Journal of Samuel Kiechel
11 – 25 January 1586
From Hamburg to Kiel
“Lübeck is a strong, well-constructed city. It is one of four imperial cities. It maintains a strict and rigorous justice system for both the wealthy and the poor.”
Die Reisen des Samuel Kiechel aus drei Handschriften, K. D. Haszler (ed.), Stuttgart 1866, p. 50; Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.
Towards Scandinavia
In early January 1586, Samuel Kiechel was back in Hamburg. Over the previous six months, he had travelled through the Dutch Republic to London and then back through the Spanish Netherlands and Westphalia. His route took him across lands that were new to him, though they were not entirely unfamiliar. England and the Low Countries were deeply woven into the political, economic, cultural and religious fabric of Europe. Knowledge of these regions was accessible to interested and literate individuals. Although the accuracy and detail of news and information were far inferior to today, Kiechel had visited places he could at least claim some general familiarity with. After all, part of the Low Countries belonged to the Habsburg domains, and a significant portion of the Netherlands had been closely linked to the Holy Roman Empire over the previous centuries. The culture, society, and even the religion, from the perspective of a Protestant traveller, were not vastly different from his own life and experiences. Next, our traveller plans to visit Scandinavia, a region still largely unknown in the late sixteenth century.
Map of Holstein and the locations Samuel Kiechel visited
Kiechel spent a day in Hamburg to recover from his exhausting journey through frozen and snow-covered north-western Germany. On 12 January, he paid for a seat in a sledge already carrying nine other passengers. The sledge was pulled by three horses and was heading for Lübeck. In the snow-covered landscape, other vehicles had already carved tracks to follow, and the sledge made good progress. That evening, it arrived in the village of Höltenklinken, where the travellers stayed overnight.
The following morning, the sledge continued its journey towards Lübeck. But the road was now frozen and very slippery. Whenever there was a slight incline, the sledge drifted off to the side of the road. Within an hour, it had overturned twice. Despite these difficulties, the sledge and its passengers reached Lübeck at lunchtime.
Lübeck and the Hanseatic League
Lübeck is renowned as one of the founding members of the Hanseatic League, the powerful medieval trade network. The city was founded in 1143 and developed into the main port for German trade, migration, and conquest in the Baltic Sea area. The migration and conquest targeted the Latvian and Estonian tribes in Livonia during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a region that Samuel Kiechel will soon visit. Trade from Lübeck was initially directed towards Scandinavia. In particular, Visby on the island of Gotland was the central commercial hub at the time.
Initially established as a community of northern German merchants trading in the Baltic Sea region in the thirteenth century, the League grew into a network of towns and cities linking merchant communities across northern Europe. Eventually, it dominated trade in the Baltic and North Seas for two centuries with member cities and trading posts in numerous locations, reaching as far as Novgorod and Smolensk in the east and London in the west.
While Hamburg merchants were focused on the North Sea, Lübeck held a prominent position in the Baltic region and played a crucial role in the lucrative herring trade.
In the Middle Ages and early modern period, herring was a vital part of the human diet, especially during Christian feast periods. This made the herring trade a highly profitable enterprise. The fish was seasonally caught in large quantities along the coast of the southern Scandinavian province of Scania and salted to preserve it for transport. The salt for this process came from another northern German city and founding member of the Hanseatic League, Lüneburg. Samuel Kiechel had visited Lüneburg and observed the salt production process. Lübeck merchants sold the salt in Scania and loaded the salted herring on their return journey. Because salt was one of the few forms of food preservation available, both the salt and the herring trade laid the foundation for Lübeck’s prosperity.
Herring is packed in barrels for transport
With economic success and wealth came political influence. The Hanseatic League secured advantageous agreements and privileges for its cities and merchants in countries along the North and Baltic Seas. Member cities of the League also involved themselves in regional military confrontations when such conflicts threatened their profits and privileges.
However, when Samuel Kiechel visited Lübeck, the Hanseatic League had mostly faded. The League was more of a loose confederation than a united bloc, thriving as long as the interests of its member cities aligned. The fifteenth century marked the start of its gradual decline. The trend towards political centralisation and territorial consolidation in Europe caused smaller Hanseatic towns to lose their independence, leading to a decline in the League’s influence. The discovery of sea routes to Asia and America shifted trade to port cities in Western Europe. Competition on the Baltic Sea increased from outside parties, threatening the League’s monopoly. English merchant adventurers sought access to Russian trade, while the Dutch rose as successful competitors with their new, superior merchant ship — the Fluyt.
