Hamburg-Harburg

is a quarter in the homonymous borough of Hamburg, Germany. It used to be the capital of the district in Lower Saxony. In 2016, the population was 26,098.HistoryA castle named Horeburg, meaning swamp castle, was probably erected by the counts of Stade, to secure the eastern border of the county. The oldest records mentioning the castle date back to 1133 and 1137. Outside the castle a settlement developed. As to religion Harburg belonged to the Diocese of Verden (till 1648). In 1257 the area became part of the Duchy of Brunswick and Lunenburg. After its dynastic partition in 1267 Harburg was part of the Brunswick-Lunenburgian Principality of Lunenburg (Celle). In 1288 the settlement outside the castle was granted municipal rights and in 1297 town privileges. The town was then the centre of the Bailiwick of Harburg (Vogtei Harburg).After Duke Otto (1495–1549), who co-ruled Lunenburg-Celle with his brother Duke Ernest I the Confessor, had married a woman unconformable to his rank, he was urged to retire from co-ruling the principality in 1527. Otto could reach an agreement, allowing him and his family to live in Harburg castle and to rule his own precinct, the Bailiwick of Harburg, however, as a subfief of Lunenburg-Celle. Thus Harburg became the capital of the Principality of Harburg, which continued to exist under Otto's son, Duke Otto II of Harburg (1528–1603) and grandson Duke William Augustus (1564–1642). With the latter's death the Brunswick-Lunenburgian branch of Harburg was extinct in the male line and the area reunited with Lunenburg-Celle proper.