What´s the collective for people born in Hamburg?

Question

I live in a city in southern Brazil called Novo Hamburgo (Neu Hamburg). According to most sources, among all the german immigrants in the early 19th century, there was a settler from Hamburg who built a trading house in a hill, and the hill became known as Hamburger Berg (Hill of the man from Hamburg) as well as the settlement that developed around it.

However, I found another source that says Hamburger Berg translated as "hill of the people from Hamburg".

However, although there were german settlers in this area of Brazil from all around 19th century germanic areas, most were actually from the Rhein-Ruhr area. It´s doubtfull there would be enough settlers from Hamburg alone to call the hill as "hill from the people from Hamburg".

Thus my question... does the "Hamburger" in "Hamburger Berg" translates only as "something/someone" from Hamburg, or does it also translates as the collective from Hamburg (things/people)??

Thanks.

otto saxo · Accepted Answer

I see. I'm afraid the source of your translation might have put too much into the meaning of Hamburger Berg. 

If it was a German speaking person who came up with that name, the hill is simply dedicated to the city of Hamburg, not to one or more persons who came from Hamburg. It would simply translate to "Hamburg Hill" in English, not "Hamburger Hill".

If a German speaker would dedicate the hill to one or more persons from Hamburg, the name would be written as one word: Hamburgerberg - or with a dash: Hamburger-Berg.

Everything might be different if someone who was not a native German speaker named that place Hamburger Berg. We can't be sure what somebody like that wanted to say with that name.

What´s the collective for people born in Hamburg?

1 Answer