The Hanseatic League (; , , ; ; ; ; ) was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Northwestern and Central Europe. Growing from a few North German towns in the late 1100s, the league came to dominate Baltic maritime trade for three centuries along the coasts of Northern Europe. Hansa territories stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland during the Late Middle Ages, and diminished slowly after 1450. Merchant circles established the league to protect the guilds' economic interests and diplomatic privileges in their affiliated cities and countries, as well as along the trade routes which the merchants used.
Introduction
Hanseatic League
Hanseatic League | Introduction
late 1100s. In the late 1100s. 1356 Late 1100s
what does the red on the german flag represent
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Red and white were also colours of the Hanseatic League (13th–17th century). Hanseatic trading ships were identifiable by their red-white pennants, and most Hanseatic cities adopted red and white as their city colours (see Hanseatic flags)
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when was it accepted as the national flag?
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1848
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what are napoleonic wars?
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The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I.
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what is the league mentioned above?
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It was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Northwestern and Central Europe.
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when was it founded?
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The earliest extant documentary mention, although without a name, of a specific German commercial federation dates from 1157 in London. That year, the merchants of the Hansa in Cologne convinced King Henry II of England to exempt them from all tolls in London and allow them to trade at fairs throughout England. The "Queen of the Hansa", Lübeck, where traders were required to trans-ship goods between the North Sea and the Baltic, gained imperial privileges to become a free imperial city in 1226, as had Hamburg in 1189.
Hanseatic League | Foundation and formation
The Hanseatic League (; , , ; ; ; ; ) was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Northwestern and Central Europe. Growing from a few North German towns in the late 1100s, the league came to dominate Baltic maritime trade for three centuries along the coasts of Northern Europe. Hansa territories stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland during the Late Middle Ages, and diminished slowly after 1450. Merchant circles established the league to protect the guilds' economic interests and diplomatic privileges in their affiliated cities and countries, as well as along the trade routes which the merchants used.
Hanseatic League | Introduction
The Hanseatic League was a trading alliance in northern Europe in existence between the 13th and 17th centuries. Hanseatic may also refer to:
Hanseatic (disambiguation) | Introduction
In Northern Europe, the Hanseatic League, a federation of free cities to advance trade by sea, was founded in the 12th century, with the foundation of the city of Lübeck, which would later dominate the League, in 1158–1159. Many northern cities of the Holy Roman Empire became hanseatic cities, including Amsterdam, Cologne, Bremen, Hanover and Berlin. Hanseatic cities outside the Holy Roman Empire were, for instance, Bruges and the Polish city of Gdańsk (Danzig), as well as Königsberg, capital of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights. In Bergen, Norway and Veliky Novgorod, Russia the league had factories and middlemen.
High Middle Ages | Trade and commerce
The Hanseatic cities each had its own legal system and a degree of political autonomy. The Hanseatic League was an alliance of North German and Baltic cities during the Middle Ages. The Hanseatic League was founded for the purpose of joining forces for promoting mercantile interests, defensive strength and political influence. By the 14th century, the Hanseatic League held a near-monopoly on trade in the Baltic, especially with Novgorod and Scandinavia.
Economic History of Europe (1000 AD — Present) | Hanseatic League
In Northern Europe, the Hanseatic League was founded in the 12th century, with the foundation of the city of Lübeck in 1158–1159. Many northern cities of the Holy Roman Empire became Hanseatic cities, including Hamburg, Stettin, Bremen and Rostock. Hanseatic cities outside the Holy Roman Empire were, for instance, Bruges, London and the Polish city of Danzig (Gdańsk). In Bergen and Novgorod the league had factories and middlemen. In this period the Germans started colonizing Eastern Europe beyond the Empire, into Prussia and Silesia. The era of the Crusades brought large groups of Europeans into contact with the technologies and luxuries of Byzantium for the first time in many centuries.
Renaissance of the 12th century | Trade and commerce
In the 12th century the Hanseatic League established itself as a commercial and defensive alliance of the merchant guilds of towns and cities in the empire and all over northern and central Europe. It dominated marine trade in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and along the connected navigable rivers. Each of the affiliated cities retained the legal system of its sovereign and, with the exception of the Free imperial cities, had only a limited degree of political autonomy. By the late 14th century the powerful league enforced its interests with military means, if necessary. This culminated in a war with the sovereign Kingdom of Denmark from 1361 to 1370.
Holy Roman Empire | Changes in political structure
The New Hanseatic League, or the Hansa, was established in February 2018 by European Union finance ministers from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Sweden through the signing of a two-page foundational document which set out the countries' "shared views and values in the discussion on the architecture of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU)." The name is derived from the Hanseatic League, a Northern European commercial and defensive league which lasted until the 16th century. The New Hanseatic League developed from an informal cooperation among like-minded fiscally conservative northern European states that has also been referred to at various points as 'The Vikings' and the 'Bad Weather coalition'.
New Hanseatic League | Introduction
Principal city of the Hanseatic League remained Lübeck, where in 1356 the first general diet was held and its official structure was announced. The league declined after 1450 due to a number of factors, such as the 15th-century crisis, the territorial lords' shifting policies towards greater commercial control, the silver crisis and marginalization in the wider Eurasian trade network, among others.
