221-635: A marsh between the River Alster and the River Elbe as a defence against Slavic incursion, and acquired the name Hammaburg , burg meaning castle or fort. The origin of the Hamma term remains uncertain, but its location is estimated to be at the site of today's Domplatz . In 834 CE, Hamburg was designated as the seat of a bishopric . The first bishop, Ansgar , became known as the Apostle of
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#17327838469811332-536: A new influx from the migrant crisis. There is an area in Hamburg behind the central station where many Afghan restaurants and shops are located. Many carpet businesses in Speicherstadt are operated by Afghan traders, with Hamburg still a global leader in the trade of oriental rugs. Hamburg residents with a foreign citizenship as of 31 December 2016 is as follows: As elsewhere in Germany, Standard German
1443-461: A scale that defies the imagination." Even the German press, which had previously downplayed or not discussed bombings of German cities, here emphasized the effects on Hamburg and the numbers of refugees coming from there. Later in August, New York Times foreign correspondent C. L. Sulzberger relayed a German belief that there had been 200,000 deaths, which he viewed as credible. By November 1943,
1554-609: A second layer to the fortifications to protect against the Thirty Years' War in the seventeenth century, he extended Hamburg and created a "New Town" ( Neustadt ) whose street names still date from the grid system of roads he introduced. From the autumn of 1696 to the spring of 1697 the Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies was active in Hamburg. While it was unsuccessful in raising capital locally, it commissioned
1665-630: A semidemocratic constitution that provided for the election of the Senate, the governing body of the city-state, by adult taxpaying males. Other innovations included the separation of powers, the separation of Church and State, freedom of the press, of assembly and association. 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
1776-535: A third RAF raid was ordered. 777 bombers took off, of which 707 reached Hamburg. There were still fires burning which made visual marking possible, but still the Pathfinders used H2S radar to execute their markings. The Pathfinders missed the aiming point by two miles and marked a district South of the region destroyed in the previous raid. Bombers flew in from the North and because a creepback of four miles developed,
1887-539: A three mile radius of the aiming point. Around Hamburg the Germans had lit red decoy fires which caused a hundred bombers to bomb those in error. Still, large areas were set on fire in the five districts marked by the Pathfinders. During the raid a large (6-mile) creepback developed which saved the city centre from catastrophe but caused other districts to the north to be set on fire as well. While some 40,000 firemen were available to tackle fires, control of their resources
1998-742: A very high quality of living, being ranked 19th in the 2019 Mercer Quality of Living Survey. Hamburg hosts specialists in world economics and international law, including consular and diplomatic missions such as the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea , the EU-LAC Foundation , and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning , multipartite international political conferences and summits such as Europe and China and
2109-485: Is a variant of Low Saxon . The official name reflects Hamburg's history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League and a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire . Before the 1871 unification of Germany , it was a fully sovereign city state , and before 1919 formed a civic republic headed constitutionally by a class of hereditary Grand Burghers or Hanseaten . Beset by disasters such as
2220-724: 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. It is on the River Elbe at its confluence with the Alster and Bille . The city centre is around the Binnenalster ("Inner Alster") and Außenalster ("Outer Alster"), both formed by damming
2331-701: Is in the greater Ohlsdorf Cemetery in the north of Hamburg. At least 42,900 people are thought to have perished in the Neuengamme concentration camp (about 25 km (16 mi) outside the city in the marshlands), mostly from epidemics and in the destruction of Kriegsmarine vessels housing evacuees at the end of the war. Systematic deportations of Jewish Germans and Gentile Germans of Jewish descent started on 18 October 1941. These were all directed to ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe or to concentration camps . Most deported persons perished in
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#17327838469812442-504: Is recorded in the Bible : "Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens." – Genesis 19:24 RAF Bomber Command had made raids on Germany from the early days of World War II. Initially, only military targets were attacked. Navigation to the target over a blacked-out wartime landscape was extremely poor, as was bombing accuracy if
2553-420: Is some indication from later Allied interrogations of Nazi officials that Hitler stated that further raids of similar weight would force Germany out of the war. The industrial losses were severe: Hamburg never recovered to full production, only doing so in essential armaments industries (in which maximum effort was made). Figures given by German sources indicate that 183 large factories were destroyed out of 524 in
