Eighteenth-Century Altona was a German-speaking city belonging to the Danish Monarchy, located on the river Elbe, in the southernmost fringe of the Danish Realm. The town formed an essential part of the economic strategies of the Danish Crown, and already in , the city was granted city privileges, which included extensive commercial and customs privileges and a far-reaching freedom-of-religion aimed explicitly at attracting merchants from all over Europe.
Consequently, throughout the eighteenth century, Altona served as a hub for Enlightenment ideas, religious dissent, and commercial interest and offered its inhabitants codified freedoms of trade, tolls, and religion. The starting point of our period marks the beginning of an intensive regulation of outer and inner borders of an, until then, fairly unregulated city.
Our investigation of the city takes a different approach than most Danish and German research, which has predominantly dealt with agents and ideas coming from Altona but has shown scarce interest for the city itself.
Willebrand's writings and his efforts to implement his ideals offer perspectives on cultural history, urban infrastructure and architecture, cameralistic thought, and implementation of police regulation. In relation to Willebrand's theoretical works, the case team draws significantly from archival sources preserved in the Landesarchiv Schleswig-Holstein and the Danish National Archives. These sources include city governance, burgher patrols, the midwife school, religious dissenters and minorities, townsmen's petitions to Copenhagen, and correspondence between the municipal authorities in Altona and the central administration in Copenhagen.
Centre for Privacy Studies. Contact: Mette Birkedal Bruun privacy teol.
