Hamburg 2010. Hamburg Hamburg (; ; officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg; ; Low German/Low Saxon: "Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg") is the second-largest city in Germany with a population of over 1.8 million. One of Germany's 16 federal states, it is surrounded by Schleswig-Holstein to the north and Lower Saxony to the south. The city's metropolitan region is home to more than five million people. Hamburg lies on the River Elbe and two of its tributaries, the River Alster and the River Bille. The official name reflects Hamburg's history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League and a
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