2664-421: Is spoken in Hamburg, but as typical for northern Germany, the original language of Hamburg is Low German , usually referred to as Hamborger Platt (German Hamburger Platt ) or Hamborgsch . Since large-scale standardisation of the German language beginning in earnest in the 18th century, various Low German-coloured dialects have developed (contact-varieties of German on Low Saxon substrates). Originally, there
2775-530: The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg , is the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and 6th-largest in the European Union with a population of over 1.9 million. The Hamburg Metropolitan Region has a population of over 5.1 million and is the eighth-largest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union. At the southern tip of the Jutland Peninsula , Hamburg stands on
2886-513: The G20 . Former German chancellors Helmut Schmidt and Angela Merkel were both born in Hamburg. The former Mayor of Hamburg , Olaf Scholz , has been the current German chancellor since December 2021. Hamburg is a major international and domestic tourist destination . The Speicherstadt and Kontorhausviertel were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 2015. Hamburg's rivers and canals are crossed by around 2,500 bridges, making it
2997-522: The German Confederation (1815–1866). In 1842, about a quarter of the inner city was destroyed in the " Great Fire ". The fire started on the night of 4 May and was not extinguished until 8 May. It destroyed three churches, the town hall, and many other buildings, killing 51 people and leaving an estimated 20,000 homeless. Reconstruction took more than 40 years. After periodic political unrest, particularly in 1848 , Hamburg adopted in 1860
3108-482: The Great Fire of Hamburg , North Sea flood of 1962 and military conflicts including World War II bombing raids , the city has managed to recover and emerge wealthier after each catastrophe. Major regional broadcaster NDR , the printing and publishing firm Gruner + Jahr and the newspapers Der Spiegel and Die Zeit are based in the city. Hamburg is the seat of Germany's oldest stock exchange and
3219-543: The Hasselbrack at 116.2 metres (381 ft) AMSL . Hamburg borders the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony . Hamburg has an oceanic climate ( Köppen : Cfb ; Trewartha : Dobk ), influenced by its proximity to the coast and maritime influences that originate over the Atlantic Ocean. The location in the north of Germany provides extremes greater than typical marine climates, but definitely in
3330-598: The Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft U-boat shipyard were hit but no important installations were damaged. The power station in Neuhof was put out of order for one month and deprived Hamburg of 40% of its electricity capacity at a critical moment. All planes bombarded within a minute at 12:00. The German flak managed to damage only two airplanes, which were lost during the homebound journey to England. German fighters concentrated their attacks against
3441-515: The Mayor of Hamburg 's office corresponds more to the role of a minister-president than to that of a city mayor. As a German state government , it is responsible for public education, correctional institutions and public safety; as a municipality, it is additionally responsible for libraries, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply and welfare services. Since 1897, the seat of the government has been Hamburg City Hall (Hamburg Rathaus), with
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3552-468: The RAF , killed at least 42,600 civilians; the precise number is not known. About one million civilians were evacuated in the aftermath of the raids. While some of the boroughs destroyed were rebuilt as residential districts after the war, others such as Hammerbrook were entirely developed into office, retail and limited residential or industrial districts. The Hamburg Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery
3663-688: The United States Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy , wrote a letter to President Harry S. Truman in which he asked, "Where is the valid ethical distinction between the several Hamburg raids that produced 135,000 fatalities," the March 1945 firebombing of Tokyo , the atomic bombing of Hiroshima , and the proposed thermonuclear weapon. McMahon concluded that "There is no moral dividing line that I can see" between any of these. The totally-destroyed quarter of Hammerbrook, in which mostly port workers lived,
3774-597: The Weimar Republic (1919–1933). Hamburg acceded to the German Customs Union or Zollverein in 1888, the last (along with Bremen) of the German states to join. The city experienced its fastest growth during the second half of the 19th century when its population more than quadrupled to 800,000 as the growth of the city's Atlantic trade helped make it Europe's second-largest port. The Hamburg-America Line , with Albert Ballin as its director, became
3885-553: The sea shanty Hamborger Veermaster , written in the 19th century when Low German was used more frequently. Many toponyms and street names reflect Low Saxon vocabulary, partially even in Low Saxon spelling, which is not standardised, and to some part in forms adapted to Standard German. 65.2% of the population is not religious or adherent other religions than the Evangelical Church or Catholicism. In 2018, 24.9% of
3996-563: The world's oldest merchant bank , Berenberg Bank . Media, commercial, logistical, and industrial firms with significant locations in the city include multinationals Airbus , Blohm + Voss , Aurubis , Beiersdorf , Lufthansa and Unilever . Hamburg is also a major European science, research, and education hub , with several universities and institutions, including the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron Laboratory DESY . The city enjoys
