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A paper read at the Central Connecticut State
University, New Britain, CT, on 20 November, 1996.
My home town is
Hamburg, Germany - to be exact: the free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg. This
is its official title. In practical terms the Hansa
does not exist any longer, and when Hamburg adopted this name, the Hansa had obviously expired one and a half centuries
before. But in fact the real end of it is as hard to determine as its
beginning, and even its nature has long been misunderstood. Let me try to
explain.
In historical
research, the Hansa had a long shadowy existence,
for when interest concentrated on princes, powerful realms and heroic
battles, a loose community of towns mainly inspired by mercantile
considerations attracted little attention.
Georg Friedrich
Sartorius, in his Geschichte
des hanseatischen Bundes
in 1802 called it a half-forgotten antiquity. In the meantime there have been
intensive studies. But on the one hand they nearly exclusively treated the
first half of its history, the time of rise and success in the Middle Ages
rather neglecting its later fate. And on the other hand the Hansa experienced a lot of political and nationalistic
misinterpretations in former historiography.
Its definition was
a problem already under discussion in its time. After having deteriorated
since the middle of the 15th century, English relations with the Hansa reached their lowest point when in the summer of
1468 English ships were seized in the sound by Danish vessels. The Hansa was suspected to have at least shared
responsibility for that. King Edward IV straight away imprisoned the
Hanseatic merchants in London and confiscated their goods in order to
compensate the English merchants. The Hansa, he
explained, was a society, cooperative or corporation, originating from a
joint agreement and alliance of several towns and villages, being able to
form contracts and being liable as joint debtors for the offences of single
members.
In the Hanseatic
reply the Lübeck syndic stated that the Hansa was neither a society nor a corporation, it owned
no joint property, no joint till, no executive officials of their own; it was
a tight alliance of many towns and communities to pursue their respective own
trading interests securely and profitably. The Hansa
was not ruled by merchants, every town having its own ruler. It also had no
seal of its own, as sealing was done by the respective issuing town. The Hansa had no common council, but discussions were held by
representatives of each town. There even was no obligation to take part in
the Hansa meetings and there were no means of
coercion to carry through their decisions. So, according to the Lübeck syndic, the Hansa
could not be defined by Roman law and was not liable as a body. This was in
fact correct and deliberately ambiguous; the Hansa
was frequently urged to give a self-definition as well as the exact number of
its members and deliberately left all this unclear, thus leaving questions
for historians as well.
Examining the
ambiguous term Hansa does not help us very much; it
means a crowd or community as well as their membership dues or common law.
Besides, the sources give numerous names to characterize the Hansa. But these are mentioned more or less casually and
don't explain the subject.
According to a
widely held opinion, the Hansa was a community of
low German towns whose merchants participated in the Hanseatic privileges
abroad. Where politically convenient it stressed the solidarity of its merchants, and at the latest since the Lübeck
meeting in 1418 there were repeated efforts to obtain a firm federal constitution.
On the other hand, the Hansa was lacking the
essential legal elements of a federation. There was no pact of alliance, no
statutes, no obligation for certain economic and political aims, no chairman
with representative authority, and no permanent official, until Dr. Suderman became Hanseatic syndic in 1556. And there were
no means to punish disobedient members apart from exclusion, whereas
instruments to be used externally were blockade, embargo and even war. So the
Hansa in some way resembled a federation, but it
was more a legal community as to its privileges abroad.
One might even
doubt whether such confederational concept is
justified. Institutional strength was missing and clashes of interests within
were evident, partly irreconcilable. So more recent views are quite cautious:
Ahasver von Brandt spoke of a community of
interest, existing and being in individual cases able to act at a time only
in so far as the interests of the individual towns or citizens really
coincided. Its only aim was to attain privileges abroad and to secure their
undisturbed use by its members. Klaus Friedland
called it a trade alliance in an eventual case of emergency. Obviously the Hansa cannot be described appropriately in terms of
national law.
