Lübeck

“ In Hamburg alone there were handed over from female friends of the Mission, one hundred and twenty-eight cotton shirts, all finished and ready; from Haide forty striped shirts for the natives; from Lübeck and Mechlenburg, besides beautiful under-linen, all sorts of pictures and little things for the heathen; from some children here came writing boxes, pens, and writing books for the heathen children. Also from here, from Osnabrück, Schaumburg, Lüneburg, Bremen, and neighbourhood, whole rolls of linen cloth. There was a stir and spring of love that moved people's hearts. ”

“ It consists of the city of Lübeck, the town of Travemünde, 49 villages and the country districts, embraces 115 sq. m. of territory, and had a population in 1907 of 109,265, of which 93,978 were included in the city and its immediate suburbs. The state lies in the lowlands of the Baltic, is diversified by gently swelling hills, and watered by the Trave and its tributaries, the Wakenitz and the Stecknitz. The soil is fertile, and, with the exception of forest land (14% of the whole area) , is mostly devoted to market gardening. Trade is centred in the city of Lübeck. ”

“ In the growth of German commerce the Rhenish lands took the lead, and, in the earliest days of the Hansa, Köln held the first place among its cities. ♦Lübeck, Bremen, Hamburg.♦ The pre-eminence afterwards passed to havens nearer{214} to the Ocean and the Baltic, where, among a crowd of others, the Imperial cities of Lübeck and Bremen stand out foremost, and with them Hamburg, a rival which has in later times outstripped them. And at this point it may be noticed that Lübeck and Bremen specially illustrate a law which extended to many other of the episcopal cities of Germany. ”

“ Adolf of Schawenburg, Albert duke of Saxony, the archbishop of Bremen, the prince of Werle—all had profited by the spoil, and all had troops ready to defend their usurpations. In great wrath Valdemar took the field; but his good fortune had left him for ever; and after many fruitless, however ruinous, efforts, he was compelled to make peace with his enemies, and to pay money for the ransom of his hostages. The loss of Lubeck and of all Dithmarsh grieved him more perhaps than the rest; for Lubeck was already a rich and a populous city, the centre of a large commerce. ”

“ OVERBECK, JOHANN FRIEDRICH (1780–1869) , German painter, the reviver of “ Christian art ” in the 19th century, was born in Lübeck on the 4th of July 1789. His ancestors for three generations had been Protestant pastors; his father was doctor of laws, poet, mystic pietist and burgomaster of Lübeck. Within a stone's throw of the family mansion in the Königstrasse stood the gymnasium, where the uncle, doctor of theology and a voluminous writer, was the master; there the nephew became a classic scholar and received instruction in art. ”

“ On the other hand their town, being the principal emporium of the Baltic by the middle of the 13th century, acted as the firm ally of the Teutonic knights in Livonia. Emigrants founded new cities and new sees of Low German speech among alien and pagan races; and thus in the course of a century the commerce of Lübeck had supplanted that of Westphalia. In connexion with the Germans at Visby, the capital of Gotland, and at Riga, where they had a house from 1231, the people of Lübeck with their armed vessels scoured the sea between the Trave and the Neva. ”

“ To Lübeck itself it is possible that the success of Wullenwever's grandiose ideas of mercantile empire might have been more fatal than their failure. According to Baltic nautical ballads Lübeck long regretted its turbulent Burgomaster, and his name is surrounded in popular legend with something of the halo of a van Artevelde, but his attempt to clothe the new democratic spirit in the worn-out garb of the city-empire was doomed from the first to end in disaster. ”

“ Five years later Count Adolphus II. of Holstein founded new Lübeck, a few miles farther up, on the peninsula Buku, where the Trave is joined on the right by the Wakenitz, the emissary of the lake of Ratzeburg. An excellent harbour, sheltered against pirates, it became almost at once a competitor for the commerce of the Baltic. Its foundation coincided with the beginning of the advance of the Low German tribes of Flanders, Friesland and Westphalia along the southern shores of the Baltic—the second great emigration of the colonizing Saxon element. ”