4107-517: The Öjendorfer Park are formed by the debris of destroyed houses. In January 1946, Major Cortez F. Enloe, a surgeon in the USAAF who worked on the USSBS, said that the fire effects of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki "were not nearly as bad as the effects of the R.A.F. raids on Hamburg on July 27th 1943". He estimated that more than 40,000 people died in Hamburg. It was quite a surprise to us when
4218-569: The 8th Bomber Command was slow and though some small scale raids were made in France during the latter half of 1942, capability to attack Germany was not obtained until 1943. The British resources were also limited. The Western Allies had had to tell the Soviet Union that any idea of opening a second front in Europe in the summer of 1942 was unfeasible. The only thing Churchill had to offer Stalin
4329-539: The Americans to the 4 lb (1.8 kg) magnesium -cased thermite bomb used by the British. It is clear that the effectiveness of the Hamburg raid relied to a large extent on the careful research on how best to cause a large fire in a German city – as opposed to the popular view that it was some sort of accidental occurrence due to unusual weather conditions. A number of factors led to Hamburg being chosen for
4440-408: The British research on the effect of incendiaries. American expertise and experiments added to the planning of fire bombing raids. Despite belief to the contrary, US aircraft also carried a carefully considered mix of high explosive and incendiary bombs. Large quantities of US-made oil-based incendiaries went into service with the 8th Bomber Command shortly before the Hamburg raid – this was preferred by
4551-540: The Eastern Front and in Sicily and Italy . Initial eyewitness accounts by foreign nationals who had been in Hamburg did not attempt to give numerical figures for the destruction, instead describing it as beyond belief. As one 9 August 1943 United Press story about a Swiss merchant's account related, it was a "hell released" by a "devil's concert" that amounted to "Hamburg's ceaseless, inescapable destruction on
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4662-415: The German coast, the bomber stream met a severe storm which forced many aircraft to abort or to bomb alternative targets. Cuxhaven , Bremerhaven , Bremen , Wilhelmshaven , Heligoland and other towns as far as 100 miles away from Hamburg reported bombs. At least four bombers crashed because of the storm. Only 400 bombers reached Hamburg but as the Pathfinders could not execute an effective marking, most of
4773-508: The German war effort. The target was no longer factories, but the people who worked in them and their homes in the surrounding area. This became known as " area bombing ". This change was not driven by the inaccuracy of bombing at this stage, but by studying which aspects of the German Blitz on Britain had had most effect. Factories had been found to be relatively difficult to destroy, but workers needed somewhere to live, and their housing
4884-424: The Hamburg bombings. And even higher numbers sometimes were still used. During the 1949–50 debate within the U.S. government about whether to proceed with development of the hydrogen bomb , arguments based on morality were made against developing a weapon whose main utility seemed to be killing massive numbers of civilians with one detonation. Objecting to this line of reasoning, Senator Brien McMahon , chairman of
4995-413: The Hamburg region ( Hamburg Metropolitan Region ) is home to 5,107,429 living on 196/km (510/sq mi). There were 915,319 women and 945,440 men in Hamburg. For every 1,000 females, there were 1,033 males. In 2015, there were 19,768 births in Hamburg (of which 38.3% were to unmarried women); 6422 marriages and 3190 divorces, and 17,565 deaths. In the city, the population was spread out, with 16.1% under
5106-687: The Hanover raid which lost 22 airplanes. The results of the bombing in Hanover were amplified by the fact that most of the firemen were sent as reinforcement to Hamburg. There was no RAF raid by the main force in the night of 26 July; Bomber Command rarely sent out its main force on three consecutive nights. Six Mosquitos of No. 139 Squadron RAF carried out a nuisance strike. On the night of 27 July, shortly before midnight, 787 RAF aircraft – 74 Vickers Wellingtons , 116 Short Stirlings , 244 Handley Page Halifaxes and 353 Avro Lancasters – bombed Hamburg. The aiming points were
5217-784: The Holocaust . By the end of 1942, the Jüdischer Religionsverband in Hamburg was dissolved as an independent legal entity and its remaining assets and staff were assumed by the Reich Association of Jews in Germany (District Northwest). On 10 June 1943, the Reich Security Main Office dissolved the association by a decree. The few remaining employees not somewhat protected by a mixed marriage were deported from Hamburg on 23 June to Theresienstadt , where most of them perished. The city
5328-551: The North Sea, eight were destroyed around Hamburg and a further eleven were lost on the homebound journey. Because of the storm, the bomber stream became less concentrated and some bombers lost the protection of "Window" and fell victim to night fighters operating in the Kammhuber Line . Approximately 3,000 sorties were flown, 9,000 tons of bombs were dropped and over 250,000 homes and houses were destroyed. The death toll from Operation Gomorrah will always be uncertain, but