It is difficult as
well to find out is members. The Hansa left this deliberately unclear and avoided giving precise details
about which towns belonged to it, which means which merchants were admitted
to its privileges. In fact exact information would have been hard to give, as
final decisions on membership were made by the foreign trading posts that
sometimes ignored the decisions of the Hansa
meetings. Incidentally the membership was in a permanent change.
From the 15th
century on there exist numerous lists of members for different purposes, out
of which a core of about 60 towns between the rivers Ijssel and Narwa becomes evident. But those lists are neither
complete nor reliable and partly contradictory.
Numbers in the
literature vary between 70 and about 200 members. Depending on the intensity
and duration of participation in Hanseatic activities one can also
distinguish different degrees of attachment. Since the 15th century, often 72
member towns are mentioned; besides that, there was
a number of smaller and economically weaker towns unable to send
representatives to the Hanseatic meetings on their own. They were represented
by bigger neighbor towns. So there was a smaller circle of Hanseatic towns
that took part in trade, were invited to the meetings and influenced their decisions,
and a wider circle, whose merchants also benefited from Hanseatic privileges.
Attending the meetings was no exclusive right, but rather a tiresome and
expensive duty one liked to evade.
To become a member,
first the town's merchants had to take part in Hanseatic trade. From the
middle of the 14th century (when the step from Hansa
of merchants to the Hansa of towns had already been
made) the Hanseatic meetings had to decide on formal applications; their
decision depended on whether admission was advantageous to the Hansa or not. So in 1441 Kampen
was admitted again, but Utrecht refused in 1451. Smaller towns could be
admitted informally by one of the bigger ones. A special case was Neuss in
1457, being raised to the rank of a Hanseatic town by an imperial privilege.
Loss of membership occurred by not using Hanseatic privileges, by voluntary
withdrawal or formal exclusion (Verhansung) in
case of serious violations of Hanseatic principles or interests. And both - admission
as well as exclusion - did not concern a confederation of towns, but
privileges or German law. In most cases it was hard to find out and sometimes
a point of disagreement when a member was admitted.
Click on the below map for bigger image
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As I mentioned, it
was above all unknown since when the Hansa itself
existed. There was no founding date or act. Even contemporaries did not know
how it came into being. In a lawsuit in 1418 Cologne searched for the
founding charter in vain.
There were
important preconditions, such as the German medieval colonization of Eastern
Europe, the opening up of the Baltic area, the founding of Lübeck in 1143 (resp. 1159), and the formation of a
merchant cooperative on Gotland. But none of these was the foundation of a
community of merchants and towns.
The first mention
of a "Hansa Almaniae"
comes from 1282, concerning merely the community of the London trading post.
A communal spirit beyond such single communities became apparent only in the
middle of the 14th century, when King Magnus Erikson of Norway in 1343
granted freedom of trade and customs to the Wendish
towns and to all merchants "de hansa Teutonicorum." Soon afterwards members of the Hansa appeared in different places, self-confidently
standing up against hinderances of their trade.
"Hansa" soon meant the North German
merchants in the North Sea and Baltic area as a whole. In historical sources,
too, it became more and more concrete.
First signs of a
common Hanseatic awareness can even be seen one century earlier, when in
1252/53 delegates from Lübeck and Hamburg, in
the name of all German merchants trading in Flandres,
negotiated with Countess Margaretha, even though
the different regional groups got separate copies of their privileges.
Obviously all persons affected saw their interests looked after by these
negotiators. On the other hand, particularly in England, distrust and
frictions between the Colognes (having been privileged here since the middle
of the 12th century) and the "Osterlinge"
(who appeared some decades later) arose, though the Lübeck
and Hansa merchants in 1266/67 got the same
privileges by the King as the Colognes. A general Hanseatic solidarity here
seems to have been lacking until in 1281 the Colognes and the "Osterlinge" became reconciled and began to build up
a trading post community of the German merchants in London. This London
trading-post community, one year later called "Hansa
Almaniae," was an important nucleus of the
later Hansa. Another one was the early connection
between Hamburg and Lübeck that in the 13th century
gained the leading role in the Baltic trade, thus preparing its leadership in
the Hansa itself.
