LÜBECK
Around 700 AD Slavic peoples
started to come into the eastern parts of Holstein which had been left by many
Germanic inhabitants in the course of the Migration Period. By the early 9th century
Charlemagne, whose Christianisation attempts were opposed by Saxons, moved Saxons
out and brought in Polabian Slavs, who were allied to Charlemagne, in their stead.
Liubice, meaning "lovely", was founded on the Trave banks about four
kilometres north of the present-day city centre of Lübeck. In the 10th century
it became the most important settlement of the Obotrite confederacy and a castle
was built. The settlement was burned down in 1128 by pagan Rani from Rügen.
The modern town was founded by Adolf II, Count of Schauenburg and Holstein, in 1143 as a German settlement on the river island Bucu. He established a new castle which was first mentioned by Helmold in 1147. Adolf had to cede the castle to Henry the Lion in 1158. After Henry's fall in 1181, the town became an Imperial city for eight years. Emperor Barbarossa gave the city a ruling council with twenty members that survived into the 19th century. This council was dominated by merchants and caused Lübeck's politics to be dominated by trade interests for centuries to come. The town and castle changed ownership for a period afterwards and was part of the Duchy of Saxony until 1192, of the County of Holstein until 1217 and part of Denmark until the Battle of Bornhöved in 1227.
Around 1200 the port became the main point of departure for colonists leaving for the Baltic territories conquered by the Teutonic Order. In 1226 Emperor Frederick II elevated the town to an Imperial Free City, becoming the Free City of Lübeck. In the 14th century Lübeck became the "Queen of the Hanseatic League", being by far the largest and most powerful member of this mediaeval trade organization. In 1375, Emperor Charles IV. named Lübeck one of the five "Glories of the Empire", a title shared with Venice, Rome, Pisa and Florence. Several conflicts about trade privileges were fought by Lübeck and the Hanseatic League against Denmark and Norway with varying outcomes. While Lübeck and the Hanseatic League prevailed in conflicts in 1435 and 1512, Lübeck lost when it became involved in the Count's Feud, a civil war that raged in Denmark from 1534 to 1536. Lübeck also joined the Schmalkaldic League.
After defeat in the Count's Feud, Lübeck's power slowly declined. Lübeck managed to remain neutral in the Thirty Years' War, but with the devastation caused by the decades-long war and the new transatlantic orientation of European trade, the Hanseatic League and thus Lübeck lost importance. After the Hanseatic League was de facto disbanded in 1669, Lübeck remained an important trading town on the Baltic Sea. The great composer, Dieterich Buxtehude became organist at the Marienkirche in Lübeck in 1668 and remained at the post until at least 1703.
In course of the war of the Fourth Coalition against Napoleon, troops under Bernadotte occupied the neutral Lübeck after a battle against Blücher on November 6th, 1806. Under the Continental System, trade suffered and from 1811 to 1813 Lübeck was formally annexed as part of France until the Vienna Congress of 1815.
During World War II, Lübeck was the first German city to be attacked by the Royal Air Force. The attack on 28 March 1942 created a firestorm, that caused severe damage to the historic centre and the Bombing of Lübeck in World War II destroyed three of the main churches and greater parts of the built-up area. A POW camp for officers, Oflag X-C, was located near the city from 1940 until April 1945. Near the end of the war one of the biggest disasters in naval history happened in the Bay of Lübeck when Allied bombers sank three ships which, unknown to them, were packed with concentration-camp inmates presumably being transported to an execution site. About 7,000 people were killed. Lübeck was occupied without resistance by the British Army following Germany's surrender.
Lübeck's population grew considerably from about 150,000 in 1939 to more than 220,000 after the war, owing to an influx of refugees expelled from the former Eastern provinces of Germany.
Lübeck remained part of Schleswig-Holstein after the war and was situated directly at the inner German border during the division of Germany into two rival states in the Cold War period. South of the city the border followed the path of the river Wakenitz that separated both countries by less than 10 m in many parts. The northernmost border crossing was in Lübeck's district of Schlutup.
Key identification notes: Lubeck's eagle and the arms' field parted per fess are distinctive, and some Latinized form of the name Lübeck is on most coins.
48 Schilling
32 Schilling
2 Schillings