5439-516: The North. Two years later, Hamburg was united with Bremen as the Bishopric of Hamburg-Bremen . 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
5550-639: The RAF's thinking on how to conduct a bombing campaign. It had become clear that incendiaries could inflict much more damage than high explosive bombs. Detailed study of this was carried out by the Research and Experiment unit, RE8, (set up in November 1941). The details of how German houses were constructed were examined and tests were carried out on models to determine how effective an incendiary attack would be. The precise ratio of high explosive bombs and incendiaries
5661-715: The River Alster to create lakes. The islands of Neuwerk , Scharhörn , and Nigehörn , 100 kilometres (60 mi) away in the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park , are also part of the city of Hamburg. The neighbourhoods of Neuenfelde , Cranz , Francop and Finkenwerder are part of the Altes Land (old land) region, the largest contiguous fruit-producing region in Central Europe. Neugraben-Fischbek has Hamburg's highest elevation,
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#17327838469815772-489: The age of 18, and 18.3% were 65 years of age or older. 356 people in Hamburg were over the age of 100. According to the Statistical Office for Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein , the number of people with a migrant background is at 34% (631,246). Immigrants come from 200 countries. 5,891 people have acquired German cititzenship in 2016. In 2016, there were 1,021,666 households, of which 17.8% had children under
5883-403: The age of 18; 54.4% of all households were made up of singles. 25.6% of all households were single parent households. The average household size was 1.8. Hamburg has the largest Portuguese community in Germany with about 30,000 people with Portuguese heritage . Many Portuguese sailors and merchants came to Hamburg beginning in the 15th century due to its port . Since the 1970s, there has been
5994-570: The attack during the last week of July 1943, code named Operation Gomorrah , created one of the largest firestorms raised by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces in World War II, killing an estimated 37,000 people in Hamburg, wounding 180,000 more, and destroying 60% of the city's houses. Hamburg was selected as a target because it was considered particularly susceptible to attack with incendiaries, which, from
6105-492: The bombs fell scattered over the city and its environments. During this raid, the Germans further developed tactics to counter the effects of "Window": a running commentary was broadcasting all available data about the bomber stream. Some night fighters operated independently from ground radar guidance and used this information to search for targets. This tactic would later be further developed into what became known as " Zahme Sau ". Five bombers were shot down by night fighters over
6216-645: The boroughs and quarters have been rearranged several times. Each borough is governed by a Borough Council (German: Bezirksversammlung ) and administered by a Municipal Administrator (German: Bezirksamtsleiter ). The boroughs are not independent municipalities: their power is limited and subordinate to the Senate of Hamburg . The borough administrator is elected by the Borough Council and thereafter requires confirmation and appointment by Hamburg's Senate. The quarters have no governing bodies of their own. Since
6327-430: The branching River Elbe at the head of a 110 km (68 mi) estuary to the North Sea , on the mouth of the Alster and Bille . Hamburg is one of Germany's three city-states alongside Berlin and Bremen , and is surrounded by Schleswig-Holstein to the north and Lower Saxony to the south. The Port of Hamburg is Germany's largest and Europe's third-largest , after Rotterdam and Antwerp . The local dialect
6438-711: The category due to the prevailing westerlies. Nearby wetlands enjoy a maritime temperate climate. The amount of snowfall has varied greatly in recent decades. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, heavy snowfall sometimes occurred, the winters of recent years have been less cold, with snowfall just a few days per year. The warmest months are June, July, and August, with high temperatures of 20.1 to 22.5 °C (68.2 to 72.5 °F). The coldest are December, January, and February, with low temperatures of −0.3 to 1.0 °C (31.5 to 33.8 °F). The annual extreme temperatures range from −29.1 °C (−20.4 °F) on 13 February 1940, to 40.1 °C (104.2 °F) on 20 July 2022 , and
6549-424: The city and 4,118 smaller factories out of 9,068 were destroyed. Other losses included damage to or destruction of 580 industrial concerns and armaments works, 299 of which were important enough to be listed by name. Local transport systems were completely disrupted and did not return to normal for some time. Dwellings destroyed amounted to 214,350 out of 414,500. Hamburg was hit by air raids another 69 times before
6660-499: The city and the harbour. On 23 July 1943, the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force firebombing created a firestorm which spread from the Hauptbahnhof (main railway station) and quickly moved south-east, completely destroying entire boroughs such as Hammerbrook , Billbrook and Hamm South . Thousands of people perished in these densely populated working class boroughs. The raids, codenamed Operation Gomorrah by
