HAMBURG, Germany, a free city of northwestern Germany. The city occupies 30 square miles of the state of Hamburg's total area of 157.18 square miles. The city is the greatest commercial port on the European con tinent, the chief of the three Hanse towns and the seat of the upper Hanseatic court. It is situated at the junction of the Alster and the Bille, on the right bank of the northern branch of the Elbe, about 93 miles from the North Sea and 178 miles by rail from Berlin. With its connecting suburbs, Altona and Ottensen, it has a river frontage of over five miles. The river is spanned by two fine bridges and there are numerous bridges across the canals which intersect the east and lower part of the city in all directions, and across the Alster which flows through the city and forms two orna mental pieces of water, the Aussen-Alster and the Binnen-Alster or Alster-Bassin. The latter is surrounded by fine quays, the Alter Jung fernstieg and the Neuer Jungfernstieg, lined with handsome residences, hotels and stores, and constituting the chief thoroughfare in the city. The harbor accommodation is extensive; the principal quays along the Elbe where the ocean steamships lie are the Kaiser-Quai and the Sandthor-Quai. The boulevards or Anlagen occupy the site of the ancient encircling walls, removed since 1815. The modern portion of the city, rebuilt since the destructive fire of 1842 in a magnificent and expensive style, is in strik ing contrast to the older low-lying portion, with its back streets, bordered by warehouses, and the meaner class of dwelling-houses. The most important public buildings are the Exchange, a noble edifice consisting chiefly of a magnifi cent hall surrounded by a fine colonnade and containing a large commercial library of over 120,000 volumes, the modern Rathaus in Renais sance style, and the Deutsches Schauspielhaus. Among ecclesiastical structures are the 19th century Gothic church of Saint Nicholas with a tower and spire 473 feet high; the 18th cen tury Renaissance church of Saint Michael's, with a spire 426 feet high; the 15th century church of Saint Catherine's, the 14th century church of Saint James and a fine Jewish syna gogue. Besides the numerous private and pub 1:c schools the educational institutions include the Johanneum institution, founded in 1528, containing a college, museums and the city's extensive library; the Kunsthalle with a large art collection; and zoological and botanical gar dens, etc. Among its public monuments note worthy are the statue of Lessing by Schafer; the monument to the sons of Hamburg who fell in the war with France in 1870, by Schil ling; and the Hansa fountain. Among the many charitable and benevolent institutions are well-endowed hospitals, orphan and insane asylums, and there is also an organized system of municipal poor relief. The sewerage sys
tem has been modernized and the general sani tary conditions improved, especially since the severe choleraic epidemic of 1892. The munic ipal waterworks, dating from 1531, have been added to at various dates and a modern filtering plant installed since 1893; garbage is burned in municipal crematories; the streets are well paved and are kept very clean; municipal bath and wash houses are maintained; food adul teration is keenly looked after; the gas and electric-lighting plants are civic property, and a large revenue is obtained from the electric street railroads, which are operated by private companies, paying state subventions.
The importance of Hamburg is due to its great marine commerce, which has been facili tated by the engineering enterprises of the in habitants in deepening the bed of the river, cut ting canals and since 1890 in the construction at Cuxhaven, at the mouth of the river, of enor mous docks. The dock and harbor facilities are the most complete in the world. Seven railroad lines enter the city, which is connected also by rivers and canals with nearly all parts of the German Empire. In 1913 44,054 vessels with a net tonnage of 13,141,362 tons entered, and 13,745 with a net tonnage of 10,324,437 cleared the port. The exports by sea in 1913 amounted to $966,225,000; the imports by sea in the same year were approximately $1,179, 050,000. Raw materials, foodstuffs, especially coffee, yarn, tobacco, wine and manufactured articles are the chief imports; the principal exports are coffee, sugar, cotton, ironware, hosiery, machinery, paper and tobacco. Sea going vessels (exclusive of fishing vessels), above 17.65 registered tons, belonging to Ham burg in 1913 numbered 1,434 of 1,797,508 tons, with 35,702 in the crews. The city's manufac turing interests, though large, are less import ant, including shipbuilding, iron-founding, to bacco and cigar making, sugar refining, dis tilleries, breweries, flour-milling, furniture, pianos and musical instruments, optical ap paratus, leather, ivory articles and numerous other domestic industries. The banking, ex change and marine assurance business of Hamburg has been on an extensive scale since the establishment of the Hamburg giro-bank in 1619, and is one of the most important in the world.
Insurance is compulsory for every house holder and there is a municipal employment bureau and a municipal pawnshop established in 1650. The population of the city is second to that of Berlin in the German Empire; in 1910 it was 986,804. See HARBORS, DOCKS AND