Kiel - Lübeck, Germany

Thursday 23rd September 1999

We awoke this morning and made our way in to Lübeck. As one of the principal Hanseatic cities, with over 1000 buildings on the World Heritage List, we were looking forward to a feast of medieval treasures. Our guidebook however had warned us of a dark side to Lübeck. Over the last few years a large number of arson attacks had occurred, targeting, amongst other sites, the local synagogue and apartment buildings occupied by foreigners. One building was burnt down killing two people and injuring nineteen. Even the car of one of the guidebook authors had been intentionally attacked so it was with some trepidation that we, with our British number plates, approached the town.

We'd discussed a few strategies to minimise the risk but in the end the solution was presented to us. A park-and-ride station on the edge of town, with a bus and driver almost always present. Seemed safe enough so we headed in to town.

The first sight to greet us was the wonderful Holstentor, a city gate that once was featured on the 50DM note. It has a bit of a lean and was almost demolished in the 19th century but was saved by one vote of the city council.

We walked from there towards the centre of the city and the Rathaus, considered to be one of the most beautiful town halls in Germany. Beautiful it was but it was difficult to appreciate with all the modern buildings flanking and obscuring it. This turned out to be a feature of our visit to Lübeck.

After grabbing some lunch from the market in front of the Rathaus we walked to the other side and entered the Marienkirche. Built in the 13th century but a victim of the second world war. Whilst the interior contained some notable art treasures it was mostly quite cold and barren, stark whitewashed walls interspersed with plain glass windows. I was reminded of the destroyed cathedral in Coventry and realised that Lübeck reminded me much more of that city than any of the Hanseatic cities we'd seen.

We went back through town to the cathedral on the other side. Once again a number of splendid art treasures in a cold and plain interior. We continued to search for the beauty we were sure must be here but continued to be confronted by post-war developments obscuring the history.

It was all summed up by the Heiligen-Geist Hospital, built in 1246 and the oldest hospital in Germany. We threaded our way past the drunks at the door and found ourselves in an art gallery of sorts. We went through another door into the hospital proper but found that the large room had been almost completely taken over by an arts and crafts market. A few rooms had been kept as a reminder of its recent days as an old peoples home. Finding little of interest in this room we returned to the entrance hall and discovered that it was once the chapel, some reminders still in existence high on the walls. A quick sweep around the room revealed some medieval sculptures, virtually forgotten in a corner, and backed by the peeling paint on the wall.

For us this seemed to capture Lübeck. A city with a glorious history and some wonderful buildings but seeming not to care about any of it. For four hundred years it was the leading light in the Hanseatic League, one of the most powerful organisations ever, yet almost no mention is even made of the fact.

We headed down to the waterfront, thinking to see some interesting architecture there. Along this street and that we could see a number of attractive buildings but they were always framed by ugly modern constructions. We eventually returned to the city gate and caught the bus back to our van. We had such high expectations for Lübeck that we felt quite disappointed. Perhaps if we'd known less we'd have enjoyed it more.

We headed towards Hamburg but the day was late so we began looking for a place to stay almost straight away. After a fruitless search down the back-roads we gave up and headed for the motorway and the assurance of the many pull-overs. Dull but reliable.