6771-453: The city from most of its hinterland and reduced Hamburg's global trade. Since German reunification in 1990, and the accession of several Central European and Baltic countries into the European Union in 2004, the Port of Hamburg has restarted ambitions for regaining its position as the region's largest deep-sea port for container shipping and its major commercial and trading centre. Hamburg
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#17327838469816882-518: The city with the highest number of bridges in Europe, and with 5 of the world's 29 tallest churches standing in Hamburg , it is also the city with the highest number of churches surpassing 100 metres (330 ft) worldwide. Aside from its rich architectural heritage, the city is also home to notable cultural venues such as the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle concert halls. It gave birth to movements like Hamburger Schule and paved
6993-608: The coalition broke apart on 28 November 2010. On 7 March 2011 Olaf Scholz ( SPD ) became mayor. After the 2015 election the SPD and the Alliance 90/The Greens formed a coalition. Hamburg is made up of seven boroughs (German: Bezirke ) and subdivided into 104 quarters (German: Stadtteile ). There are 181 localities (German: Ortsteile ). The urban organisation is regulated by the Constitution of Hamburg and several laws. Most of
7104-433: The coast and on a prominent river made the target easy to find. Operation Gomorrah, was a campaign of air raids which began on 24 July 1943 and lasted for eight days and seven nights. It was at the time the heaviest assault in the history of aerial warfare . Before July 1943, RAF Bomber Command's focus had been on the Ruhr industrial region which had been the target of a five-month-long campaign . Operation Gomorrah
7215-417: The construction of four vessels in the port. The Caledonia , a ship of 600 tons with 56 guns, and the Instuaration (later renamed the St. Andrew ), a vessel of 350 tons, were launched in March 1697. 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 ( mediatised ), but became
7326-424: The dense housing of the working-class districts of Billwerder , Borgfelde , Hamm , Hammerbrook , Hohenfelde and Rothenburgsort . The unusually dry and warm weather, the concentration of the bombing in one area and firefighting limitations due to blockbuster bombs used in the early part of the raid – and the recall of Hanover's firecrews to their own city – culminated in a firestorm . The tornadic fire created
7437-461: The districts Barmbek and Wandsbek were very hard hit. Small fires developed easily into large fires as by this time the firefighting effort had collapsed because of the earlier raids. The Germans did not record specific data for this raid, the number of victims is unknown but on this night 370 people died by carbon monoxide poisoning in a large public shelter. On 30 July Bomber Command was ordered to attack towns in Italy. These raids were canceled
7548-457: The end of World War II. In total, the RAF dropped 22,580 long tons of bombs on Hamburg. The huge amount of damage to Hamburg precipitated a number of large changes to German air defence systems. Priority was given to fighter production. Research was intensified for more effective radar technology. Both aircraft and guns were diverted away from the front line to defend Germany. By August of 1943, 45 per cent of all German fighters were now located on
7659-456: The experience of the Blitz , were known to inflict more damage than just high explosive bombs. Hamburg also contained a high number of targets supporting the German war effort and was relatively easy for navigators to find. Careful research was done on behalf of both the RAF and USAAF to discover the optimum mix of high explosives and incendiaries. Before the development of the firestorm in Hamburg, there had been no rain for some time and everything
7770-419: The first constitution of Hamburg . In 1356, the Matthiae-Mahl feast dinner for Hanseatic League cities was celebrated for the first time on 25 February, the first day of spring in medieval times. It continues today as the world's oldest ceremonial meal. In 1529, the city embraced Lutheranism , and it received Reformed refugees from the Netherlands and France. When Jan van Valckenborgh introduced
7881-545: The first Hamburg raid took place because you used some new device [chaff] which was preventing the anti-aircraft guns to find your bombers, so you had a great success and you repeated these attacks on Hamburg several times and each time the new success was greater and the depression was larger, and I have said, in those days, in a meeting of the Air Ministry , that if you would repeat this success on four or five other German towns, then we would collapse. Albert Speer – The Secret War Several memorials in Hamburg are reminders of
7992-577: The historical origin of Hamburg. Bombing of Hamburg in World War II The Allied bombing of Hamburg during World War II included numerous attacks on civilians and civic infrastructure. As a large city and industrial centre, Hamburg 's shipyards , U-boat pens , and the Hamburg-Harburg area oil refineries were attacked throughout the war. As part of a sustained campaign of strategic bombing during World War II ,
8103-551: The home front, with additional units in northern France. At the same time, heavy anti-aircraft guns in Germany were increased by over 25 per cent. The reallocation of much of the industrial war production of Germany to home defence was an unintended consequence of Operation Gomorrah. The fighting fronts suffered due to a lack of air support as resource was devoted to fighter aircraft back in the Reich. Anti-aircraft units in Germany made greatly increased demands for personnel and, later in
