Online-Card - Lübeck

The City of Lübeck has always been unique: Historically as queen of the Hanseatic League for more than 500 years and today as gate to the Baltic Sea, Scandinavia and the Baltic states. It was founded in 1143 by Adolf of Schauenburg. In 1157 Heinrich the Lion put new life to it. Emperor Friedrich II declared Lübeck already in 1226 a self-governing town, independent of the Reich - an independence that lasted until 1937. World War II has caused great destruction, disaster and suffering. However, the proverbial Hanseatic public spirit has made it possible to restore the famous seven golden towers, numerous houses of merchant families, passageways, courtyards and cloisters. Lübeck satisfies all requirements of a splendid town. The compact face of the town has been declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 1987. Lübeck is determined by water. The oldest part of the town, an island enclosed by the river Trave and the Elbe-Lübeck Canal, still conveys the charm and cosmopolitan attitude of a port. The different harbours of the city as well as the biggest European ferry port in Lübeck-Travemünde illustrate that time here has not come to a standstill. In Lübeck tradition and progress are no contrast. Together they form an excitement that makes this city so unique: Medieval ambience and modern shops; organ recitals in the five big town churches and music events in the new music and congress hall. In Lübeck, everything is at close distance.

Lübeck offers a great variety of pleasures. Without being bothered by traffic one can admire the brick Gothic of the town churches in the old city as well as the old houses of merchant families, all different in style. The museums of Lübeck are a special treat: the Museum of St. Annen with the famous Memling altar, paintings and old home décor à la Lübeck in the Behnhaus. The Burgkloster presents changing exhibitions and a memorial place for the victims of National Socialism. And of course the worldwide known Holstentor: it shows the exhibition “Power of Trade” of the Hanseatic League. Children won’t forget a visit to the Lübeck puppet theatre. And don’t miss the Buddenbrook-Haus. Here you meet with the writers Heinrich and Thomas Mann, who were born in Lübeck. They are amongst other famous Lübeck-born celebrities like the composer Dietrich Buxtehude, the sculptor Bernd Notke, the Peace Nobel Prize winner Willy Brandt. In the year 2002 another cultural highlight was opened: the house for Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass in the Glockengießerstraße.

The gourmet culture of the town offers something for everybody: Palate joys under old vaults or in modern restaurants and hotels. Maybe you would like a piece of the delicious marzipan or a drink of the noble Rotspon, a Bordeaux wine pressed in Lübeck. Lübeck, cultural town of the north, is also seat of the well-known Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. The Art Nouveau theatre lures in the evening. And when you finally hear the carillon of St. Marien, then you will love Lübeck. With all your senses. The economic structure of Lübeck is marked by a continuous process of adaptation. The traditional production location has itself developed into a base for future industries, a center for trade, services as well as for teaching and research. Lübeck works consciously on this new profile with a strong emphasis on the services and distribution sector. Despite the fact that the number of employees in the processing industries is declining, this sector shows a still rising gross value increase – an indication that Lübeck located enterprises are well prepared for the future.

Quite a number of enterprises of world standard still prove the important rank of the processing industries in Lübeck, such as the medicine and security engineering manufacturer Dräger, the marzipan manufacturer I. G. Niederegger or ceramics maker Villeroy & Boch with its works in the suburb of Dänischburg. But also less known companies, yet in their specific market segments just as important, stand for a broad industrial base. Among them are G.C. Hahn, manufacturer of stabilization systems for the food industry and Nord. Maschinenbau Rud. Baader with their machines for fish, meat and poultry processing. New impetus for the location are coming from more than 150 enterprises of the transportation and logistics sector, which have a handling of 25 million tons of goods in Lübeck’s port every year. Compared with these companies - which have a long resident tradition in the Hanseatic town - the Lübeck media sector develops a dynamic force quite of its own that contributes its share to the growth of the services sector.