Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [13]
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THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE
The origins of the Hanseatic League go back to various guilds and associations established from about the mid-12th century by out-of-town merchants to protect their interests. After Hamburg and Lübeck signed an agreement in 1241 to protect their ships and trading routes, they were joined in their league by Lüneburg, Kiel and a string of Baltic Sea cities east to Greifswald. By 1356 this had grown into the Hanseatic League, encompassing half a dozen other large alliances of cities, with Lübeck playing the lead role.
At its zenith, the league had about 200 member cities. It earned a say in the choice of Danish kings after fighting two wars against the Danes between 1361 and 1369. The resulting Treaty of Stralsund in 1370 turned it into northern Europe’s most powerful economic and political entity. Some 70 inland and coastal cities – mostly German – formed the core of the Hanseatic League, but another 130 beyond the Reich maintained a loose association, making it truly international. During a period of endless feudal squabbles in Germany, it was a bastion of political and social stability. The Lübeck-born author Thomas Mann admired it for having created ‘a humane, cosmopolitan society’.
By the 15th century, however, competition from Dutch and English shipping companies, internal disputes and a shift in the centre of world trade from the North and Baltic Seas to the Atlantic had caused decline. The ruin and chaos of the Thirty Years War in the 17th century delivered the final blow, although Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck retained the ‘Hanse City’ title. Since reunification, however, well over a dozen cities have decided to adopt the title once again.
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It was not until 1555 that the Catholic and Lutheran churches were ranked as equals, thanks to Karl V (r 1520–58), who signed the Peace of Augsburg (1555), allowing princes to decide the religion of their principality. The more secular northern principalities adopted Lutheran teachings, while the clerical lords in the south, southwest and Austria stuck with Catholicism.
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The name Habsburg (Hapsburg) originates from Habichts Burg (literally ‘Hawk Castle’), the spot on the Rhine (in present-day Switzerland, immediately across the border from Germany) from where the great Swabian family first hailed.
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But the religious issue refused to die. Rather, it degenerated into the bloody Thirty Years War, which Sweden and France had joined by 1635. Calm was restored with the Peace of Westphalia (1648), signed in Münster and Osnabrück, but it left the Reich – embracing more than 300 states and about 1000 smaller territories – a nominal, impotent state. Switzerland and the Netherlands gained formal independence, France won chunks of Alsace and Lorraine, and Sweden helped itself to the mouths of the Elbe, Oder and Weser Rivers.
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The first potato was planted in Germany in 1621, the Gregorian calendar was adopted in 1700 and Germany’s first cuckoo clock started ticking in 1730.
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THE ENLIGHTENMENT TO THE INDUSTRIAL AGE
In the 18th century the Enlightenment breathed new life into Germany, inspiring a rabble of autocratic princes to build stunning grand palaces and gardens across the German lands. Berlin’s Schloss Charlottenburg, Potsdam’s Sanssouci Park and Dresden’s Zwinger are fine examples of the spirit of this new age. Meanwhile, Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Händel were ushered on stage and a wave of Hochkultur (high culture) swept through society’s top sliver. For the time being, however, the masses remained illiterate.
Brandenburg-Prussia became an entity to be reckoned with, kick-started by the acquisition of former Teutonic Knights’ territories and assisted by Hohenzollern king Friedrich Wilhelm