Hanse, Deutsche

Hanse, Deutsche, a trading organization of North Sea and Baltic German towns, which had its beginnings in the 12th c., and effectively came to an end in the 17th c. The first Hanseatic organizations were the offices set up in foreign countries (in England, 1157, and somewhat later in Norway) by groups of German traders from Cologne and Bremen. Separate associations, based on Lübeck (newly founded in 1158), grew up in the late 12th c.; one such was the Association of Gothland Merchants (Gemeinschaft der Gothlandfahrer), which cultivated and protected trade in the Baltic and achieved economic penetration into Russia. These associations grew rapidly in the 13th c. under the leadership of Lübeck, and more and more German cities, in the interior as well as near the coast, joined the Hanseatic League which, though having no formal constitution and revenues, succeeded in exercising considerable economic and political power. In all, and at different times, 164 cities belonged to the League, but the most prominent members apart from Lübeck were Hamburg, Lüneburg, Bremen, Cologne, Soest, Brunswick (see Braunschweig), Stralsund, Dortmund, Stendal, Bergen (Norway), Danzig, Reval, Riga, and Wisby. The last five, though outside the boundaries of the Empire, were predominantly German cities. In western Europe the most important transit port of the Hanse was Bruges. By the 14th c. the Hanseatic League dominated European maritime trade, and its power was such that it was able to undertake a successful war against Denmark in 1367-8, and to exact stringent peace terms in the Treaty of Stralsund (1370). The Hanse also again maintained its privileges by force in the 15th c. against Denmark (1435) and England (1474). In the course of the 15th c. the diverging interests of individual members, and the rise of the Dutch as maritime traders, began to threaten the Hanseatic maritime hegemony; in the 16th c. Lübeck, under the revolutionary government of Jürgen Wullenwever, undertook a campaign against Denmark which ended in disaster (1536). The League, having lost its monopoly, could no longer offer its members attractive privileges and gradually diminished in extent and influence. The last diet (Hansetag), held in 1669, was attended only by a rump consisting of six cities, Bremen, Brunswick, Cologne, Danzig, Hamburg, and Lübeck. The League was never officially dissolved, and its traditions were maintained by the three municipalities still known as Hanseatic Cities (Hansestädte), Hamburg, Bremen, and Lübeck.