Bouches-de-l'Elbe
The Département des Bouches de l' Elbe ( short Bouches -de- l'Elbe, dt: Department of Elbmündungen, short Elbmündungen ), was a department of the First French Empire in Germany. It emerged as one of the three Hanseatic departments on January 1, 1811 as a result of the annexation of the territory by France.
Location
The Department of the Elbe estuary was between the French department of the Weser estuary, the Baltic, the Elbe river and a line as it was prescribed by a French Senate Consult on 10 December 1810. At the current limits to Holstein up along the Lauenburg, the field of Lübeck along the Elbe River to the mouth of Stecklitz into the Elbe, along the border with the department of the All in the Kingdom of Westphalia to Hillern.
The area encompassed the territories of the former Hanseatic cities of Hamburg and Lübeck, the former Duchy of Lauenburg, a part of the Duchy of Bremen and Principality of Lüneburg. For a short time a large part of the territory to the Kingdom of Westphalia, Department of the Elbe and Weser estuary had heard.
History
The capital of the department was Hamburg (French Hambourg ). In the three Hanseatic departments lived 1,118,965 inhabitants. In the department of the Elbe estuary 373 285 inhabitants came to 375.976 square miles, equivalent to an area of about 2067.87 km ². The city of Hamburg had 106,920, Lüneburg 10,039 inhabitants.
The Department was divided into the following districts and cantons:
• In Lauenburg the Hanoverian army was on July 5, dissolved in 1803 and Lauenburg occupied by the French. • Stade was the capital of the whole Duchy of Bremen, which was one of Chur -Hannover. It was founded in 1810 capital of the department of the Elbe and Weser estuary in the Kingdom of Westphalia.
After the Allied victory over Napoleon I in 1814 the department was dissolved. Hamburg and Lübeck were each again Free and Hanseatic city, the areas south of the Elbe River became part of the Kingdom of Hanover, the areas north of the Elbe River fell to Denmark.
Today, the area is one of the federal states of Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Schleswig -Holstein.