The Hanse

Your stroll through the eventful history and prehistory of Lübeck starts with archaeological finds on the museum site. You will go past wells, ancient masonry and other traces of Slavic, Danish and German settlement, before arriving in the time of the Hanse.

A scene on the estuary of the river Neva illustrates the key aspects of trade with Novgorod, which made Lübeck one of the richest cities in the High Middle Ages. Following multiple exhibits from this period you can experience how Lübeck developed rapidly in the 13th century as the boomtown of the North.

With the kontor of Bruges, we stage one of the most important trading centres of the time and give you an insight into the variety of textiles, metal goods and spices that were traded there. An entire room is dedicated to the gloomy atmosphere of the plague epidemic in the 14th century and illustrates how this disease changed social, political and economic conditions in the Middle Ages.

In London, you will accompany the Rinck merchant family from Cologne through London’s Steelyard and to the riverside of the Thames. You can also listen to the merchants’ anecdotes in the Rhenish wine tavern. In the next room you will learn how the Hanse merchants reached their decisions by consensus at the Hansetag of 1518.

The exhibition ends with the Bergen kontor, which was characterised by the stockfish trade and the rough treatment of young apprentices from Hanse merchant families – and which was dissolved in the 18th century as the last kontor of the Hanse.