This could be
observed by the statutes of the big trading posts abroad. Nowgorod
for instance in 1293 raised Lübeck to be its
court of appeal. In general these trading posts were regulated more strictly
than the Hansa as a whole. Here the statutes of the
Bruges office 1347 are to be mentioned, which divided its merchants into
three rather independent groups related to their origin. This indicated the
considerable differences of interest and was the example for the
organizational division of the Hansa into thirds in
the 15th century. When in 1554 it was divided into quarters, this already
indicated its decay.
When for the first
time delegates of the Hanseatic towns met in Lübeck
in 1358, this might be regarded as the beginning of the European importance
of the Hansa. The assembly had to discuss
violations of rights and privileges in Flandres and
imposed an embargo against that county. This was completely successful:
privileges were restored, legal security was achieved and extended to the
whole country, and compensation was paid. By the way, this development showed
the considerable independence of the northern part of the Holy Roman Empire,
and even the imperial city of Lübeck kept some
distance to the Reich.
The effective
acting against Flanders encouraged the towns, particularly with regard to the
Danish King Waldemar IV. He once had ascended to
the throne with Lübeck's support, but later
expanded his power in the Baltic at the expense of the Hanscatic
trade. The Wendish and Pomeranian towns broke off
their trade with Denmark and resolved to act militarily. Though they tried to
ally with north European princes, the main burden was borne by the Wendish towns - Lübeck,
Rostock, Wismar, Stralsund, Lüneburg, Hamburg.
Under Lübeck's command, their fleet besieged
Helsingborg in 1362. But lacking support, it failed and the outcome was an
unfavorable armistice. The Lübeck Mayor Wittenborg was made responsible for that and decapitated.
The Hansa continued the war with privateers but
could not avert a disadvantageous peace in 1365.
This brought no end
to King Waldemars hostile trade policy that now
also provoked resistance among Prussian and Dutch towns. From their alliance,
joined by the Wendish towns, in 1367 there
originated the "Cologne Confederation" that included 75 towns and
the Netherlands. For nearly two decades this was a firm federation of the
most important Hanseatic towns (though without Hamburg and Bremen). It was
financed by a special customs duty and entered alliances with Mecklenburg,
Sweden, and the Counts of Holstein. By extreme effort, this confederation
raised a powerful fleet and army that surpassed the contractual commitments.
For the Hansa the new war on land and sea beginning
in 1368 became quite a success, made manifest in the well-known peace of
Stralsund in 1370:
- Former Hanseatic trade privileges were renewed,
being valid no longer for separate towns, but for the confederation as a
whole.
- For 15 years compensation had to be paid to the
towns, which held as a pledge Malmö as
well as other castles and fortresses at the sound.
- The Hansa even got
the right of a say in the next Danish king's election.
By leaving the last
unused at the death of Waldemar in 1375, the Hansa showed its main goals to be economic. Its towns
gained supremacy in the Baltic trade, controlled the sound and temporarily
drove out the Dutch and the English from the Baltic. While particularly the
Prussian towns demanded the further occupation of the sound fortresses and
the continuation of the Cologne Confederation, under the pressure of the Wendish towns and the Dutch those were returned in 1385
and the confederation not prolonged. Obviously the majority of the towns did
not want a formal federation, but only a community of interests without power
politics. This showed the diversity of members and interests as well as of
goods and trading areas from the Baltic and Russia to the Iberian peninsula.
Furthermore, it showed the contrasts between the Prussian towns and Lübeck,
that tried again and again to stop their direct trade via the sound to
Flanders and England. The Prussian towns found support in the Teutonic Order
of Knights (being a member of the Hansa as well).
But this Order faced increasing pressure from the rise of the
Polish-Lithuanian realm. And Prussian trade to the West met more and more
difficulties, since the Danish Queen Margaretha I
ascended the Swedish throne in 1389. The Hanseatic towns headed by Danzig
imposed an embargo on Denmark and Stockholm, but it had little effect. In
1397 Margareta proclaimed the union of the three Scandinavian kingdoms in the
Kalmar Union.