History of Germany | Hanseatic League
Lübeck became a base for merchants from Saxony and Westphalia trading eastward and northward. Well before the term "Hanse" appeared in a document in 1267, merchants in different cities began to form guilds, or "Hansa", with the intention of trading with towns overseas, especially in the economically less-developed eastern Baltic. This area could supply timber, wax, amber, resins, and furs, along with rye and wheat brought down on barges from the hinterland to port markets. The towns raised their own armies, with each guild required to provide levies when needed. The Hanseatic cities came to the aid of one another, and commercial ships often had to be used to carry soldiers and their arms.
Hanseatic League | Foundation and formation
The Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive alliance of the merchant guilds of towns and cities in northern and central Europe that dominated marine trade in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and along the connected navigable rivers during the Late Middle Ages ( 12th to 15th centuries ). Each of the affiliated cities retained the legal system of its sovereign and, with the exception of the Free imperial cities, had only a limited degree of political autonomy. Beginning with an agreement of the cities of Lübeck and Hamburg, guilds cooperated in order to strengthen and combine their economic assets, like securing trading routes and tax privileges, to control prices and better protect and market their local commodities.
History of Germany | Hanseatic League
Over the period, a network of alliances grew to include a flexible roster of 70 to 170 cities. The league succeeded in establishing additional "Kontors" in Bruges (Flanders), Bergen (Norway), and London (England). These trading posts became significant enclaves. The London "Kontor", first alluded to by crusaders from Lübeck for whom the Kontor arranged the purchase of a replacement cog-ship in Summer 1189, formally established in 1320, stood west of London Bridge near Upper Thames Street, on the site now occupied by Cannon Street station. It grew into a significant walled community with its own warehouses, weighhouse, church, offices and houses, reflecting the importance and scale of trading activity on the premises.
Hanseatic League | Commercial expansion
The Hanseatic People's League () was a Weimar era political party in Lübeck, Germany. The party was founded in 1926. The party was formed by middle-class sectors that opposed the Social Democrats, in response to the takeover of the mayoral post of Lübeck by the Social Democrats. The Hanseatic People's League proclaimed itself as a 'gathering point for all non-Marxist, i.e. non-SPD/KPD, voters'. The party entered into an alliance with the German People's Party. In the 14 November 1926 Landtag election, the Hanseatic People's League became the largest party with 36 out of 80 seats in the assembly. In the 1929 Landtag election, the size of the party faction in the assembly shrunk to 29 seats.
Hanseatic People's League | Introduction
The merchants from their respective "Drittel" would then each choose two "Ältermänner" and six members of the Eighteen Men's Council ("Achtzehnmännerrat") to administer the "Kontor" for a set period of time. In 1356, during a Hanseatic meeting in preparation of the first "Tagfahrt", the league confirmed this statute. The league in general gradually adopted and institutionalized the division into "Drittel" (see table).
Hanseatic League | Organization
The Hanseatic cities had their own legal system and operated their own armies for mutual protection and aid. Despite this, the organization was not a state, nor could it be called a confederation of city-states; only a very small number of the cities within the league enjoyed autonomy and liberties comparable to those of a free imperial city.
Hanseatic League | Introduction
The "New Hanseatic League" was established in February 2018 by finance ministers from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Sweden through the signing of a two-page foundational document which set out the countries' "shared views and values in the discussion on the architecture of the EMU."
Hanseatic League | New Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an alliance of trading guilds that established and maintained a trade monopoly over the Baltic Sea, to a certain extent the North Sea, and most of Northern Europe for a time in the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period, between the 13th and 17th centuries. Historians generally trace the origins of the League to the foundation of the Northern German town of Lübeck, established in 1158/1159 after the capture of the area from the Count of Schauenburg and Holstein by Henry the Lion, the Duke of Saxony. Exploratory trading adventures, raids and piracy had occurred earlier throughout the Baltic (see Vikings) — the sailors of Gotland sailed up rivers as far away as Novgorod, for example — but the scale of international economy in the Baltic area remained insignificant before the growth of the Hanseatic League.
Maritime history | Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive alliance of the merchant guilds of towns and cities in northern and central Europe, that dominated marine trade in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and along the connected navigable rivers during the Late Middle Ages ( 12th to 15th centuries ). Each of the affiliated cities retained the legal system of its sovereign and, with the exception of the Free imperial cities, had only a limited degree of political autonomy. Beginning with an agreement of the cities of Lübeck and Hamburg, guilds cooperated in order to strengthen and combine their economic assets, like securing trading routes and tax privileges, to control prices and better protect and market their local commodities.
Economic history of Germany | Hanseatic League
At the start of the 16th century, the league found itself in a weaker position than it had known for many years. The rising Swedish Empire had taken control of much of the Baltic Sea. Denmark had regained control over its own trade, the "Kontor" in Novgorod had closed, and the "Kontor" in Bruges had become effectively moribund. The individual cities making up the league had also started to put self-interest before their common Hanseatic interests. Finally, the political authority of the German princes had started to grow, constraining the independence of the merchants and Hanseatic towns. The league attempted to deal with some of these issues: it created the post of Syndic in 1556 and elected Heinrich Sudermann as a permanent official with legal training, who worked to protect and extend the diplomatic agreements of the member towns.
Hanseatic League | End of the Hansa
If consensus could not be established on a certain issue, it was found instead in the appointment of a number of league members who were then empowered to work out a compromise. The Hanseatic "Kontore", which operated like an early stock exchange, each had their own treasury, court and seal. Like the guilds, the "Kontore" were led by "Ältermänner" ("eldermen", or English aldermen). The Stalhof "Kontor", as a special case, had a Hanseatic and an English "Ältermann". In 1347 the "Kontor" of Brussels modified its statute to ensure an equal representation of the league's members. To that end, member communities from different regions were pooled into three circles ("Drittel" ("third [part]"): the Wendish and Saxon Drittel, the Westphalian and Prussian Drittel as well as the Gothlandian, Livonian and Swedish Drittel.
