Hanseatic City of Braunschweig

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As the Hanseatic City of Braunschweig, the city ​​of Braunschweig has belonged to the Hanseatic League since the 13th century . Already on January 20, 1358 a participation of the gentlemen Johan van Evensen and Henning van Berklingen for Braunschweig at the Hanseatic day in Lübeck is documented, which suggests that the city was a member of the Hanseatic League from the beginning. After the first volume in the history of the Hanseatic League by Georg Sartorius from 1802, Braunschweig was first mentioned in connection with the Hanseatic League in a document from 1361.

background

Between 1245 and 1490 Braunschweig participated in 57 city alliances, the aim of which was to protect and promote trade among one another and to provide mutual support in the event of threats to the alliance partners. The political and economic development of the city was influenced by its membership in the Hanseatic League from the middle of the 13th century. The city was at the crossroads of important connecting routes between east and west on the long-distance trade route that connected cities such as Frankfurt, Cologne and Aachen with Magdeburg, Halle and Leipzig. There was also a trade route from the north of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck to the south through the Harz Mountains to Nuremberg. In addition, Braunschweig was located on the Oker , so that the goods between Harz and Heide could also be transported by ship. Up to the 14th century, diverse trade relations with the German Hanseatic cities or with cities such as London, Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp as far as the Russian Smolensk or Novgorod, Gotland, Riga and Hungary can be proven. The Braunschweig merchants had already been exempted from customs duties throughout the Holy Roman Empire by the later Emperor Otto IV . On September 13, 1228, the traders also received trade privileges and the right to duty-free trade from Waldemar II , the King of Denmark.

At that time Braunschweig was one of the largest cities in northern Germany, along with Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen, and thanks to its favorable geographical location, it was a trading and industrial center as early as the Middle Ages. The economic promotion was favored in particular by Duke Heinrich the Lion and Otto IV, who helped the citizens of the city to obtain privileges from the middle of the 13th century, so that Braunschweig was considered a free city from the middle of the 14th century.

Trade, advice and guilds

Most of the trade took place overland, but it was also possible to ship trade goods on the Oker into the city. In Braunschweig, some place names are still reminiscent of the city's former main trading centers, including the Altstadtmarkt , the Hagenmarkt or the Kohlmarkt . Around the year 1426, cloth imported from Flanders and metals and slate procured from the Harz region were mentioned as the most important trade goods . In return, wool, wax, copper and grain were delivered to Flanders.

The five soft images had come together in Braunschweig and there were a large number of trading yards with traders, some of whom came from far away areas. This made the city one of the most important financial centers of the Middle Ages. In addition to the Hanseatic trade, Braunschweig was known, for example, for the cloth- making trade of the Lakenmacher in Hagen or the clothing tailoring in the Neustadt, but also for the production of metal goods or weapons as well as the Braunschweig beer called Mumme, which has been documented since 1390 and has a long shelf life .

In addition to metal processing, there was also processing of leather. At the time of the Reformation movement, the families who were active in long-distance trade, especially the guild of wall cutters and changers, which was located in the old town , enjoyed the highest reputation. The wall tailors in Hagens and Neustadt, on the other hand, had joined forces with the textile manufacturers to form a wall tailor and sheet maker guild. Other important craftsmen were the guild of cymbal workers and goldsmiths and the craft guilds. The members of the city council mostly came from the so-called "families", the old families of the old town who were mainly active in long-distance trade and who formed the first estate. The second estate “of the white rings”, along with some rising merchant families, were the members of the noble families of the Hagens and Neustadt. The third estate was the craft guilds.

Temporary exclusion from the Hanseatic League

The so-called " Second Great Shift " is considered to be the cause of the temporary exclusion (Veransung) of the city of Braunschweig from the Hanseatic League and from the Hanseatic trade in 1375. A revolt of the merchants organized in the guilds led to the city councils being expelled in the course of inner-city unrest and the guilds took power in the city.

In April 1374 the Braunschweig city council, which included councilor Tile von Damm , met for a meeting with the local guild masters in the Brothers Church to discuss how to solve the financial problems, as the city had accumulated considerable debts and should also pay a ransom demand to free captured knights from the lost battle on the Elm. The total was around 10,000 marks. During this consultation, the city councils demanded a tax increase and this led to a dispute. Rumors that the city council wanted to arrest the guild masters or have them removed in order to enforce this demand ultimately led to the angry citizens moving to the Tile von Dammes residence, known as the " House of the Seven Towers " , after the consultation was. During the riot, seven other mayors and councilors besides von Damm were killed within a few days. Alarmed by this event, neighboring cities such as Hanover, Lüneburg, Minden or Hameln feared that this uprising could spread to them, so Braunschweig was excluded from the Hanseatic League for five years in 1375, until the old order could be restored, at least in part . In 1380 the city was re-admitted to the Hanseatic League.

