Webcam Gluckstadt. Port on the Lower Elbe
Gluckstadt is a town in the Steinburg district of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located on the right bank of the Lower Elbe at the confluence with the Rhine River, about 45 km northwest of Altona. Gluckstadt is part of the metropolitan region of Hamburg.
Gluckstadt was founded in 1617 on marshy land along the Elbe by the Duke of Holstein, King Christian IV of Denmark, who built dams and fortifications as well as his residence.
The name translates literally from English as "City of Fortune. Because Christian IV promised the settlers tax exemptions and freedom of worship, Gluckstadt soon became an important trading center designed to compete with the imperial city of Hamburg upstream on the Elbe. After the king intervened in the Thirty Years' War, the city was besieged for fifteen weeks in 1627/28 by combined imperial and Catholic troops under Albrecht von Wallenstein and Count Tilly, but without success.
In 1649, Christian's son and successor, King Frederick III of Denmark, moved the seat of the Holstein administration to Gluckstadt, after which the duchy became known as Holstein-Gluckstadt. In 1773 the city became the capital of all Holstein lands when the Holstein-Gottorp line lands were finally included. During the Sixth Coalition War in 1814, Gluckstadt was blockaded by the Allies and surrendered, after which its fortifications were destroyed. In 1830 it was turned into a free port.
Holstein-Gluckstadt remained the possession of the Danish Crown until its defeat in the Second Schleswig War in 1864. It was occupied by Austria, but finally became part of the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866.