Hanseatic League | Organization
In total, the party had obtained 27,881 votes (35.51% of the votes cast). Following the 1932 Landtag election, the party supported the NSDAP (Nazi party) in the assembly.
Hanseatic People's League | Introduction
Important centers of commerce within the empire, such as Cologne on the Rhine river and Bremen on the North Sea joined the union, which resulted in greater diplomatic esteem. Recognized by the various regional princes for the great economic potential, favorable charters for, often exclusive, commercial operations were granted. During its zenith the alliance maintained trading posts and "kontors" in virtually all cities between London and Edinburgh in the west to Novgorod in the east and Bergen in Norway. By the late 14th century the powerful league enforced its interests with military means, if necessary. This culminated in a war with the sovereign Kingdom of Denmark from 1361 to 1370.
History of Germany | Hanseatic League
In Northern Europe, cities including Lübeck and Bruges formed the Hanseatic League for collective defense and commerce. Their power was later challenged and eclipsed by the Dutch commercial cities of Ghent, Ypres, and Amsterdam. Similar phenomena existed elsewhere, as in the case of Sakai, which enjoyed a considerable autonomy in late medieval Japan.
City | Middle Ages
Visby (on the island of Gotland) functioned as the leading centre in the Baltic before the Hansa. Sailing east, Visby merchants established a trading post at Novgorod called "Gutagard" (also known as "Gotenhof") in 1080. Merchants from northern Germany also stayed there in the early period of the Gotlander settlement. Later they established their own trading station in Novgorod, known as , which was further up-river, in the first half of the 13th century. In 1229 German merchants at Novgorod were granted certain privileges that made their positions more secure. Hansa societies worked to remove restrictions on trade for their members.
Hanseatic League | Foundation and formation
The League was officially established on 27 February 1531 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, and John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, the two most powerful Protestant rulers in the Holy Roman Empire at the time. It originated as a defensive religious alliance, with the members pledging to defend each other if their territories were attacked by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. At the insistence of the Elector of Saxony, membership was conditional on agreement to the Lutheran Augsburg Confession or the Reformed Tetrapolitan Confession.
Schmalkaldic League | Origins
The Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive alliance of the merchant guilds of towns and cities in northern and central Europe that established and maintained a trade monopoly over the Baltic Sea and most of Northern Europe between the 13th and 17th centuries. Although trading alliances in the region were forming as early as 1157, the town of Lübeck did not form an alliance with Hamburg (which controlled access to salt routes from Lüneburg), until 1241. Trade was carried on chiefly by sea in order to escape tolls and political barriers, and at the end of the 15th century the Hanseatic League controlled some 60,000 tons of shipping.
Maritime history of Europe | The Hanseatic League
To make ships faster, more masts and sails were fitted. The Hanseatic League was an alliance of trading guilds that established and maintained a trade monopoly over the Baltic Sea and to a certain extent the North Sea in the Late Middle Ages, starting in the 13th century. Protection for the league was given in England in 1157. Warehouses belonging to the league were set up in eight English ports and one Scottish port. By the 16th century the league imploded and there was a rise of Dutch and English merchants.
Maritime history of England | Later Middle Ages
In 1282, Riga became a member of the Hanseatic League. The Hansa was instrumental in giving Riga economic and political stability, thus providing the city with a strong foundation which endured the political conflagrations that were to come, down to modern times.
Riga | Hanseatic League
Important centers of commerce within the empire, such as Cologne on the Rhine river and Bremen on the North Sea joined the union, which resulted in greater diplomatic esteem. Recognized by the various regional princes for the great economic potential, favorable charters for, often exclusive, commercial operations were granted. During its zenith the alliance maintained trading posts and "kontors" in virtually all cities between London and Edinburgh in the west to Novgorod in the east and Bergen in Norway. By the late 14th century the powerful league enforced its interests with military means, if necessary. This culminated in a war with the sovereign Kingdom of Denmark from 1361 to 1370.
Economic history of Germany | Hanseatic League
Hansa Rostock; Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, Netherlands; Hanze oil production platform, Netherlands; the Hansa Brewery in Bergen and the Hanse Sail in Rostock. DDG Hansa was a major German shipping company from 1881 until its bankruptcy in 1980. Hansabank in the Baltic states, which has been rebranded into Swedbank. Hansa-Park, one of the biggest theme parks in Germany.
Hanseatic League | Legacy Hanseatic connections
Between the 13th and 17th centuries, trade in the Baltic Sea and Central Europe (beyond Germany) became dominated by German trade through the Hanseatic League (). The league was a Low-German-speaking military alliance of trading guilds that established and maintained a trade monopoly over the Baltic and to a certain extent the North Sea. Hanseatic towns and trade stations usually hosted relatively large German populations, with merchant dynasties being the wealthiest and political dominant fractions.
History of German settlement in Central and Eastern Europe | Hanseatic League
The members of the Hanseatic League were Low German merchants, whose towns were, with the exception of Dinant, where these merchants held citizenship. Not all towns with Low German merchant communities were members of the league (e.g., Emden, Memel (today Klaipėda), Viborg (today Vyborg) and Narva never joined). However, Hanseatic merchants could also come from settlements without German town law—the premise for league membership was birth to German parents, subjection to German law, and a commercial education. The league served to advance and defend the common interests of its heterogeneous members: commercial ambitions such as enhancement of trade, and political ambitions such as ensuring maximum independence from the noble territorial rulers.The Hanseatic League was by no means a monolithic organization or a 'state within a state' but rather a complex and loose-jointed confederation of protagonists pursuing their own interests, which coincided in a shared program of economic domination in the Baltic region.