8214-583: The latest territorial reform of March 2008, the boroughs are Hamburg-Mitte , Altona , Eimsbüttel , Hamburg-Nord , Wandsbek , Bergedorf , and Harburg . Hamburg-Mitte ("Hamburg Centre") covers mostly the urban centre of the city and consists of the quarters Billbrook , Billstedt , Borgfelde , Finkenwerder , HafenCity , Hamm , Hammerbrook , Horn , Kleiner Grasbrook , Neuwerk , Rothenburgsort , St. Georg , St. Pauli , Steinwerder , Veddel , Waltershof , and Wilhelmsburg . The quarters Hamburg-Altstadt ("old town") and Neustadt ("new town") are
8325-453: The latter was measured at Hamburg-Neuwiedenthal Meteorological Station, on the same day, a high temperature record of 39.1 °C (102.4 °F) was recorded at Hamburg Airport . View climate chart 1986–2016 or 1960–1990 On 31 December 2016, there were 1,860,759 people registered as living in Hamburg in an area of 755.3 km (291.6 sq mi). The population density was 2,464/km (6,380/sq mi). The metropolitan area of
8436-520: The main trade routes of the North Sea and Baltic Sea , quickly made it a major port in Northern Europe. Its trade alliance with Lübeck in 1241 marks the origin and core of the powerful Hanseatic League of trading cities. On 8 November 1266, a contract between Henry III and Hamburg's traders allowed them to establish a hanse in London. This was the first time in history that the word hanse
8547-488: The most accepted single number is now 37,000. If a range is stated, this is generally between 34,000 (from police records) and 40,000 (a commonly used figure in Germany before the end of the war). Most of the dead were unidentified. By 1 December 1943, there were 31,647 confirmed dead, but of these only 15,802 were based on the identification of a body. In some cases, the numbers of people who had perished in cellars converted into "air protection rooms" could only be estimated from
8658-505: The number of deaths at 1500. A second, daylight, raid by the USAAF was conducted on 25 July. 323 aircraft attacked Hamburg, Kiel and Warnemünde . 127 aircraft were assigned to bomb the Blohm and Voss shipyard and the Klöckner aero-engine factory in Hamburg. On the outward leg of the raid, the formation was attacked by about 30 German fighters. Only two bombers were lost before reaching
8769-513: The office of the mayor, the meeting room for the Senate and the floor for the Hamburg Parliament . From 2001 until 2010, the mayor of Hamburg was Ole von Beust , who governed in Germany's first statewide "black-green" coalition, consisting of the conservative CDU Hamburg and the alternative GAL, which are Hamburg's regional wing of the Alliance 90/The Greens party. Von Beust was briefly succeeded by Christoph Ahlhaus in 2010, but
8880-604: The planned firebombing raid. The construction of the city meant its vulnerability was considered "outstanding". It was Germany's second largest city. The city's shipbuilding industry made it a priority target. It also had more industrial targets of interest to the Ministry of Economic Warfare than most other German cities. It was reasonably close to the bomber bases in Britain, so giving a short flight, with less exposure to anti-aircraft fire and fighters. Hamburg's position, close to
8991-1068: The population belonged to the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church , the largest religious body, and 9.9% to the Roman Catholic Church . Hamburg is seat of one of the three bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany and seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hamburg . According to the publication Muslimisches Leben in Deutschland (" Muslim life in Germany "), an estimated 141,900 Muslim migrants (from nearly 50 countries of origin) lived in Hamburg in 2008. About three years later (May 2011) calculations based on census data for 21 countries of origin resulted in
9102-521: 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 (or free-trade zone ) up the Lower Elbe into the North Sea. In 1265, an allegedly forged letter was presented to or by the Rath of Hamburg. This charter, along with Hamburg's proximity to
9213-543: The previous day, were ordered to bomb the same targets. The other bombardment groups attacked the Conti rubber plant in Hanover . Due to problems with the formation of the combat boxes and many early returns, only 54 aircraft bombed Hamburg. There was no cloud nor much smoke from burning buildings, but the Germans managed in time to conceal the harbour with artificial smoke. Again secondary targets were bombed: some buildings on
9324-444: The quantity of ash left on the floor. Those who died represented about 2.4% of the total population of Hamburg at the time. In the first week after the raid, about one million people evacuated the city. 61% of the housing stock was destroyed or damaged. The city's labour force was reduced by ten percent. No subsequent city raid shook Germany as did that on Hamburg; documents show that German officials were thoroughly alarmed and there
9435-399: The quarters were former independent cities, towns or villages annexed into Hamburg proper. The last large annexation was done through the Greater Hamburg Act of 1937, when the cities Altona , Harburg , and Wandsbek were merged into the state of Hamburg. The Act of the Constitution and Administration of Hanseatic city of Hamburg established Hamburg as a state and a municipality. Some of
9546-449: The same day, but too late to mount a raid to Hamburg. A planned raid on 31 July was cancelled due to thunderstorms over the UK. Because of bad weather, the next attack on Hamburg was delayed until 2 August. Despite weather reconnaissance reports about possible storms close to Hamburg, 737 bombers took off. Five bombers were shot down by night fighters over the North Sea. Just before reaching
