18425–8 May 1842 · Hamburg

Great Fire of Hamburg

Ditlev Martens's painting of Hamburg burning in May 1842, smoke billowing over buildings by the water — Archival image: Ditlev Martens. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A fire that started in a cigar maker's on the Deichstrasse burned for three days and destroyed about a third of Hamburg's old town, including seven churches and the medieval town hall, blown up as a firebreak. Some 20,000 people lost their homes. Rebuilding gave the city the Alster Arcades and the engineer William Lindley's sewers and water supply, the first modern system in Germany.

Architecture & Urban History
Science & Medicine
Social History
Hamburg and Lübeck, Germany

Sites

Site 1: DeichstrasseA row of surviving merchant houses on the canal where the fire began.Map ↗
Site 2: Alster Arcades and RathausmarktThe arcaded quay and square laid out after the fire, with the later town hall.Map ↗