Hanseatic League | Organization
The first reference to it as the Steelyard ("der Stahlhof") occurs in 1422. Starting with trade in coarse woollen fabrics, the Hanseatic League had the effect of bringing both commerce and industry to northern Germany. As trade increased, newer and finer woollen and linen fabrics, and even silks, were manufactured in northern Germany. The same refinement of products out of cottage industry occurred in other fields, e.g. etching, wood carving, armour production, engraving of metals, and wood-turning. The century-long monopolization of sea navigation and trade by the Hanseatic League ensured that the Renaissance arrived in northern Germany long before it did in the rest of Europe.
Hanseatic League | Commercial expansion
The league had a fluid structure, but its members shared some characteristics; most of the Hansa cities either started as independent cities or gained independence through the collective bargaining power of the league, though such independence remained limited. The Hanseatic free cities owed allegiance directly to the Holy Roman Emperor, without any intermediate family tie of obligation to the local nobility. Another similarity involved the cities' strategic locations along trade routes. At the height of their power in the late-14th century, the merchants of the Hanseatic League succeeded in using their economic power and, sometimes, their military might—trade routes required protection and the league's ships sailed well-armed—to influence imperial policy.
Hanseatic League | Zenith
It also became part of the Hanseatic League, a group of towns with great wealth; this league was the economic centre in that part of Europe.
Zutphen | History
The ten founding members and their positions in the 1932-33 "Bezirksliga Main/Hessen" and "Bezirksliga Hessen/Hannover" season were:
Gauliga Hessen | Founding members of the league
On February 14, 1395, the three main nobles (the abbot of Disentis, Johannes von Ilanz, Baron Ulrich II von Rhäzüns and Baron Albert von Sax-Misox) of the "Vorderrhein" together with delegates from the Court Municipalities in Ilanz created an "eternal alliance". Since the alliance was predominantly located in the high country, it was also known as "Part Sura" ( or High Alliance). Five days later, Count Johann von Werdenberg-Sargans joined the League at Flimserwald. The League was more than just a military alliance. It included increasing security on the roads, and required free trade within the League. Laws were standardized and even commoners were granted protection and the right to a court trial.
Grey League | Foundation
During the late 16th century and early 17th century, the League fell apart, as it was unable to deal with its own internal struggles, the rise of Swedish, Dutch and English merchants, and the social and political changes that accompanied the Reformation. Although a tight-fisted monopoly, the League’s need for more cargo space led to new designs in shipbuilding, and its free association of about 160 towns and villages was a historically unique economic alliance that showed the benefits of well-regulated commerce.
Maritime history of Europe | The Hanseatic League
Principal city of the Hanseatic League remained Lübeck, where in 1356 the first general diet was held and its official structure was announced. The league declined after 1450 due to a number of factors, such as the 15th-century crisis, the territorial lords' shifting policies towards greater commercial control, the silver crisis and marginalization in the wider Eurasian trade network, among others. Between 1347 and 1351 Germany and Europe were haunted by the most severe outbreak of the Black Death pandemic. Estimated to have caused the abrupt death of 30 to 60% of Europe's population, it led to widespread social and economic disruption and deep religious disaffection and fanaticism.
Economic history of Germany | Hanseatic League
The New Hanseatic League is a political grouping of economically like-minded northern European states, established in February 2018, that is pushing for a more developed European Single Market, particularly in the services sector.
European Single Market | New Hanseatic League
The names of the Quarters have been abbreviated in the following table: Kontor: The Kontore were foreign trading posts of the League, not cities that were Hanseatic members, and are set apart in a separate table below. The remaining column headings are as follows:
Hanseatic League | Lists of former Hansa cities
In 1557 and 1579 revised agreements spelled out the duties of towns and some progress was made. The Bruges "Kontor" moved to Antwerp and the Hansa attempted to pioneer new routes. However the league proved unable to prevent the growing mercantile competition, and so a long decline commenced. The Antwerp "Kontor" closed in 1593, followed by the London "Kontor" in 1598. The Bergen "Kontor" continued until 1754; of all the "Kontore", only its buildings, the "Bryggen", survive. The gigantic warship "Adler von Lübeck" was constructed for military use against Sweden during the Northern Seven Years' War (1563–70) but was never put to military use, epitomizing the vain attempts of Lübeck to uphold its long-privileged commercial position in a changing economic and political climate.
Hanseatic League | End of the Hansa
The Hanseatic cities had their own law system and furnished their own protection and mutual aid. The Hanseatic League maintained factories, among others, in England (Boston, King's Lynn), Norway (Tønsberg) and Finland (Åbo). Later, cities like Bruges and Antwerp actively tried to take over the monopoly of trade from the Hansa, inviting foreign merchants to join in.
