HAMBURG: A free city of Germany, forming one of the states of the German Empire. It lies on the Elbe, about 70 miles from its mouth, has a land area of 157 square miles, and a population (1906) of 886,798, of whom 90 per cent are Evangelical Lutherans. The Roman Catholics number about 35,000, the Jews some 20,000, the German Reformed about 10,000, and other denominations, including Baptists, Methodists, Anglicans, Mennonites, and French Reformed, about 10,000. There is now no formal connection between Church and State in Hamburg.

Hamburg became definitely Lutheran with the introduction of the Bugenhagen church order in 1529 (see Bugexhagen, Johann) and

Church remained such till its occupation by History the French at the beginning of the to r86o. nineteenth century. Church and State were so closely united that candidates for the higher civil posts usually had to seek promotion through the minor ecclesiastical offices;

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and the older officers of the Church (called Oberaken) were really the representatives of-the people in the city council as distinot from the senate. According to article lix. of the recess of 1529, which was repeated verbatim in the recess of 1603,, Lutherans only were permitted to reside within the jurisdiction of the city. However, with the extension of commerce certain concessions were made to other denominations. In 1567 members of the Anglican Church, and in 1605 members of the Dutch Reformed Church were permitted to live in the city. They were denied citizenship and the right to hold public worship, but were allowed to hold services at the homes of their respective ambassadors. As a result of the Peace of Westphalia (1648) a degree of toleration was granted to Reformed Christians, Mennonites, and Roman Catholics; but non-Lutherans usually.held their services in adjacent Altona, as the Mennonites still do. All Reformed Christians, Roman Catholics, and Mennonites were granted freedom of religious worship by the statute of Sept. 19, 1785, and after the War of Liberation they were given all the civil rights of the Lutherans, except the right of election -to the municipal collegia. The new civil constitution of Sept. 28,1860, secured complete religious liberty for all, and decrees that the enjoyment of civil rights shall not be conditioned on, or limited by, religious confession.

The present Constitution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hamburg came into being on

Recent History of the Lutheran Church.

Dec. 9, 1870. At first it applied only to the city, but in July, 1876, it was amended and introduced into the six- teen outlying country parishes. The Cloister of St. John, which had become extremely wealthy by the sale of its real estate, was induced to present the Church with a large part of its fortune; and thus the claims of the Church on the State were satisfied. However, the income from this donation was found insufficient to meet the growing needs of the Church, and in 1887 a regular church-tax was introduced. This is based on income and varies, through nine gradations, from one mark on an income of 1,500 marks to 300 marks on an income of 75,000 marks. This tax amounts to about 500,000 marks yearly, of which 40 per cent goes to the general treasury of the Church, and 60 per cent to the individual parishes.

As to the organization and government of the Church, there are thirty-three parishes, forming four church-districts (Karchenkreise). Government The affairs of the individual parish are of the managed by a board (Karclaenvor Lutheran stand), composed of the pastors of the

Church. parish, three elders, who are elected for life; twelve trustees (twenty-four in the first church-district), who are elected by the congregations for a term of ten years; and two Evangelical Lutheran members of the senate, who preside over the meetings of the board. In the third and fourth church-districts the organization is similar, except that there are no elders. In each case the current business of a parish is left to an executive committee, composed of members of this governing board. The pastors of the first V -9

church-district (the city) form the ministry; and the five so-called head pastors compose the examining board. From their number the Patronat (the Lutheran members of the senate) selects the Senior, who presides over all ecclesiastical collegia. The clergy of the other .three church-districts form collegia similar to the ministry. They have the power to discipline their members, and also have a voice in matters pertaining to changes in liturgy and church service. Corresponding to the four church-districts are four convocations (Konvente), which are composed of the Senior, the two senators of the ecclesiastical council (in the third and fourth districts simply two specially appointed senators), and clerical and lay members of the parochial boards. The convocations of the first and second districts, together with nine representatives from the third and three deputies from the fourth, form the synod, which is composed of eighty members, viz., twenty-four ecclesiastics. and fifty-six laymen. The acts of this body, which usually meets twice a year, require the sanction of the Patronat. The administration of the entire Church is in the hands of the ecclesiastical council, which consists of nine members, viz., the Senior, two senators, and two ecclesiastics and four laymen elected by the synod. Ministers are elected by the parochial boards, though every election has to be approved by the Patronat.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hamburg has about one hundred clergymen and some forty churches, besides the three so-called

Statistics. chapels, the Anacharkapelle, estab lished 1856, the Stiftskirche (1852), which grew out of the St. George Sunday-school, and the Kreuzkirche (1866). These were estab lished privately in the overcrowded parishes of the inner city to meet the needs of the time, and while they are reckoned to the Lutheran Church, they 1 re not represented in any of its ecclesiastical bodies. It should be added that church attendance is very poor, and that less than 10 per cent of the nominal membership take tile communion. Similarly, a cer tain indifference toward the Church is shown in the matter of marriages and funerals. About 13 per cent of contracting couples neglect entirely the church service, contenting themselves with the civil marriage; and, though the attendance of a Lutheran minister at a funeral is now gratis, interments with clerical attendance are comparatively rare. Sunday-schools are now common throughout the city. The oldest is the St. George Sunday achool (1825; now the Stiftskirche), which is also the oldest Sunday-school on the Continent. The first Sunday-school organized in a church was that established in St. James's in 1884. There are now thirty-two Sunday-schools in Hamburg, twenty five of which are conducted by pastors, seven by state missionaries. The total attendance of chil dren is about 10,000, and the number of teachers and assistants is about 400.

(A. von Broecker.)

Bibliography: H. C. W. Sillem, Die Binfahrung der Reformation in Hamburg, Halle, 1886; StatiStik des Hamburger Staates (annual); Statisldachea Handbuch for don hamburp6arhen Stoat, Hamburg, 1891; A. von Broecker, in Zeitschrift für die evangeliacWutherische Kirche Hamburpe, vols. i.-iv., 1894-98 (this periodical contains yearly returns in one of its numbers).

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