The Hanseatic City of Lübeck was leading among this league of merchant cities which held a monopoly over the trade of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. The functioning of the Hanseatic League is not only proof of early economic co-operation in Europe, but it also founded a social and cultural community which has left its mark throughout the region, particularly in the self-contained architectural world of brick Gothic.Parts of the medieval city of Lübeck were severely destroyed during the Seco