A miserable collection of farms, fishermen's cottages and taverns with 2,500 inhabitants. This is what Altona - a village on the outskirts of Hamburg - looks like in the middle of the 17th century. When the Danish king Friedrich III. Altona was granted city rights on August 23, 1664, but that changed. Unusual privileges such as freedom of movement, religion and trade soon made it one of the most liberal cities in Europe. The new city coat of arms shows - unlike that of the powerful neighbor Hamburg - an open gate. With royal permission, merchants are allowed to stack the goods handled in Altona Harbor duty unpaid. This creates one of the first free ports in Europe. A clear competitive advantage over the previously unrivaled neighboring city. The Hamburg councilors are worried.
Hamburgers look at their neighbors with suspicion
In general, the small settlement in front of the city wall has always been a thorn in their side. According to legend, a fisherman's pub with a dubious reputation, which opened around 1536 and is located between today's Breite Straße and Pepermölenbek, gave the place its name. For Hamburg's city leaders, the pub is "all too close" (too close) to the border with Hamburg.
However, since Altona, with around 50 inhabitants at the time, belongs to the area of Count von Schauenburg, the County of Pinneberg, which extends to the Elbe, the people of Hamburg cannot prevent further settlement of farmers, fishermen and craftsmen.
Religious refugees find a new home
The Jewish cemetery on Königstraße in Altona has existed since 1611.Religious tolerance has had a special meaning in Altona right from the start. Persecuted Protestants from the Spanish Netherlands are accepted, as are Mennonites and German and Portuguese Jews. The Jewish cemetery on Königstraße still bears witness to this today.
During the Thirty Years' War, Altona was initially occupied by Danish troops. Then from Wallenstein's imperial soldiers who pillaged, tortured, raped and murdered for months. Many residents flee. Many houses are empty. Those who are not killed will be killed by the plague.
Altona becomes Danish
When the last of the Schauenburg rulers died in 1640, the Danish king Christian IV seized the opportunity and occupied the county of Pinneberg, and with it Altona. From then on, the place belongs to the Duchy of Holstein, which is also subordinate to the Danish king. The neighboring commercial metropolis of Hamburg, to which Denmark has been claiming for decades, is to be put in its place from here, perhaps even conquered.
Drawing of the city of Altona. It was burned down by Swedish troops in 1713 during the Northern War.However, Altona is still devastated. Numerous houses are empty, shady characters live in the stalls at the port, so that the bailiff has to report to the king that "murder, manslaughter and other excesses are all too common". Only after 1664 did city rights and privileges improve the situation. Taxes are lower, as are food prices. Hamburg citizens are now also moving to Altona. With 12,000 inhabitants, it is the second largest Danish city after Copenhagen in 1710. Three years later, Swedish troops burn down most of the houses.
The golden years are beginning
In the 18th century, the economy in Altona flourished - like here at the fish market.In the 18th century, the big upturn came under the senior president Christian Detlev von Reventlow. Port facilities are built, streets are paved, residential areas are expanded, the town hall is built, and an academic high school (today's Christianeum) is founded. Merchants, shipowners and fishermen do good business. The Altona fleet is growing in such a way that with around 300 seaworthy ships it even overtakes the Hamburg competition.
The "golden years" have now begun. Altona becomes a center of the European Enlightenment. Numerous scholars, artists and writers live here, such as Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, the most famous German poet at the time. A rich businessman, the cosmopolitan Caspar Voigt, campaigns for the relief of the poor. The architect Christian Frederik Hansen comes from Copenhagen and designs villas for the Palmaille and country houses for the Elbe suburbs.
The Altona poor doctor Johann Friedrich Struensee, on the other hand, rose to become the personal physician of the mentally ill Danish king in Copenhagen. He governs Denmark with general powers for two years and implements numerous reforms that make Denmark the most progressive country of its time.
Danish rule ended in 1866
The German-Danish symbiosis, which worked in Altona for many decades to the benefit of both parties, began to falter in the 19th century. The government in Copenhagen has long since recognized Hamburg as a free imperial city and is now giving its southern bastion on the Elbe less support than before.
In addition, the Danish king wants to integrate the Duchy of Schleswig, which is closely linked to Holstein, into the Danish state association. The population is against it. In 1848, the Schleswig-Holsteiners rose up, in which volunteers from Altona also took part. But Danish rule only ended after the German-Danish War of 1866, after more than 200 years. Altona becomes a Prussian provincial town.
Factories and tenements characterize the cityscape
Recreation for the masses:a huge swimming pool with several pools was built in the Volkspark at the beginning of the 20th century.With the incorporation of the neighboring town of Ottensen, which is characterized by factories and commercial enterprises, the leap into the industrial age succeeds in 1889. Altona is growing:Around 1900, around 200,000 people live in the narrow Twieten on the Elbe and in the gray tenements in the north of the city, around 8,000 people per square kilometer, more than in any other German metropolis. The horticultural exhibition of 1914 and the public park started in the same year are intended to remedy the situation and offer nature and relaxation to city dwellers.
Max Brauer and the "New Altona"
In the 1920s, the green space plan of the building senator Gustav Oelsner became an important element of the development policy for "the city of parks on the Elbe", as the slogan of the city marketing at the time was. Mayor Max Brauer wants to create an exemplary modern city, the "New Altona", and thus sharpen the profile compared to Hamburg. At the same time, despite all the competition, the connections between the two cities are becoming more and more intensive, for example in the use of the port.
Altona joins Hamburg
Altona's independence ended in 1937. The Prussian metropolis on the Elbe becomes a district of Hamburg. A few years later, the old houses between the fish market and the town hall were destroyed in the bombing raids of the Second World War, along with shopping streets, theatres, and churches.
A district in transition
Altona is a lively district today:View of the 2013 Altonale street festival.The rebuilding of the post-war years tears so many new wounds. At the end of the 1970s, the shipbuilding crisis and the decline of deep-sea fishing led to the disappearance of entire branches of industry that had shaped Altona for decades. However, today's part of the city remains alive, has long since turned into a trendy district and is already planning for the future, for example the "Neue Mitte", a quarter on the old railway site with thousands of apartments.