Visiting Luebeck, northern Germany: cultural gem and sedate Queen of the Hansa
Home of Willy Brandt, Thomas Mann and leading city of the Hanseatic League
It is hard to imagine the course of German history without the part that Lübeck has played, done the centuries. Even in the 20th century, people from Lübeck who have made their outstanding mark include Nobel Literature prizewinner Thomas Mann, and Willy Brandt, Federal German Chancellor 1969-1974. When I visited Lübeck there was much already to commemorate Thomas Mann: his house in the city is a museum. Since I was in this beautiful and historic city, Willy-Brandt-Haus now commemorates the life of this remarkable leader. A further museum is the Guenter-Grass-Haus relating to another Nobel Prizewinning novelist, for whom it is named.
The Hanseatic League's 200 cities greatly contributed to much of Northern Europe's prosperity already in the Middle Ages, and Lübeck was regarded as the chief city of the League. Lübeck's numerous, carefully preserved and restored buildings testify to that longstanding prosperity and deep-seated historicity.
So: be prepared to be overwhelmed by Luebeck.
The Holsten Gate
One of Luebeck's major landmarks is the Holsten Gate, which is probably one of the most famous structures in Germany, hardly less well known than Cologne's Cathedral and Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. It was completed in 1478.
The Holsten Gate (das Holstentor ) appeared on Deutsche Mark banknotes, prior to that currency's absorption by the Euro.
At the Gate, now a museum, there is a permanent exhibition about Brick Gothic, with sponsorship assistance from the nearby German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (formerly part of East Germany, near the former border with which Luebeck is situated.
Other noted buildings
Luebeck has numerous other noted buildings, but these include:
The spired Cathedral (Luebecker Dom ), built mainly in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries.
The Marienkirche, in Gothic brick style, built in the 13th and 14th centuries, with twin spires each nearly 125 metres high.
The Trave River and Travemuende
The nearby port of Travemuende (literally, the mouth of the Trave) has belonged to the city of Luebeck since the Middle Ages. It has an interesting old lighthouse, dating from 1539.
At Luebeck, the Trave River links with the Elbe-Luebeck Canal. Ferry links with the Swedish port of Trelleborg are maintained from Travemuende, on the Baltic Sea (German: die Ostsee , literally, the eastern sea).
Also worth seeing:
Hamburg (distance: 67 kilometres) has cultural and architectural treasures too numerous to mention, but these include the 1897 City Hall (Das Rathaus ), built in Neo-Renaissance style. The City Hall is located near the Binnenalster Lake. The Michaeliskirche , originally completed in 1669, with its copper spire, is a major landmark in the port area of the city; C.P.E.Bach, son of J.S.Bach, and a noted composer in his own right, is buried in the church.
...
How to get there: Lufthansa flies from New York Newark airport to Hamburg Airport (Flughafen Hamburg ), where car hire is available. For North American travellers making the London, England area their base, Ryanair flies from London Stansted Airport to Luebeck Airport (Flughafen Luebeck ), where care hire is available. Please check with the airline or your travel agent for up to date information.
MJFenn is an independent travel writer based in Ontario, Canada.
Other of my hubpages may be of interest
- Visiting Germany's Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, and the Pariser Platz: open gates, and open questions
The historic heart of Berlin is in what was East Berlin, prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor ) was a symbolic focal point during Germany's and... - Visiting Duesseldorf, Germany and its central railroad station: secrets revealed in changing archite
As is very widely appreciated, the face of many German, and other European, cities changed greatly in the course of the mid-20th century, not least on account of the immense changes brought about by World War... - Visiting Vaalserquartier and Dreilaendereck at Aachen, Germany: three countries meet
Aachen's Vaalserquartier is an outlying district of Germany's historic city of Aachen, but a fascinating one. From the built up area comprising Vaalserquartier and Vaals a number of paths lead up by foot... - Visiting Saarland's Nennig: preserved Roman remains near the Mosel River, Germany
I was struck by how well preserved is the mosaic at Nennig's Roman villa, in Saarland's Perl district. The German Rhineland's ancient Roman heritage was already known to me but I was interested to find that... - Visiting Gothenburg, Sweden, and its rocky coast
Gothenburg and the adjoining historic area (Swedish: Gteborg och Bohus) make for a fascinating introduction to a dynamic part of Sweden. Particularly during the winter months, for the local people along...
