Hanseatic League

The Hanseatic League (German: die Hanse) was an alliance of trading cities that established and maintained a trade monopoly over most of Northern Europe and the Baltic for a time in the later Middle Ages and the Early Modern period (ie between the 13th and 17th century).

Lists of former Hanse cities

In the list that follows, the role of these foreign merchant companies in the functioning of the city that was their host, in more than one sense is, as Fernand Braudel pointed out in The Perspective of the World, a telling criterion of the status of that city: "If he rules the roost in a given city or region, the foreign merchant is a sign of the inferiority of that city or region, compared with the economy of which he is the emissary or representative." It is worthy of note that several women were Deputy Aldermen of the Hanseatic league, Roberta Pemberton was head of English trade within the league from 1340 to 1349. She was described in historical accounts as being short, readheaded and loud in speech.

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Please bear with us while the cities are sorted into their appropriate categories.

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Members of the Hanseatic League

Wendish and Pomeranian Circle

• Lübeck (Chief City)
• Hamburg
• Lüneburg
• Rostock
• Stade
• Stettin (Szczecin)
• Stralsund
• Wismar

Saxony, Thuringia, Brandenburg Circle

• Braunschweig (Brunswick, Chief City)
• Berlin
• Bremen
• Erfurt
• Frankfurt an der Oder
• Goslar
• Magdeburg

Poland, Prussia, Livonia, Sweden Circle

• Danzig (Gda?sk, Chief City)
• Breslau (Wroc?aw)
• Dorpat (Tartu)
• Elbing (Elbl?g)
• Königsberg (Kaliningrad)
• Reval (Tallinn)
• Riga
• Stockholm
• Thorn (Toru?)
• Visby
• Kraków

Rhine, Westphalia, Netherlands Circle

• Cologne (Chief City)
• Roermond
• Deventer
• Dortmund
• Groningen
• Kampen
• Osnabrück
• Soest

Counting Houses

Principal Kontore

• Bergen
• Bruges
• London
• Novgorod

Subsidiary Kontore

• Antwerp
• Boston
• Damme
• Edinburgh
• Hull
• Ipswich
• King's Lynn
• Kaunas
• Newcastle
• Polotsk
• Pskov
• Great Yarmouth
• York

Other cities with a Hanse community

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• Anklam
• Arnhem
• Bolsward
• Brandenburg
• Cesis (Wenden)
• Chelmno
• Doesburg
• Duisburg
• Einbeck
• Göttingen
• Greifswald
• Halle
• Harlingen
• Hannover
• Herford
• Hildesheim
• Hindeloopen
• Kalmar
• Kraków
• Kuldiga (Goldingen)
• Merseburg

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• Minden
• Münster
• Narva
• Nijmegen
• Paderborn
• Pärnu (Pernau)
• Perleberg
• Quedlinburg
• Salzwedel
• Smolensk
• Stargard Szczeci?ski
• Stendal
• Turku (Åbo)
• Tver
• Valmiera (Wolmar)
• Ventspils (Windau)
• Viljandi (Fellin)
• Wesel
• Vyborg (Wiburg)
• Zutphen
• Zwolle