As the “Queen of the Hanseatic League”, Lübeck, founded in the 12th century, has numerous historical buildings that illustrate the importance of the Hanseatic city in the Middle Ages. These medieval buildings include five churches, the magnificent town hall, merchants’ and guild houses and salt warehouses. The medieval layout of the old town can still be seen today. The landmark of Lübeck is the Holsten Gate, an outstanding example of Northern European brick Gothic.
Hanseatic City of Lübeck: Facts
| Official title: | Hanseatic City of Lübeck |
| Cultural monument: | Hanseatic city, among others with the Holsten- and the Burgtor, the Seefahrerkirche St. Jakobi, the castle monastery, the cathedral – the first large sacral building in the Baltic Sea area – the Aegidien-, the Petri and the Marienkirche, the Buddenbrookhaus, which is temporarily owned by the Mann family as well as the Collegiate courts and corridors such as the Haasenhof |
| Continent: | Europe |
| Country: | Germany, see physicscat |
| Location: | Lübeck, northeast of Hamburg |
| Appointment: | 1987, expanded in 2009 |
| Meaning: | former “capital” of the Hanseatic League with a medieval townscape |
Hanseatic City of Lübeck: History
| around 1000 | Establishment of a Wendish settlement called Liubice |
| 1138 | Destruction of Liubice |
| 1143 | Establishment of a merchant settlement between Wakenitz and Trave |
| 1157 | Destruction of the merchant settlement |
| 1158/59 | Re-establishment at the instigation of Heinrich the Lion |
| 1173 | Start of construction on the Romanesque cathedral |
| 1229 | Creation of the castle monastery |
| 1250-1330 | Construction of the Marienkirche |
| 1319 | Consecration of the castle church |
| 1464-78 | Construction of the Holsten Gate |
| 1535 | Construction of the house of the shipping company |
| 1630 | last meeting of the cities of the German Hanseatic League |
| 1806-13 | French occupation of Lübeck |
| 1866 | Joined the North German Confederation |
| 1942 | Destruction of a fifth of the old town by bombing |
| 1981 | Restoration of the paintings in the castle monastery |
| 1984 | Discovery of the “Great Lübeck Coin Treasure” |
| 2005/06 | Restoration of the Holsten Gate |
Gentle drivers, public carriers and bricks
“You are the man, Lord Jesus Christ, who obeys wind and sea. Hold your hand over our skipper’s booth with grace. For storm, for robbers, for danger, Lord our seafaring always guarded. ”This is how it can still be read today on the gable of the“ Schiffergesellschaft ”, the former meeting house of the Schifferbruderschaft. But the great time of seafaring has passed, the old salt storage facilities on the Stadttrave have long since ceased to contain “white gold”. Today it is passionate cyclists who follow the historical traces of the city on the Salt Road, via which the coveted goods found their way from Lüneburg to Lübeck. It is a city steeped in history, the “mother city of the Hanseatic League”: As always, it forms an island between the various arms of the Trave, and the course of the moat still gives an idea of the bastionary protection system. Not far from the granary is the massive Holsten Gate – deprived of its original function as a city gate, it now stands as if lost on the edge of a green square, surrounded by the constant flow of traffic. But the search for the Stockholm drivers in Fischstrasse, for the butchers in Fleischhauerstrasse or the linen weavers not far from Kanalstrasse is in vain. With the end of the Middle Ages and the end of the flourishing Hanseatic era, these trades and their traditional quarters disappeared, today only to be found in the history books and on faded historical maps. surrounded by the constant flow of traffic. But the search for the Stockholm drivers in Fischstrasse, for the butchers in Fleischhauerstrasse or the linen weavers not far from Kanalstrasse is in vain. With the end of the Middle Ages and the end of the flourishing Hanseatic era, these trades and their traditional quarters disappeared, today only to be found in the history books and on faded historical maps. surrounded by the constant flow of traffic. But the search for the Stockholm drivers in Fischstrasse, for the butchers in Fleischhauerstrasse or the linen weavers not far from Kanalstrasse is in vain. With the end of the Middle Ages and the end of the flourishing Hanseatic era, these trades and their traditional quarters disappeared, today only to be found in the history books and on faded historical maps.
Spruced up two-masters like the »Fridtjof« and the »Norden«, a sailor from the Norwegian Romsdal, bob about on the city trave, which are occasionally blown into the wind by nostalgic hobby captains with full sails. However, the Skåne and Stockholm drivers who set out from here to ship their goods across the Baltic Sea are a thing of the past. The quays, from which saffron, pepper, ginger, Italian velvet, Flemish cloth and Norwegian stockfish were cleared during the Hanseatic League, are orphaned. Nothing is reminiscent of the grain and common bearers or herring packers and coal men who toiled here. What has remained are the brick-built houses with neck and stepped gables with protruding façades, as in Seventh Querstraße, some of them a little inclined.
Pepper and cloth were transformed into marks and ducats in the hands of the Hanseatic merchants. Not only the pretty Schabbelhaus in Mengstrasse is a testament to their success. One of them even left behind a valuable treasure trove of more than 24,000 gold and silver coins, brilliant evidence of the prosperity of an unknown merchant who was billeted on the Obertrave. According to the wholesale prices of the early 16th century, you would have three small bags of saffron – this spice is now sold in fractions of a gram – 160 ermine pelts, 6,000 squirrel skins, 257 kilograms stockfish, 12 tons of herring, 72.5 kilograms of green ginger and ten strips can purchase English cloth without using up the total amount.
Not only saving and saving, but also donating was one of the duties of the Hanseatic merchants, without whose commitment the poor relief of the city would have been inconceivable. For example, the Füchtingshof in Glockengießergasse was created for the widows of the boatmen and the Heiligen-Geist-Hospital, a home for the poor and the sick, who were initially housed in the almost 86-meter-long hospital hall, the so-called “Long House”, before the At the beginning of the 19th century, a men’s and a women’s corridor with »cubicles« averaging six square meters each was set up.
Hanseatic Lübeck is still inconceivable today without its numerous churches. The view of the old town is dominated by the so-called seven towers. The brick Gothic seven church towers of St. Jakobi, St. Marien, St. Petri, St. Aegidien and the Lübeck Cathedral have towered over the cityscape for centuries and are visible from the entire surrounding area. The cityscape also includes the façade of the town hall, which is essentially Gothic, in which the colleges of merchants met for centuries and determined the fate of the town.
