From occupied city to federal state

The first few weeks after the British occupied Hamburg on May 3, 1945, were marked by curfews, controls and a cautious rapprochement between the occupying troops and Hamburgers, with contacts officially permitted from July 14.

Leading Hamburg Nazis like Gauleiter Kaufmann and Mayor Krogmann were arrested a few days after the city was occupied. This was followed by dismissals in the upper ranks of the police (60 percent), among teachers (16 percent) and at the university (30 percent). By 1947, denazification involved examinations of 327,157 individuals, although no one was actually incriminated. At the Curiohaus trials from May 1946 to September 1947, guards from Neuengamme concentration camp were sentenced to death or long prison terms.

As early as May 15, 1945, the British occupying forces appointed the businessman Rudolf H. Petersen as Hamburg's new Lord Mayor. On his request, Adolph Schönfelder (SPD) was appointed Second Mayor. In the summer of 1945, even before official permission was granted, the SPD and the KPD reformed. The Christian Democratic Party (later CDU) and the Party of Free Democrats (later FDP) were created as new parties. The unions also reorganized. On February 27, 1946, the City Council appointed by the British met for the first time. In the City Council elections of October 13, 1946, the SPD won a majority and appointed Max Brauer as Lord Mayor. The provisional Hamburg constitution of May 1946 was based on the constitution of 1921. With the permission of the military government, the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit" appeared in February 1946, to be followed by other newspapers, often with strong links to political parties.

In spite of increasing democratization, Hamburg remained an occupied city, as shown by the dismantling of industrial plant and the confiscation of accommodation to the west and north of the Outer Alster, which displaced 40,000 tenants. In 1949, Hamburg became a state in the newly founded Federal Republic of Germany. On May 18, the City Council approved the Grundgesetz (Basic Law), the constitution of the FRG. It was not until 1956 that Hamburg's vehicle license plates were changed from "BH" (British Zone Hamburg) to "HH" (Hanseatic Town of Hamburg).


Hamburg in the 20th. century (2)
-    Winter food shortages, refugee misery, black market trading
-    From occupied city to federal state
-    The modern metropolis
-    The exhileration of the consumer Society
-    The ups and downs of the Economic Miracle
-    Social policy and alternative politics
-    The limits of growth
-    Cultural city Hamburg
-    At the end of the Millennium

Hamburg in the 20th. century (1)