Hamburg
Known as the “gateway to the world,” the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg with its population of 1.7 million is Germany’s second-largest city (Facts About Germany, 2000, 44). Located on the Elbe River in northern Germany, the city has enjoyed a long tradition of self-governance and commercial prosperity.
It has retained its independence as an individual state of the Federal Republic of Germany (sharing this distinction with only Berlin and Bremen). During the nineteenth century, Hamburg became a leading European emigration port. In this capacity it trailed its smaller rival on the Weser River, Bremen. Bremen had stronger trading connections with the United States—the destination of choice for roughly 90 percent of European emigrants during the nineteenth century—on the eve of the great emigration of the nineteenth century. Hamburg, on the other hand, maintained closer ties with Great Britain and the West Indies. The strong trading relationship with the former, and the city’s proud liberal tradition, have contributed to Hamburg’s reputation as Germany’s most “English” city. The emigration of the first half of the nineteenth century (coming primarily from Baden and Wurttemberg in the southwest) favored the ports of the Benelux countries and Bremen over the more eastern-lying Hamburg. Whereas the Bremen senate acted early, effectively, and consistently in enhancing the emigrant trade, the Hamburg senate was slow in repealing laws that prohibited the influx of emigrants for fear of pauperism. Witnessing the benefits that the emigration trade brought to the economy of its rival, the Hamburg senate eventually changed its stance on emigration, taking its most significant step in this direction with the passage of emigration legislation in 1837.
The years from midcentury to the 1870s witnessed the growing primacy of steam over sail.
The impact of the steamship to the history of emigration cannot be overestimated. Steam cut the length of the transatlantic journey from between forty and sixty days to between twelve and fourteen days. The shorter and more reliable trip enabled more precise provisioning of food and an overall improvement of health conditions on board the ships. This in turn led to a higher survival rate for emigrant passengers. Whereas the North German Lloyd dominated the Bremen steamship travel, the Hamburg-America Steamship Company (Hapag) monopolized the Hamburg docks.During the second half of the nineteenth century, emigrants came increasingly from eastern German lands. This development favored the port on the Elbe River. From the 1880s on, emigrants from eastern and southeastern Europe passed through the port in increasing numbers. In 1892 Hamburg was hit by a severe outbreak of cholera. The city had experienced outbreaks of the disease throughout the century; however, the severity of the 1892 outbreak generated a considerable reform effort (Evans, 1987). To better isolate and combat the disease, the Hamburg administration and Hapag constructed emigrant barracks. By the turn of the century, the city had isolated the emigrant trade from the rest of the city. With the coming of the First World War, emigration ground to a halt. After the war’s conclusion, however, emigration soared to unprecedented heights.
Kevin Ostoyich
See also Bremerhaven; Hapag; Norddeutscher Lloyd
References and Further Reading
Bretting, Agnes, and Hartmut Bickelmann.
Auswanderungsagenturen und Auswanderungsvereine im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1991.
Evans, Richard J. Death in Hamburg: Society and Politics in the Cholera Years, 1830-1910. Oxford, UK: Oxford University, 1987.
Facts About Germany, published by the German Federal Press and Information Bureau. Frankfurt/Main: Societats-Verlag, 2000.
Jerchow, Friedrich. Hamburg als Auswandererstadt/Hamburg as Emigration City. Hamburg Portrat, Heft 19/84. Hamburg: Museum fur Hamburgische Geschichte, 1984.
Walker, Mack. Germany and the Emigration, 1816-1885. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1964.