 Other innovations were the separation of powers, the separation of Church and State, freedom of the press, of assembly and association.Hamburg became a member of the North German Confederation (1866–71), the German Empire (1871–1918), while in 1888 it was one of the last two states to join the German Customs Union (along with Bremen) and was to maintain its self-ruling status during the Weimar Republic (1919–33).During the first half of the 19th century a patron goddess with Hamburg's Latin name "Hammonia" emerged, mostly in romantic and poetic references, and although she has no mythology to call her own, Hammonia became the symbol of the city's spirit during this time.