Liubice
Encyclopedia
Liubice, also known by the German
name Alt-Lübeck ("Old Lübeck"), was a medieval West Slavic
settlement near the site of modern Lübeck
, Germany
. Liubice was located at the confluence of the Schwartau with the Trave
across from Teerhof Island, approximately four kilometres north of Lübeck's island old town. The residence of Henry
, the Christian prince of the Obotrites
, Liubice was destroyed after his death by the pagan Rani
of Rugia
.
in the 7th century, replacing migrating Germanic tribes. The Wagri
ans and Polabians
established numerous villages and castles, including Starigard
, Plune
, Racisburg
, and Liubice, whose name means "lovely".
Liubice was thinly populated during the 9th and 10th centuries. In the middle of the 11th century, the settlement began to develop. Starting in 1055 during the rule of Gottschalk, a Christian
prince of the Obotrite confederacy
, the old castle was rebuilt. Gottschalk was killed during an uprising in 1066 and replaced as Obotrite prince by the pagan
Kruto
. Liubice's castle was modified for the second time in 1087, near the end of Kruto's reign. Because the fortifications were located on a peninsula between the Schwartau and Trave Rivers, a twelve metre wide trench was created to separate Liubice from the mainland, essentially creating an island fortress.
Liubice reached its height during the reign of the prince or "King of the Slavs", the Christian Henry
, who avenged his father Gottschalk's death by killing Kruto in 1093. The harbour settlement of Liubice, which lay in the borderland between the Wagrians, Polabians, and Obotrites, was chosen as Henry's royal residence. The relatively small castle's walls had a diameter of approximately 75 to 100 metres. The castle church built by Henry ca. 1100 was the earliest discernible stone construction in the region; members of the princely family were buried inside the church.The princely palace probably lay northwest of the castle's own Christian church, while a granary was east of the church. Cattle stalls were located to the southeast next to the ramparts. The castle complex also contained houses for the garrison and probably goldsmithing workshops or a mint
. The castle was surrounded by a wooden earthworks with a southern gate. Southwest of the castle under the protection of its walls was a settlement of craftsmen. To the northwest across the trench was a poorer settlement, probably of servants. To the southwest across the Trave was a colony of foreign, mostly Saxon
, merchants who were allowed their own Christian church.
Ca. 1100 Liubice was besieged by the fleet of the pagan Rani
, but with the assistance of Saxons from Holstein
, Henry forced the Rani to pay tribute. The Obotrite state collapsed after the death of Henry and end of the Nakonid dynasty in 1127; the Rani returned to sack Liubice in 1128. With the death of Canute Lavard
in 1131, the Obotrite lands were partitioned between Niklot
, who received Mecklenburg
, and Pribislav
, who received Wagria and Polabia. Pribislav chose Liubice as his residence in order to assert his claims for the inheritance of Henry, but he was reduced to being a Saxon vassal in Wagria after being defeated by Henry of Badewide
in the late 1130s. Liubice and the Oldenburg region
were ravaged by another Rani campaign in 1138 in which the castle's church was destroyed.
Granted Wagria and Segeberg
by Duke Henry the Lion
in 1143, Count Adolf II of Holstein
founded the new German
settlement of Lübeck
four kilometres from Liubice on a peninsula called Bucu
at the confluence of the Wakenitz
with the Trave. The remaining Slavic inhabitants of the region held their assemblies at Lübeck's Marienkirche until the 13th century. Some of the older Slavic laws were incorporated into Lübeck's city code, Lübeck law
.
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
name Alt-Lübeck ("Old Lübeck"), was a medieval West Slavic
Polabian Slavs
Polabian Slavs - is a collective term applied to a number of Lechites tribes who lived along the Elbe river, between the Baltic Sea to the north, the Saale and the Limes Saxoniae to the west, the Ore Mountains and the Western Sudetes to the south, and Poland to the east. They have also been known...
settlement near the site of modern Lübeck
Lübeck
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Liubice was located at the confluence of the Schwartau with the Trave
Trave
The Trave is a river in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is approximately 124 kilometres long, running from its source near the village of Gießelrade in Ostholstein to Travemünde where it flows into the Baltic Sea. It passes through Bad Segeberg, Bad Oldesloe, and Lübeck, where it is linked to the...
across from Teerhof Island, approximately four kilometres north of Lübeck's island old town. The residence of Henry
Henry (Obotrite prince)
Henry was an Obotrite prince or king from the Nakonid dynasty; he was regarded by contemporaries as "King of the Slavs"...
, the Christian prince of the Obotrites
Obotrites
The Obotrites , also commonly known as the Obodrites, Abotrites, or Abodrites, were a confederation of medieval West Slavic tribes within the territory of modern Mecklenburg and Holstein in northern Germany . For decades they were allies of Charlemagne in his wars against Germanic Saxons and Slavic...
