Five October Days in Lübeck
08.08.2020
The must-have postcard photo in perfect light: Holstentor, the steeple of St. Petri, and the salt storages
Lübeck had been on my mind for quite a while. I had visited previously, but always too shortly and superficially. It had been ages since I had last been to the North anyway. Travel fever struck, Bahn Bonus points called to be used to cover a long train ride. Money was only needed for accommodation, and a cheap rental apartment was available.
I arrived in the afternoon, and the rest of the first day would be needed to settle in, find a supermarket for the basics, and organize a rental bike. My walking abilities weren’t the best any more, certainly not good enough to cover as much ground as I wanted to cover, hence a two-wheeled means of transport was necessary. My landlady offered me a small folding bike but that thing was far too small for me and of no use. I asked her where to find a bike rental in town but she had no idea. How to figure that out? Either do a lengthy internet search and run around… or: hey, ask the tourist information, it’s their job to know about these things. My apartment was close to the central station and the tourist information was located more or less round the corner. And indeed, they were able to provide good advice.
There is only one bike rental in the city centre, although on the opposite side of the old town. I set off and, a walk and a coffee break later, arrived shortly before they were closing. They had a good bike for me for five days. I was not used to have a spring-loaded saddle but that turned out essential on Lübeck’s many cobblestone streets.
Woohoo, I was mobile! I decided to take the bike trail by the river, do some grocery shopping on the way back home, and set out for a night tour of old Lübeck later on.
Lübeck at night
Burgtor
Heilig-Geist-Spital
The spires of the Dom
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Bike tours in coastal areas ought to be planned carefully because they are highly dependent on the weather. One should never set too much trust in the professional liars, aka meteorologists, but I had little choice. Luckily they were right for once. The weather forecasts suggested this itinerary:
Day 2: fine weather with offshore wind, i.e. wind from the southwest. Perfect for a bike tour to Travemünde. More in a separate blog entry.
Day 3: Again a fine day. As it was Sunday, I wanted to attend a church service, and I had a ticket for the theatre in the evening. That suggested staying in Lübeck and doing some sightseeing in town.
Day 4: had been preplanned. For a publication I needed photos of a certain church in Büchen and another in Lauenburg. In Büchen I had made an appointment, so this was set in stone. This tour also deserves a separate blog entry.
Day 5: The wise meteorologists predicted rain, rain, and more rain. Museum day!
Day 6: Back home.
Originally I had hoped to fit in a day trip to Kiel, for a walk down memory lane past Grandma’s house and through the streets and parks I so often roamed as a child, a boat tour to Laboe and whatnot. Time is always too short…
Museum ships by night
I don't intend to write a complete guide to Lübeck, but I'll present a couple of sights and attractions that impressed me most.
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The Best Overview
… over Lübeck is certainly from the steeple of St Peter’s church, the one showing in the intro photo. Kind people have installed an elevator, so it is easy to reach for bad walkers and lazy folks. St Peter’s is located close to Holstentor and market square with the city hall, then there are the other big churches in the background. The view gives an idea of the cityscape with rivers and canals around the island occupied by the old town. Let the images speak for themselves.
The view north with Marienkirche
The view south towards the Dom
Holstentor and the medieval salt storages
The city hall, a large complex with several wings
===The City Hall===
Gothic architects and the medieval city council were showing off. There must have been an unwritten competition among the Hansa cities, who has the largest city hall. Lübeck is not the only one who has such open facades that make the building appear higher than it is.
The holes are there both for the effect and to let the wind through, the neverending coastal wind that would otherwise cause major problems concerning the static of a solid freestanding wall.
For embellishment, a renaissance facade was added in the Renaissance era.
The representative halls inside can be visited. Since I had done that during a previous visit, I did not go again this time, though.
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Typical gothic townhouses built from bricks
The elegant Königstraße with neoclassical townhouses
Buddenbrookhaus - this will ring a bell to connoisseurs of German literature.
