Dictionary:
Lü·beck (lū'bĕk', lü'-)  |
A city of north-central Germany northeast of Hamburg. A major Baltic port and industrial center, the present city dates from 1143 and was the leading town of the Hanseatic League after its designation as a free city in 1226. It retained that status until 1937. Population: 211,000.
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Lübeck |
For more information on Lübeck, visit Britannica.com.
| German Literature Companion: Lübeck |
Lübeck, city situated close to the Baltic with a harbour and a seaside resort (Travemünde). Lübeck is in the Land Schleswig-Holstein of the Federal Republic (see Bundesrepublik Deutschland). Founded by the Duke of Holstein in 1143 and renewed on a larger scale by Heinrich der Löwe in 1159, it was annexed in 1181 by the Emperor Friedrich I. A threat from the Danes was decisively repelled at Bornhöved (1227). Lübeck, a Reichsstadt, became a great centre of trade, and was a prominent member of the Hanseatic League (see Hanse, Deutsche). In the 16th c. it was involved by J. Wullenwever in an unsuccessful and costly war. After the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire (see Deutsches Reich, Altes) in 1806, Lübeck retained its independence, becoming a Free Hanseatic City (Freie und Hansestadt), and so remained until 1937, when the National Socialist regime deprived it of its separate status.
A bishopric of Lübeck was created in 1160, but from the 13th c. onwards the bishop resided in Eutin. Formerly studded with medieval, 16th-c., and 17th-c. buildings, Lübeck was heavily damaged in a British air raid in 1942, but the exteriors of churches, public buildings, and conspicuous houses have been restored. The massive twin-spired gate, the Holstentor, was built in 1477. The city possesses a famous grammar school (Gymnasium), the Katharineum.
E. Geibel and G. Falke were both born and bred in Lübeck, as were the Mann brothers, Heinrich and Thomas. All four attended the Katharineum, and so, for a short time (1835-7), did Th. Storm. The house (Mengstr. 4) in which the Mann family lived from 1842 to 1891 was destroyed except for the façade, which now conceals a new building. It is popularly known as the Buddenbrookhaus because it was the setting for Th. Mann's novel Buddenbrooks. His Tonio Kröger is partly set in the town, as are H. Mann's novels Professor Unrat (also entitled Der blaue Engel) and Eugénie. A eulogy of the city is contained in Th. Mann's speech Lübeck als geistige Lebensform, published in Die Forderung des Tages (1930).
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Lübeck |
| History 1450-1789: Lübeck |
With a population of 25,000 at the end of the Middle Ages, Lübeck was one of the great cities of northern Germany, located at the crossroads between the Baltic and the North Sea. It lived from international trade, and its central position had brought it leadership of the Hanseatic League. By the end of the eighteenth century, its population was still at the same level, its international trade was dwarfed by foreign competition, and its regional position was overshadowed by Hamburg. Lübeck's decline was comparatively gentle. At times, its merchants reached the Mediterranean, the Iberian Peninsula, and the eastern Baltic, particularly in the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Lübeck's decline was accompanied by the slow dissolution of the Hansa itself as contrasting commercial interests drove a wedge between its members, and the once favorable trading conditions offered to Hanseatic merchants by foreign rulers were withdrawn. Meetings of the Hansetag still took place frequently in the city, and its burghers occupied many of the organization's most senior posts.
The Reformation came comparatively late to the city, in 1531. From then on, Lübeck was strictly Lutheran. Religious change was accompanied by political upheaval in the early 1530s, when a reform group, led by Jürgen Wullenwever, responded to Lübeck's growing political and economic weakness by unsuccessfully making war on Denmark in order to restore the city's former position.
The importance of long-distance trade throughout the period was reflected in the strong presence of seagoing merchants among the city's elite. Sharing power first with a small group of landowners and later with lawyers and other professionals, they ran the city's affairs, occupied the central quarter around the Rathaus (Town Hall), St. Mary's Church, and the marketplace, and maintained a close-knit network of relatives and business associates around the shores of the Baltic. Among the most famous of mercantile aristocrats was Thomas Fredenhagen (1627–1709), whose ships sailed into the Mediterranean and the West Indies. Commercial decline in the sixteenth century was accompanied by artistic decline. Lübeck's earlier reputation as a printing center was sustained during the Reformation but faded as Low German became less popular. A strong tradition of painting and wood carving (especially of altarpieces) made famous by Berndt Notke (1435–1509) also lost its wider importance. There was little continuing patronage of foreign artists. Only the organ music of Dieterich Buxtehude (1637–1707) and Franz Tunder (1614–1667) reached a wider audience.