It was her rival
for the Swedish throne, Duke Albrecht of Mecklenburg, who from Wismar and
Rostock employed pirates - the notorious Vitalienbrüder
- in order to hurt the Baltic trade. Together with Prussian towns, the
Teutonic Order defeated those pirates on Gotland, driving them out of the
Baltic Sea. Their scattered survivors, led by the famous Klaus Störtebeker, were finally overcome by Hamburg
sailors in the North Sea. This caused Denmark to renew Hanseatic privileges
in the realms of the Kalmar Union. However the Teutonic Order already had
passed the peak of its political power. Its defeat in the battle near Grunwald-Tannenberg 1410 shook its position in the Hansa permanently.
For many historians
the Hansa in early 15th century had reached the
summit of its economic and political development, the Blütezeit
(heyday). Nevertheless unfavorable factors already became visible:
- The North European countries were on their way
to become national states, trying to raise and protect a competitive
trade of their own.
- The North German territorial states exerted
increasing pressure on the Hanseatic towns,
causing some of these cities to loose their
independence already in the 15th century.
In order to resist
this, the Hansa diet at Lübeck
in 1418 discussed the plan of a temporary alliance of towns. The outcome was
poor, as at that time particularly the Wendish
towns had to get through serious internal uprisings.
Anyhow the
following clashes with Denmark (1426-35) proved Lübeck
and the Hanseatic towns unable to preserve the influence over the
Scandinavian countries that they had achieved in 1370. On the other hand,
disagreement and disunity within the Hansa
obviously in most cases led only the most affected towns to be active. Here
and more often these were the Wendish towns as an
essence primarily interested in the Baltic trade, the Scandinavian privileges
and frequently acting politically or militarily for the entire Hansa.
All efforts to
resist the growing princely pressure unanimously failed, until in 1442
Berlin-Cölln lost its independence by a
surprise coup of Elector Frederic II. A meeting of North German princes in Wilsnack next year indicated the danger of joint princely
actions against cities. This finally gave rise to the first Hanseatic "Tohopesate" in 1443, a three-year defensive alliance
against internal and external threats and highway robbery. 38 towns took
part, passing their test successfully already in the next year in a feud
between the town Kolberg and the Duke of Pomerania.
Therefore in 1447 this alliance was prolonged, its membership expanded, and
in 1451 it was renewed again, as princely threats persisted.
Beyond preserving
the freedom of towns which were in danger, it was about a fundamental
problem: precondition for Hanseatic membership was the unchallenged rule of
the town council inside and outside, not only formally. Only few members were
imperial cities (e.g., Lübeck, Goslar); the
remaining lay in territories, but were practically
independent because of their political and economic strength. By obtaining
important sovereign rights, they had achieved far-reaching emancipation from
territorial rule. Depriving the council of power was a reason for exclusion,
as was explicitely laid down in 1418. This meant
that the Hansa was an association for the defense
of the council's oligarchies too, in order to maintain the leading, sometimes
patrician houses of merchants or guild masters in power. This could be
threatened by civic uprisings as well as by princely attacks, dangers
obviously increasing in the 15th century, not to mention the growing
competition of the English and Dutch trade.
There were also
clashes of interest between coastal and inland towns, as coastal towns -
instead of the initial idea of common trade on land and sea - tended to take
over the more profitable trade on the North and Baltic Sea, pushing down the
inland towns to mere suppliers. Especially Hamburg and Lübeck
by this contributed to the dissolution of the Hanseatic community. In
addition internal conflicts increased because of demands of participation and
social contrasts. Due to clashes of interest inside the Hansa,
the growing threat of princely power caused no strengthening of the
collective Hanseatic federation impetus. The "Tohopesate"-alliances
for longer terms were of doubtful use and were no remedy for problems in
trade policy. Instead, the more regional leagues of towns rather were
stimulated, particularly in the Wendish quarter,
where Lübeck was still dominant.
