Cologne: The Hanseatic City on the Rhine
Cologne, known in German as Köln, was the principal city of the Rhineland, one of the principal members of the Hanseatic League, and the principal centre of the League’s western trade. The city had been a Roman colony, an archbishopric, and a major commercial centre since the early Middle Ages, and the city was one of the largest and most important cities in northern Europe.
Trade and finance
Cologne’s principal trade was in cloth, wine, and metal goods, and the city’s merchants were the principal channel through which these goods reached the markets of the Baltic. The city was also the principal centre of the money trade of the League, and the city’s moneylenders were the principal source of credit for the League’s long-distance commerce. The moneylenders of Cologne were, in many ways, the most sophisticated financiers of medieval Europe, and the moneylenders of Cologne played a key role in the development of the modern banking system.
A useful comparative: Cologne was, by population, the largest German city in the 14th and 15th centuries (40,000+), larger even than Lübeck. Its commercial role in the League was, however, complementary rather than primary — Cologne provided the credit, the cloth, and the wine, and the Wendish cities provided the salt, the herring, and the furs. The city’s Hochstraße, the main street of the medieval city, was the principal commercial artery of the Rhineland, and it is still the principal street of the old town.
Architecture
Cologne’s architecture is, in many ways, one of the most remarkable of any Hanseatic city. The city’s most famous building is the Cologne Cathedral, the Kölner Dom, which is one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in Europe. The cathedral was begun in 1248 and was completed in 1880, after a long interruption. The cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (inscribed 1996), and the cathedral is one of the principal tourist attractions of Germany.
A specific note: the Cologne Cathedral’s long construction history is one of the most remarkable in medieval architecture. The original Gothic choir was completed by 1322, but work on the nave and towers stopped in 1473, and the cathedral stood unfinished for nearly four centuries. Construction was resumed in 1842 as part of a Romantic-era project, and the cathedral was finally completed in 1880. The cathedral’s stained glass, much of it medieval, is one of the finest collections in Europe.
Cologne’s other important buildings include the Rathaus, the town hall, which was built in the fourteenth century and which is one of the oldest town halls in Germany. The Rathaus contains a remarkable collection of medieval art, including the famous Saalbau, the great hall, which is decorated with a series of sixteenth-century paintings by the Cologne school. The Rathaus is, in many ways, one of the most important Gothic secular buildings in Germany.
A note on the Cologne school: the Kölner Malerschule was one of the most important German schools of painting in the 15th and 16th centuries, working in the late-Gothic style that anticipated the Northern Renaissance. The school is principally associated with Stefan Lochner (c. 1410–1451), whose Dombild (the cathedral altarpiece) is one of the masterpieces of German painting.
Politics
Cologne was, in the late Middle Ages, one of the principal members of the League, and the city played an important role in the League’s politics. The city was a member of the Westphalian and Rhineland district, and the city had a substantial voice in the Hansetag. The city’s relationship with the League was, however, often tense, and the city was excluded from the Hansetag in 1476 in the Cologne-Lübeck conflict. The exclusion was eventually lifted, but the relationship between Cologne and the League remained tense.
A useful note: Cologne’s commercial position in the League was, by the late 15th century, more of a financial than a commercial one. The city’s wealth was in moneylending, not in shipping, and the city’s exclusion from the Hansetag (1475–76) did not, in the long run, deprive the city of commercial assets. What the exclusion did deprive the city of was its political voice in the League’s deliberations, and that loss was felt for the rest of the League’s history.