Hamburg, the 'Gateway to the World', has a history as colorful as its culture. Hamburg history dates back to the time when Charlemagne built a castle called the 'Hammaburg' in 825 AD. Built at the junction of the river Elbe and the Alster, it was meant to be a fortification against the Slavic incursion. The castle was used by Archbishop Ansgar to transform 'heathens' to the doctrine of Christianity with the aid of the missionaries.
Later, in the successive decades, with the founding of the Lubeck on the Baltic coast, Hamburg proved to be a suitable site for building up a port. Its nearness to the North Sea further added up to its positional advantage making it one of the most important ports in Europe in the later years.
A few Hamburg merchants, hereafter, were given the contract of building up a port city. The project was taken up in the year 1189, under the rule of emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, who chalked out the trading rights and the policies defining the functioning of the port-to-be. In the successive years, Hamburg city grew up to be an important political and economic constituency in Germany.
|
The history of Hamburg is dotted with numerous carnages since the early periods. First it were the Vikings who attacked the city and turned it into rubbles. King Mstivoj of the Obodrites was the second in the line to create havoc in the city. Then King Mieszko II Lambert of Poland turned the city into chars. Later, in the period between 1810 and 1814, Hamburg suffered under the onslaught of Napoleon, who organized sporadic campaigns in the city. It was later annexed by allied forces comprising the Russians, the Swedish and the Germans.
Inspite of the organized carnages caused by battles, the city grew up to be an important trading link for Germany, which was rather short termed till the Second World War. Black marking the Hamburg history, the period of Second World War in Germany saw the loss of life and property on a large scale. Many of the trading routes in Hamburg were destroyed in the bombings of Hamburg. With the bifurcation of Germany into West and East Germany, the trading links of the country with other parts of the world further weakened. After the reunification of Germany in 1990, the scenario changed and Hamburg regained its previous position of being the most suitable harbor in the country.
|