The external
threats intensified, especially due to the serious conflict with England
(1469-1474). For the Hansa it was embarrassing that
the Cologne merchants in England left the Hanseatic line, as England was the
most important trading partner for Cologne. Its conflict with the Hansa arose already in 1468, when Cologne declined the
taxes decided by the Hansa diet for Brabant and the
Netherlands as too high, Cologne having extensive trade relations in that
area. Obviously its egoism was prevailing.
The conflict with
England arose from decades of discussion over the legal position of English
merchants in the Hanseatic towns and over the Hanseatic privileges in
England, repeatedly ending up in acts of violence. When finally in 1469, the
Steelyard, the Hanseatic trading post in London, was destroyed, this meant
war, in the course of which in 1471 Cologne was excluded from the Hansa. But England, too, was weakened by internal
factions. Even the king was expelled to the Netherlands in 1471 and could reconquer his throne only with support from the Hansa, especially Danzig. So inspite
of several heavy defeats suffered by the Hanseatic fleet, the Hansa achieved a very favourable
peace in Utrecht 1474. In fact this was the last outstanding success of the Hansa, though mainly resulting from lucky circumstances:
Hanseatic privileges were confirmed, Hanseatic trade in England once more
secured for nearly a century. Soon after Cologne was readmitted, but it had
to accept severe financial conditions.
The success of the Hansa could not conceal the signs of further decline:
- More inland towns had been subjugated by
princes or anxiously fled into neutrality.
- The great Hanseatic
trading posts were loosing significance. In
comparison with the ascending Antwerp, Bruges suffered decay mostly due
to the silting of its river Swin. And after increasing
troubles the Novgorod office was finally closed by Ivan III in 1494. The
privileges of the office in Bergen, Norway, were hurt even by Lübeck and Hamburg themselves dealing directly
to Iceland since about 1476 and thus showing how self-serving interests
were prevailing.
- Lübeck's military efforts against Denmark and the Dutch could not stop the looses of privileges and markets in that area.
- And the Hansa did
have no answer to the rise of the big south German trading firms like
the Fuggers, although they became considerable
competitors even in the north.
It seems impossible
to say, when the decline of the Hansa really began,
as it factors existed long since
- the rise of the national and territorial states
detrimental to their freedom and trade,
- the growing up of centrifugal forces inside the
Hansa and its permanent loss of members,
- the further development of trading forms and
the increasing competition by England and the Dutch, which caused a
shifting of the main trade routes and markets to the west, further
reinforced by the discovery of America.
Another factor was
the Reformation, bringing the process of dissolution of the Hansa to a new stage. The spreading of Lutheran teaching
in the early 1520's was common to all Hanseatic towns and soon linked with
political and social questions. This in some cases became a serious menace to
security and established order. The Lübeck Hansa diet in 1525 therefore tried to set up a common
defense draft . But due to the varying advance of
Lutheranism, being partly violent and in most cases successful, this failed.
In some places iconoclasm occurred (Stralsund, Stettin, Brunswick, Münster). At last nearly all Hanseatic towns
followed the Reformation, except Cologne, thus increasing its inner distance.
More detrimental to
the Hansa were some of the political consequences
of the Reformation. In Lübeck the immigrant
merchant Jürgen Wullenwever
through the support of the Reformation movement ascended even to the mayor's
post, overthrowing the old leading class of the town in 1533. His efforts to
regain the powerful position Lübeck had in
former times, ended in a disaster, enhancing the loss of significance not
only for Lübeck but for the entire Hansa. His endeavour to expel
Dutch trade from the Baltic matched the Lübeck
interests, not that of the Prussian towns. His privateering
warfare against dutch trading vessels grew into a
big war against Denmark and Sweden, the so called "Grafenfehde"
(Counts-feud), as two counts comanded his troops.
This war went far beyond Lübeck's forces. The
other Wendish towns kept sceptical
distance, as Wullenwever followed above all Lübecks own aims and went on too
daringly. In order to get allies among north German princes and even Henry
VIII of England, he promised them the crowns of Denmark and Sweden,
pretending they would soon be at his disposal. Thus he was prepared to widen
the conflict all over Northwest Europe. But none of the mentioned risked that
adventure. It were the neighbouring
Hamburg and Lüneburg that mediated peace in
1536. At that time Wullenwever was already
overthrown, and in Lübeck the old council's
power had been restored. Wullenwever's end was
quite symbolic: he was captured by the Archbishop of Bremen and later handed
over to the strictly catholic Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel,
brother of the former, where he was submitted to a spectacular lawsuit and
executed. This was to demonstrate the victory of traditional order and
princely rule against urban intent to maintain freedom and independence.