Lübeck retained its medieval street plan. There was little rebuilding of town houses and public buildings until the eighteenth century, with the noted exception of the Rathaus, which was given a new Renaissance facade incorporating an impressive outside staircase during the sixteenth century. Instead, the appearance of the city was transformed from the outside. New and more extensive fortifications were constructed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in response to the increase in military threats. These included the renewal and redecoration of Lübeck's main gates. While financial constraints prevented a complete overhaul of the city's fortifications, they proved to be a major deterrent to passing armies. Lübeck paid a high price for its neutrality during the Thirty Years' War, however. Gustavus II Adolphus levied a large sum of money as his price for leaving the city alone.
The ideas of the Enlightenment were first brought to eighteenth-century Lübeck from the universities of Jena and Göttingen. The literary society established in 1788 went on to develop into an organization for reform, bringing together men of many different interests and backgrounds.
Bibliography
Cowan, Alexander Francis. The Urban Patriciate: Lübeck and Venice, 1580–1700. Cologne and Vienna, 1986.
Grassmann, Antjekathrin, ed. Lübeckische Geschichte. 2nd ed. Lübeck, 1989.
—ALEXANDER COWAN
| Wikipedia: Lübeck |
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007) |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck (
pronunc.) is the second largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League ("Queen of the Hanse") and because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage is on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites. In 2005 it had a population of 213,983.
Situated at the Trave River, Lübeck is the largest German port on the Baltic Sea. The old part of the town is an island enclosed by the Trave. The Elbe-Lübeck Canal connects the Trave with the Elbe River. Another important river near the town centre is the Wakenitz. Autobahn 1 connects Lübeck with Hamburg and Denmark (Vogelfluglinie). The borough Travemünde is a sea resort and ferry port at the coast of the Baltic Sea.
Contents |
The area around Lübeck was settled after the last Ice Age. Several Neolithic dolmens can be found in the area.
In addition, around 700 AD Slavic peoples started to come into the eastern parts of Holstein which had been left by many Germanic inhabitants in the course of the Migration Period. By the early 9th century Charlemagne, whose Christianisation attempts were opposed by Saxons, moved Saxons out and brought in Polabian Slavs, who were allied to Charlemagne, in their stead. Liubice ("lovely") was founded on the Trave banks about four kilometres north of the present-day city centre of Lübeck. In the 10th century it became the most important settlement of the Obotrite confederacy and a castle was built. The settlement was burned down in 1128 by pagan Rani from Rügen.
The modern town was founded by Adolf II, Count of Schauenburg and Holstein, in 1143 as a German settlement on the river island Bucu. He established a new castle which was first mentioned by Helmold in 1147. Adolf had to cede the castle to Henry the Lion in 1158. After Henry's fall in 1181, the town became an Imperial city for eight years. Emperor Barbarossa gave the city a ruling council with twenty members that survived into the 19th century. This council was dominated by merchants and caused Lübeck's politics to be dominated by trade interests for centuries to come.
The town and castle changed ownership for a period afterwards and was part of the Duchy of Saxony until 1192, of the County of Holstein until 1217 and part of Denmark until the Battle of Bornhöved in 1227.
Around 1200 the port became the main point of departure for colonists leaving for the Baltic territories conquered by the Livonian Order and, later, Teutonic Order. In 1226 Emperor Frederick II elevated the town to an Imperial Free City, becoming the Free City of Lübeck. In the 14th century Lübeck became the "Queen of the Hanseatic League", being by far the largest and most powerful member of this mediaeval trade organization. In 1375, Emperor Charles IV. named Lübeck one of the five "Glories of the Empire", a title shared with Venice, Rome, Pisa and Florence. Several conflicts about trade privileges were fought by Lübeck and the Hanseatic League against Denmark and Norway with varying outcomes. While Lübeck and the Hanseatic League prevailed in conflicts in 1435 and 1512, Lübeck lost when it became involved in the Count's Feud, a civil war that raged in Denmark from 1534 to 1536. Lübeck also joined the Schmalkaldic League.
After defeat in the Count's Feud, Lübeck's power slowly declined. Lübeck managed to remain neutral in the Thirty Years' War, but with the devastation caused by the decades-long war and the new transatlantic orientation of European trade, the Hanseatic League and thus Lübeck lost importance. After the Hanseatic League was de facto disbanded in 1669, Lübeck remained an important trading town on the Baltic Sea.
The great composer Dieterich Buxtehude became organist at the Marienkirche in Lübeck in 1668 and remained at the post until at least 1703.
