Hammonia is the female personification of

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. The figure of Hammonia as symbol of Hamburg first appears in art and literature in the 18th century. Up until the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and ...

, the city's patroness had been the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

. A tall and beautiful goddess who watches over Hamburg, she is usually shown wearing a crown in the form of a city wall surmounted by towers; she may also hold the city's coat of arms, a ship's anchor, etc. She is said to represent the Hanseatic values of Hamburg: freedom, peace, prosperity, harmony, welfare and trade.

Hammonia in art

Hammonia in literature and music

Hamburg’s Anthem, the ''Hamburg-Lied'' or '' Hamburg-Hymne'' was written in 1828 by Georg Nikolaus Bärmann. ''Deutschland: Ein Wintermärchen'

(''Germany: A Winter’s Tale'') by Heinrich Heine includes her. The goddess is in Heines encounter the fat, tipsy and sentimental daughter of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first ...

and a "haddock queen". Hammonia also figures large in Wolf Biermann's Deutschland Ein Wintermaerchen.

Hammonia in sculpture

On 10 July 1878 the Hanseatic Building Society unveiled the 17m tall Hansa-Fountain (''Hansa-Brunnen'') at Hansaplatz in St. Georg as a present to the City of Hamburg. The fountain was designed by architects and Karl von Großheim, the statue of Hammonia (including minor statues of Archbishop

Ansgar Ansgar (8 September 801 – 3 February 865), also known as Anskar, Saint Ansgar, Saint Anschar or Oscar, was Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen in the northern part of the Kingdom of the East Franks. Ansgar became known as the "Apostle of the North" b ...

Adolf III of Holstein Adolf III, Count of Schauenburg and Holstein (1160 – 3 January 1225) was the ruler of the Counties of Schauenburg and Holstein. He is particularly remembered for his establishment of a new settlement for traders on the banks of the Alster near t ...

and Schauenburg, plus the Emperors Constantine and

) were created by German sculptor . In 1888 a Hammonia statue and that of a young Germania were raised on the Brook’s Bridge (''Brooksbrücke'') to welcome

Emperor Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918. Despite strengthening the German Empi ...

as he opened the Hamburg's Free Port. Shortly after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, both statues disappeared without a trace. It took almost 60 years for the city to see the return of their patron goddess: since 2003 a new statue of Hammonia has overlooked the port, and this time she is accompanied by Europa. Both sculptures were created in 2003 by German sculptor .

Hammonia class ships

was also the name of a class of ocean-going vessels owned by the Hamburg-American Line, a predecessor of the modern

Hapag-Lloyd Hapag-Lloyd AG is a German international shipping and container transportation company. Hapag-Lloyd was formed in 1970 through a merger of Hamburg-American Line (HAPAG) and North German Lloyd. History The company was formed on September 1, 1 ...

. Ships of this class included the SS Germania (I) (1863), the SS Germania (II) (1870), the SS Frisia (1872), the SS Pomerania (1873), the SS Hammonia (I) (1855— the earliest ship of this class and therefore the one that all the subsequent ships are "classed" as), the SS Hammonia (II) (1866), and the SS Silesia, among possibly as many as five or six others built as late as 1965 and one, the most recent vessel, a freighter, still in service. Several of the earlier ''Hammonia'' class ships carried trans-atlantic passengers and played a role in

German immigration to the United States German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

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