Another mischief
was the defeat of the Schmalkald Federation in 1547
(the Federation being named after the place of its origin in 1531 and acting
as a defensive alliance of Lutheran towns and territories). Among its
founders there were several Hanseatic towns, more of them joining in later,
defending with their religious belief simultaneously their independence.
Their failure therefore did not only mean a heavy loss of money paid on
contributions, war expenses and penalties. It also once again showed their
discord, as of course Cologne stayed aloof from that alliance, Lübeck after the Wullenwever
adventure did not join the war against the Emperor, and the besieged
Magdeburg did not get any help from other Hanseatic towns. But in spite of
that defeat the Lutheran faith could be maintained.
Even more unfavourable was the international development. In the
Baltic, once dominated by the Hanseatic trade, Denmark and Sweden gained
increasing preponderance, more and more refusing foreign trade and preventing
all Hanseatic efforts to restore Hanseatic trade to Russia to its former
extent. King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway (1588-1648) was a rigorous
adversary of urban liberties, harming Hanseatic trade and politics with all
his might. In 1604 he cancelled the Hansa's
exemption from duty in the sound. He vexed Lübeck's
trade and shipping in the Baltic, compelled Hamburg to a formal homage in
1603, denying all Hamburg claims to be subject to the Emperor only and in
1616 built up the fortress Glückstadt at the
Elbe in order to hurt Hamburg's trade.
In the west the
London Steelyard faced more violent attacks against its privileged position
by English merchants. The beginning of the Dutch revolt against Spain led to
the expulsion not only of numerous Dutch emigrants, but also of the English Merchants
Adventurers Company from Antwerp. Both of them found favourable
conditions to settle in Hamburg, bringing profit to this city but hurting
Hanseatic rules that forbade tree trade for non-Hanseatic members in
Hanseatic towns; even merchants from other Hanseatic towns were restricted.
Hamburg was the best example to show that economic success was no longer
based on old Hanseatic rules. Protests from other towns had little effect. Lübeck even appealed to the Kaiser to proceed
against the English monopolists in the Reich. But the imperial intervention
had little influence. It rather caused the closing of the London Steelyard in
1598; incidently the Kaiser himself procured
extensive English deliveries. Though the Steelyard was returned in 1606, it
did not recover its former significance.
The Dutch war of
independence against Spain since 1567 quickly meant the end of Hanseatic postitions in that area, although the Antwerp trading
post of the Hansa had been reopened in 1555 and in
1568 for the first time moved into a new residence, the biggest secular
building the Hansa ever erected. It was to be used
only for a few years. Disturbance, Spanish plundering and the siege of
Antwerp in 1584/85 drove out the last merchants. While some cities had profit
from the Dutch refugees, the attempted reastablishing
of Hanseatic trade in the Netherlands failed definitely.
Obviously the
development was in more than one respect contradictory, as it showed the
weakness and internal contrasts of the Hansa, while
some of its members, above all Hamburg, were quite prosperous, gaining
profits by the Dutch and dealing even with Catholic Spain. In 1607 Lübeck, Danzig, and Hamburg achieved a very favourable commercial treaty at the Spanish Court.
Because of the infirmity
of the Hansa since the middle of the 16th century,
plans and repeated efforts were made to restore its community. Since princely
support was not available, consolidation was tried as to its own
organization:
- Meetings of all Hansa
towns as well as of its quarters (Lübeck,
Cologne, Brunswick, Danzig) were to be held
more frequently; though this succeeded only for a short time.
- In 1557 a confederation of 63 towns was raised
for ten years and prolonged after; but its statutes had little respect.
