Lübeck, a free city of Germany, and great port on the river Trave, 12 miles from the Baltic, and 40 by rail N.E. of Hamburg. It was founded by Saxons in 1143, in place of a former Wendish town of the same name, lower down the Trave. The foundations of its prosperity were laid by Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, who gave it a charter, and took unusual pains to encourage its budding commerce. He also built a cathedral, and transferred the see of Oldenburg to Lübeck. Frederick Barbarossa not only confirmed, but greatly enlarged, its privileges, and Frederick II. made it a free city of the empire. From this time it made rapid progress as a trading centre; it was from the first one of the most influential members of the Hanseatic League (q.v.), and eventually its head. The city became in short the commercial metropolis of the Baltic and northern Europe. This proud position was due in some measure to the liberal encouragement of several successive emperors, but in still greater measure to the prudent guidance of the oligarchical council, composed of men elected from the families of the great merchants. The decay of Lübeck was necessarily involved in the decay of the Hanseatic cities generally. The eventful dictatorship of Wullenwever (1533-37) was the last dying effort of the League. Full administrative rights were not conferred upon the burghers or citizens until 1848. At the present time the constitution, embracing a senate (14 members) and a representative assembly (120 members), is thoroughly democratic in spirit. The French held Lübeck from 1806, when they captured it and plundered it—except for nine months in 1813—down to the treaty of Vienna, which made it a free town of the German Confederation. The traditional connection with Hamburg and Bremen, the last survivors of the Hanseatic League, was kept up till 1879. Nevertheless, in 1866 Lübeck joined the North German Confederation, and in 1868 the Customs Union (Zollverein).
The free city possesses 115 sq. m. of territory, including the port of Travemünde, near the mouth of the river. The total population was 76,485 in 1890, of whom 63,590 were in the city of Lübeck (44,799 in 1875). The industries are more varied than important, the chief being the manufacture of cigars and vinegar, brewing, brandy-distilling, soap-boiling, and iron-founding. Lübeck is the great centre for trade between Hamburg and the cities of Germany on the one side and the countries that border the Baltic on the other. The imports reach an annual value of about 9½ millions, and the exports of 8 millions. This traffic is mostly transit business; for instance, corn, timber, spirits, linseed, paper, tar, and butter are brought from Russia; timber, iron, steel, and copper from Sweden; butter and corn from Denmark and Finland; wines and spirits from France; coals (45,000 tons), grinding and other stones, and iron wares from Great Britain; and petroleum from North America. The port is entered annually by an average of 2300 vessels of 443,000 tons. The Trave was deepened to 15 feet in 1878-82. A scheme for a canal to connect Lübeck with the Elbe has been postponed owing to the Kiel-Elbe Canal.
The streets of the city are mostly wide and pleasant. The city-wall was demolished in 1802 or converted into promenades. The churches include the handsome Gothic St Mary's, first erected in 1163-70, though the existing edifice dates from 1276-1310, with two towers 407 feet high, old sarcophagi, masterpieces of old German sculpture, and pictures by Overbeck and others; the cathedral, founded in 1173, and enlarged in the 14th century, with a tower 394 feet high, and an altarpiece by Memling; St James's, built before 1227, and St Peter's, before 1163, which contain fine old paintings and monuments; and St Ægidius, which has an excellent organ. The town-house is the most notable amongst the secular buildings; it is built of red and black glazed bricks. The hospital of the Holy Spirit, dating from the 13th century, is adorned with admirable wood-carving. There are a school of navigation, a library of 98,000 vols., ethnographic, antiquarian, zoological, and art collections, &c. The state debt amounts to £692,380.
See Max Hoffmann, Geschichte der Freien- und Hansestadt Lübeck (1889-90); Pauli, Lübeck'sche Zustände im Mittelalter (1872); and Waitz, Lübeck unter Wullenwerer (3 vols. 1855-56).