Magdeburg als Hansestadt im Mittelalter

Abstract

Magdeburg was first mentioned in a Carolingian capitulary (Charlemagne 768–814) in 805. During the reign of Otto I (936–973) the city experienced a boom and became the metropolis of the 968 founded Magdeburg archbishopric. Later in the 12th / 13th century, the city advanced as the center of the “Magdeburg law”, which was particularly widespread in East-Central Europe. A few years after establishing the Magdeburg City Council in 1244, Magdeburg began pursuing a foreign policy independent of the archbishop and grew into the gradually emerging Hanse.

Together with Braunschweig, Magdeburg became one of the principal towns of the “Saxon League of Towns”, which existed from 1384 until the 16th century. Simultaneously, they formed a “Quarter” or “Third” in the Hanseatic League. Economically, Magdeburg was an intermediate trading post between East and West and served as a grain and wood supplier for the coastal Hanseatic cities. Both, the membership in the Saxon League of Towns as well as the one in the Hanseatic League offered significant support in the long-term conflict between the city and the archbishop as its overlord, which intensified in the late Middle Ages.

Despite its devastating destruction during the Thirty Years’ War, Magdeburg remained a member of the Hanseatic League until 1666. Then the city lost its freedom and thus the prospect of becoming a free Imperial city in the Kloster Berge Treaty, because it had become a part of the Electorate of Brandenburg.