Factory (trading post) | European medieval factories
Decisions and actions of the Hanseatic League were the consequence of a consensus-based procedure. If an issue arose, the league's members were invited to participate in a central meeting, the "Tagfahrt" ("meeting ride", sometimes also referred to as "Hansetag", since 1358). The member communities then chose envoys ("Ratssendeboten") to represent their local consensus on the issue at the "Tagfahrt". Not every community sent an envoy; delegates were often entitled to represent a set of communities. Consensus-building on local and "Tagfahrt" levels followed the Low Saxon tradition of "Einung", where consensus was defined as absence of protest: after a discussion, the proposals which gained sufficient support were dictated aloud to the scribe and passed as binding "Rezess" if the attendees did not object; those favouring alternative proposals unlikely to get sufficient support were obliged to remain silent during this procedure.
Hanseatic League | Organization
Advisors urged Ferdinand to take advantage of this and reverse the 1629 Edict, but he saw a chance to recoup his losses by military means and missed the opportunity. In March, Oxenstierna invited members of the Upper Rhenish, Lower Rhenish–Westphalian, Swabian and Franconian Circles to Heilbronn. Although efforts to recruit the Hansa cities failed, the League was formed on 27 April 1633.
Heilbronn League | Formation and objectives
Two contracts with Lübeck in 1241 marks the origin and core of the powerful Hanseatic League of trading cities. The first contract stated that both cities would defend their freedom and their privileges together. The second contract stated that the road between the two cities will be secured against bandits and that deported émigrés would not find shelter in the other city. In 1264 the east–west route for commerce was cobbled in Hamburg. It was the third cobbled road in northern Europe and called "Steinstraße", which is still the name of a street in Hamburg. On 8 November 1266 a contract between Henry III and Hamburg's traders allowed them to establish a "hanse" in London.
History of Hamburg | Hanseatic league
The eleven founding members and their league positions in the 1932-33 season were:
Gauliga Mittelrhein | Founding members of the league
In cities linked to the North Sea and the Baltic Sea a trade monopoly developed in the Hanseatic League. This facilitated the growth of trade among cities in close proximity to these two seas. Long-distance trade in the Baltic intensified, as the major trading towns came together in the Hanseatic League, under the leadership of Lübeck. The League was a business alliance of trading cities and their guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe and flourished from the 1200 to 1500, and continued with lesser importance after that. The chief cities were Cologne on the Rhine River, Hamburg and Bremen on the North Sea, and Lübeck on the Baltic.
Economic History of Europe (1000 AD — Present) | Hanseatic League
While in the case of the post riders the shift from royal messenger to public courier must be seen as evolutionary, there were some notable early examples. The Hanseatic League had a regular mounted service as early as the year 1274 between the principal towns of the League as well as the fortified castles which protected the merchants in their commerce. Business and diplomatic messages were handled by the service equally. Well organised, it had its own post-horses that were used exclusively for the letter service; at each stop the time of the receipt and dispatch of the post-bag was written upon the face of each letter.
Post riders | The Hanseatic League
In the second half of the 14th century, the Hanseatic League dominated the trading organization in the Baltic. The Hanse originated in northern Germany and Westphalia and held many associations with merchants from these areas. In its prime, the Hanseatic League consisted of around 200 cities and towns and stretched from Reval in the east to Kampen in the west. The long-lasting success of the Hanseatic trading system can be attributed to Northern Europe’s many rivers and roads that connected German markets and cities to the ports in the Baltic Sea.
Baltic maritime trade (c. 1400–1800) | Era of the German Hanse
The Heilbronn League was formed in the Free Imperial City of Heilbronn, on 23 April 1633, during the Thirty Years' War. Led by Sweden, it brought together various Protestant states in western and northern Germany. It was supported by Saxony and Brandenburg-Prussia, although they were not members. Established following the death of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden at Lützen, in November 1632, it was directed by Sweden, with France providing financial support. Despite competing priorities and objectives, the League achieved considerable success, before its defeat at Nördlingen in November 1634. This provided an opportunity for Emperor Ferdinand to negotiate with his Protestant opponents.
Heilbronn League | Introduction
On 14 February 1488, a new Swabian League was formed, at the "Reichstag" of Esslingen, not only of 22 Imperial cities but also of the Swabian knights' League of St. George's Shield, bishops, and princes (Ansbach, Baden, Bavaria, Bayreuth, Hesse, Mainz, the Electorate of the Palatinate, Trier, Tyrol, and Württemberg). The league was governed by a federal council of three colleges of princes, cities, and knights calling upon an army of 13,000 men. It aided in the rescue of the future emperor Maximilian I, son of Emperor Frederick III, held prisoner in the Low Countries, and later was his main support in southern Germany.
Swabian League | History
The Swabian League of Cities was first formed on 20 November 1331, when twenty-two imperial cities of the former Duchy of Swabia banded together in support of the Emperor Louis IV, who in return promised not to mortgage any of them to any imperial vassal. Among the founding cities were Augsburg, Heilbronn, Reutlingen, and Ulm. The counts of Württemberg, Oettingen, and Hohenberg were induced to join in 1340.
Swabian League of Cities | Beginnings
The league also wielded power abroad. Between 1361 and 1370 it waged war against Denmark. Initially unsuccessful, Hanseatic towns in 1368 allied in the Confederation of Cologne, sacked Copenhagen and Helsingborg, and forced Valdemar IV, King of Denmark, and his son-in-law Haakon VI, King of Norway, to grant the league 15% of the profits from Danish trade in the subsequent peace treaty of Stralsund in 1370, thus gaining an effective trade and economic monopoly in Scandinavia. This favourable treaty marked the height of Hanseatic power. After the Danish-Hanseatic War (1426–1435) and the Bombardment of Copenhagen (1428), the Treaty of Vordingborg renewed the commercial privileges in 1435.