“ As early as 1241 Lübeck, Hamburg and Soest had combined to secure their highways against robber knights. Treaties to enforce the public peace were concluded in 1291 and 1338 with the dukes of Brunswick, Mecklenburg and Pomerania, and the count of Holstein. Though the great federal armament against Waldemar IV., the destroyer of Visby, was decreed by the city representatives assembled at Cologne in 1367, Lübeck was the leading spirit in the war which ended with the surrender of Copenhagen and the peace concluded at Stralsund on the 24th of May 1370. ”

“ Was I going straight on to Berlin without working? Should I seek work at Lübeck? If not, of course I would take the viaticum. “I thought not,” I told him. “Ah, then,” he said, “you have some money.” The viaticum is the tramp-money that may be claimed from his guild by the travelling workman. Germans, like other people, like to take pills gilded, and so they cloak the awkward incident of poverty under a Latin name.
Lübeck being in sight we sat down upon a grassy bank to make our toilet. A tramp’s knapsack always has little pouches at the side for soap, brushes, and blacking. ”

“ The franchises of Lübeck. Of these gentlemen and others Whitelocke learned this city is the chief and most ancient of the Hanse Towns of Germany, and a kind of free State; that they have power to send Commissioners as public ministers to any foreign prince or State, to treat and conclude with them about any matters relating to their 342 city, and that without the leave or knowledge of the Emperor.
The people of the city chiefly are the merchants and artificers, most of them tradesmen ”

“ From the moment that the departure of Barbarossa had left King Henry the virtual ruler of Germany, grave difficulties encompassed his administration. Henry the Lion returned, Lübeck opened its doors to its founder, and was soon in a position to dispute the supremacy of Saxony with the bishops and barons who had divided his ancient powers. In the summer of 1190, the mediation of the Archbishops of Cologne and Mainz concluded the Treaty of Fulda, by which the king allowed Henry the Lion’s restoration, and gave him half the revenues of Lübeck. ”

“ Her whole retinue consisted of the maid Lucie, whom she had persuaded her aunt to let her have, and a trader’s coachman from Aarhus, for the real outfitting for her trip was to be done at Lübeck.
It was Sti Högh who had put into her head the idea of travelling, and in doing so, he had hinted that he might himself leave the country to seek his fortune abroad, and had offered his services as courier. Summoned by a letter from Copenhagen, he arrived in Lübeck a fortnight after Marie, and at once began to make himself useful by attending to the preparations necessary for so long a journey. ”

“ The free town of Lubeck is a very antiquated place, with its Gothic churches, and venerable public buildings, and has not changed very much in general appearance since the days of its prosperity. Its population is not one half of what the city is capable of containing; and the lifeless streets, in many parts overgrown with grass, tell the story of deserted commerce. There is sufficient, however, of interest here to keep the traveller a day or two, to look at the old paintings and other works of art in the churches, some of which are very superior. ”

“ In April 1668 he obtained the post of organist at the Marien-Kirche of Lübeck—one of the best and most lucrative in Germany—where his admirable playing and promising abilities excited much attention. Here his energy and skill at once found their proper field. Not content with discharging his duties at the organ, he conceived the idea of instituting great musical performances in connection with the church services, and in 1673 started the 'Abendmusiken,' or evening performances, on which Lübeck peculiarly prided itself. ”

“ The distrust with which the revolutionists of Lübeck were viewed by both Protestant and Catholic Princes made Wullenwever's course a difficult one. He started for Copenhagen to conclude an alliance between the two cities, but Copenhagen looked on him askance, and he then offered his friendship to the young Christian III with no better result. Lübeck, however, found an unexpected ally in Henry VIII, who was then trying every means to reduce the Habsburg power, and regarded with alarm the prospect of a Habsburg victory in Denmark. ”

“ The Lübeck revolutionists seemed to be carrying all before them; democratic factions triumphed at Stralsund, Rostock, Riga, and Reval, and sent contributions in men or money to the common cause. In Lübeck itself Wullenwever strengthened his position by expelling the hostile minority from the Council, and Bonnus, the Lutheran superintendent, resigned his charge. ”

