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Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck Freie und Hansestadt Lübeck (German) | |||||||||
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| 1226–1811 1815–1937 | |||||||||
 Flag  Coat of arms | |||||||||
Lesser coat of arms: | |||||||||
.svg) Location of the Free City of Lübeck within theGerman Empire | |||||||||
 Territory of the Free City of Lübeck, 1815–1937 | |||||||||
| Status | Free imperial city of theHoly Roman Empire Member of theGerman Confederation Member of theNorth German Confederation State of theGerman Empire State of theWeimar Republic | ||||||||
| Capital | Lübeck | ||||||||
| Official languages | German | ||||||||
| Religion | Evangelical Lutheran Church in the State of Lübeck | ||||||||
| Government | Republic | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| 1226 | |||||||||
• Annexed byFrench Empire | 1811 | ||||||||
1815 | |||||||||
| 1 April 1937 | |||||||||
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| Today part of | Germany | ||||||||
TheFree and Hanseatic City of Lübeck (German:Freie und Hansestadt Lübeck) was acity-state from 1226 to 1937, in what is now theGerman states ofSchleswig-Holstein andMecklenburg-Vorpommern.
In 1226, EmperorFrederick II declared the city ofLübeck to be aFree Imperial City.Lübeck law was the constitution of the city's municipal form of government developed after being made a free city. In theory, Lübeck law made the cities which had adopted it independent of royalty. In the 14th century, Lübeck became the "Queen of theHanseatic League", and at that time, the largest and most powerful member of this medieval trade organization.[citation needed]
In 1359, Lübeck bought the ducalHerrschaft ofMölln from the indebtedAlbert V, Duke of Saxe-Bergedorf-Mölln, a branch of the ducal house ofSaxe-Lauenburg. The City and Duke—with the consent of the Duke's brotherEric—agreed on a price of 9,737.50 Lübeckmarks. The parties also agreed to a clause allowing for the repurchase of the lands by the Duke or his heirs, but only if they were buying back the property for themselves and not for a third party.[1] Lübeck considered this acquisition to be crucially important since Mölln was an important staging post in the trade (especially the salt trade) between Scandinavia and the cities ofBrunswick andLunenburg via Lübeck. Therefore, Lübeck manned Mölln with armed guards to maintain law and order on the roads.
In 1370, Lübeck further acquired—by way of collateral for a loan—the Lordship ofBergedorf, the Vierlande, half theSachsenwald (Saxon Forest) andGeesthacht from Duke Eric III, who had meanwhile succeeded his late brother Albert V.[2] This acquisition included much of the trade route betweenHamburg and Lübeck, thus providing a safe freight route between the cities. Eric III retained a life tenancy of these lands.[citation needed]
| Arrivals | % | Origin, destination | Departures | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 289 | 33.7 | Mecklenburg-Pomerania | 386 | 42.3 |
| 250 | 26.8 | Skania | 207 | 22.8 |
| 145 | 16.8 | Prussia | 183 | 20.1 |
| 96 | 11.2 | Sweden | 64 | 7 |
| 35 | 4.3 | Livonia | 43 | 4.7 |
| 28 | 3.2 | Fehmarn | 27 | 3 |
| 12 | 1.6 | Bergen | - | - |
| 3 | 0.4 | Flanders | 1 | 0.1[3] |
Lübeck and Eric III further stipulated that once Eric had died, Lübeck would be entitled to take possession of the pledged territories until his successors could repay the debt and simultaneously exercise the repurchase of Mölln. By this stage the sum involved was calculated as 26,000 Lübeck Marks, an enormous amount of money at that time.[4]
In 1401, Eric III died without issue and was succeeded by his second cousinEric IV, Duke of Saxe-Ratzeburg-Lauenburg. In the same year Eric IV, supported by his sonsEric (later reigning as Eric V) andJohn (later John IV), captured the pawned lands without making the agreed repayment and before Lübeck could take possession of them. Lübeck acquiesced.[5]
In 1420, Eric V attackedFrederick I, Elector of Brandenburg and Lübeck gained Hamburg for a war alliance in support ofBrandenburg. The armies of both cities opened a second front and conquered Bergedorf, Riepenburg castle and the Esslingen river toll station (today'sZollenspieker Ferry) within weeks. This forced Eric V to agree to thePeace of Perleberg on 23 August 1420, which stipulated that all the pawned territories, which Eric IV, Eric V and John IV had violently taken in 1401, were to be ceded irrevocably to the cities of Hamburg and Lübeck. The cities transformed the gained areas into theBeiderstädtischer Besitz (condominium of both cities), ruled by bailiffs for four-year terms. The bailiffs were to come from each of the cities alternately.[citation needed]