9657-491: The streets like dry leaves. Four square miles (10 km ) of the city's center were ablaze just 30 minutes after the start of the firestorm. Hamburg was only attacked in the night of 28 July by four Mosquitos executing a nuisance raid, a raid by the main force was impossible because of the smoke of the previous bombardment which would hide target indicators. On 29 July a photo reconnaissance Spitfire from No. 542 Squadron RAF reported good weather and no problems with smoke so
9768-613: The subject at length in his syndicated column published in US newspapers. Newspaper editorials and cartoons also referred to the complete destruction of Hamburg. A report from the Newspaper Enterprise Association 's London correspondent on 9 August speculated on how quickly Berlin could "be eliminated" in the same fashion. At the same time in Germany itself, the Hamburg raids were seen as a far worse development than major German military reverses then taking place on
9879-677: The target city (let alone the actual military target) could be found. Consequently bombing operations were very open to criticism as a waste of resources, since such poor results were achieved. The extent of this failure was exposed to the War Cabinet in August 1941 by the Butt Report , which by analysing 600 photographs of raids in the previous three months, found that only a third of crews that claimed to have reached their targets had actually dropped their bombs within five miles (8.0 km) of them. Opinion on targeting steadily shifted as
9990-411: The target. 90 out of 127 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses reached Hamburg at 16:40. Despite being partly covered in smoke from the previous night bombing, some buildings in the shipyard were hit but the vital U-boat construction slipways were not damaged. The aero-engine factory was completely covered by smoke and secondary targets were bombed instead, including a generating station. Two large liners used as
10101-429: The war progressed, and by November 1940, the view was developing that the civilian population of Germany was a legitimate target in " total war ". By June 1941, RAF thinking had been reversed from seeing any civilian casualties as collateral damage when attacking a military target, to deliberately targeting civilians in an attempt to destroy their morale. This was expected to reduce industrial production and therefore hinder
10212-413: The war, used 25 per cent of all ammunition. It can therefore be argued that the military results of the overall bombing campaign was greater than anything arising from economic or morale effects. There was press coverage of the Hamburg raids as they were taking place, with for instance both The Times of London and The New York Times running stories on 26 July 1943, after the raids had commenced but
10323-408: The water of the canals and the harbour, causing them to ignite as well. An estimated 18,474 people died on this night. A large number of those killed were seeking safety in air raid shelters and cellars. The firestorm consumed the oxygen in the burning city above and the carbon monoxide poisoned those sheltering below. The furious winds created by the firestorm had the power to sweep people up off
10434-641: The way for bands including the Beatles . Hamburg is also known for several theatres and a variety of musical shows. St. Pauli 's Reeperbahn is among the best-known European red light districts. Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century AD) reported the first name for the vicinity as Treva . The name Hamburg comes from the first permanent building on the site, a castle which the Emperor Charlemagne ordered constructed in AD 808. It rose on rocky terrain in
10545-430: The winds they encountered, and this information was processed and relayed to the bomber force navigators. The first raid on Hamburg was planned for the night of 23 July, but the raid was delayed by one day because of bad weather. Between 21:45 and 23:00 on 24 July 791 bombers took off from their airfields. At 00:57 Pathfinder aircraft, guided only by H2S radar , started to drop yellow target indicators and flares. This
10656-509: The world's largest transatlantic shipping company around the start of the 20th century. Shipping companies sailing to South America, Africa, India and East Asia were based in the city. Hamburg was the departure port for many Germans and Eastern Europeans to emigrate to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Trading communities from all over the world established themselves there. A major outbreak of cholera in 1892
10767-460: Was a bombing campaign against Germany. This was hard for the RAF to deliver, but it meant that the bombing of Germany could not be abandoned, so Harris would ultimately get the heavy bombers needed. By the time of the big raid on Hamburg at the end of July 1943, both air forces needed a significant success to justify their existence. Britain's experience of being bombed in the Blitz had contributed to
10878-408: Was a range of such Missingsch varieties, the best-known being the low-prestige ones of the working classes and the somewhat more bourgeois Hanseatendeutsch (Hanseatic German), although the term is used in appreciation. All of these are now moribund due to the influences of Standard German used by education and media. However, the former importance of Low German is indicated by several songs, such as
