Hamburg From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about the German city. For other uses, see Hamburg (disambiguation). Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg

[edit] Second World War


Hamburg after the 1943 bombing
In Nazi Germany Hamburg was a Gau from 1934 until 1945. During World War II Hamburg suffered a series of British air raids, which devastated much of the inhabited city as well as harbour areas. On July 23, 1943 a firestorm that came from the Hauptbahnhof and quickly moved south-east completely destroyed entire boroughs, such as Hammerbrook, Billbrook or Hamm-south. These former densely populated working-class boroughs underwent a dramatic demographic change as a result. Few people live there today, apart from a small community of 400 in Hammerbrook.^[18] The raids, codenamed Operation Gomorrah by the RAF, killed 42,000 civilians; over 1 million civilians were evacuated.
At least 55,000 people were killed in the Neuengamme Nazi concentration camp within the city.^[19]
[edit] Postwar history
Hamburg surrendered without a fight to British Forces on May 3, 1945.^[20] After World War II, Hamburg was in the British Zone of Occupation and became a state of the then Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. On February 16, 1962, the North Sea flood of that year caused the Elbe to rise to an all-time high, inundating one-fifth of Hamburg and killing more than 300 people. In 1961, the Beatles were famous by playing music in clubs in Hamburg.
The inner German border—only 50 kilometres (30 mi) east of Hamburg—separated the city from most of its hinterland and further reduced Hamburg's global trade. After German reunification in 1990, and the accession of some Eastern European and Baltic States into the EU in 2004, the Port of Hamburg has ambitions for regaining its position as the region's largest deep-sea port for container shipping and its major commercial and trading centre.
[edit] Demographics