Originally the court was opened on 1 October 1879 as a joint "Oberappellationsgericht" for the Free Imperial Cities Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck.

Lübeck lost its independence with the Greater Hamburg Act of 1937, became a part of Schleswig-Holstein and thus fell within the jurisdiction of the then OLG Kiel.

The district of the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court (of Hamburg) comprises the territory of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, with the exception of the area, which is incorporated by the State Treaty on the regulation of coastal waters and the Elbe estuary in the district court districts Cuxhaven and Wilhelmshaven, according to § 15 of the Hamburg Act on the Execution of the Judicature Act[1] of 31 May 1965.

The state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern transferred this responsibility to the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court on 17 June 1994.

[5] In the district of the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court, 10,386 lawyers and attorneys-at-law (as of 1 January 2018) are admitted.