The Hansa Towns

Today, its medieval grandeur pairs nostalgia with exceptional cultural offerings.

Likewise, the fortified Elburg , which measures a mere meters by meters, was a crucial fishing village. Now its vibrant past can be explored inside atmospheric museums situated next to boutique shops and restaurants.

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And in Harderwijk , centuries-old churches sit perfectly with modern attractions like the Dolfinarium theme park and surprising culinary delights. The km-long River IJssel was a vein of trade, flowing through the provinces of Overijssel and Gelderland. Get a true taste of history and Dutch culture and cuisine by exploring these Hansa Towns inside and out by way of enlightening walking and bike tours.

Explore the preserved waterfronts and harbors, see centuries of history unfold during guided tours of monuments, escape into surrounding woodland to experience Dutch nature at its finest, or feel the wind blowing through your hair as you cycle past the open fields near the IJsselmeer lake. Stop off along the way to taste local delicacies or treat yourself to exclusive fine dining experiences. You can even embrace the merchant lifestyle by taking a cycling holiday along the Hanseatic Route , heading out on two wheels in daytime, then relaxing at night as your boat cruises to the next town.

The Dutch Golden Age. Dutch Food and Cuisine. In the footsteps of Van Gogh. Home Holland Stories Hansa Towns Hansa Towns The goal of the Hanseatic League, which was founded when Amsterdam was still a tiny settlement, was to expand commerce and spread knowledge. Hasselt This Hanseatic town is also known as Little Amsterdam. Kampen Discover the Hanseatic town of Kampen with a rich history and over monuments.

Zwolle Zwolle is a lively Hanseatic city with a Medieval centre, many shops and plenty of culinary treats. Hattem The charming, historic Hanseatic town in the Veluwe region. Harderwijk Historic Hanseatic town on IJsselmeer lake with many monuments and excellent restaurants. Deventer Discover this historic Hanseatic city and its many monuments. Zutphen Magnificent Hanseatic town with countless monuments.

Elburg Visit the many historic buildings, museums and cafes and restaurants in this old Hanseatic town. Cycling holidays past these Hanseatic towns. Hanseatic Route Read more.

Pearls of the East Read more. Danzig, a trading partner of Amsterdam, attempted to forestall the decision. Hollanders also circumvented the Hanseatic towns by trading directly with north German princes in non-Hanseatic towns. Dutch freight costs were much lower than those of the Hansa, and the Hansa were excluded as middlemen. When Bruges, Antwerp and Holland all became part of the Duchy of Burgundy they actively tried to take over the monopoly of trade from the Hansa, and the staples market from Bruges was transferred to Amsterdam.

The Dutch merchants aggressively challenged the Hansa and met with much success. Hanseatic cities in Prussia, Livonia, supported the Dutch against the core cities of the Hansa in northern Germany. After several naval wars between Burgundy and the Hanseatic fleets, Amsterdam gained the position of leading port for Polish and Baltic grain from the late 15th century onwards.

The Dutch regarded Amsterdam's grain trade as the mother of all trades Moedernegotie. Nuremberg in Franconia developed an overland route to sell formerly Hansa-monopolised products from Frankfurt via Nuremberg and Leipzig to Poland and Russia, trading Flemish cloth and French wine in exchange for grain and furs from the east.

The Hansa profited from the Nuremberg trade by allowing Nurembergers to settle in Hanseatic towns, which the Franconians exploited by taking over trade with Sweden as well. The Nuremberger merchant Albrecht Moldenhauer was influential in developing the trade with Sweden and Norway, and his sons Wolf Moldenhauer and Burghard Moldenhauer established themselves in Bergen and Stockholm, becoming leaders of the local Hanseatic activities.

At the start of the 16th century, the league found itself in a weaker position than it had known for many years. The rising Swedish Empire had taken control of much of the Baltic Sea. Denmark had regained control over its own trade, the Kontor in Novgorod had closed, and the Kontor in Bruges had become effectively moribund. The individual cities making up the league had also started to put self-interest before their common Hanseatic interests. Finally, the political authority of the German princes had started to grow, constraining the independence of the merchants and Hanseatic towns.

The league attempted to deal with some of these issues: In and revised agreements spelled out the duties of towns and some progress was made. The Bruges Kontor moved to Antwerp and the Hansa attempted to pioneer new routes. However the league proved unable to prevent the growing mercantile competition, and so a long decline commenced. The Antwerp Kontor closed in , followed by the London Kontor in The Bergen Kontor continued until ; of all the Kontore , only its buildings, the Bryggen , survive.

