Greater Hamburg

In the 1920s and '30s, automobiles became an increasingly common sight on Hamburg's streets, replacing horse-drawn vehicles. The first set of traffic lights was installed at Stephansplatz in 1922, but remained the only one in the city for eight years. Autobahns, already planned in the 1920s, were finally built in the 1930s, partly for military reasons. The autobahn Hamburg-Lübeck was completed in 1937.

Between 1920 and 1930, Hamburg's population grew by app. 150,000 to 1,236,000. Given economic constraints, the urgent demand for housing only began to be satisfied by the mid-1920s. The city's head architect Fritz Schumacher, who inspired many building projects and architectural developments in Hamburg, wanted to develop healthy, functional housing areas with parks and playgrounds. Supported by private investors, the city experienced a housing reform unparalleled anywhere else in Germany, with new residential projects in Nord-Barmbeck, on the Dulsberg, the Jarrestadt south of Stadtpark, in Hamm and on the Veddel being erected after 1925. Slum demolition in the Neustadt district in the 1930s was partly politically motivated, since the National Socialists were keen to be rid of this Communist stronghold.

In 1921, Fritz Schumacher drew up a plan showing development options for the greater Hamburg area. A first step was made in 1928, when agreement was reached with Prussia on joining the ports Hamburg, Altona and Harburg.
On April 1, 1938, the Nazis then ordered the merger of Hamburg with the Prussian towns Altona, Wandsbek and Harburg, and 27 other municipalities. As a result, Hamburg almost doubled in size, and its population grew by 41 percent to 1.68 million. The Greater Hamburg Act corresponded to NS economic policy and centralization efforts. But NS plans for a gigantic architectural ensemble on the banks of the Elbe, including a viaduct, were aborted due to the war.


Hamburg in the 20th.century (1)
-    Imperial Germany and the Struggle for Voting Rights
-    Life in Wilhelmine Germany
-    The Mobile City
-    International Port and Economic Center
-    Revolution in Hamburg
-    Democracy and its Enemies
-    A Decade of Economic Crisis
-    Greater Hamburg
-    Life Under the Swastika
-    The Abolition of Democracy
-    Towards a War Economy
-    Persecution and resistance in the National Socialist state
-    Hamburg at war
-    Destruction by Fire Storm

Hamburg in the 20th.century (2)