Call for Papers

NOS-HS project: The Hansa in the North - Cultural and Social Transformations. A Reassessment

Conference I: “The Hanse and its Aftermath in the North: Historiographic Changes and Challenges”

Copenhagen/Scania, June 1st.-3rd. 2016

Organized by
Carsten Jahnke, University of Copenhagen
Christian Krötzl, University of Tampere
Jan von Bonsdorff, University of Uppsala

Deadline for submissions: March 11, 2016

The bane of the Hanseatic League is its historiography. The league itself vanished in the course of the 17th century because of economic reasons and by 1800, the League was an almost forgotten, old and unpolitical antiquity, as the first historiographer, Georg Sartorius von Waltershausen, stated in 1802. But this neutral state of antiquity opened up the doors of hell for all kind of historiographical interpretations. Already in the second edition of Sartorius book, published in 1830, the Hanseatic League suddenly became the spearhead of the striving German bourgeoisie and its impetus of liberty against the old regime, in the 1870ties and following the interpretations became at one hand militarised (the League as a sea power) and at the other hand the League was created as the bearer of real Protestantism. Since the 1920ties the League was transformed by racial ideology and became the bearer of German culture and supremacy, an idea, that became only remodeled after 1945. By this the historical concept of this League was more a mirror of its time, than an image of the past.
But the League was not only an image of German mental state, the interpretation of the League mirrors also the Scandinavian concept of Germany. Since the 19th century, the Hanseatic League was used as a political argument against Germany: So as the League (allegedly) had subjugated Scandinavia and its economy, the new Germany will rule Scandinavia. The “decline” of the Scandinavian economy (in regard to the World economy) was certainly seen as a result of hanseatic politics as an alleged high foreign influence in these countries. And even the Scandinavian historiography itself used up to the 1970ties the imagine of the “bad German superpower Hanseatic League”, to promote their own domestic political agendas. Because of this, Hanseatic League is seen as a kind of invective, at least in Norway, or at least negative, as in Denmark and Sweden.
On the other side, all five Scandinavian countries have also to struggle with some “positive effects” of the League, effects that were mentioned, but not really knotted to the bad imagine of the League itself. The German influence in Scandinavia is a viral part of the cultural heritage, from fastelavnsboller/semlor (traditional pre-Lenten-foods), idioms, like the Finnish name for bread (leipä from German Laib) via names like the German Kopenhagen (merchants harbour) to places and buildings like Bryggen in Bergen or the fact, that the Protestant ideas were spread and sponsored by German merchants and the Scandinavian nobility had traded and was orientated to the League.
The imagine of the Hanseatic League has therefore - up to now – a Janus face. On one side the League is the bad superpower on the other side part of the cultural heritage.
This ambiguity shall be the main focus of this workshop in June 2016. The workshop shall discuss the following main questions:
- The use of the Hanseatic League in the Scandinavian political propaganda in the 19th and 20th century.
- The description and use of the hanseatic League in the Scandinavian historiography.
- The imagine of the Hanseatic League in the public, mainly in newspapers, radio and novels.
- The Hanseatic League as part of the “good” Protestantic reformation and tradition.
- The Hanseatic League and its remains in Scandinavia.

The conference is full sponsored by the NOS, so all expenses will be covered.

Proposals must be submitted to:

Carsten Jahnke
The SAXO Institute
University of Copenhagen

jahnke@hum.ku.dk