Hanseatic League | Zenith
The Steelyard, from the Middle Low German , was the main trading base () of the Hanseatic League in London during the 15th and 16th centuries.
Steelyard | Introduction
The Hanseatic Parliament (Hanse Parlament) is an association of more than 50 business chambers (chambers of crafts, chambers of commerce and other similar bodies) around the Baltic Sea region with the common goal of promoting the small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), in particular in the fields of qualification, research and innovation. There is strong cooperation with the public sectors in the countries involved, but the Parliament is a non-governmental and non-profit organization. The Hanseatic Parliament was established in 2004. Originally its headquarters was located in Copenhagen, but moved to Hamburg. Its role model is the Hanseatic League of the late Middle Ages, but its focus is on the Baltic Sea region, whereas the original League had a much larger field of operations.
Hanseatic Parliament | Introduction
Most notably, John, Elector of Saxony and Philip of Hesse formed a League at Gotha, which they then concluded at Torgau in February 1526, thus forming the League of Torgau.
Diet of Speyer (1526) | Cause
In Bavaria, which was ruled by Gustav von Kahr at that time, he formed the Organisation Consul, and later the Viking League ("Bund Wiking"), a secret military society.
Hermann Ehrhardt | Introduction
The ten founding members and their league positions in the "Oberliga Südhannover/Braunschweig" and "Oberliga Weser/Jade" in 1932–33 were:
Gauliga Niedersachsen | Founding members of the league
Some have expressed fears the New Hanseatic League could exacerbate existing north-south political divides in Europe by grouping northern European countries too closely. A more recent fiscally conservative group of EU nations exists in an informal setting, dubbed the Frugal Four. It consists of some of the New Hanseatic League member nations plus Austria.
New Hanseatic League | Introduction
The Swabian League of Cities was first formed on 20 November 1331, when twenty-two imperial cities of the former Duchy of Swabia banded together in support of the Emperor Louis IV, who in return promised not to mortgage any of them to any imperial vassal. Among the founding cities were Augsburg, Heilbronn, Reutlingen, and Ulm. The counts of Württemberg, Oettingen, and Hohenberg were induced to join in 1340. The defeat of the city league by Count Eberhard II of Württemberg in 1372 led to the formation of a new league of fourteen Swabian cities on 4 July 1376. The emperor refused to recognise the newly revitalised Swabian League, seeing it as a rebellion, and this led to an "imperial war" against the league.
Swabia | Later medieval period
Exploratory trading adventures, raids, and piracy occurred early throughout the Baltic region; the sailors of Gotland sailed up rivers as far away as Novgorod. Scandinavians led international trade in the Baltic area before the Hanseatic League, establishing major trading hubs at Birka, Haithabu, and Schleswig by the 9th century CE. The later Hanseatic ports between Mecklenburg and Königsberg, (present-day Kaliningrad) originally formed part of the Scandinavian-led Baltic trade-system. Historians generally trace the origins of the Hanseatic League to the rebuilding of the north German town of Lübeck in 1159 by the powerful Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, after he had captured the area from Adolf II, Count of Schauenburg and Holstein.
Hanseatic League | History
From 1554, the division into "Drittel" was modified to reduce the circles' heterogeneity, to enhance the collaboration of the members on a local level and thus to make the league's decision-making process more efficient. The number of circles rose to four, so they were called "Quartiere" (quarters): This division was however not adopted by the "Kontore", who, for their purposes (like "Ältermänner" elections), grouped the league members in different ways (e.g., the division adopted by the Stahlhof in London in 1554 grouped the league members into "Dritteln", whereby Lübeck merchants represented the Wendish, Pomeranian Saxon and several Westphalian towns, Cologne merchants represented the Cleves, Mark, Berg and Dutch towns, while Danzig merchants represented the Prussian and Livonian towns).
Hanseatic League | Quarters
The Treaty of Stralsund (24 May 1370) ended the war between the Hanseatic League and the kingdom of Denmark. The Hanseatic League reached the peak of its power by the conditions of this treaty. The war began in 1361, when Danish king Valdemar Atterdag conquered Scania, Öland, and Gotland with the major Hanseatic town Visby. In 1362, a Hanseatic counterstrike was repelled by the Danish fleet at Helsingborg, which led Hansa to accept a truce culminating in the unfavourable Treaty of Vordingborg (1365), depriving the league of much of its privileges. Unwilling to accept the treaty, the Hanseatic League, which used to be a trade league rather than a political union, raised a fleet through the Confederation of Cologne in 1367 and renewed their Swedish alliances.
Treaty of Stralsund (1370) | Introduction
The League of Torgau () was an alliance of Lutheran princes, including Philip of Hesse and John of Saxony, which was formed 27 February 1526 to oppose the terms set forth in the Edict of Worms. Because it had no substantial military, it was unable to achieve religious or political influence. In 1531, the Schmalkaldic League, a similar alliance that included an army of 10,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, was formed. It lasted for sixteen years and was more successful in reaching its demands. The League of Torgau was set up soon after the 1526 Imperial Diet of Speyer.
League of Torgau | Introduction
The game's theme centers around the Hanseatic League, a group of German cities that formed a trading area in the Middle Ages, and the merchants who traded among them. The object of the game is to have the largest number of victory points at game's end; these can be obtained through a variety of methods. Each player must strike a balance between attaining these points and enhancing their own ability to secure additional points at a later stage in the game.
