Hamburg

Hamburg was a port on the Elbe in northern Germany and a member of the Hanseatic League. Its alliance with Lübeck in 1241 had helped establish the league.

A civic compromise gave Hamburg its first constitution in 1410, and the city adopted Lutheranism in 1529. It strengthened its walls during the Thirty Years’ War. Napoleon annexed the city from 1811 to 1814; the Congress of Vienna confirmed its independence in 1815, when it joined the German Confederation.