Altona, Hamburg surrounding cities) with the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg in 1938. On 1 February 2007 the "Ortsämter" (precincts) in Hamburg were dissolved. In Altona the precincts of Blankenese, Lurup and Osdorf had existed and had local offices. On 1 March 2008 the Schanzenviertel neighborhood, which had spanned across parts of the boroughs of Altona, Eimsbüttel and Hamburg-Mitte, became the Sternschanze quarter, the entirety of which is now in the Altona borough. The border of Altona to the south is the River Elbe, and across the river the state Lower Saxony and the boroughs Harburg and Hamburg-Mitte. To the east
History of Hamburg shot or eaten. A popular belief (omen) is that Hamburg will be free and hanseatic as long as swans are living on the Alster river. On 5 August 1284 a great fire destroyed all but one residential house in Hamburg. The first description of civil, criminal and procedural law for a city in Germany in German language, the "Ordeelbook" ("Ordeel": sentence) was written by the solicitor of the senate "Jordan von Boitzenburg" in 1270. In 1350 the "Black Death", one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, struck in Hamburg killing more than 6,000, half of the city's population. Two