Sculptures by Ernst Barlach on the gable of Katharinenkloster
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Heiligen-Geist-Hospital
Lübeck’s rich citizens did not forget charity for the poor. Heiligen-Geist-Hospital is a foundation of the 13th century. In the middle ages, hospitals took care not only of the sick but also of the poor and needy and of old people. Many cities had such institutions, and like most of them the Lübeck one is dedicated to the Holy Spirit. There is the church in the front hall, and behind, a large hall that accommodated the inmates. In the run of the centuries it became an old people’s home. The wide hall had four long rows of freestanding beds.
In the early 19th century the hall was divided into little individual chambers, called “Kabäusterchen”. Each chamber was 4 square metres big, or shall I say small, and provided room for a bed, a chest of drawers a night and a washing table. The top was open. Until 1970 they were inhabited.
Nowadays a modern old people’s home has been built in the grounds of the foundation. The historical building is a museum and used for events, the best-known being the artisans’ Christmas market.
The church, the aisle with the rows of chambers, and a model of the complex
Russell and I glimpse into a Kabäusterchen, which is now meant for visitors to show them how the old people used to live.
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Sunday Service in Marienkirche
On Sunday morning I wanted to go to church, and I chose the largest and most remarkable of Lübeck’s churches. Marienkirche, the Church of Our Lady, counts as one of the biggest brick gothic churches around the whole Baltic Sea. At that time there had never been a church this high built entirely from bricks.
Marienkirche is the parish church of the city and the city council. She gives testimony of the rivalry between the free imperial city and the bishop, who had his seat at the southern end of the island. The new church had, at all costs, to be bigger and more impressive than the cathedral. I think they succeeded!
I arrived well in time for the 10 a. m. service and walked a bit round. It was a foggy morning, promising that the sun would break through later on. The spires of the church faded in the mist, it was a very special light and an almost mystic atmosphere around the big house of God.
I entered and found myself a seat. The wooden pews were hard and it was chilly inside the church. I envied some, so I thought, clever members of the congregation who had brought themselves woollen blankets from home. The blankets, however, were all of the same tartan pattern, and on one I saw a little sign stating that this blanket was property of Marienkirche parish. A little investigation took me to a large wooden chest by the entrance which was full of these blankets for people to borrow during the service. After this discovery I was much more comfortable in my pew.
A large church like this is best experienced during a service. Praising the Lord, that’s what the church was built for. It has a completely different feel from the usual opening hours with their tourist buzz.
It was a Lutheran service with communion. To participate in the communion I was able to enter the high choir, an area that is usually roped off. I was also able to catch at least a glimpse at the precious gilded chalices, probably of medieval origin, that are still in use.
After the service the church opened for visitors, so I stayed inside to have a closer look at the various art works and take photos.
Vaults
The bronze baptismal font (1337)
The Antwerp retable (1518)
The church suffered significant damage during the air raid of March 28/29, 1942 that destroyed one fifth of the old town. Many of its invaluable art works, organs and stained-glass windows are lost for good.
The bells crashed down. They were left in place just as they were, a sorry pile of broken metal. The chapel in the southern steeple where they lie was turned into a memorial.
New stained-glass windows were designed and installed in the 1950s. The most interesting ones are, to me, the two windows in a side chapel depicting the Danse macabre. There is a little family story tied to them, to be precise, concerning the husband of my mother’s cousin. This man was a bit of a snob and his wife’s relatives weren’t considered worthy to be his relatives, too. Well, so be it. He often boasted with his late father being depicted in this window. The artist was friends with said father, who was the director of the well-known jam factory in Bad Schwartau, and took him as the model for the figure of the merchant. And indeed, the chain round the merchant’s neck shows the logo of Schwartauer Marmeladenfabrik with the seven towers of Lübeck in white on red ground.
