Lübeck: The Queen of the Hanse

Lübeck, the Queen of the Hanse, was the leading city of the Hanseatic League and, in many ways, the capital of the Hanseatic world. The city was founded in 1143 by Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, after he had driven the Slavic ruler Niklot from the site, and it was refounded on a new site in 1159 by Flemish and Dutch settlers who brought with them the urban traditions of the Low Countries. Within a generation, Lübeck was the most populous and prosperous city in northern Germany, and it served as the model for the great cities of the Baltic, the Wendish towns that formed the backbone of the Hanseatic League.

Lübeck was not the largest of the Hanseatic cities, and it was not the wealthiest. But it was the leading city, and its influence on the development of the League was decisive. The city’s merchants dominated the trade of the Baltic, the city’s council dominated the Hansetag, and the city’s law was adopted by so many other cities that it became the common law of the Hanseatic world.

The founding of Lübeck

Lübeck was founded in 1143 by Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, after he had driven the Slavic ruler Niklot from the site. The new city was built on a hill above the Trave River, at the point where the river is joined by the Wakenitz, and it was protected by water on two sides. The first settlement was small, and it was destroyed in 1147 in a Slavic counter-attack. Henry refounded the city in 1159, this time on a grander scale, and he invited Flemish and Dutch settlers to come and rebuild it according to the urban traditions of the Low Countries.

The refounding of Lübeck was a turning point in the history of northern Europe. The Flemish and Dutch settlers brought with them the techniques of town planning, the institutions of municipal government, and the legal traditions of the Low Countries, and they applied them to the new city. The result was a city that was, from the beginning, different from the older German cities: it was built on a regular plan, with a long market street running parallel to the river, a town hall at one end of the market, and a parish church in the centre. The houses were built of brick, in the Gothic style that would later be known as Brick Gothic.

The growth of Lübeck

Lübeck grew rapidly in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The city’s location at the head of the Bay of Lübeck made it a natural meeting point for the salt routes from Lüneburg and the Baltic trade, and the city’s merchants grew rich on the carrying trade between the salt mines and the herring fisheries. By the end of the thirteenth century, Lübeck was the most populous city in northern Germany, with perhaps 20,000 inhabitants, and it was the political and commercial capital of the region.

The growth of Lübeck was accompanied by the growth of the city’s political power. In 1226, the city received a charter from the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II that made it a Free Imperial City, subject to the emperor alone. In 1241, the city concluded the agreement with Hamburg that is often cited as the founding moment of the Hanseatic League. In 1284, the city led the embargo on Magdeburg, the first major collective action of the League. In the fourteenth century, the city was the principal force behind the League’s wars against Denmark, and in 1370 the city was the principal beneficiary of the Treaty of Stralsund.

The political institutions of Lübeck

Lübeck was, in its internal politics, a model of the Hanseatic city. The city was governed by a council of twenty members, presided over by four Bürgermeister, and the council was elected by the Bürgerschaft, the body of citizens. The council made the laws, levied the taxes, appointed the officials, commanded the city militia, and represented the city in dealings with other cities and foreign powers.

The council was elected annually, and the elections were the principal political event of the year. The candidates were drawn from the great merchant families of the city, and the elections were often hotly contested. The smaller merchants and the craftsmen had a voice in the elections through the guilds, and the guilds sometimes challenged the patrician families for control of the council. The result was a system of checks and balances that was, in many ways, remarkably modern.

A note on the rotation: the 20-member council was elected in such a way that no member served more than two consecutive years. This was specifically designed to prevent the patrician families from monopolising the seats, and it worked reasonably well in the 14th and 15th centuries. By the 16th century, the same families were rotating through the same seats, and the rotation had become a formality.

The architecture of Lübeck

Lübeck is one of the most beautiful cities of northern Europe. The city’s old town, surrounded by a ring of water that was once the moat of the medieval fortifications, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. The city’s architecture is characterised by the brick Gothic style that the city’s builders developed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the city’s churches, town halls, and merchant houses are among the masterpieces of the style.

The most famous of the city’s buildings is the Holstentor, the great brick gate that stands at the western end of the old town. The Holstentor was built in 1464–1478, and it is one of the most recognisable medieval gates in Europe. The gate consists of two massive towers, connected by a central section, and it is decorated with reliefs and inscriptions that commemorate the city’s history.

The most important of the city’s churches are the Marienkirche, the cathedral of the city, and the Petrikirche, the parish church of the old town. The Marienkirche was built in 1277–1351, and it is one of the masterpieces of brick Gothic architecture. The Petrikirche was built in the early thirteenth century, and it is one of the oldest churches in the city. Both churches were badly damaged in the bombing of 1942, but they have been carefully restored, and they are today among the most important monuments of the Hanseatic world.

Lübeck as the seat of the Hansetag

Lübeck was, for most of the League’s history, the seat of the Hansetag. The Hansetag met in Lübeck more often than in any other city, and the city’s council was, in effect, the principal political authority of the League. The Hansetag’s authority was supported by the city’s wealth, by the city’s political power, and by the city’s strategic position at the centre of the Baltic trade.

The Hansetag was, however, not a permanent institution. It was a gathering of city delegates, convened at irregular intervals, and it could be held in other cities when the situation required. The Hansetag of 1363, for example, was held in Cologne, and the Hansetag of 1418 was held in Lübeck but presided over by Hamburg. The Hansetag’s principal permanent institution was the Rekessel, the secretariat that maintained the records of the Hansetag and that organised the meetings. The Rekessel was based in Lübeck, and it was staffed by city officials.

The decline of Lübeck

Lübeck began to decline in the late fifteenth century, and the decline was marked by a series of crises that gradually eroded the foundations of the city’s power. The first of these crises was the failure of the city’s banks in the 1550s, which ruined many of the great merchant families. The second was the religious troubles of the 1530s, which divided the city and led to the execution of Thomas Wullenwever. The third was the Thirty Years War, which devastated the city and reduced its population by more than half.

A specific note on the 1550s bank failures: this is one of the clearest statistical markers of Lübeck’s decline. The great patrician families of the 14th and 15th centuries — the Berings, the Brömbsens, the Warendorps — were, by 1550, no longer actively engaged in trade. Their capital was in land and office, and the new ventures of the 16th century (the Atlantic trade, the joint-stock companies) were Dutch and English, not Hanseatic. The bank failures of the 1550s were the symptom, not the cause, of the structural shift.

Lübeck today

Lübeck is today a small city of about 215,000 inhabitants, but it remains one of the most important cultural centres of northern Germany. The city’s old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the city’s marzipan is famous throughout the world. The city’s economy is based on tourism, on the port, and on the food industry, and the city is an important centre of the medical and the life sciences. The city’s Hanseatic heritage is celebrated in the European Hansemuseum, a museum that opened in 2015 and that tells the story of the Hanseatic League in a spectacular new building near the Holstentor.