- Since 1554 for the first time annual dues were
introduced due to the respective prosperity of each town; yet readiness
to pay proved to be poor, and arrears soon went up.
- In 1556 Dr. Heinrich Suderman
from Cologne was appointed the first Hanseatic syndic, competent for law
questions and external negotiations, a distinguished lawyer though with
little possibility for action, so that after his death in 1591 this
syndic office stayed vacant for a longer time.
Nevertheless there
was still some common spirit as shown by the successfull
intervention of several towns, when Brunswick was besieged and attacked by
its Duke in 1605/06, and in 1616 they even achieved a defensive treaty with
the Netherlands. This however proved to be worthless, when war began. The
30-Years War seemed to accelerate the decay of the Hansa.
Obviously the respective towns depended entirely upon themselves, only some
of them being sufficiently fortified. Wallenstein -
imperial commander-in-chief - occupied Wismar and Rostock. The remaining towns
mostly were in danger too, particularly since Sweden had joined the war in
1630.
Therefore the Hansa diet in 1629 authorized Lübeck,
Bremen and Hamburg - being the most active and well-to-do members - to act
for the entire Hansa, as it was impossible to
assemble at any time necessary. This mandate of trust then concerned
Wallenstein's siege of Stralsund, but remained unspecified and was never
cancelled. In 1630 these three cities agreed on a defensive alliance
providing help for all member towns in danger. Facing the war this was
clearly unrealistic; still this alliance later was prolonged decade by
decade, thus establishing the tradition that Lübeck,
Bremen, and Hamburg resumed in early 19th century. This obviously concealed
that the decision of 1629 was rather an act of resignation, not a reform.
By the end of the
war in 1648, several Hanseatic towns were under Swedish rule (Wismar,
Rostock, Stralsund, Stettin), Magdeburg was
destroyed. On the other hand Hamburg and Danzig had grown, Hamburg mainly
profiting from its recent fortification and its bank, founded in 1619, that
made it a secure market, a place for diplomatic negotiations and financial
transactions (when the Swedish war was subsidized by France) and a shelter
for refugees.
When peace conferences
began in Münster and Osnabrück,
they were attended by Lübeck, Bremen, and
Hamburg, referring to their commission from 1629. Although there was some
discussion about the admission of at least Bremen and Hamburg, as their
imperial status was in dispute, by skillful diplomacy they achieved a
remarkable success. In order to reestablish Hanseatic trade and privileges,
which suffered many losses during the war, it was their aim to explicitly
include the Hansa in the peace treaty finally
sealed in 1648. This was at first denied by the German princes and the
Kaiser. But first in 1645 the Hanseatic negotiators managed to be included in
the Swedish-Danish peace (at Brömsebro); in
1646 they renewed the defence-treaty with the
Netherlands, thus paving the way to be included, too, in the Dutch-Spanish
peace treaty in early 1648, restoring the Spanish commercial treaty at the
same time. So finally the Hansa was included, too,
in the Famous Westphalian peace treaty in late
1648. It was the very first time that the Hansa was
mentioned in an official document of the Holy Roman Empire.
This of course was
another paradox, as the constitutional establishment (or rather confirmation)
of the Hansa matched by no means its actual
condition. To stabilize it once more, the forces were lacking as well as
political freedom in many cases. There was no help, when Magdeburg was
conquered in 1666. Because of lacking attendance (in spite of threatening
invitations) no Hansa diet was held until 1669,
when merely six towns were represented and no decisions made. It remained the
last Hansa diet, the effective end of the Hanseatic
league. Europe - as somebody said - did not need the Hansa
any longer. Only Lübeck, Bremen, and Hamburg
kept in contact, thus maintaining Hanseatic traditions.
It was around 1800,
when Napoleon's army was destroying the Holy Roman Empire and conquering
large parts of Europe, that the myth of the Hansa being a federation of strong, free and wealthy
cities emerged. This - to end my story - was the reason why Lübeck, Bremen, and Hamburg, having regained
political independence, assumed the official title of "Free and
Hanseatic cities."
BACK TO
THE BALTIC STATES BACK TO GERMANY
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