The Hanseatic League (4/21)

The Hanseatic League (4/21)

In this film Dieter Moor presents an in-depth narrative of the history of the Hanseatic League from its foundation as a loose confederation of cities to its gradual decline. It is a fascinating piece of economic history from the Middle Ages and, at the same time, the story of an early form of globalisation. The word "Hanse" comes from Old High German and means something like "group", "entourage" or even "flock", and it developed over the years into the term for an organisation of merchants with the aims of ensuring more safety at sea and promoting their joint economic interests. There is no exact date for its foundation, for it began as a loose association of cities. A decisive caesura in the early history of the Hansa was without a doubt the foundation of the city of Lübeck. In good years more than 3,000 ships were loaded and unloaded, the warehouses on the Trave were stacked full of anything that could be sold: raw materials, luxury goods, basic foodstuffs. Some 72 cities formed the hard core of the Hansa, and a further 130 were loosely associated with it; its sphere of influence extended over an area from Flanders to Reval. The Norwegian city of Bergen was the most important transshipment port of the Hansa and its northernmost base. Members of the Hansa were usually coastal cities, but there were also Hanseatic cities situated far away from the sea. The starting point of Dieter Moor's film narrative is the Hanseatic city of Hamburg. The old warehouse district with its "International Maritime Museum" and the harbour provide the backdrop to a journey which also takes us to Bremen and Stralsund...