Lübeck (19th Century)

Since the heyday of the Hanseatic League in the late fourteenth century, the city of Lübeck on the Baltic Sea had lost substantial amounts of trade to Bremerhaven, Hamburg, and Stettin (present-day Szczecin). Nonetheless, the abundance of seagoing vessels shown below on Lübeck’s Trave River suggests that the old Hanseatic city continued to serve as an important commercial hub in northern Germany. Lübeck’s twin-towered cathedral (begun in the Romanesque style and redesigned in the Gothic) occupies the background center. To the left, one can see the spire of St. Peter’s Church (14th-16th century). This drawing was executed by Paul Robert Geißler (1819-1893), who worked as a painter, illustrator, writer, and journalist for various newspapers and magazines, including the Leipzig Illustrierte Zeitung. Geißler concentrated on landscapes and vedute, and created a series of lithographic views of Hamburg, Greifswald, and Stralsund. Undated drawing.

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© Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz / Hamburger Kunsthalle / Elke Walford