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The Air Raid of Palm Sunday 1942
Details of a stained-glass window in Marienkirche
Model of the old town in 1949:
The empty spaces mark the destroyed areas.
Lübeck’s fateful date in World War II is the night of March 28/29, 1942. British Air Force bomber planes dropped thousands of bombs onto the city centre. This was the first major air raid flown on a German city.
In the densely built old town the incensives created a firestorm, about the worst a city could experience. One fifth of the old town was destroyed, including three of the main churches. The most badly affected areas are the western and central quarters around Marienkirche and market square, and the southern part of the old town with the cathedral. Other parts remained unscathed and still have their pre-war architecture complete with medieval townhouses and narrow picturesque Gänge squeezed into the backyards.
1950s houses behind Marienkirche
The view from above betrays how much of this block is post-war.
Eastward from St Petri, a quarter with mostly post-war buildings
1950s staircase in the new part of the city hall
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Lübeck’s Gänge: The Hidden World of the Backyards
In the streets of Lübeck, gables of stone houses are lined up, gables whose size and architecture tell of the wealth of their owners. Gothic brick gables are still frequent, interchanging with renaissance, baroque, neoclassical facades.
This is the street of the rich merchants, the well-to-do citizens.
But where did the poorer people live?
Behind the big townhouses in Lübeck’s streets, there is a whole hidden world that remains invisible to the fast tourists who do not take the time to poke their noses into the narrow passages between the house fronts.
Signs with street names are attached to dark covered passages. Some are closed with gates, others are open and accessible.
In the narrow city, every patch of land was needed to build housing. Gardens are rare. The backyards are filled with tiny houses around narrow courtyards.
The Lübeck term for these is “Gänge”.
In the quarters that came through the war unscathed, mostly the northeast and the south of the old town, these structures still exist. Nowadays the courtyards are neatly paved and the houses refurbished.
Once the homes and workshops of the poor, they are now sought-after residential neighbourhoods.
The inhabitants have set up chairs and tables, flower pots and whatnot in the courtyards to create their little paradise.
Living so close together requires patience and openness. Some residents say they don’t have breakfast outside any more because saying “Good morning” fifty times is too tiresome. Visitors are welcome to enter and look around but they ought to respect the privacy of the inhabitants.
Here is a little collection of different Gänge that I found. There are many, many more.
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“Oliver” at the Theatre
Solo travellers have no problem to keep themselves busy and happy during the day. It’s the evenings that need some planning. Sitting in a restaurant alone is almost as boring as sitting in the room staring at the wallpaper. Night life and clubbing isn’t my thing and has never been. So, what’s on at the theatre?
I had checked in time from home and booked an online ticket for “Oliver”, a musical based on Dickens’s “Oliver Twist”. They had good singers and actors and the director added witty details to the plot – it was an enjoyable production altogether. From my seat in the front row of the second balcony I had a good view. An evening well spent.
The theatre building was worth a look, too. Opened in 1908, both the façade and the interior sport a fine art nouveau style.
The theatre in Bäckergrube at daytime
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St Jakobi and the Pamir Memorial
Often overlooked but perhaps the most interesting church in the old town: St Jakobi. Unlike Marienkirche and Dom, this church came through the war unscathed and has a completely preserved interior from the early modern era. This includes altarpiece and pulpit, the organs, tombstones and epitaphs, the bronze baptismal font and its ‘cage’.
Preserved are also the wooden pews of the guilds and the wealthy members of the congregation; only in the nave modern benches have been put up. The oldest of the pews have dates inscribed from the 17th century. They are box-shaped, the surrounding wooden walls protecting the inmates from draught and chill. The woodwork shows elaborate carvings. Ship motives give testimony that St Jakobi was the church of the mariners and fishermen.
These pews have small cabinets where people kept their hymn books in. These cabinets were the site of an extraordinary find: religious pamphlets with coloured woodcuts from the mid 17th century had been used as lining paper. One example is on display inside the church. The whole series has recently been published in a book.
