Bouches-de-l'Elbe (French:[buʃ.də.lɛlb]; lit.'Mouths of the Elbe', German: Elbmündungen) was a department of the First French Empire in present-day Germany that survived for three years. It was named after the mouth of the river Elbe. It was formed in 1811, when the region, originally belonging partially to Bremen-Verden (which in 1807 had been intermittently incorporated into the Kingdom of Westphalia), to Hamburg, Lübeck and Saxe-Lauenburg, was annexed by France. Its territory is part of the present-day German states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. Its capital was Hamburg.
The department was subdivided into four arrondissements and the following cantons (situation in 1812, French translated names where applicable):[1]
