Axel Stelter

Architecture 170B

GSI: Ocean Howell

November 2008, UCB

The Hanseatic League′s Influence on the Architecture of the Baltic Area 2

Lübeck and Rostock′s Old Town Halls (see "Example 1" in appendix) 3

Conclusion 5

St.Mary′s in Lübeck and St.Nikolai in Stralsund (see "Example 2" in appendix) 5

Conclusion 7

St. Maria in the non-hanseatic town Güstrow (see "Example 3" in appendix) 7

Conclusion 8

Conclusion 9

Appendix 10

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The Hanseatic League′s Influence on the Architecture of the Baltic Area

In 1894 the British architect John Tavenor wrote an article about the remains of

medieval architecture in the Baltic area. He concluded that the style in this area has

been carried throughout the Middle Ages and further stated that the style is "quite

dissimilar to those of the rest of the continent"i, meaning the Gothic style, that started to

spread over Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries. He calls this architecture the "Baltic

style" and considers it to be a sub-style of the Gothic style.

The Holy Roman Empire, which contributed to the spread of the Gothic style,

only reached as far as the Elbe River in Germany. The Baltic area, as the heart of

Northern Europe, was fractured into many kingdoms, principalities and lordships in the

1st millennium B.C. So how was it possible that cultural and economic goods could

spread in these disadvantageous circumstances, at a time when "commerce by sea was

little more than outrageous piracy and commerce by land was obliged to follow one or

two beaten tracks across Europe in order to escape merciless exactions of the robber

barons" ii?

One answer could be the Hanseatic League, a protected network created by

merchants, in order to protect their trade. This alliance allowed trading guilds to

manifest a trade monopoly within the entire Baltic area. Since the League was not tied

to any sphere of control but the merchants themselves, trades could be made easily

within Northern Europe.

Consequently the simultaneous appearance of the League and the Baltic style

suggest that there is a possible correlation between the architecture in the Baltic area

and its spread along the Hanseatic League′s trading routes. During this essay I am

going to support this assumption by finding exemplifying similarities among buildings in

the Hanse towns along the main trading routes.

In order to show a possible correlation between the style of architecture and the

trading routes of the League it is important to compare towns and their architecture at

each end of that route because they might offer similarities. Many historians see the

town of Lübeck in Northern Germany as the mother or "queen of the Hanse", because

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the year of its foundation is also considered the beginning of the Hanseatic League era.

Tavenor goes as far as to say that "the history of Lübeck becomes the history of the

Hansa".iii That means that most of the main trading routes have their origin here, which

suggests using Lübeck as the starting point in tracing the Baltic style. The Hanse town

Lübeck was founded in the year 1143 and soon after, sources prove the appearance of

a German merchant organization, a forerunner of the Hanseatic League.iv The town is

located at the southern end of the Baltic Sea and has direct connections to the

European mainland; hence its central location is ideal for sea and land trade.

Lübeck and Rostock′s Old Town Halls (see "Example 1" in appendix)

The first example that implies a correlation between the style of architecture and

the trading routes of the Hanseatic Leagues are façade and gables of the so-called

kontors

, the branch offices. Although one expects them to be more or less alike in the

different areas of the League, because they were functional trading buildings, the

kontors

offer a clear impression of how the League spread the same style over the sea.

A

kontor

in the context of the Hanseatic League is a either a foreign trading post,

which usually included a warehouse and further facilities for the merchants to operate

their businesses abroad, or simply the house of a merchant. Most of time the

merchants incorporated their entire life in the

kontor

: The warehouse, office (

kontor

is

also an old expression for the word "office"v) and optionally a shop were united under

one roof with the merchant′s family.

The most distinct part of these contour buildings in the hanseatic era carried the

typical gable style, which generally characterized the term of the "Baltic style". A gable

is the upper enclosing wall surface of a building in the area roof area. It is also

considered to be short for the term gable wall, which defines the entire outer wall from

the gable down to the ground. These gables can provide information about of where the

Hanseatic League exported its style along its trading routes in the Baltic.