10989-609: Was badly handled by the city government, which retained an unusual degree of independence for a German city. About 8,600 died in the largest German epidemic of the late 19th century, and the last major cholera epidemic in a major city of the Western world. Hamburg was a Gau within the administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1934 until 1945. During the Second World War , the Allied bombing of Hamburg devastated much of
11100-424: Was calculated. The high explosive was to blow out windows and make fire fighting dangerous. High explosive bombs with delayed action fuses were included in the mix to further suppress any fire fighting effort. The quantity of incendiaries delivered had to be high enough to totally overwhelm any fire fighting capability, so that a conflagration could become established. The Americans took a high level of interest in
11211-569: Was carried out by RAF Bomber Command (including RCAF , RAAF and Polish Squadrons) and the USAAF Eighth Air Force. The British conducted night raids and the USAAF daylight raids. The initial attack on Hamburg included two new introductions to the British planning: they used "Window", later known as chaff , to confuse the German radar, while the Pathfinder Force aircraft, which normally kept radio silence, reported
11322-432: Was damaged when the telephone exchange caught fire and rubble blocked the passage of fire engines through the city streets; fires were still burning three days later. During the early stages of the raid, some bombs fell on the Blohm and Voss shipyard, where three U-boats were destroyed: U-1011 and U-1012 were hit on their slipways and never repaired, and U-996 sank at the dockside. The local police estimated
11433-415: Was followed by others dropping red target indicators visually by the light of the flares. No. 35 Squadron led the target marking and, thanks to the clear weather and H2S radar, accuracy was good, with markers falling close to the aiming point scattered over five districts. At 01:02 the main force started to bomb; this continued until 01:50 in six waves. Less than half of the bombers dropped their bombs within
11544-528: Was much more easily made unusable. The absenteeism of de-housed workers was considered to have a bigger effect on industrial production than the level of damage that could be caused, with the same effort, to the factories in which they worked. Air Marshal Arthur "Bomber" Harris had taken charge of the RAF Bomber Command in February 1942. In the same month, the USAAF 8th Bomber Command set up
11655-401: Was rebuilt not as a housing area but as a commercial area. The adjoining quarter of Rothenburgsort shared the same fate since only a small area of housing was rebuilt. The underground line that connected both areas with the central station was not rebuilt, either. In the destroyed residential areas, many houses were rebuilt across the street and so no longer form connected blocks. The hills of
11766-564: Was still covered in smoke from the previous raids, so another attack by the main force of bomber command on Hamburg for that night was cancelled and instead 705 bombers raided Essen that night. Six De Havilland Mosquitos of No. 139 Squadron RAF Light Night Striking Force (LNSF) carried out a nuisance raid in order to keep the city on a state of alert. On 26 July the USAAF continued its attacks against targets in North-Germany. The same six bombardment groups that had bombed Hamburg
11877-468: Was successfully used for the first time by the RAF ;– clouds of aluminium foil strips dropped by Pathfinders as well as the initial bomber stream – in order to completely cloud German radar. The raids inflicted severe damage to German armaments production in Hamburg. The name Gomorrah comes from that of one of the two Canaanite cities of Sodom and Gomorrah whose destruction
11988-590: Was suggested by Portuguese residents to bring visibility to the Portuguese community in Hamburg. Hamburg's Afghan community of about 50,000 people is the largest not only in Germany, but also in Europe. They first came to Hamburg in the 1970s before expanding during the Afghan conflict in the 1980s and 1990s where many Afghan migrants chose to live in Hamburg. After 2015 the Afghan population almost doubled due to
12099-659: Was surrendered to British Forces on 3 May 1945, in the Battle of Hamburg , three days after Adolf Hitler 's death. After the Second World War , Hamburg formed part of the British Zone of Occupation ; it became a state of West Germany in 1949. On 16 February 1962, a North Sea flood caused the Elbe to rise to an all-time high, inundating one-fifth of Hamburg and killing more than 300 people. The inner German border – only 50 kilometres (30 mi) east of Hamburg – separated
12210-534: Was used for the trading guild of the Hanseatic League . In 1270, the solicitor of the senate of Hamburg , Jordan von Boitzenburg , wrote the first description of civil, criminal and procedural law for a city in Germany in the German language, the Ordeelbook ( Ordeel : sentence). On 10 August 1410, civil unrest forced a compromise (German: Rezeß , literally meaning: withdrawal). This is considered
12321-542: Was very dry. The unusually warm weather and good conditions ensured that the bombing was highly concentrated around the intended targets, and helped the resulting conflagration create a vortex and whirling updraft of super-heated air which became a 460-metre-high (1,510 ft) tornado of fire. Various other previously used techniques and devices were instrumental as well, such as area bombing , Pathfinders , and H2S radar , which came together to work with particular effectiveness. An early form of chaff , code named "Window",
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