“ At four o’clock in the afternoon we stood on the deck of the “Orion,” watching the many tall and slender spires of the churches of Lübeck receding from view, as we steamed onward down the narrow winding river, nine miles to Travemünde, a little sea-bathing resort for the Lübeckers at the river’s mouth, where we entered upon the Baltic. We sat on deck watching the sunset and the outlines of the German coast, the country where we had spent nearly a year and which had grown to seem like home, growing more and more indistinct ”

“ Though my friend in Lübeck was a stranger, as a brother jeweller he gave me friendly welcome. Having inquired into my resources, he said, “You must take the viaticum.”—“It is like begging,” I answered.—“Nonsense,” he replied; “you pay for it when you are in work, and have a right to it when travelling.”—“But I might find employment, on inquiry.”—“Do not be alarmed, my friend; there is not a job to be done in the whole city.” ”

“ Lübeck and Hamburg, however, dominated the German trade in the ports of the east coast, notably in Lynn and Boston, while they were strong in the organized trading settlements at York, Hull, Ipswich, Norwich, Yarmouth and Bristol. The counter at London, first called the Steelyard in a parliamentary petition of 1422, claimed jurisdiction over the other factories in England. ”

“ As head of the Empire I therefore rejoice over every citizen, whether from Hamburg, Bremen, or Lübeck, who goes forth with this large outlook and seeks new points where we can drive in the nail on which to hang our armor. ”

“ Hamburg had access to the North Sea by the Elbe and Lubeck to the Baltic by the Trave. Trading in different directions, therefore, by sea, they carried on an active traffic with one another, across the narrow stretch of land which divides them,—as they still do to this day. But this inland commerce was greatly disturbed by robbers who infested the country, until the two cities, Lubeck and Hamburg, in 1241, agreed to establish and support in common a body of soldiers for the protection of their merchants. ”

“ The career of Wisby lasted several centuries and it was prominent in commerce throughout the Middle Ages. All that can be said of that most ancient commerce in northern Europe is gathered from sources which are uncertain and obscure. It is not until the 12th century that much of the real history of trade in the Baltic region opens. In 1140 the modern city of Lubeck was founded, on the site of a more ancient town, known as Old Lubeck, which is supposed to have been a thriving port of trade in its day but which had been utterly destroyed by its rivals or enemies. ”

“ Christian, however, was not content with his defeat, and with a view to securing the assistance of his Habsburg brothers-in-law and of Catholic Europe, he abjured his Lutheranism and represented his attempt to regain his thrones as a crusade against heresy. In 1531-2 he overran Norway, but Lübeck blockaded the coast, forced him to capitulate, and procured his lifelong imprisonment at Sonderburg. This outrage on royal majesty, coupled with the mercantile hostility between Lübeck and the Netherlands, precipitated naval war between the Dutch and Baltic cities ”

“ There is a partition between the old and the new town; the old is but a small part of it, and few merchants reside there. The ships of greatest burden come up within two miles of the city; the lesser ships, whereof there be a great number, and the great boats, come up within the town to the very doors of their houses, by the branches of the Elbe, to the great advantage of their trading.
This city is much greater than Lübeck, fuller of trade and wealth, and better situated for commerce, being nearer to England, the Netherlands, France, Spain, and all the southern and western parts ”

“ Overbeck of Lübeck came in 1810 with Pforr of Frankfort and Vogel of Zürich; the Düsseldorfer, Cornelius, followed in 1811, Schadow and Veit of Berlin in 1815, Schnorr von Carolsfeld of Leipzig in 1818, the Viennese Führich and Steinle in 1827 and 1828. In all of them there lived the perception that in such a serious age men should be of high moral endeavour, and art the expression of the religious capacity of their lives. ”

“ Though Lübeck’s right as court of appeal from the Hanseatic counter at Novgorod was not recognized by the general assembly of the League until 1373, the long-existing practice had simply accorded with the actual shifting of commercial power. The union of merchants abroad was beginning to come under the control of the partial union of towns at home. ”