Hidden Cities

Hamburg in 1686

Hamburg was a Free and Imperial City of the early modern Holy Roman Empire. The city was under the dual jurisdiction of the Emperor and a self-governing commune controlled by a council (called the Senate), elected by the enfranchised burghers. By the 1680s, Hamburg was considered by contemporaries as the German Amsterdam, or florentissimum Emporium totius Germaniae - the most greatly flourishing German city. In the late seventeenth-century, Hamburg had circa 75.000 inhabitants, and was situated next to the Danish city of Altona; Altona was controlled by the Danes from 1640 onwards.

Hamburg Map 1686