Hansa Teutonica | Gameplay
The eleven founding members and their league placing in 1932-33 were:
Gauliga Sachsen | Founding members of the league
Despite its collapse, several cities still maintained the link to the Hanseatic League. Dutch cities including Groningen, Deventer, Kampen, Zutphen and Zwolle, and a number of German cities including Bremen, Demmin, Greifswald, Hamburg, Lübeck, Lüneburg, Rostock, Stade, Stralsund and Wismar still call themselves "Hanse" cities (their car license plates are prefixed "H", e.g. –"HB"– for "Hansestadt Bremen"). Hamburg and Bremen continue to style themselves officially as "free Hanseatic cities", with Lübeck named "Hanseatic City" (Rostock's football team is named F.C. Hansa Rostock in memory of the city's trading past). For Lübeck in particular, this anachronistic tie to a glorious past remained especially important in the 20th century.
Hanseatic League | Legacy Hanseatic connections
The economic crises of the late 15th century did not spare the Hansa. Nevertheless, its eventual rivals emerged in the form of the territorial states, whether new or revived, and not just in the west: Ivan III, Grand Prince of Moscow, ended the entrepreneurial independence of Hansa's Novgorod "Kontor" in 1478—it closed completely and finally in 1494. New vehicles of credit were imported from Italy, where double-entry book-keeping was invented in 1492, and outpaced the Hansa economy, in which silver coins changed hands rather than bills of exchange. In the 15th century, tensions between the Prussian region and the "Wendish" cities (Lübeck and its eastern neighbours) increased.
Hanseatic League | Rise of rival powers
The twelve founding members of the "Gauliga Südwest/Mainhessen" and their positions in the 1932-33 "Bezirksliga Rhein/Saar" and "Bezirksliga Main/Hessen" season were:
Gauliga Südwest/Mainhessen | Founding members of the league
Only nine members attended the last formal meeting in 1669 and only three (Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen) remained as members until its final demise in 1862.
Maritime history | Hanseatic League
The ten founding members and their placings in the 1932-33 season were:
Gauliga Westfalen | Founding members of the league
Lübeck's location on the Baltic provided access for trade with Scandinavia and Kievan Rus' (with its sea-trade center, Veliky Novgorod), putting it in direct competition with the Scandinavians who had previously controlled most of the Baltic trade-routes. A treaty with the Visby Hansa put an end to this competition: through this treaty the Lübeck merchants gained access to the inland Russian port of Novgorod, where they built a trading post or "Kontor" (literally: "office"). Although such alliances formed throughout the Holy Roman Empire, the league never became a closely managed formal organisation. Assemblies of the Hanseatic towns met irregularly in Lübeck for a "Hansetag" (Hanseatic day) from 1356 onwards, but many towns chose not to attend nor to send representatives, and decisions were not binding on individual cities.
Hanseatic League | Commercial expansion
Heinrich Sudermann (31 August 1520 – 7 September 1591) was an official of the Hanseatic League from Cologne. When the post of Syndic was created in 1556, Sudermann was elected as permanent official with legal training who worked to protect and extend the diplomatic agreements of the Hansa member towns. In 1557 and 1579, revised agreements spelled out the duties of towns and some progress was made.
Heinrich Sudermann | Introduction
As a consequence of the monopoly that Lüneburg had for many years as a supplier of salt within the North German region, a monopoly not challenged until much later by French imports, it very quickly became a member of the Hanseatic League. The League was formed in 1158 in Lübeck, initially as a union of individual merchants, but in 1356 it met as a federation of trading towns at the first general meeting of the "Hansetag". Lüneburg's salt was needed in order to pickle the herring caught in the Baltic Sea and the waters around Norway so that it could be preserved for food inland during periods of fasting when fish (not meat) was permitted.
Lüneburg | Hanseatic period
The Swabian League ("Schwäbischer Bund") was a mutual defence and peace keeping association of Imperial Estates – free Imperial cities, prelates, principalities and knights – principally in the territory of the early medieval stem duchy of Swabia established in 1488. The religious revolution of the Protestant Reformation divided its members, and the Swabian League disbanded in 1534.
Swabian League | Introduction
The sixteen founding members in 1940 were split into two groups. All clubs came from the French league system and are still active as of 2008, unless stated otherwise:
Gauliga Elsaß | Founding members of the league
The city of Königsberg (modern Kaliningrad) was founded in 1255, and joined the Hanseatic League in 1340. Danzig (Gdańsk) followed in 1361. Since Prussia was connected to the European trade network spanning via the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.
Prussia (region) | Christianization and the Teutonic Knights
The twelve founding members and their league positions in the 1932-33 season were:
Gauliga Niederrhein | Founding members of the league
The fourteen founding members and their positions in the 1932-33 "Bezirksliga Ostpreußen" and "Bezirksliga Grenzmark" season were:
Gauliga Ostpreußen | Founding members of the league
The ten founding members and their league positions in 1932-33 were:
Gauliga Schlesien | Founding members of the league
More recent scholarship has deemphasized the focus on Lübeck due to it having been designed as one of several regional trading centers. German cities achieved domination of trade in the Baltic with striking speed during the 13th century, and Lübeck became a central node in the seaborne trade that linked the areas around the North and Baltic seas. The hegemony of Lübeck peaked during the 15th century.
