The lean
The southern tower tilts visibly and the lowest storey is partly buried.
Glenn Strong [1] [2] — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Dietmar Rabich — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Soluvo — CC BY-SA 4.0 · S Harakterom — CC BY-SA 4.0
The western city gate, and the best-known building in northern Germany — two conical towers with a gateway between them, in red **brick Gothic**, built in **1478**. The first thing you notice is that it **leans**: the southern tower tilts visibly, and the whole building has sunk into the ground until its lowest storey is partly buried. The cause is that its foundations were laid on **soft clay** that could not carry the weight, and the settling began before construction finished. It has been repaired and stabilised repeatedly, but the lean was left as it is. Across its outer face runs a Latin inscription: **CONCORDIA DOMI FORIS PAX** — «harmony within, peace without». Its value was never defensive but **propagandistic**: the gate is far larger than defence required, and it was placed on the road from the west so that every incoming caravan would see it — a trading city''s statement about its own wealth. Note: it was nearly demolished. In **1863** the city council voted on removing it to widen the railway, and it survived **by a single vote**. Inside is a museum of Lübeck''s commercial and Hanseatic history. Note: it appeared on the former German **fifty-mark note**.
The southern tower tilts visibly and the lowest storey is partly buried.
«Harmony within, peace without» across the outer face.
Lübeck is the model city for the entire northern style.
Holstentorplatz, Lübeck
A **trading alliance** of northern European cities that arose in the thirteenth century and lasted some four hundred years. It was neither a state nor an empire but a **network of around 200 towns** — from Novgorod in Russia to Bruges in Flanders — agreeing to protect each other''s convoys, standardise commercial law, grant mutual privileges, and sometimes **fight wars together**: the League defeated Denmark in 1370 and dictated terms to it. **Lübeck was its effective capital**: the Hanseatic Diet met there, and its commercial code («Lübeck law») was applied in over a hundred cities. ⚠ The League declined in the sixteenth century with the rise of nation states and the opening of Atlantic routes. ⚠ The **European Hansemuseum** in Lübeck is the best place to understand it, and is modern and excellent.
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