Hanseaten (class)

The Hanseaten (English: Hanseatics) is a collective term for the hierarchy group (so called First Families) consisting of elite individuals and families of prestigious rank who constituted the ruling class of the free imperial city of Hamburg, conjointly with the equal First Families of the free imperial cities Bremen and Lübeck. The members of these First Families were the persons in possession of hereditary great burghership (German: Großbürgerschaft) of these cities, including the mayors (Bürgermeister), the senators (Senatoren) and the senior pastors (Hauptpastoren).

The three cities since the Congress of Vienna 1815 are each officially named the "Free and Hanseatic City Hamburg" (Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg),[1][2] the "Free Hanseatic City Bremen" (Freie Hansestadt Bremen) and the "Free and Hanseatic City Lübeck" (Freie und Hansestadt Lübeck), since 1937 merely the "Hanseatic City Lübeck" (Hansestadt Lübeck).[3]

Hamburg was one of the oldest stringent civic republics,[4] in which the Hanseatics preserved their constitutional privileges granted in 1189 by Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor until the German Revolution of 1918–19 and the Weimar Constitution.[5]

Contents

Hanseatic families

A few prominent families are listed here.

Abendroth

Albers

Amsinck

Burchard

de Chapeaurouge

Fehling

Godeffroy

Goßler

Hudtwalker

Jauch

Jencquel

Kellinghusen

Lorenz-Meyer

Mann

Merck (Hamburg stirps of the Merck family)

Moller (vom Baum)

Mutzenbecher

Nölting

Overbeck

Parish

Petersen

Schlüter

Schröder

Schuback

Siemers

Sieveking

Sillem

Sloman

Tesdorpf

See also

References

  1. ^ The Hanseatic League ended about mid of the 17th century. J. Werdenhagen, De Rebus Publicis Hanseaticis Tractatus, Frankfurt 1641, was the first to use the term "Hanseatic", characterizing the Union between Hamburg, Bremen und Lübeck, created between 1630 and 1650 in lieu of the perished Hanse. Gerhard Ahrens, Hanseatisch, in: Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck-Lexikon, 2006, with reference to: Rainer Postel: Hanseaten, Zur politischen Kultur Hamburgs, Bremens und Lübecks., in: Der Bürger im Staat 34 (1984), 153-158; Herbert Schwarzwälder, Hanseaten, hanseatisch, in: Das Große Bremen-Lexikon, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X
  2. ^ Subsequent to the Greater Hamburg Act namend since 1938 Hanseatic City (Hansestadt) Hamburg, since the constitution of 6 June 1952 again Free and Hanseatic City (Freie und Hansestadt), being as city a State of Germany
  3. ^ Greater Hamburg Act; Lübeck lost in the "Lübeck-decision" (de:Lübeck-Urteil) on 5 December 1956 before the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany in its attempt to reconstitute its statehood
  4. ^ Nobles were banned since 1276 from living inside the city wall – Renate Hauschild-Thiessen, Adel und Bürgertum in Hamburg, in: Hamburgisches Geschlechterbuch, volume 14, Limburg an der Lahn 1997, p. XXII
  5. ^ The historical science assumes a timocratic or oligarchic character of Hamburg's constitution, being the reason why Hamburg at the Congress of Vienna was accepted by the princes of the German states as a member of the German Confederation – Peter Borowsky, Vertritt die „Bürgerschaft“ die Bürgerschaft? Verfassungs-, Bürger- und Wahlrecht in Hamburg von 1814 bis 1914, in: Schlaglichter historischer Forschung. Studien zur deutschen Geschichte im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Hamburg, p. 93)