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Lübeck

City in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

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Lübeck
Oleg Dejan · CC BY 3.0

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The city lies in the Holsatian part of Schleswig-Holstein, at the mouth of the Trave, which flows into the Bay of Lübeck in the borough of Travemünde, and on the Trave's tributary Wakenitz. The island with the historic old town and the districts north of the Trave are also located in the historical region of Wagria. Lübeck is the southwesternmost city on the Baltic Sea, and the closest point of access to the Baltic from Hamburg. The city lies in the Holsatian dialect area of Low German.

Before 819, Polabian Slavs founded a settlement which they called Liubice at the confluence of the Schwartau and the Trave. By the 10th century, Liubice was the second-most important settlement of the Obotrites after Starigard. Lübeck was granted Soest city rights in 1160, and, in 1260, it became an immediate city within the Holy Roman Empire. In the middle of the 12th century, Lübeck developed into the cradle of the Hanseatic League, of which it was considered the de facto capital and most important city from then on. The Lübeck law was eventually adopted by around 100 cities in the Baltic region. Lübeck preserved its status as an independent city, which it had held since 1226, until 1937.

Lübeck's historic old town, located on a densely built-up island, is Germany's most extensive UNESCO World Heritage Site. With six church towers surpassing 100 metres (330 ft), Lübeck has more such towers than any other city in the world. Nicknamed the "City of the Seven Towers" (Stadt der Sieben Türme), Lübeck's skyline is dominated by the seven towers of its five main Protestant churches: St Mary's, Lübeck Cathedral, St James', St Peter's, and St Giles's. The cathedral, constructed in various stages between 1173 and 1335, was the first large brickwork church in the Baltic region. St Mary's Church, built between 1265 and 1351, is considered the model on which most of the other Brick Gothic churches in the sphere of influence of the Hanseatic League are based. It is the second-tallest church with two main towers after Cologne Cathedral (which only surpassed it in 1880), has the tallest brick vault, and is the second-tallest brickwork structure after St. Martin's Church in Landshut.

Lübeck is home to the University of Lübeck with its University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, the Technical University of Applied Sciences Lübeck, and the Lübeck Academy of Music. There are 18 museums in Lübeck, among which are the European Hansemuseum, Lübeck Museum Port, and the Niederegger Marzipan Museum dedicated to the culinary specialty for which the city is best known, namely Lübeck Marzipan. Due to their southwestern location, Travemünde and the nearby seaside resorts of Niendorf, Timmendorfer Strand, Scharbeutz, Haffkrug, Sierksdorf, and Grömitz are among Germany's most visited seaside destinations.

Lübeck Main Station is located on the Vogelfluglinie railway line connecting continental Europe (Hamburg) to Scandinavia (Copenhagen) via the future Fehmarn Belt fixed link. The port of Lübeck is the second-largest German port on the Baltic Sea after the port of Rostock, and the Skandinavienkai in Travemünde is Germany's most important ferry port, with connections to Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. The city has its own regional airport at Lübeck-Blankensee, while nearby Hamburg Airport serves as Lübeck's main air hub.

History

Archaeological investigations in southern Lübeck have found evidence of human activity from the end of the last Ice Age. The excavated area contains settlement remains from the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman period.

A Slavic fortification existed at Old Lübeck, near the confluence of the Schwartau and Trave, by 819. The settlement was first recorded under the name Liubice in 1072 and became a centre of the Obotrites before it was destroyed in 1138. The name is generally derived from a Slavic personal name such as Lub or Lubomir.

In 1143, Adolf II, Count of Schauenburg and Holstein, founded a new town on the river island of Bucu. A fire destroyed it in 1157, and Henry the Lion rebuilt it after acquiring the site from Adolf in 1159. Henry also transferred the bishopric from Oldenburg to Lübeck in 1160. After Henry was outlawed in 1181, the city came under Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who confirmed its privileges. Lübeck law was later adopted by more than 100 towns around the Baltic.