By the late 16th century, the league had imploded and could no longer deal with its own internal struggles. The social and political changes that accompanied the Protestant Reformation included the rise of Dutch and English merchants and the incursion of the Ottoman Empire upon the Holy Roman Empire and its trade routes. Despite its collapse, several cities still maintained the link to the Hanseatic League.

Hansa Rostock in memory of the city's trading past. After the EU enlargement to the East in May there were some experts who wrote about the resurrection of the Baltic Hansa. The legacy of the Hansa is remembered today in several names: DDG Hansa was a major German shipping company from until its bankruptcy in Hansabank in the Baltic states has been rebranded into Swedbank. There are two museums in Europe dedicated specifically to the history of the Hanseatic League: The members of the Hanseatic League were Low German merchants, whose towns were, with the exception of Dinant , where these merchants held citizenship.

Not all towns with Low German merchant communities were members of the league e. However, Hanseatic merchants could also come from settlements without German town law —the premise for league membership was birth to German parents, subjection to German law, and a commercial education. The league served to advance and defend the common interests of its heterogeneous members: Decisions and actions of the Hanseatic League were the consequence of a consensus-based procedure. If an issue arose, the league's members were invited to participate in a central meeting, the Tagfahrt "meeting ride", sometimes also referred to as Hansetag , since The member communities then chose envoys Ratssendeboten to represent their local consensus on the issue at the Tagfahrt.

Not every community sent an envoy, delegates were often entitled to represent a set of communities. Consensus-building on local and Tagfahrt levels followed the Low Saxon tradition of Einung , where consensus was defined as absence of protest: If consensus could not be established on a certain issue, it was found instead in the appointment of a number of league members who were then empowered to work out a compromise.

The Hanseatic Kontore , which operated like an early stock exchange , [26] each had their own treasury, court and seal. In the Kontor of Brussels modified its statute to ensure an equal representation of the league's members. To that end, member communities from different regions were pooled into three circles Drittel "third [part]": In , during a Hanseatic meeting in preparation of the first Tagfahrt , the league confirmed this statute.

The league in general gradually adopted and institutionalized the division into Drittel see table. The Tagfahrt or Hansetag was the only central institution of the Hanseatic League. However, with the division into Drittel , the members of the respective subdivisions frequently held a Dritteltage " Drittel meeting" to work out common positions which could then be presented at a Tagfahrt. On a more local level, league members also met, and while such regional meetings were never formalized into a Hanseatic institution, they gradually gained importance in the process of preparing and implementing Tagfahrt decisions.

From , the division into Drittel was modified to reduce the circles' heterogeneity, to enhance the collaboration of the members on a local level and thus to make the league's decision-making process more efficient. The Kontore were foreign trading posts of the League, not cities that were Hanseatic members, and are set apart in a separate table below. In , former Hanseatic League members established a "new Hanse" in Zwolle.

This league is open to all former Hanseatic League members and cities that share a Hanseatic Heritage. In the New Hanseatic league had members. This includes twelve Russian cities, most notably Novgorod , which was a major Russian trade partner of the Hansa in the Middle Ages. The "new Hanse" fosters and develops business links, tourism and cultural exchange.

From the Middle Ages to modern times

The so-called New Hanseatic League was established in February by finance ministers from Denmark , Estonia , Finland , Ireland , Latvia , Lithuania , the Netherlands and Sweden through the signing of a two-page foundational document which set out the countries' "shared views and values in the discussion on the architecture of the EMU.

Carta marina of the Baltic Sea region From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the trade group from the 14th to 17th centuries. For the modern business association, see Hanseatic Parliament. Handbuch zur niederdeutschen Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft. Retrieved 9 June A comparative study of thirty city-state cultures: Copenhagen Polis Centre Historisk-filosofiske Skrifter Archived from the original on 7 March Retrieved 10 December Privileges Granted to German Merchants at Novgorod, ". Retrieved 20 July European Journal of Social Sciences.

Archived from the original PDF on 19 February Retrieved 26 July The Perspective of the World. Civilization and Capitalism, 15th—18th century. Volume 10 International Publishers: New York, p.

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Archived from the original on 27 July Archived from the original on 12 August Retrieved 1 May Retrieved 2 May National Bank of Latvia. Archived from the original on 26 September Lettland [ Lithuania ]. Archived from the original on 24 July Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. The following cities were also connected with the League, but did not have representation in the Diet, nor responsibility: Archived from the original PDF on 13 January Archived from the original on 17 August Archived from the original on 13 May Retrieved 23 August Hanseatic League at Wikipedia's sister projects.

Members of the Hanseatic League by quarter. Chief cities shown in smallcaps. Cologne 1 Dortmund 1.