I have just had another happy holiday in a Hanseatic League town. In 2018, I had a wonderful trip to Lübeck, ‘Queen of the Hanseatic League’.  I made a resolution that someday I would visit Lüneburg, which supplied much of the salt traded by the League. Covid and a few other things got in the way, but I finally made it this year. Why did I never hear of the Hanse until I moved to Orkney? In spite of their importance in medieval Europe, I don’t remember them being mentioned during my school history lessons, nor during the years I spent working on medieval and early modern history. I was in my sixties when I finally came across the Hanse.

The Hanseatic League was a confederation of trading towns in North Germany from the 12th to the 17th centuries. During that period the Hanse dominated trade around the North Sea and the Baltic, and their operations extended as far as Southern Europe. It was originally formed in 1158 in Lübeck as a union of individual merchants. The first Hansetag (Hanseatic council meeting) was in 1356 and the last in 1669, the official beginning and end of the League. The merchants of the Hanseatic towns became so powerful that they were able to throw off the rule of the local rulers and answered directly to the Holy Roman Emperor.  They had ‘kontors’ or trading centres in towns in many European countries, the most important being Bergen in Norway; London in England; Bruges in the Low Countries; and Novgorod in Russia.  Such was the power of the Hanse, who used trade embargoes and even outright warfare to enforce their demands, that these enclaves were given special privileges by the local rulers.

One of the Hanse’s main trade items was salt fish. This was an essential commodity at the time, because the Catholic Church required its members to avoid meat on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and the whole of Lent and Advent. Fish was usually substituted. For those living inland, or during seasons when fishing was not possible, this meant fish preserved by salting and drying. There were, after all, no freezers or tins in those days.

Shetland was a major supplier of the fish. Merchants from the Hanseatic cities of Bremen and Hamburg are known to have traded regularly with Shetland for stockfish (dried cod and ling). Records show that in 1539 more than 20% of the stockfish declared to the customs at Bremen came from Shetland*. The tiny stone ‘bod’ (booth) at Symbister on Whalsay in Shetland was built for this trade, as were those at Hillswick on the Shetland mainland and Greenwell’s Booth on Unst. These merchants were supposed to trade through the Bergen kontor, but as time went on, a lot of them dealt direct.  Shetland is easy to visit from Orkney, and I have made several short trips there

The trade in salt was just as important as the fish itself, and salt was so valuable that it was sometimes referred to as ‘white gold’. At Lüneburg, 71km to the south of Lübeck, rock salt was obtained from a geological formation known as a ‘salt dome’. An underground salt-water spring was exploited from the 12^th century or earlier. The strong brine was directed through wooden pipes to boiling houses where it was put into large shallow lead trays with fires underneath them, and boiled until the water had evaporated. Wood for the fires was imported via the river Ilmenau, a tributary of the Elbe, which runs through Lüneburg. The work was continuous, 24 hours per day, and the town was noticeable for the clouds of steam and smoke rising from the salt works.  It seems highly likely that the salt so produced would have been contaminated by lead, and therefore so would the fish it was used to preserve. Might this have been another important source of lead poisoning in medieval Europe, besides lead-glazed pottery? Food contamination is not a new problem.

The salt was initially transported from Lüneburg to the Baltic port at Lübeck along a 100km track known as the ‘Old Salt Road’ which connected the two towns. In the late 14^th century, a small canal was built connecting tributaries of the rivers Elbe and Trave, which allowed the salt to be transported all the way from Lüneburg to Lübeck in boats.

The Hanse usually used cogs, small clinker-built ships with a single mast and a single square sail. They had flat bottoms which allowed them to settle on a level at low tide on a beach or harbour. Their squat shape allowed them to carry more cargo than the Viking vessels they replaced during the course of the 13^th century. They also had a rudder mounted on a stern-post rather than a steering oar, which made them easier to steer. The well-preserved remains of a 14^th century Hanseatic cog were recovered from the mud during dredging work on the river Weser near Bremen in 1962. The preserved timbers are now on display in the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven.

Lüneburg was the main town of the principality of Lüneburg, a territory of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1247 the Lüneburg town charter was confirmed, giving privileges to the burghers or citizens. However, in 1371 the citizens of the town expelled their territorial sovereign and destroyed his castle on the Kalkburg. In 1412 the first Hansetag of Lüneburg was celebrated in the town. The salt masters, from the small number of merchant families who leased the salt works, came to dominate the town. They grew extremely rich, and were able to afford beautiful imported glass and pottery, silver cups and salt-cellars; and to build magnificent tall brick houses and public buildings in the ‘Brick Gothic’ style.

Brick Gothic is slightly simplified Gothic architecture, with tall windows, high pointed arches, rib vaulting and flying buttresses, but built in brick. It was common during the medieval/Hanseatic period in northern and central Europe in the Baltic area where there is little building stone available. The buildings are a beautiful warm red colour, and in Lüneburg were decorated with glazed bricks, roof furniture etc. as well as some expensive imported stone. I saw some excellent glazed brick in the town museum. The tall churches are fiendishly difficult to photograph, though, because you can’t get far enough away from them in the narrow streets.

By the 17^th century, the power of the Hanse was declining. The rule of the merchants was replaced by the rulers of new territorial states and new trade routes, for example with India and America. The last Hansetag was in 1669.  Lüneburg was once again ruled by a local prince, and the town, having lost much of its salt trade, declined. The extraction of salt continued, however, and this has left a lasting legacy. So much salt was extracted, especially during the 19^th century, that the land above the dome, on which part of the town had been built, started to subside and is still doing so. Many buildings in the area have collapsed or had to be demolished. The salt works was finally closed entirely in 1980. They now only produce very small amounts of salt for the town spa, and to sell to tourists.

(*ref. panel text, Pier House Museum, Symbister, Whalsay)