The Hanseatic League, under Lübeck's leadership, fought several wars against Denmark with varying degrees of success. Whilst Lübeck and the Hanseatic League won in 1435 and 1512, Lübeck lost when it became involved in theCount's Feud, a civil war that raged in Denmark from 1534 to 1536. Lübeck also joined theSchmalkaldic League. After its defeat in the Count's Feud, Lübeck's power slowly declined. Lübeck remained neutral in theThirty Years' War, but with the devastation of the war and the new transatlantic orientation of European trade, the Hanseatic League, and thus Lübeck, lost importance. After thede facto disbandment of the Hanseatic League in 1669, Lübeck remained an important trading town on the Baltic Sea.[citation needed]
Lübeck remained a Free Imperial City even after theGerman Mediatisation in 1803 and became a sovereign state at the dissolution of theHoly Roman Empire in 1806. During theWar of the Fourth Coalition againstNapoleon, troops underBernadotte occupied neutral Lübeck after a battle againstBlücher on 6 November 1806.[citation needed]
Under theContinental System, trade suffered, and from 1811 to 1813, Lübeck was formally annexed as part of theFirst French Empire,department ofBouches-de-l'Elbe.
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Lübeck reassumed its pre-1811 status in 1813. The 1815Congress of Vienna reconfirmed Lübeck's independence and it became one of 39 sovereign states of theGerman Confederation. Lübeck joined theNorth German Confederation in 1867. The following year Lübeck sold its share in the bi-urban condominium of Bergedorf to theFree and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, which was also a sovereign state of the North German Confederation.[6] In 1871, Lübeck became an autonomous component state within the newly foundedGerman Empire. After the collapse of the empire following theFirst World War, Lübeck joined theWeimar Republic as a constituent state. Its status was weakened during this time by the Republic's enforcement of its right to determine state and Reich taxes.[citation needed]
After theNazi seizure of power, Lübeck, like all other German states, was subjected to the process ofGleichschaltung (coordination). Subsequent to the enactment of the "Second Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich" on 7 April 1933,Friedrich Hildebrandt was appointed to the new position ofReichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) of Lübeck on 26 May 1933.[7] Hildebrandt installedOtto-Heinrich Drechsler as theBürgermeister, displacing the duly-electedSocial Democrat,Paul Löwigt [de]. Additionally, on 30 January 1934, the Reich government enacted the "Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich", formally abolishing all the state parliaments and transferring the sovereignty of the states to the central government. With this action, the Lübeck popular assembly, theBürgerschaft, was dissolved and Lübeck effectively lost its rights as a federal state.[8]
In 1937, the Nazis passed theGreater Hamburg Act, whereby the nearby Hanseatic City of Hamburg was expanded to include towns that had formerly belonged to thePrussian province ofSchleswig-Holstein. To compensate Prussia for these losses (and partly becauseAdolf Hitler had a personal dislike for Lübeck after it refused to allow him to campaign there in 1932),[9] the 711-year-long statehood of Lübeck came to an end on 1 April 1937 and almost all its territory was incorporated into Schleswig-Holstein.[citation needed]
Lübeck was occupied by theBritish Army in the closing days ofWorld War II. TheRed Army later occupied all territory to the east of the city, as agreed by theAllied powers. Prussia was dissolved as a state by the occupying Allied forces after the war. However, Lübeck was not restored tostatehood. Instead, the city was incorporated into the newfederal state ofSchleswig-Holstein. Lübeck's position on theinner German border, which cut off the city from much of itshinterland, was a key factor in this development. In 1956, in a so-calledLübeck decision [de] the West GermanFederal Constitutional Court upheld a decision by thefederal government to strike down an attempt to restore Lübeck's statehood by referendum.[citation needed]
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53°52′11″N10°41′11″E / 53.86972°N 10.68639°E /53.86972; 10.68639
