The north German city of Lübeck was particularly important, because it was here that the greatest efforts were made to organize the Hanseatic League. What’s more, many of the so-called Hanseatic Diets took place in the city’s town hall. The main topics of discussion during these gatherings included the Victual Brothers. But how great was the danger really? Did Störtebeker and co. really represent a threat to the Hanseatic League’s crucial shipping activities? Or were they made into bogeymen, deliberately constructed so that the Hanseatic cities with their numerous and varying political objectives might pull together? Historian Dr. Gregor Rohmann is looking for answers to these and other research questions in the field.
The Victual Brothers
The head of the Hansa | Episode 2
Between 1389 and 1466 the term “Victual Brothers” arises in Low German sources for maritime combatants. Research carried out to date has generally been focused on the more or less stable formation of a group that was supposed to have stemmed from the troops recruited by the Dukes of Mecklenburg for their war against Denmark between 1389 and 1395. However, available sources do not fully support this interpretation. Hence, this project represents a fundamental reexamination of the “Victual Brothers” in light of the various levels of interpretation of the contemporary language in these sources. Thus, it is initially a new approach to an old mystery of late Medieval history in northern Europe. First and foremost, though, this example is used to facilitate a more in-depth insight into the change in the conditions relating to the violent settlement of conflicts against the emergence of the early modern differentiation between the right to spoils and piracy. Here, the historical-semantic approach opens up the possibility of avoiding assumptions previously made in research. At the same time, it promises a substantial contribution to research into perceptions of violence in the late Middle Ages.
Project leadership
PD Dr. Gregor Rohmann
Producer
Peter Prestel
Camera
Martin Pogac
Editing
Martin Pogac
Series created by
Gisela Graichen und Peter Prestel
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