Holstentor
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Transcript
The Holstentor is Lübeck’s most famous gate, completed in the fifteenth century. Its heavy brick towers announced that a trading city also needed walls, taxes and controlled entrances.
Medieval commerce was not a peaceful alternative to politics. Merchants depended on safe routes, legal privileges and the ability of cities to defend property. Lübeck’s council used diplomacy, alliances and sometimes force to protect commercial interests.
The city was founded in its decisive medieval form in 1143 and rebuilt after fire. Its location near the Trave connected Baltic shipping to overland routes toward Hamburg and the North Sea.
The Holstentor therefore guarded more than a picturesque old town. It guarded a node in a network.
Its towers lean slightly because the ground is difficult. Even one of Europe’s most successful commercial systems had to negotiate with mud.