The Hanseatic League and other alliances

In 1347 the alliance was divided into three parts for the first time. The first was, as the strongest faction, the Luebian-Saxon third with its capital Luebeck. The others were the Gotland-Prussian and the Westphalian-Livonian third. In 1358 the participating cities joined together to form the "von der dudeschen hanse" association. In addition to the superordinate Hanseatic days, so-called third days were held in which only the cities of the respective third took part.

After that, some of the Hanseatic cities came together to form further city alliances, which were called Tohopesate . These represented an amalgamation of the Wendish cities under the leadership of Lübeck with the Lower Saxony Confederation under the leadership of Braunschweig. The first of these alliances was concluded in 1430 because the Saxon cities were increasingly confronted with attacks by the Hussites on the one hand and the seaside cities on the other were in conflict with Denmark. In 1435, such a union served the Hanseatic League as an amalgamation of the Saxon cities in disputes with England and Flanders.

In the 15th century there were changes in the division. At that time there was the Lübeck third with Lübeck, the Westphalian third, whose main town was Cologne, and the Saxon third (including the Prussian and Livonian cities) with the main towns of Braunschweig and Danzig. The latter raised objections to this third division, which had existed since 1347, and claimed their own areas of responsibility. The redistribution into four quarters was decided: Danzig (Prussian-Livonian quarter), Braunschweig (Saxon quarter), Lübeck (Lübeck quarter) and Cologne (Westphalian quarter). The meetings of the individual Hanseatic city groups were an integral part of the Hanseatic organization. In addition to this loose association, many of the cities were united in other city alliances. In the Saxon third, for example, this was the Saxon City Association, in which the cities of Braunschweig, Magdeburg, Hanover, Hildesheim, Goslar, Göttingen, Einbeck and Northeim and until 1518 Aschersleben, Halberstadt, Halle, Helmstedt, Uelzen and Quedlinburg cooperated with each other. This was preceded by a fixed-term agreement that was decided on April 21, 1426 at the great Hanseatic League in Goslar. This agreement stipulated that the cities of Braunschweig and Magdeburg had a special leadership role. It was determined that a city day should be held annually, which took place between Easter and Whitsun in Braunschweig.

In the 1530s, the Schmalkaldic League was founded in the course of the Reformation movement. Some of the Wettin and Guelph royal houses were very open to this reformatory policy and joined this alliance. These included from the Saxon area: Braunschweig, Bremen, Einbeck, Göttingen, Goslar, Hanover, Hildesheim and Magdeburg.

Braunschweig belonged to the Hanseatic League until the 17th century and was one of the nine cities from which representatives took part in the last Hanseatic Day in Lübeck in 1669. The Thirty Years' War brought the city into economic and financial difficulties, it was occupied by the troops of Brunswick Duke Rudolf August and incorporated into the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel .

Historic Hanseatic Days in Braunschweig

Several times Braunschweig hosted the Hanseatic Days, at which the alliance held consultations.

  • Assembly in Braunschweig on April 21, 1426
  • Assembly in Braunschweig on March 12, 1427
  • Assembly in Braunschweig on May 16, 1428
  • Assembly in Braunschweig on April 4, 1429
  • Assembly in Braunschweig on May 1, 1430

Reception, engagement and the New Hanse

Rainer Zirbeck , Hanseatic Commissioner of the City of Braunschweig, during a lecture in the Martinikirche , October 1, 2019.

The name Hansestraße or the half-timbered house Haus zur Hanse , built in 1567 by Cyriakus Haberland in the Renaissance style , remind of the history of belonging to the Hanseatic League .

The city of Braunschweig is a member of the “ New Hanseatic League ”, an association of former European Hanseatic cities, which was founded in Zwolle in 1980 and which has set itself the goal of keeping the spirit of the Hanseatic League alive by maintaining tradition and exchanging ideas between member cities . On the recommendation of the then Lord Mayor Gert Hoffmann, Braunschweig should focus more on getting involved in this newly founded Hanseatic League and on the Hanseatic Days organized by the association or even working towards regaining the official title of "Hanseatic City of Braunschweig".