The large organ has remarkably painted pipes with strange faces around the windhole.
A side chapel contains a broken and shattered lifeboat as memorial to the tall ship “Pamir”, who sank in a hurricane on the Atlantic in 1957. Only six members of the crew survived. The names of the victims are listed on the floor.
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Malerwinkel
Every city or town must have a “painters’ angle”, a spot with an exceptionally picturesque view of the old town. Lübeck’s is on the river Trave by a small bridge. From there, the steeple of St Petri dominates the picture across the river. The spires of Marienkirche appear in the background. Historical houses are lined up along the road by the river and, light and weather permitting, are reflected in the water.
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Dom, the cathedral
The Dom is the loser in the competition with Marienkirche, I’m afraid. Both when they were built and today. The Dom is located on the edge of the old town, rather away from buzzing life. It has an atmosphere of neglect, apart from the new baptismal chapel that has been installed in the choir behind the jube, it all could to with a renovation. The church appears cold, not only temperature-wise.
The best is the view over Mühlenteich with the reflection of the spires.
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Hansa Museum
Part of a church pew with a Russian fur merchant
The new Hansa Museum is a recent addition to Lübeck’s many sightseeing attractions to visit, and it is one I highly recommend. It presents and explains the Hansa’s function as a medieval trade network and Lübeck’s role in it. Original pieces are combined with presentations of texts, maps, diagrams on large displays.
At the entrance you receive an electronic ticket. To read the displays, you have to hold the ticket under a scanner first to make texts etc. appear. At first I thought, what for, why don’t they simply show this text permanently, what’s the hassle for… until I noticed the people next to me reading the same text in Swedish. They programme the ticket at the cash desk with your preferred language. The scanner then selects said language and you are shown all texts in it. They have German, English, Swedish, and Russian – an indicator where the majority of their visitors may come from.
I’m not necessarily a fan of all this modern interactive stuff, but this here is brilliant. The explanations are very well done. It is up to you how much you read and over how many pages you proceed.
The light is rather dim in most rooms, hence I have no photos of the new part.
The museum also includes the historical rooms of the so-called Burgkloster, once a monastery of the Dominicans. Parts of the building were transformed into a law court in the 19th century.
St Annen Museum Quarter
The former convent of St Annen hosts the historical museum and art gallery of Lübeck. While the Hansa museum is dedicated to economy and international trade, this here presents the life of the citizens within their houses and their city.
Inner courtyard with the original sculptures from Puppenbrücke
I admit that I did not devote enough attention to this museum as I was already tired. I would like to revisit another time, with fresh powers. This is a museum to explore and discover.
Biedermeier interior in rich townhouses
The Diele, the main hall, was the centre of the house. It served, depending on the profession of the owner, as office, trading room, workshop, but also as dining hall and meeting point for the whole household.
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Niederegger
Enough culture, time for a sweet treat. Lübecker Marzipan has become a term for a certain type of marzipan (opposed to, for example, Königsberger Marzipan). There are other producers in the city but one is ubiquitous and omnipresent in any sweets shop all over the country: Niederegger.
In need of a typical local gift for your loved ones at home? No problem in Lübeck: get some marzipan and you’re done with the problem.
Niederegger runs a big shop in the centre of the city, right by the city hall. A paradise for any sweet tooth.
The shop windows are also worth a closer look. They have historical buildings and scenes from fairy tales, all made from marzipan.
Holstentor scene
Frau Holle shaking her duvet to make it snow on Lübeck
Upstairs they have a café with the famous Marzipantorte and many other cakes. For anyone who likes sweet things this place is a must.
I had the wombats with me and politely asked whether I could take photos with them. The waitresses did not even blink an eye. Obviously they are used to crazy tourists…
Posted by Kathrin_E 09:37 Archived in Germany Tagged churches lübeck schleswig-holstein Comments (0)