Trading hubs like Hamburg and Lübeck retained some privileges and remained regional powers. Lübeck’s involvement in the Swedish War of Liberation (1521-23) and the Northern Seven Years’ War (1563-70) demonstrated its continued influence and ability to command significant naval forces. Nonetheless, it could no longer rely on the support of other Hanseatic cities.
A Visit to Lübeck
Kiechel’s first impression of the Hanseatic city was of a powerful, well-built, and heavily fortified place. Furthermore, Kiechel noted that Lübeck was a key economic centre, with trade links to Denmark, Sweden, Gdansk (Poland), and Livonia (today: Latvia and Estonia). Ships from Lübeck regularly sailed to Spain, Portugal, and other distant locations each year.
Our traveller also wrote that Lübeck served as the seat of a bishop and was a free and imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. Imperial cities were largely autonomous, with no local lord and subject only to the Emperor. There were only a few of these in the Empire. Lübeck, Hamburg, and Kiechel’s hometown, Ulm, belonged to this group.
Lübeck, 1588
A profile view in the Civitates Orbis Terrarum shows Lübeck from the east, confirming Kiechel’s comment. The city is depicted as fortified and surrounded by water. Numerous churches dominate the skyline, drawn slightly larger than the surrounding houses. The names of the churches are annotated on the map. On the right side (northeast) of the view, there are three large ships and what appears to be the open sea. Although this roughly indicates the direction of Travemünde, Lübeck’s harbour on the Baltic Sea, the actual distance is greater than shown. The ships and open sea may have been included to emphasise Lübeck’s status as a powerful and wealthy trading port.
According to our traveller, Lübeck was a naval power and had participated in the war between Denmark and Sweden. Presumably, Kiechel referred to the Northern Seven Years’ War (1563-1570) between Denmark and Sweden. Lübeck’s merchants had their trade privileges revoked by Sweden and feared potential trade barriers with Russia. As the dominant political faction in Lübeck and responsible for much of the city’s wealth, the merchants moved to have their city join the war on Denmark’s side. Lübeck’s ships, in alliance with a Danish fleet, initially achieved success against Sweden.
While in Lübeck, Samuel Kiechel decided to visit the city’s harbour on the Baltic Sea. He wrote that it was two miles away and was called Travemünde. There, our traveller saw a fortified wooden house that guarded the harbour’s entrance and the lighthouse. Kiechel explained that during the night, the lighthouse’s light guided ships that were still out at sea to the harbour. Large ships had to anchor in Travemünde. The Trave River connected the harbour to Lübeck but was too shallow for those vessels. A drawing from 1604 shows Travemünde, featuring the lighthouse and the fortified wooden house Kiechel mentioned.
Travemünde, 1604
Justice in Lübeck
Samuel Kiechel’s remarks about the places he visited can be somewhat random and affected by current news and events. About Lübeck, our traveller noted the city’s strict justice system, which made no distinction between the rich and the poor. His comments may have been prompted by the arrest of a nobleman. Kiechel explained: Around the time of his visit, a nobleman from the Rantzau family of Holstein had stabbed a peasant and almost killed him. The family was among the most influential in the region, but the man was nonetheless arrested and imprisoned. If the peasant had died within fourteen days of the incident, the nobleman would have faced execution.1
The Rantzau family was an old, influential dynasty. At the time of Kiechel’s visit, Heinrich Rantzau (1526-1598) served as governor for the Danish king in Schleswig and Holstein. Although Lübeck was part of the Duchy of Holstein, it was nevertheless an imperial free city, and its capacity to arrest and convict a high-ranking noble from a powerful family was a sign of its freedom and independence.
Samuel Kiechel further explained that the same strict judicial process applied to Lübeck’s citizens in matters of debt and financial claims. When a foreigner sued a citizen for debt, the accused was required to settle it within a few days or provide a payment guarantee. If the citizen could not clear the debt, the ‘Büttel’ was sent. ‘Büttel’ is an old German term for a court officer, similar to a bailiff. During court proceedings, this bailiff was present in the town hall and would escort the citizen to the ‘Böteley’ — the house of the ‘Büttel’. The ‘Böteley’ was apparently also the local jail, as Kiechel noted that other individuals with similar court verdicts were held there.2
To the surprise of our traveller, Lübeck’s bailiff was not publicly shunned as he would have been in Kiechel’s hometown of Ulm. The man attended social occasions and sat at the same table as honest men. Sometimes, a group of citizens would visit the bailiff to drink and socialise, and he would serve his guests beer.3
The term ‘honest men’ referred to individuals of social standing and respectable professions. Certain jobs, such as executioners or bailiffs, were necessary but considered to lack honour or social prestige. People fulfilling these roles were often publicly shunned. This was apparently not the case in Lübeck. However, as a sign of his lower status as a bailiff, Kiechel noted that the man had to bring his own drinking vessel.
