Hamburg is a city situated on the river Elbe in northern Germany. It was formerly part of the medieval Hanseatic League—a league of European merchant guilds and market towns. For much of the nineteenth century, it was an independent sovereign city. Its access to the North Sea and the Baltic Sea allowed it to develop into Europe’s second-largest port, and it was crucial for cargo shipping as well as emigration to America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The city suffered severe bombing during the Second World War. Today, Hamburg is a major center of education and science.