Lübeck

Seaport and resort of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, 24 km/15 mi from the Baltic Sea, 60 km/37 mi northeast of Hamburg; population (2005 est) 211,800. Manufactured goods include machinery, aeronautical and space equipment, steel, and ironwork; there are also marine engineering, ship-repairing, and fish-canning industries. Lübeck is known for its wine trade and its marzipan. The Elbe–Lübeck Canal (1900) links the city with the main waterways of Europe and the docks at Travemunde have ferry connections to Scandinavia.

Founded in 1143, it has five Gothic churches and a cathedral dating from 1173. The Holstentor (1477) with its twin towers is the emblem of the city. Once head of the powerful Hanseatic League, it later lost much of its trade to Hamburg and Bremen, but improved canal and port facilities helped it to retain its position as a centre of Baltic trade. Lübeck was a free state of both the empire and the Weimar Republic.

Features The older part of the city stands on an island formed by the River Trave and its tributaries. From Breite Strasse, the main street, rows of old houses lead to the perimeter of the island. Most of the early houses and public buildings are built of the brick and tile for which Lübeck is renowned. Buddenbrookhaus (1758) was immortalized by Thomas Mann in his novel Buddenbrooks (1901), a saga of a merchant family. The city hall dates from the 13th–15th centuries and the splendid 13th-century Marienkirche lies nearby. There are two remarkable medieval gateways: the Burgtor (1444) and the Holstentor (1466–78). The city has a university.

Lübeck now incorporates Travemünde, a fashionable Baltic resort with a casino, a sea water swimming pool, and Kurpark.

History By the 14th century Lübeck already had a population of 30,000. The city's fortunes declined with that of the Hanseatic League, although it became known as a centre of the wine trade. After the incorporation of Schleswig-Holstein into Prussia, Lübeck joined the North German Confederation. In 1937 it relinquished its 700 year-old status as a free city on becoming part of Schleswig-Holstein. In the years after the end of World War II over 90,000 refugees passed through the city.