Folk costumes from Hamburg and its surroundings. Vier Lande.
Beginning of the 19th century.
Figs. 1 and 2: Fruit seller from the Alte Lande (old lands), which stretches down the river Elbe on the left bank. Figs. 3 and 4: Vierlander with strawberries. The Vier Lande *) are Hamburg state territory, above the city on the Elbe. Fig. 5: Vierlander men’s costume. Fig. 6: A Vierlander woman in dance attire. Fig. 7: Milkman from the Hamburg area.
*) The Vier Lande are an area of about 77 square kilometres in the Hamburg district of Bergedorf. The inhabitants of the Vier Lande were free farmers, but the rule over the area changed several times. Agriculture began in the 17th and 18th centuries with the cultivation of barley and hops. Today, flowers, fruit and vegetables are cultivated. The Vier Lande farmers have always sold their products at the Hamburg markets. The first dykes were built in the course of reclamation in the 12th century. In the 14th century, Hamburg began to dike the Gose Elbe and Dove Elbe to protect the Vier Lande from the regular floods.
With the exception of Fig. 6 after pictures of traditional costumes by the Hamburg artist Suhr after Carl Koch.
Source: History of the Costume by Adolf Rosenberg. Text by Prof. Dr. Eduard Heyck. Published by Ernst Wasmuth, Berlin 1905.