While this behaviour seemed to astonish our traveller, and he again noted that it would be out of place in his hometown, he concluded that it was simply due to local differences.
Travelling North
Samuel Kiechel remained in Lübeck for nine days. He mentioned having difficulty finding companions to join him on his journey to Denmark. Our traveller does not specify why he chose to visit the Scandinavian kingdom. It was not a typical destination for casual travellers, and winter was not the ideal time of year to travel north. It may have been a planned journey, or perhaps a spontaneous decision. Nonetheless, the region offered a sense of exploration and adventure similar to modern travellers venturing ‘off the beaten track’.
Eventually, he left Lübeck on 24 January in a carriage, accompanied by a horse trader, a merchant from Hamburg, and a Dane. They travelled north and arrived in the evening at a village called Rotmansdorf in the county of Holstein. The group continued their journey the following day and reached Kiel in the afternoon.
Kiechel described Kiel as the most distinguished city in the Duchy of Holstein. Duke Adolf resided there, and his castle was situated near an inlet from the sea (Kieler Förde). The inlet was frozen at the time. Sledges traversed the ice, and the driver of Kiechel’s carriage did the same.
A profile view of Kiel appears in volume four of the Civitates Orbis Terrarum. It shows the city from the southwest, roughly the direction our traveller arrived from. The Kieler Förde, the harbour area and the castle are on the right side of the image.
Kiel, 1588
The Duke, Samuel Kiechel mentioned, was Duke Adolf of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp (1526–1586). He was the half-brother of the late Danish King Christian III (1503-1559). Although Schleswig-Holstein is today a federal state of modern Germany, until the nineteenth century, Schleswig was part of Denmark, and Holstein, while belonging to the Holy Roman Empire, had the Danish king as its duke.
Upon arriving in Kiel, Samuel Kiechel noted that a fair was being held in the city. Many noblemen had gathered for the occasion. They presented themselves with great pageantry and sought to outshine each other. During the fair, large sums of money exchanged hands between them. Noblemen lent each other money and claimed debts or deeds. If one of them was unwilling or unable to repay a favour or settle his debt, it was customary to host a feast at his expense.
Because of this event, Kiel was a bustling place. However, our traveller wrote that he did not wish to spend a night in the city because noblemen and knights had occupied all the inns. Furthermore, there was a noticeable aversion to the assembled nobility. Kiechel wrote that when the noblemen were drunk, they would regard everyone else as little more than animals. He heard that one of them had traded his servant for a dog.
Fortunately, other travellers were keen to leave the city as well, and Samuel Kiechel soon found new companions and continued his journey without delay.
Illustrations & References
All images are in order of appearance with links to sources on external websites:
- Kiel, in: Braun, Georg, Hogenberg Frans: Civitates Orbis Terrarum (4), Cologne 1594, fol. 34v; Heidelberg University.
- Ens, Gaspar, Rerum Danicarum Friderico II. inclitae memoriae, rerum potiente, terra marique gestarum historia, 1593, pp. 122f; Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.
- Ortelius, Abraham, Theater of the World, Antwerp 1587, fol. 49v; Library of Congress.
- Lübeck, in: Braun, Georg, Hogenberg Frans: Civitates Orbis Terrarum (1), Cologne 1593, fol. 24v; Heidelberg University.
- Visscher, Claes Jansz., Haring pakken en roken bij de Haringpakkerstoren, 1608; Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
- Anonymous, Der Port oder Haff vor Lübeck sampt dem Blockhauß, 1604; Wikimedia Commons.
- Anonymous, Onbarmhartige dienaar naar de gevangenis gebracht, 1585; Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
- Bolswert, Boëtius Adamsz., Rijk gekleed gezelschap aan maaltijd bedreigt arme boer in zijn woning, 1610; Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
- Die Reisen des Samuel Kiechel aus drei Handschriften, K. D. Haszler (ed.), Stuttgart 1866, p. 50; Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. ↩︎
- Ibid., p. 51. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