Why Do Parts of Hamburg, Gdańsk and Amsterdam Look Alike?
And just what is a Hanseatic city anyway?
Strolling around the old city center of Rostock in northern Germany and in Old Town of Gdańsk, Poland, I noticed something interesting. They are both lined with the classic tall, narrow, brick buildings with curved gables that I think of as classic Dutch architecture. But the iconic merchant houses that are so symbolic of the canal district of Amsterdam actually have a much wider provenance.
All three cities were members of the powerful medieval Hanseatic League—a confederation of northern European cities and towns that dominated trade, commerce, law and politics there for almost 500 years.
At its height, the League comprised more than 200 cities across six different modern-day countries - from Bergen in Norway to Bruges, Belgium and east to Novgorod in what is now Russia.
Lübeck at the center
The league began around the year 1157 as a cooperative association between several north German merchant guilds and market towns who all controlled certain important segments of trade. These merchants needed protection from piracy along trade routes, and wanted to combine their negotiating power to get lower prices for raw materials and higher prices for the goods they wanted to sell.
Over time, this network expanded so much that the league could establish trade regulations throughout its shared territory and amass enough enough economic power that it rivaled the other two main medieval power bases - the nobility and the clergy.
League merchants used their economic power to pressure cities and rulers. They called embargoes, redirected trade away from towns, and boycotted entire countries. Blockades were erected against Novgorod in 1268 and 1277/1278. Bruges was pressured by temporarily moving the Hanseatic emporium to Aardenburg from 1280 to 1282, from 1307 or 1308 to 1310 and in 1350, to Dordt in 1358 and 1388, and to Antwerp in 1436. Boycotts against Norway in 1284 and Flanders in 1358 nearly caused famines. They sometimes resorted to military action. Several Hanseatic cities maintained their warships and in times of need, repurposed merchant ships.
The league established huge trading posts, known as Kontors, in London; Bruges, Belgium; Bergen, Norway; and in Novgorod, that functioned almost as independent cities themselves.
There, the merchants lived in a separate world from the rest of London, a mini, Germanic world. The walled-in community was composed of roughly ninety buildings with various functions, not only storehouses for their cargo, but houses for the merchants, a guild hall with their own elected aldermen, multiple cloth halls, a wine-house, and kitchens. The community was governed by its own code of law, enforced not by English authorities, but rather by those of the merchants’ home cities.
The main city, for much of the League’s history, was Lübeck, in what is today the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Situated between the Baltic and the North Sea coasts, it had easy access to the both seas’ fishing grounds and an established trade partnership with the city of Hamburg, which had its own large port and controlled the trade routes to the nearby salt mines in Lüneburg.
These cities gained control over most of the salt-fish trade, especially the Scania Market; Cologne joined them in the Diet of 1260. The towns raised their armies, with each guild required to provide levies when needed. The Hanseatic cities aided one another, and commercial ships often served to carry soldiers and their arms. The network of alliances grew to include a flexible roster of 70 to 170 cities.
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Lübeck soon became a base for merchants from Saxony and Westphalia trading eastward and northward … It became a transshipment port for trade between the North Sea and the Baltics. Lübeck also granted extensive trade privileges to Russian and Scandinavian traders. It was the main supply port for the Northern Crusades, improving its standing with various Popes. Lübeck gained imperial privileges to become a free imperial city in 1226, under Valdemar II of Denmark during the Danish dominion, as had Hamburg in 1189. Also in this period Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund, and Danzig (now Gdańsk) received city charters.
Along with the trade in goods, merchants and their families moved from their home cities to new cities along the Baltic coast, forming new Hanseatic strongholds in Elbing (now Elbląg), Thorn (now called Torun), Reval (modern-day Taillinn), Riga and Dorpat.
Along with joining the League, these cities also adopted the Lübeck town law, with the requirement that any appeals in these far-flung regions to go before the Lübeck town council. Many of these cities and towns retain some Hansa (League) buildings and the same style of architechture.
The league never had a standing army or governing assembly, but it did have regular meetings of its Diet - a group of representatives from all the different towns and groups who met to decide matters by consensus.
Disillusion and dissolution
Membership in the League was never completely stable—there were internal power struggles between different geographic factions—with different groups entering and leaving over time. And, of course, many non-Hansa merchants in London and other independent cities resented the special privileges afforded the League traders, and worked to undermine their influence.
By the late 15th century, internal strife coupled with the efforts of competing trade groups and some newly powerful feudal lords had severely weakened the League’s power. The emergence of transatlantic trade further weakened the large Kontor trading hubs and by the 17th century the league had slowly disintegrated.
Hamburg, Bremen, and Lübeck remained as the only members until the League's formal end in 1862, on the eve of the 1867 founding of the North German Confederation and the 1871 founding of the German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm I.
The Hanseatic cities today
The last three city members of the old Hanseatic League have retained the designation in their official names: the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg); Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (Freie Hansestadt Bremen); and the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (Hansestadt Lübeck).
Since the fall of the Iron Curtain and German reunification, more former Hanseatic cities have decided to promote and explore this part of their common history.
In 1980, the Union of Cities—THE HANSA was founded in Zwolle to promote the shared cultural heritage of the former Hanseatic League. Now comprised of 200 different member cities, it is one of the largest voluntary associations in the world.
Each year, one member city hosts a Hanseatic Day—reminiscent of the old ones—in which representatives gather to make decisions for the group. The union hopes to increase tourism to and appreciation of its various cities.
It is no longer about asserting economic interests, but rather about exchange and cross-border cooperation. The Union of Cities aims to promote the cultural heritage and Hanseatic identity in the member cities and to work together for a united and peaceful Europe.
With the "International Hanseatic Day of Modern Times", THE HANSA picks up the tradition of the medieval Hanseatic Days. Every year, a different Hanseatic city hosts the event to celebrate the common past and international understanding.
So, the next time you’re in a north German (or Norwegian, Belgian, Danish, Polish, Lithuanian or Russian) coastal town and you see a building that you think looks Dutch—maybe it’s really something else—Hanseatic.
For the really curious …
Here’s some more information from around the web about northern Europe and the Hanseatic League.
Hanseatic Tradition and Brick Architecture in Rostock
The Steelyard, Hansard Merchants and a ‘Misliving’ Single Woman in late Medieval London
Die Hanse.org: 184 Hanseatic cities in 16 countries
Handsome and Hanseatic: There are architectural gems in the medieval towns of former East Germany