@High Seas,
high seas wrote :
Quote: FYI, Prussian cities were ALSO free AND members of the Hansa - Danzig, Elbing, Stettin, Königsberg, and others. Many keep that link until now:
you surely wouldn't want to claim that anyone born outside the city limits of the "old" hamburg could be considered an equal to a true hamburger , would you ? (GRIN)
people living on the south side of the elbe river (such as in harburg) were considered to be from southern germany (sued-deutsche) - they might as well have been born in bavaria !
i remember my mother's father very well . he had been born in frankfurt/main . his own children would crack a joke about him not speaking the local dialect (platt-duetsch) properly - even though he had lived and worked in hamburg since his early 20's .
to show how much "superior" the hamburgers were to all those "others" , this little "true" (GRIN!)story might illustrate it :
you probably know that "altona" (now part of GREATER HAMBURG) lies just to the west of the city .
god decided to visit the earth in diguise and noticed a man sitting on a border stone just outside hamburg (and within altona) and crying bitterly .
god said : " why are you crying ? i am here to help anyone ! "
the crying man said : "i am from altona and the hamburgers won't let me in - nobody can help me ! "
god sat down next to the man from altona and cried with him - even he couldn't help him !
i'm sure that you will have no doubt about the veracity of this historical event .
hbg (would like to help anyone to get into hambrg ... but if you weren't born there ... )