Because Lübeck is the mother of all Hanse towns it makes sense to find the first

example for a contour and its gable here. There are many different beautiful and unique

gables in the old town center but one stands out the most. The town hall building was

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originally built in 1150 and served as a building for the merchants of the League. Since

then it has exemplified a mélange of the architectural styles affecting Lübeck in the last

centuries.vi

The larger gable, added in the 13th century, consists of two main walls is

enclosed by three octagonal towers with copper flags. Each wall has three arched blind

windows, each of which contains two decorative windows and one circle. Two round

and decorative holes in the wall reveal that there is no actual building mass behind this

gable. The whole gable appears like a defensive wall of a castle, but its height also

emphasizes the importance and influence of the building beneath it. Monochrome brick

served as a material for the gable itself. Copper was used as roofing for the walls and

the towers and made the gable shine and express power.

The Hanse town of Rostock joined the Hanseatic League in 1283.vii It is located

about 150 kilometers along the coast east of Lübeck. Because Rostock could be

reached from Lübeck within less than just a day by ship, it was a frequently used

destination. Just like Lübeck, Rostock built a town hall along the market in the 13th

century, which also became the center of communication between the hanseatic

merchants.viii It served as a court, storage and shopping facility. Today the medieval

aspects of the brick Gothic are mostly covered by other styles. But as in Lübeck, the

gable still stands out and allows room to find similarities between the two original

buildings at the time of the Hanseatic League.

The original building from 1218 is a part of two middleclass houses, which are

connected by a gabled roof. Nowadays the front façade facing the market expresses a

mixture of Baroque, and Renaissance additions, but the gothic gable on top still reaches

out into the sky. The gable wall has seven towers reaching up, where the middle tower

is the highest. Each tower has a small copper flag on top of it and is shaped octagonal.

Every part of the gable is roofed with copper and a long cornus reaches horizontally to

from one side to the other between the outside towers. The gable wall features a total of

twelve decorated arches, which are symmetrically distributed. The extended vertical

axes of two adjacent towers enclose two arches. Each arch consists of two symmetric

blind windows and an ornamental circle on top. Two different colors of brick additionally

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decorate the overall appearance of the gable wall through usage of alternating rows of

red and black bricks.

Conclusion

The functions of the town halls in Rostock and Lübeck in the 12th and 13th

century and especially their appearances are very similar. Of course, in this case the

two town halls were important functional buildings for the Hanseatic League and it

seems obvious that they should look similar. But although there was no higher power

mandating a certain style or building program other than the town itself, the two town

halls′ appearance share a lot of similarities, where the most striking similarities are the

symmetry of the gable wall with towers, the material and the incorporation of decorative

arches with blind windows. Conclusively the trading activities of the Hanseatic League

from Lübeck to Rostock strongly influenced the decisions made about the town hall in

Rostock approximately 50 years later.

St.Mary′s in Lübeck and St.Nikolai in Stralsund (see "Example 2" in appendix)

Besides spreading similarities in trading buildings which provide economically

effective functions, the Hanseatic League also spread a style in sacral buildings. Finding

similarities in religious buildings proved a deeper cultural exchange along the trading

routes beyond the reason of commerce.

Again, it is of advantage to start the investigation in Lübeck. Because of its

optimal location the town received the seat of the bishopricix which led to the building of

churches and cathedrals. St. Mary′s was a milestone regarding its size and structure.

The church "became the prototype for many main churches on both sides of the Baltic

as far as Riga and Reval".x It influenced other cities of the Hanseatic League to emulate

it; hence relevant building information had to be transferred via trading routes.

A closer investigation of St. Mary′s in the town of the "Queen of the Hanseatic

League" reveals that the church was first built in with brick in Romanesque style in

1156. With Lübeck′s growing importance as a trading center, the size was not sufficient

anymore and the leaders of the town wanted to express the economic and political

power of Lübeck in the new design. Further, it was intended to build a structure which

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