1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Glückstadt

GLÜCKSTADT, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, on the right bank of the Elbe, at the confluence of the small river Rhin, and 28 m. N.W. of Altona, on the railway from Itzehoe to Elmshorn. Pop. (1905) 6586. It has a Protestant and a Roman Catholic church, a handsome town-hall (restored in 1873–1874), a gymnasium, a provincial prison and a penitentiary. The inhabitants are chiefly engaged in commerce and fishing; but the frequent losses from inundations have greatly retarded the prosperity of the town. Glückstadt was founded by Christian IV. of Denmark in 1617, and fortified in 1620. It soon became an important trading centre. In 1627–28 it was besieged for fifteen weeks by the imperialists under Tilly, without success. In 1814 it was blockaded by the allies and capitulated, whereupon its fortifications were demolished. In 1830 it was made a free port. It came into the possession of Prussia together with the rest of Schleswig-Holstein in 1866.

See Lucht, Glückstadt. Beiträge zur Geschichte dieser Stadt (Kiel, 1854).