Along the Baltic and the North Sea there were a group of trading cities that formed a Hanseatic League to protect their interest. When Prussia united Germany there was a dance with cities like Lubeck as to how much of it’s traditional character could be retained. Some later leaders thought too much. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Well a German Eagle implies a state ready to join a greater Germany. Look closer and you will spot the eagle has two heads looking east and west. This is a symbol of the old Holy Roman Empire, which first granted Lubeck it’s status as a Imperial Free Hanseatic State. The looking east and west implies empire and also fits with a trading post city. With Austria being the successor to the Holy Romans, it also speaks to the natural sympathies in the rivalry between Austria and Prussia.
Todays stamp is issue A1, a 2 Shilling stamp that was the first stamp issue Hanseatic Free State of Lubeck in 1859. It was a five stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $27.50 unused. A variant of this stamp with the denomination written out as two and a half is worth $7200 used. Lubeck printed stamps for collectors up till 1872 so used copies of their stamps are the most valuable.
Lubeck was a trading post city on the Baltic. It had the additional advantage of being on the direct land route from the Baltic to the much larger Hamburg, thus avoiding the long sea journey around Denmark. As a trading post, the city had a much more international flavor than inland cities and the trade added to the wealth. The Hanseatic League had fallen apart many years before but many of the cities worked to preserve the unique character. The then large Holy Roman Empire granted Lubeck its free city status and the city was comfortable pledging allegiance to the far off Hapsburgs while running themselves under a Burgermeister. In the second half of the 19th century, Prussia had ambitions in the area and first worked with Austria against Denmark and then turned against her and fought a war that removed Austria from the area. Now came the direct pressure from Prussia to join the North German Confederation controlled by Prussia.
Prussia made the direct threat to occupy the city militarily. An alternative was offered that allowed some measure of self government but more Prussian control than Austrian Hapsburgs ever had. Under the military pressure, both heads of the Lubeck eagle looked south and joined with Prussia. The instruments of separateness stayed in place.
The independence of the area can be seen in two of it’s most famous citizens. Thomas Mann was a giant of German literature including ” A Death in Venice”. A closeted homosexual and leftist, he spent most of his life outside Germany in Switzerland and the USA. During the war, he hosted a propaganda show called “Listen Germany” where he decried the then German government for ending the cultural openness or decadence of the Weimar Republic, depending on your point of view. After the war Mann returned quickly to Switzerland rather than Germany after finding Truman’s USA too right wing for him. The politician known as Willi Brandt was a left wing activist who fled the Nazis to Norway and then resurfaced post war in Berlin, first as a Norwegian diplomat and then had a fairly miraculous rise in German politics becoming mayor of West Berlin and later Chancellor of West Germany. He was controversial on the right side of the political spectrum for living his life under an alias, having a mysterious gap as to what he did while abroad, and or course the sex and spy scandals that eventually brought him down. Things were perhaps done a little differently in the trading post cities.
Hitler resented Lubeck and removed the last vestiges of it’s special status in 1937. On this point, post war West Germany agreed and did not return it’s special status.
Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another to toast Lubeck Trading post cities often have interesting histories but it is often sad when they are brought into line, Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.