Geography and urban development of Dresden past 60 years has made Dresden the fourth largest urban area in Germany after Berlin, Hamburg, and Cologne. The most important river in Dresden is the Elbe river, the only navigable body of water to flow through the city. There are also a number of tributaries such as the river Weißeritz. The nearest German cities are Chemnitz (80 km to the southwest), Leipzig (100 km to the northwest) and Berlin (200 km to the north). The Czech capital Prague is about 150 km to the south; the Polish city of Wrocław is about 200 km to the east. There are
Accession of Hamburg to the German Customs Union (Zollverein) Accession of Hamburg to the German Customs Union (Zollverein) The accession of the city state of Hamburg to the Customs Union in 1888 (along with Bremen) was the culmination of a project for the economic and monetary union of Germany, stretching back to 1819. In that year Schwarzburg-Sondershausen joined Prussia’s internal customs union, the first other state to do so and the first of many to follow. When the German Customs Union (Deutscher Zollverein) was initially formed, in the 1830s and 1840s, the motives of the states in joining did not include any particular desire to unite with others to