Lübeck

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The title of this article contains the character ü. Where it is unavailable or not desired, the name may be represented as Luebeck.

Lübeck (

[pronunc.], population (2005): 213,983) is the second largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany.  It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League ("Queen of the Hanse") and because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage is on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.

Buildings

The old town centre is dominated by seven church steeples. The oldest ones are the Dom and the Marienkirche (Saint Mary's), both from the 13th and 14th centuries. Once the town could only be entered by passing one of four town gates, of which the Holstentor (1478) is the best-known. The entire old town has kept a medieval look with old buildings and narrow streets.

History

The area around Lübeck was already settled after the last Ice Age. Several Neolithic Dolmens can be found in the area.

Around 700 AD Slavic peoples settled in the Eastern parts of Holstein which had been left by its Germanic inhabitants in course of the Migration Period. Among other settlements they founded Liubice ("lovely") on the Trave banks about 6 kilometres north of the present-day city centre of Lübeck. In the 10th century it became the most important settlement of the Obotrites and a castle was built. The settlement was burned down in 1128 by Slavic people from Rügen.

The modern town was founded by Adolf II, Count of Schauenburg and Holstein, in 1143 as a German settlement on a peninsula. He established a new castle which was first mentioned by Helmold in 1147. Adolf had to cede the castle to Henry the Lion in 1158. After Henry's fall in 1181, the town became an Imperial city for eight years. Emperor Barbarossa gave the city a ruling council with twenty members that survived into the 19th century. This council was dominated by merchants and caused Lübeck's politics to be dominated by trade interests for centuries to come.

The town and castle changed ownership for a period afterwards and was part of the Duchy of Saxony until 1192, of the County of Holstein until 1217 and part of Denmark until the Battle of Bornhöved in 1227.

Around 1200 the port became the main point of departure for colonists leaving for the Baltic territories conquered by the Teutonic Order. In 1226 Emperor Frederick II elevated the town to an Imperial Free City. In the 14th century Lübeck became the "Queen of the Hanseatic League", being by far the largest and most powerful member of this medieval trade organization. In 1375, Emperor Charles IV. named Lübeck one of the five "Glories of the Empire", a title shared with Venice, Rome, Pisa and Florence. Several conflicts about trade privileges were fought by Lübeck and the Hanseatic League against Denmark with varying outcomes. While Lübeck and the Hanseatic League prevailed in conflicts in 1435 and 1512, Lübeck lost when it became involved in the Count's Feud, a civil war that raged in Denmark from 1534 to 1536. Lübeck also joined the Schmalkaldic League.

After defeat in Count's Feud, Lübeck's power slowly declined. Lübeck managed to remain neutral in the Thirty Years' War, but with the devastation of the decades-long war and the new transatlantic orientation of European trade, the Hanseatic League and thus Lübeck lost importance. After the Hanseatic League was de facto disbanded in 1669, Lübeck stayed an important trading town on the Baltic Sea.

Lübeck remained a Free Imperial City even after the German Mediatisation in 1803 and became a sovereign state after the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. In course of the war of the Fourth Coalition against Napoleon, troops under Bernadotte occupied the neutral Lübeck after a battle against Blücher on November 6th, 1806. Under the Continental System, trade suffered and from 1811 to 1813 Lübeck was formally annexed as part of France. The Vienna Congress of 1815 made Lübeck one of 39 sovereign states of the German Confederation.

Lübeck became part of the North German Confederation in 1867 and part of the new-founded German Empire in 1871. In 1937 the Nazis passed the so-called Greater Hamburg Act which merged Lübeck with the province of Schleswig-Holstein and ended the 711 years long territorial indepedence.

During World War II, Lübeck was the first German city to be attacked by the Royal Air Force. The attack on 28 March 1942 created a firestorm, that caused severe damage to the historic centre and destroyed three of the main churches and greater parts of the built-up area. At the end of the war one of the biggest disasters in naval history happened in the Bay of Lübeck when Allied bombers sunk three ships which, unbeknownst to them, were packed with concentration camp inmates being transported to an execution site. About 7000 people were killed. Lübeck was occupied without resistance by the British Army at the end of the war.

Lübeck's population grew considerably from about 150,000 in 1939 to more than 220,000 after the war due to an influx of refugees from the former Eastern provinces of Germany.

Lübeck remained part of Schleswig-Holstein after the war and was situated directly at the German-German border during the division of Germany into two states in the Cold War period. The north-most border crossing was in Lübeck's district of Schlutup.

Lübeck's historic city centre became an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

Museums

Miscellaneous

Lübeck is very famous for its excellent marzipan industry, and according to local legend, Marzipan was first made in Lübeck possibly in response to either a military siege of the city, or a famine year. The story, perhaps apocryphal, is that the town ran out of all foods except stored almonds and sugar and made loaves of marzipan "bread" with it.

Others believe that marzipan was actually invented in Persia a few hundred years before Lübeck claims to have invented it.

In the quarter Lübeck-Herrenwyk there is the static inverter plant of the HVDC Baltic-Cable.

Notable people born in Lübeck

• Willy Brandt – chancellor
• Thomas Mann – writer
• Hans Blumenberg – philosopher
• Sandra Völker – swimmer

Parts

The city of Lübeck is divided into 10 quarters. These again are arranged into altogether 35 urban districts. The 10 quarters with their official numbers, their associated urban districts and the numbers of inhabitants of the quarters:

• 01 City center (~ 12,000 Inhabitants)
• 02 St. Jürgen (~ 40,000 Inhabitants)
• * Hüxtertor / Mühlentor / Gärtnergasse, Strecknitz / Rothebek, Blankensee, Wulfsdorf, Beidendorf, Krummesse, Kronsforde, Niederbüssau, Vorrade, Schiereichenkoppel, Oberbüssau
• 03 Moisling (~ 10,000 Inhabitants)
• * Niendorf / Moorgarten, Reecke, Old-Moisling / Genin
• 04 Buntekuh (~ 10,000 Inhabitants)
• 05 St. Lorenz-South (~ 12,000 Inhabitants)
• 06 St. Lorenz-North (~ 40,000 Inhabitants)
• * Holstentor-North, Falkenfeld / Vorwerk / Teerhof, Big-Steinrade / Schoenboecken, Dornbreite / Krempelsdorf
• 07 St. Gertrud (~ 40,000 Inhabitants)
• * Burgtor / Stadtpark, Marli / Brandenbaum, Eichholz, Karlshof / Israelsdorf / Gothmund
• 08 Schlutup (~ 6,000 Inhabitants)
• 09 Kücknitz (~ 20,000 Inhabitants)
• * Dänischburg / Siems / Rangenberg / Wallberg, Herrenwyk, Alt-Kücknitz / Dummersdorf / Roter Hahn, Poeppendorf
• 10 Travemünde (~ 15,000 Inhabitants)
• * Ivendorf, Alt-Travemünde / Rönnau, Priwall, Teutendorf, Brodten

See also

• Lübeck Airport
• Lübeck Museum of Theatre Puppets
• Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival
• Nordische Filmtage
• Lübeck laws
• Ports of the Baltic Sea
• Baltic-Cable
• Bay of Lübeck
• SS Cap Arcona
• International School of New Media
• Erich Mühsam
• Thomas Mann
• Willy Brandt
• Christian Bartolf

External links

• [Official website]
• [Satellite picture by Google Maps]
• from Wikitravel

World Heritage Sites in Germany

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