, Liubice was destroyed after his death by the pagan Rani
Rani (Slavic tribe)
The Rani or Rujani were a West Slavic tribe based on the island of Rugia and the southwestern mainland across the Strelasund in what is today northeastern Germany....
of Rugia
Rügen
Rügen is Germany's largest island. Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of the Vorpommern-Rügen district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.- Geography :Rügen is located off the north-eastern coast of Germany in the Baltic Sea...
.
History
Slavic tribes began migrating to the Bay of LübeckBay of Lübeck
The Bay of Lübeck is a basin in the southwestern Baltic Sea, off the shores of German lands of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein. It forms the southwestern part of the Bay of Mecklenburg....
in the 7th century, replacing migrating Germanic tribes. The Wagri
Wagri
The Wagri, Wagiri, or Wagrians were a tribe of Polabian Slavs inhabiting Wagria, or eastern Holstein in northern Germany, from the ninth to twelfth centuries. They were a constituent tribe of the Obodrite confederacy....
ans and Polabians
Polabians (tribe)
The Polabians were a constituent Lechitic tribe of the Obotrites who lived between the Trave and the Elbe. The main settlement of the Polabians was Racisburg , named after their Prince Ratibor...
established numerous villages and castles, including Starigard
Oldenburg (Holstein)
Oldenburg in Holstein is a town at the southwestern shore of the Baltic Sea. The nearest city is Lübeck. The town belongs to the region of Holstein, today in the state Schleswig-Holstein of Germany....
, Plune
Plön
Plön is the district seat of the Plön district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and has about 13,000 inhabitants. It lies right on the shores of Schleswig-Holstein's biggest lake, the Great Plön Lake, as well as on several smaller lakes, touching the town on virtually all sides...
, Racisburg
Ratzeburg
Ratzeburg is a town in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is surrounded by four lakes—the resulting isthmuses between the lakes form the access lanes to the town. Ratzeburg is the capital of the Kreis of Lauenburg.-History:...
, and Liubice, whose name means "lovely".
Liubice was thinly populated during the 9th and 10th centuries. In the middle of the 11th century, the settlement began to develop. Starting in 1055 during the rule of Gottschalk, a Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
prince of the Obotrite confederacy
Obotrites
The Obotrites , also commonly known as the Obodrites, Abotrites, or Abodrites, were a confederation of medieval West Slavic tribes within the territory of modern Mecklenburg and Holstein in northern Germany . For decades they were allies of Charlemagne in his wars against Germanic Saxons and Slavic...
, the old castle was rebuilt. Gottschalk was killed during an uprising in 1066 and replaced as Obotrite prince by the pagan
Slavic mythology
Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianisation.The religion possesses many common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion....
Kruto
Kruto
Kruto , son of Grin or Grinus, was a prince of Wagria. James Westfall Thompson believed his family belonged to the Rani of Rugia....
. Liubice's castle was modified for the second time in 1087, near the end of Kruto's reign. Because the fortifications were located on a peninsula between the Schwartau and Trave Rivers, a twelve metre wide trench was created to separate Liubice from the mainland, essentially creating an island fortress.
Liubice reached its height during the reign of the prince or "King of the Slavs", the Christian Henry
Henry (Obotrite prince)
Henry was an Obotrite prince or king from the Nakonid dynasty; he was regarded by contemporaries as "King of the Slavs"...
, who avenged his father Gottschalk's death by killing Kruto in 1093. The harbour settlement of Liubice, which lay in the borderland between the Wagrians, Polabians, and Obotrites, was chosen as Henry's royal residence. The relatively small castle's walls had a diameter of approximately 75 to 100 metres. The castle church built by Henry ca. 1100 was the earliest discernible stone construction in the region; members of the princely family were buried inside the church.The princely palace probably lay northwest of the castle's own Christian church, while a granary was east of the church. Cattle stalls were located to the southeast next to the ramparts. The castle complex also contained houses for the garrison and probably goldsmithing workshops or a mint
Mint (coin)
A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is usually closely tied to the political situation of an era...
. The castle was surrounded by a wooden earthworks with a southern gate. Southwest of the castle under the protection of its walls was a settlement of craftsmen. To the northwest across the trench was a poorer settlement, probably of servants. To the southwest across the Trave was a colony of foreign, mostly Saxon
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
, merchants who were allowed their own Christian church.
Ca. 1100 Liubice was besieged by the fleet of the pagan Rani
Rani (Slavic tribe)
The Rani or Rujani were a West Slavic tribe based on the island of Rugia and the southwestern mainland across the Strelasund in what is today northeastern Germany....
, but with the assistance of Saxons from Holstein
Holstein
Holstein is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany....
