Lübeck - Schiffergesellschaft

The area around Lübeck, today a large city with a population of more than 200,000, had been settled by Slavs since the 7th century. Slavs had a settlement north of the present city called "Liubice", which was razed by the pagan Rani tribe in 1128.

15 years later Adolf II, Count of Schauenburg and Holstein, founded the modern town as a German settlement on the river island of Bucu. He built a new castle, first mentioned as existing in 1147. Adolf II had to cede the castle to the Duke of Saxony, Henry the Lion, in 1158. After Henry's fall from power in 1181, the town became an Imperial city. Emperor Barbarossa ordained that the city should have a ruling council of 20 members. With the council dominated by merchants, trade interests shaped Lübeck's politics for centuries.

In the 14th century, Lübeck became the "Queen of the Hanseatic League", being by far the largest and most powerful member of that medieval 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.

Conflicts about trading privileges resulted in fighting between Lübeck (with the Hanseatic League) and Denmark and Norway – with varying outcome. While Lübeck and the Hanseatic League prevailed in conflicts in 1435 and 1512, Lübeck lost when it became involved in a civil war that raged in Denmark from 1534 to 1536. From then on Lübeck's power slowly declined. The city remained neutral in the Thirty Years' War, but the devastation from the decades-long war and the new transatlantic orientation of European trade caused the Hanseatic League – and thus Lübeck with it – to decline in importance. However, Lübeck still remained an important trading town on the Baltic Sea.

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The "Schiffergesellschaft" was founded in 1401 as the Brotherhood of St. Nicholas. The purpose of the association was: "For the help and comfort of the living and the dead and of all who seek their honest livelihood in navigation." After the Reformation, the brotherhood named themselves the "Schippern Selschup" and in 1535 acquired this 13th-century-house, where food and living space was provided for the elderly and the needy.

When the guild obligation was abolished by a trade law in the 19th century, the members of the Schiffergesellschaft decided to continue the organization as a free cooperative, but the new legal status quickly brought in heavy debts, so that they felt compelled to sell the historic building. From then on, it was operated as a restaurant and is still preserved as such today.