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
Postage stamps and postal history of Hamburg Postage stamps and postal history of Hamburg This article is about the postage stamps and postal history of Hamburg from the medieval messengers until the entry of the Hamburg Postal Administration into the Northern German Postal District in 1868. After the foundation of the German Hanseatic League in the late Middle Ages, so-called "regulated messenger hauls" were formed, which were used to transport messages from Hamburg via Lübeck, Rostock, Stettin, Danzig, and Königsberg to Riga, as well as via Bremen to Amsterdam and via Celle and Braunschweig to Nuremberg. In 1649, a Danish post office opened in Hamburg. In the