Hanseatic League | History
The twelve founding members and their positions in the 1932-33 "Oberliga Berlin-Brandenburg" season were:
Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg | Founding members of the league
The 22 founding members of the league and their positions in the 1926-27 season were:
Bezirksliga Main-Hessen | Founding members of the league
In 1686 the League of Augsburg was formed by the emperor and the imperial princes, to preserve the terms of the treaties of Westphalia and of Nijmegen. The whole European position was now bound up with events in England, and the tension lasted until 1688, when William III of Orange won the English crown through the Glorious Revolution and Louis invaded Germany. In May 1689, the Grand Alliance was formed, including the emperor, the kings of England, Spain and Denmark, the elector of Brandenburg and others, and a fierce struggle against France was waged throughout almost the whole of western Europe.
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor | Wars against France
There is a long history of trade relations between the Germans and the British. The Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds, and is market towns dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe. It stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea in the 13th to the 17th centuries, and it included London. The main centre was Lübeck. The League facilitated trade between London and its numerous cities, most of them controlled by German merchants. It also opened up trade with the Baltic.
Germany–United Kingdom relations | Trade and Hanseatic League
The league was formed of twelve clubs in two divisions in 1939: Group I: Group II:
Gauliga Sudetenland | Founding members
On 21 October 1470, Uelzen was the venue for a Hanseatic League Convention. A special honour as these resolutions of the association of cities only took place annually - primarily in Lübeck." The town became part of the Electorate of Hanover in 1708, the Kingdom of Westphalia in 1807, the Kingdom of Hanover in 1814, and the Prussian Province of Hanover in 1866.
Uelzen | History
Although the Hanseatic League sympathized with the Prussian cities, the league backed the Teutonic Knights because the order granted them extra privileges. The Livonian Order had problems with Denmark and was unable to help the Teutonic Knights in Prussia. Because of conflict between Sweden and Denmark, both sides stayed more or less neutral in the upcoming conflict. France and England were too weakened after the Hundred Years' War, and England was also embroiled in civil war, the Wars of the Roses. The Duke of Burgundy, Flanders, and the Netherlands, Philip the Good, was more interested in creating an independent Kingdom of Burgundy.
Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) | International situation
The three cities since the Congress of Vienna 1815 are each officially named the "Free and Hanseatic City Hamburg" ('), the "Free Hanseatic City Bremen" (') and the "Free and Hanseatic City Lübeck" ('), since 1937 merely the "Hanseatic City Lübeck" ('). Hamburg was one of the oldest stringent civic republics, in which the Hanseatics preserved their constitutional privileges granted in 1189 by Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, until the German Revolution of 1918–19 and the Weimar Constitution. Hamburg was strictly republican, but it was not a democracy, but rather an oligarchy.
Hanseaten (class) | Introduction
The league was founded in 1994 under the leadership of the German team Hamburg Blue Devils.
Football League of Europe | History
Though the Hanseatic League was centered in the Baltic, it also had important Kontors on the North Sea, including Bergen, the Steelyard in London, and Bruges. The rise of Bruges as a center of trade and a corresponding revival of the North Sea economic importance began in 1134 when a storm tide created a deeper waterway to the city allowing the entry of large ships to port. A lively trade sprang up between Bruges and London, mostly in textiles. Bruges became the end point of the Hanseatic East-West trade line that began in Novgorod and was very important for maritime connections between France, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands and the Hanseatic regions of Northern Europe.
History of the North Sea | Hanseatic League
The ten founding members and their positions in the 1932–33 "Bezirksliga Württemberg/Baden" and "Bezirksliga Rhein/Saar" season were:
Gauliga Baden | Founding members of the league
In 1963, the Bundesliga was established in Germany. The old "Oberliga Nord" was disbanded and at its stead, the "Regionalliga Nord" was set as the second tier of the league system. The "Amateurliga Hamburg", now renamed "Landesliga Hamburg", slipped to third tier in the league system, making the three "Verbandsligas" the fourth tier now. Otherwise, nothing changed for the three leagues.
Landesliga Hamburg-Hansa | 1953 to 1963
The "New Hanseatic League", established in February 2018 by like-minded finance ministers from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Sweden, is pushing to develop the European Stability Mechanism into a full European Monetary Fund that would redistribute wealth from trade surplus to trade deficit EU member states.
European Stability Mechanism | Further developments
The ten founding members and their positions in the 1932-33 "Bezirksliga Württemberg/Baden" and "Bezirksliga Südbayern" season were:
Gauliga Württemberg | Founding members of the league
The twelve founding members and their positions in the 1932–33 season were:
Gauliga Bayern | Founding members of the league
Brakel's Hanseatic roots go back to its early history and stretch through the Middle Ages. From the first written reference to "villa brechal" in 836 (in connection with transferring Saint Vitus's bones from Saint Denis, France, to Corvey) through to the 12th century, when it was the seat of the Lords of Brakel, the town found itself centrally located by virtue of two old commercial roads that crossed here. Moreover, the topography made expansion possible in the Early Middle Ages. Long-distance traders thereby had a decisive share in Brakel's development, being as they were part of the leading class in many Westphalian towns.
Brakel, Germany | Hanseatic League
The idea was to win Sweden's and Denmark's support, both of which had for a long time sought the destruction of the "Hanseatic League".
Bremen | Thirty Years' War
The League of the Ten Jurisdictions was the last of the Three Leagues founded during the Middle Ages in what is now Canton Graubünden of Switzerland. The League was created in the County of Toggenburg after the counts of Toggenburg died out. The League initially existed to resist the power of the House of Habsburg, and quickly allied with the Grey League and the League of God's House. In 1524 the three leagues joined together to become the Free State of the Three Leagues, which existed until the Napoleonic dissolution of the Free State.
League of the Ten Jurisdictions | Introduction