, Henry forced the Rani to pay tribute. The Obotrite state collapsed after the death of Henry and end of the Nakonid dynasty in 1127; the Rani returned to sack Liubice in 1128. With the death of Canute Lavard
Canute Lavard
Canute Lavard was a Danish prince. Later he was the first Duke of Schleswig and the first border prince who was both a Danish and a German vassal, a position leafing towards the historical double position of Southern Jutland...
in 1131, the Obotrite lands were partitioned between Niklot
Niklot
Niklot or Nyklot was a pagan chief or prince of the Slavic Obotrites and an ancestor of the House of Mecklenburg. From 1130 or 1131 until his death he was chief of the Obotrite confederacy, the Kissini, and the Circipani. At the same time he was Lord of Schwerin, Quetzin, and Malchow...
, who received Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...
, and Pribislav
Pribislav (Wagrian prince)
Pribislav was a 12th century prince of the West Slavic Obotrites with his power base in Wagria.Pribislav was the son of Budivoj...
, who received Wagria and Polabia. Pribislav chose Liubice as his residence in order to assert his claims for the inheritance of Henry, but he was reduced to being a Saxon vassal in Wagria after being defeated by Henry of Badewide
Henry of Badewide
Henry of Badewide was a Saxon Count of Botwide and Count of Ratzeburg .Henry came from a knightly family from Lüneburg. He took his name from Bode near Ebstorf...
in the late 1130s. Liubice and the Oldenburg region
Ostholstein
Ostholstein is a district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Stormarn, Segeberg and Plön, the Baltic Sea and the city of Lübeck.-History:...
were ravaged by another Rani campaign in 1138 in which the castle's church was destroyed.
Granted Wagria and Segeberg
Bad Segeberg
Bad Segeberg is a German town of 16,000 inhabitants, located in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, capital of the district Segeberg. It is situated approximately northeast of Hamburg, and west of Lübeck.It is famous for its annual Karl-May-Festival...
by Duke Henry the Lion
Henry the Lion
Henry the Lion was a member of the Welf dynasty and Duke of Saxony, as Henry III, from 1142, and Duke of Bavaria, as Henry XII, from 1156, which duchies he held until 1180....
in 1143, Count Adolf II of Holstein
Adolf II of Holstein
Adolf II was the Count of Schauenburg and Holstein from 1130 until his death, though he was briefly out of Holstein from 1137 until 1142. He succeeded his father Adolf I under the regency of his mother, Hildewa....
founded the new German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
settlement of Lübeck
Lübeck
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
four kilometres from Liubice on a peninsula called Bucu
Bucu
Bucu or Buku is a hill island surrounded by the Trave and Wakenitz Rivers in Lübeck, Germany. It is also the name of a medieval Slavic castle, now ruined, on the island. Count Adolf II of Holstein founded Lübeck on the island in 1143. The Burgkloster, or fortified monastery, of Lübeck is located...
at the confluence of the Wakenitz
Wakenitz
The Wakenitz is a river in southeastern Schleswig-Holstein whose source is the Ratzeburger See in Ratzeburg.The Wakenitz is about 14.5 kilometers long and drains into the Trave in Lübeck. The majority of its eastern bank forms the border between Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania...
with the Trave. The remaining Slavic inhabitants of the region held their assemblies at Lübeck's Marienkirche until the 13th century. Some of the older Slavic laws were incorporated into Lübeck's city code, Lübeck law
Lübeck law
The Lübeck law was the constitution of a municipal form of government developed at Lübeck in Schleswig-Holstein after it was made a free city in 1226. The law provides for self-government. It replaced the personal rule of tribal monarchs descending from ancient times or the rule of the regional...
.
Excavation
Archaeological findings in the 1970s indicated that Liubice was older than previously thought. The oldest wall dates back to 819, while further sections of the wall date to 1055 and 1087. Dendrochronological date indicates two repairs on the wall and activity inside of the castle in 1002 and 1035. The stone church, discovered in 1852, was preceded by a wooden church. Plaiting and block construction were found scattered inside the ruins of the castle complex.Further reading
- Johannes Baltzer and Friedrich Bruns: Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler der Freien und Hansestadt Lübeck. Herausgegeben von der Baubehörde. Band III: Kirche zu Alt-Lübeck. Dom. Jakobikirche. Ägidienkirche. Verlag von Bernhard Nöhring: Lübeck 1920, S. 1-8. Reprinted in 2001: ISBN 3-89557-167-9
- Doris Mührenberg: Archäologie in Lübeck. Band 5.
- W. Neugebauer: Eine Drechslerwerkstatt in Alt-Lübeck aus der Zeit um 1100. 1955
- W. Neugebauer: Der Burgwall Alt-Lübeck. Geschichte, Stand und Aufgaben der Forschung. 1964/65
- W. Neugebauer: Übersicht über die Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen in Alt-Lübeck. 1968