In course of the war of the Fourth Coalition against Napoleon, troops under Bernadotte occupied the neutral Lübeck after a battle against Blücher on November 6, 1806. Under the Continental System, the bank went into bankruptcy and from 1811 to 1813 Lübeck was formally annexed as part of France until the Vienna Congress of 1815.
In 1937 the Nazis passed the so-called Greater Hamburg Act, where the nearby Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg was expanded, to encompass towns that had formally belonged to the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein. To compensate Prussia for these losses (and partly because Hitler had a personal dislike for Lübeck), the 711-year-long independence of Lübeck came to an end and almost all its territory was incorporated into Schleswig-Holstein.
During World War II, Lübeck was the first German city to be attacked in substantial numbers by the Royal Air Force. The attack on 28 March 1942 created a firestorm, that caused severe damage to the historic centre and the Bombing of Lübeck in World War II destroyed three of the main churches and greater parts of the built-up area. A POW camp for officers, Oflag X-C, was located near the city from 1940 until April 1945. Lübeck was occupied without resistance by the Second Army on May 2, 1945.
On May 3, 1945, one of the biggest disasters in naval history happened in the Bay of Lübeck when RAF bombers sank three ships which, unknown to them, were packed with concentration-camp inmates. About 7,000 people were killed.
Lübeck's population grew considerably from about 150,000 in 1939 to more than 220,000 after the war, owing to an influx of refugees expelled from the former Eastern provinces of Germany.
Lübeck remained part of Schleswig-Holstein after the war (and consequently lay within West Germany) and was situated directly at the inner German border during the division of Germany into two rival states in the Cold War period. South of the city the border followed the path of the river Wakenitz that separated both countries by less than 10 m in many parts. The northernmost border crossing was in Lübeck's district of Schlutup.
Lübeck's restored historic city centre became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
|
|
|
|
Much of the old town has kept a medieval look with old buildings and narrow streets. The town once could only be entered by passing one of four town gates, of which two remain today, the well-known Holstentor (1478) and the Burgtor (1444).
The old town centre is dominated by seven church steeples. The oldest ones are the Lübecker Dom (the city's cathedral) and the Marienkirche (Saint Mary's), both from the 13th and 14th centuries.
Other sights include:
Lübeck has many smaller museums like the St. Annen Museum, the Behnhaus and the Holstentor. Lübeck Museum of Theatre Puppets is a privately run museum. Waterside attractions are a lightvessel that served Fehmarnbelt and Lisa von Lübeck, a reconstruction of a Hanseatic 15th century caravel.
Lübeck is very famous for its excellent marzipan industry, and according to local legend, Marzipan was first made in Lübeck possibly in response to either a military siege of the city, or a famine year. The story, perhaps apocryphal, is that the town ran out of all foods except stored almonds and sugar, and used these to make loaves of marzipan "bread". Others believe that marzipan was actually invented in Persia a few hundred years before Lübeck claims to have invented it. The best known producer is Niederegger, which tourists often visit while in Lübeck, especially during Christmas time.
Like many other places in Germany, Lübeck has a long tradition with Christmas market in December, which includes the famous handicrafts market inside the Heiligen-Geist-Hospital (Hospital of the Holy Spirit), located at the north end of Königstrasse.
The Lübeck wine trade dates back to Hanseatic times. One Lübeck specialty is Rotspon, wine made from grapes processed and fermented in France and transported in wooden barrels to Lübeck, where it is stored, aged and bottled.
Lübeck's only newspaper is Lübecker Nachrichten.
The industrial Lübeck-Herrenwyk area, houses the static inverter plant of the HVDC Baltic-Cable.
Lubec, Maine, the easternmost town in the United States, is named for Lübeck.
Lübeck has three universities, Lübeck University of Applied Sciences, University of Lübeck and Musikhochschule Lübeck. The Graduate School for Computing in Medicine and Life Sciences is a central facility of the University and is founded by the German Excellence Initiative. The International School of New Media is an affiliated institute at the University.
The city of Lübeck is divided into 10 zones. These again are arranged into altogether 35 urban districts. The 10 zones with their official numbers, their associated urban districts and the numbers of inhabitants of the quarters:
Lübeck is twinned with:
|
|
Definitions from Wiktionary
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource
Images and media from Commons
News stories from Wikinews
Learning resources from Wikiversity
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
 | Dieterich Buxtehude |
| Hamburg |
| Hansa |
Copyrights:
 |
 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| German Literature Companion. The Oxford Companion to German Literature. Copyright © 1976, 1986, 1997, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more |
 |
| History 1450-1789. Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. Copyright © 2004 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Word Tutor. Copyright © 2004-present by eSpindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization. All rights reserved. eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; free trial. Read more |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Lübeck". Read more |
Mentioned in
|
