Geography and urban development of Dresden Geography and urban development of Dresden Dresden is a large city in the eastern German Free State of Saxony nearby the border to the Czech Republic at the river Elbe. The geography and urban development of Dresden is embossed by the valley location and by the Elbe stream. Dresden lies on both banks of the river Elbe, mostly in the Dresden Basin, with the further reaches of the eastern Ore Mountains to the south, the steep slope of the Lusatian granitic crust to the north and the Elbe Sandstone Mountains to the east at an elevation of about 113 metres.
Postage stamps and postal history of Hamburg which belonged to Denmark at that time, was delivered by a Hamburg postal agent, as there was a Hamburg postal agency on Heligoland. On 1 January 1852, Hamburg joined the German-Austrian Postal Union. Since 1866, Hamburg was part of the North German Confederation, which took over the postal service in the North German Postal District on 1 January 1868. The first postage stamps of the Hamburg City Post Office were introduced on 1 January 1859. They were rectangular and in the middle was the coat of arms of the city, overlaid with the value number. Below that is the word