Hanseatic city

In 1226, Emperor Frederick II granted Lübeck Imperial immediacy, placing it directly under the emperor as the Free City of Lübeck. Lübeck lay on the trade routes between the North Sea and Baltic and became a centre of long-distance commerce. From the mid-13th century, other Low German towns asked it to represent their common interests. Lübeck became the leading city of the Hanseatic League.

Hanseatic diets met regularly in Lübeck from the mid-14th century. The league concluded the Peace of Stralsund in 1370, when its power in the Baltic was at its greatest. Lübeck's unsuccessful intervention in the Count's Feud of 1534 to 1536 was its last attempt to preserve its earlier dominance of Baltic trade.

Decline

The Hanseatic cities met less often as European trade shifted towards the Atlantic, and the Thirty Years' War interrupted their cooperation. Their last diet met in Lübeck in 1669. The league was never formally dissolved, and Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen continued to use the title "Free and Hanseatic City".

From the Napoleonic Wars to the German Empire

French troops occupied neutral Lübeck after the Battle of Lübeck on 6 November 1806. The occupation restricted the long-distance trade on which the city depended. One commission recorded losses, another distributed supplies, and a committee of merchants raised loans. Lübeck was incorporated into the First French Empire in January 1811 and became the administrative seat of an arrondissement. French rule ended in December 1813.

The Congress of Vienna recognised Lübeck as a sovereign free city in 1815. It joined the German Confederation in 1815, the North German Confederation in 1866 and the German Empire in 1871.

During the nineteenth century, Lübeck remained an important Baltic trading port, even as its standing remained well below the level it had reached at the height of the Hanseatic League. Established merchant houses worked alongside smaller trading firms and workshops that served the harbour, its shops, and its counting houses.

The fusilier battalion of the 2nd Hanseatic Infantry Regiment No. 76 was stationed in Lübeck from 1867 and fought at the Battle of Loigny in December 1870. Its traditions passed to the 3rd Hanseatic Infantry Regiment No. 162 when that regiment was formed in 1897.

During the same period, Lübeck's cash offices handled the new imperial gold currency. In October 1877, an unusually large deposit led officials to reweigh 1,912 20-mark coins. Their closely clustered weights indicated deliberate reduction rather than ordinary wear and brought the Doppelkronensache to light.

The Elbe-Lübeck Canal was completed in 1900, and the Herrenwyk ironworks was founded in 1906.

20th century

After the November Revolution, Lübeck introduced universal, equal and direct suffrage for men and women. The elected Bürgerschaft adopted a parliamentary constitution for the city-state in 1920. The Social Democratic Party and several middle-class groups dominated the parliament until the Nazi Party became its largest party in 1932.

After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Lübeck was subjected to Gleichschaltung. Friedrich Hildebrandt became Reichsstatthalter for Lübeck and Mecklenburg in May 1933 and installed Otto-Heinrich Drechsler as mayor in place of the elected Social Democrat Paul Löwigt.

The Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich abolished the state parliaments in 1934. Under the Greater Hamburg Act, Lübeck ceased to be a state on 1 April 1937 and became part of the Prussian Province of Schleswig-Holstein.

The RAF raid on Lübeck of 28 March 1942 caused a firestorm and severely damaged the historic centre. It killed 320 people, destroyed nearly 1,500 houses and left thousands more damaged. Three of the main churches and large parts of the Gründungsviertel were destroyed or badly damaged.

Oflag X-C, a prisoner-of-war camp for Allied officers, operated in Lübeck from 1940 until 1945. The British Second Army occupied the city without resistance on 2 May 1945.

On 3 May 1945, RAF aircraft attacked ships carrying prisoners from Neuengamme satellite camps in the Bay of Lübeck. The SS Cap Arcona and SS Thielbek caught fire and capsized, killing more than 7,000 people.

About 90,000 displaced people arrived in Lübeck between 1945 and 1948. The new border cut the city off from much of its eastern hinterland and disrupted its economy and transport links. During the Cold War, Lübeck was the only major West German city directly on the inner German border. The crossing at Schlutup was the northernmost road crossing into East Germany.

Reconstruction of the old town began in 1949. In 1987, UNESCO designated the historic centre a World Heritage Site.

In April 2015, Lübeck hosted the G7 conference.

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