The city of Braunschweig has been a member of the Hanseatic History Association since it was founded in the middle of the 19th century . The association promotes research on the history of the Hanseatic cities. The 132nd Whitsun conference of the Hanseatic History Association took place from May 16 to 19, 2016 in Braunschweig under the motto “Hanseatic cities and state rule”.

literature

  • Bernhard Kreutz: City federations (Middle Ages / Early Modern Times) . In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria . 2011 ( historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de ).
  • Karl Pagel: The Hanseatic League. With 145 illustrations and a map . Stalling, Oldenburg 1942, OCLC 299665580 .
  • Sven-Friedrich Pape: Braunschweig and the Hanseatic League - trade relations and merchandise . GRIN Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-656-14388-8 , urn : nbn: de: 101: 1-201205284278 .
  • Sven-Friedrich Pape: The Hanseatic city of Braunschweig: representation. Literature and sources on the role of Braunschweig as a Hanseatic city . GRIN Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-656-14385-7 , urn : nbn: de: 101: 1-201203065344 .
  • Matthias Puhle : The politics of the city of Braunschweig within the Saxon city union and the Hanseatic League in the late Middle Ages . In: Braunschweiger Werkstücke (=  series A, publications from the city archive and the city library . Volume 20 ). tape 63 . Orphanage, Braunschweig 1985, ISBN 3-87884-026-8 .
  • Werner Spieß : Braunschweig as a Hanseatic city (=  Hansische Volkshefte . Volume 15 ). Friesen-Verlag, Bremen 1929, OCLC 236303048 .
  • Werner Spieß: The councilors of the Hanseatic city of Braunschweig, 1231–1671. With a constitutional introduction . In: Braunschweiger Werkstücke (=  publications from the city archive and the city library . Volume 5 ). tape 42 . Appelhans, Braunschweig 1970, OCLC 185986311 (first edition: 1940).
  • Henning Steinführer : Brief history of the Hanseatic city of Braunschweig. Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2017, ISBN 978-3-944939-31-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manfred RW Garzmann (Ed.): Document book of the city of Braunschweig. Volume 5: 1351-1360 (with addenda). Hannover 1994, ISBN 3-7752-5891-4 , p. 420 ff. ( Tu-braunschweig.de PDF, p. 473).
  2. ^ Georg Sartorius: History of the Hanseatic League . tape 1 : From the emergence of the Hanseatic League in the 13th century to the peace of the Hanseatic cities with Waldemar III. of Denmark in 1370 ( Digitale-sammlungen.de ).
  3. ^ Burchard Christian von Spilcker: History of the Counts of Wölze and their possessions, compiled from documents and other simultaneous sources. Speyer, 1827, p. 24 ( books.google.de ).
  4. ^ Emil Ferd Vogel: Antiquities of the city and the state of Braunschweig. After mostly unused manuscripts and with illustrations . Frdr. Otto, 1841, p. 90 ( books.google.de ).
  5. ↑ a b Hanseatic City of Braunschweig. braunschweig.de, accessed on September 9, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Sabine Wehking: DI 56, City of Braunschweig II, Introduction, 2. The inscriptions of the City of Braunschweig from 1529 to 1671 - evidence of the history of people . urn : nbn: de: 0238-di056g009e007 ( inschriften.net ).
  7. ↑ Gisela Graichen, Rolf Hammel-Kiesow, Alexander Hesse: The German Hanse a secret superpower . Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-498-02519-9 ( books.google.de - Restricted preview).
  8. ^ Matthias Puhle: At the time of the decay of the city of Braunschweig. A contribution to the dating of a document . In: Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch . tape 61 . Self-published by the Braunschweigisches Geschichtsverein, Braunschweig 1980, p. 7–16 , urn : nbn: de: gbv: 084-12021010536 ( dfg-viewer.de [PDF]).
  9. ↑ Historical background - city federations, "Tohopesaten" and state peace alliances. On: reichsaufgebot.de. (PDF, p. 3 ff.).
  10. ↑ Terra X: Proud Cities, Rich Trade. Merchants create a successful economic alliance. [ zdf.de ( Memento from November 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )].
  11. ↑ Iwan Iwanov: The Hanseatic League in times of crisis. Scope of action in political communication in times of change (1550–1620) . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar 2016, ISBN 978-3-412-20690-1 , p. 77 ( books.google.de ).
  12. ^ Matthias Puhle: The Saxon City Association in the late Middle Ages. On: mgh-bibliothek.de. (PDF, p. 128).
  13. ^ "Hanse" communication room. historicum.net, accessed November 1, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Dietrich Schäfer, Friedrich Techen: The Recess and other files of the Hanseatic days from 1256-1430 . Ed .: Hansischer Geschichtsverein. tape 8 , 3rd division. Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1910 ( deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de ).
  15. ^ Association of cities - The Hanseatic League. The Hanseatic League today. on hanse.org.
  16. ^ OB Hoffmann: "Braunschweig should become a Hanseatic city" June 20, 2014 ( regionalbraunschweig.de ).
  17. ↑ Hanseatic cities and sovereignty. (PDF) On: hansischergeschichtsverein.de.