History, Harz and Heath

Day trip! Lüneburg is a charming city with a long history. A city that became wealthy because of something we all take for granted in the West these days: salt. This was one of the places I wanted to visit, mainly due to seeing pictures online. That it has a long and interesting history was a bonus.

The first humans kicking around the area were Neanderthals, as evidenced by the discovery of axes dated at 150,000 years old, which were found when they were doing construction for a road. Not far from the site the first evidence of a later farming settlement was found dating back to the sixth century BC. The area has been continually inhabited since then, as evidenced by graves and other artifacts that had been discovered during later building projects.

The town was first mentioned by name in 956, when Otto I granted its tax revenues to the monastery of Saint Michael. It was the seat of the Bilung family, an important noble family who were sometimes allies, sometimes enemies, of the series of Ottonian and Salian kings that I’m so interested in. However it wasn’t the principle city of the area, that was Bardowick, which had been an important Slavic trading center.

Lüneburg, however surpassed its rival for two reasons. In the long term, the chief one being the discovery of salt deposits. The story goes: a hunter was out one day, and spotted a boar bathing in a pool. He killed it, dragged it out, skinned it and hung its coat to dry. When it did, he discovered white crystals in the bristly fur. He returned to the pool, discovered the salt deposits, and the rest is history. Historians estimate salt was being mined in Lüneburg from perhaps 800 on. As we know from my long digression about Salzburg on our 2022 trip in the Middle Ages SALT=MONEY.

However, the precipitating event in the downfall of Bardowick was when they refused pay allegiance to Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony. We came across Henry back in the Harz, fighting over Goslar and the mines with Frederick Barbarossa, so we know he wasn’t the type of man to take perceived disrespect in good humor. So in 1189 he destroyed the town for refusing his demands. Shortly after, Lüneburg received those oh-so-important town rights, and they were on track to fame, riches, and membership in the Hanseatic League.

Lüneburg salt was a vital component in Hanse trade, much of which dealt in the catching, preservation, transport, and selling of… wait for it… FISH (for your Lord of the Rings fans, insert Gollum “fishes my Precious”). Yes, we think of the Hanseatic merchants as sellers of amber and furs from the mysterious lands beyond the Baltic, all of that fancy stuff, but here we’re talking about fish. Herring mostly, but other fish caught by the fishing fleets from Norway, Sweden and coastal Germany. This fish needed to be preserved, and Lüneburg salt was what did the job. So vital and lucrative was this trade, that Lüneburg became one of the richest Hanse towns, along with Bergen and Visby (the fish suppliers) and Lübeck (the go between and a town I sorely would like to see).

As with all towns in the middle ages, there was a lot of back and forth. I won’t bore you with the details. Fights between the town and the nobles. Noble families dying out, being displaced. Fights between the towns and the Church, which wanted a bigger piece of the salt trade and et cetera. Same as usual, but a bit more intense as there was more money involved.

Lüneburg’s fortunes began to decline as the Hanseatic League slowly collapsed through late 1500s. The herring school were badly depleted, leading to a collapse in that industry around the same time. Lüneburg quickly became impoverished. Control of the city passed to the Electorate of Hannover (we Americans know all about Hannover as it was the state of origin of the Hanoverian kings of England, including good old George III). Then it went through the same sequence as many German towns: the Napoleonic Kingdom of Westphalia, the First French Empire, then back to Hannover, and ultimately, to the Kingdom of Prussia.

In World War II, Lüneburg was bombed several times. In one of the last, a trainload of prisoners being moved to Neuengamme KZ camp was hit, killing 400. Despite multiple intense strikes, most of central Lüneburg was undamaged. The city is the place where SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler was brought after he was discovered by the British, and where he died shortly thereafter. There is some serious contention that he didn’t kill himself, but rather was killed in captivity. If you’re interested, Mark Felton has done some interesting work on this. You can check out his YouTube channel. The first war crimes trial, that of the guards from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, took place here.

After the war, the city was so shabby and rundown, it was proposed that the entire Altstadt should be torn down. There was a great outcry against it, and instead, the focus turned to cultural heritage conservation. Since the 1970s, a great deal of work has gone in to rehabilitating the historical area, hence the really nice pictures that drew us here. The city also benefited economically from the establishment of a military training area used by the British, Canadians, and the Germans. There was also a German military barracks and a border police barracks established nearby. All of these endeavors were either curtailed or scaled back beginning in 1994, leading to a loss of revenue in the area.

Salt mining officially ended in 1980, but you can still see the evidence of it everywhere: the beautiful, restored medieval buildings, and the fact that the town is slowly sinking.

I have to say, the city reminded me very much of Amsterdam architecturally, it has what I've long thought of as that "Hanseatic look".Read more