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1401: Klaus Stortebeker, Victual Brother pirate
On this date in 1401,* “Victual Brother” Klaus Störtebeker was beheaded in Hamburg. Statue of Klaus Stortebeker. (cc) image from blariog This legendary freebooter terrorized the Hanseatic League‘s...
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1537: Jurgen Wullenwever, Burgermeister of Lubeck
On this date in 1537, Jürgen Wullenwever was decapitated and quartered at Wolfenbüttel. Photo by Agnete (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0...
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1427: Johann Bantzkow, Mayor of Wismar
On this date in 1427, the merchant-mayor of Wismar was beheaded — the incidental casualty of a Baltic trade war. The Hanseatic League, that vast trading cartel stretching from Europe’s Low Countries in...
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1573: Hans von Erschausen, Seeräuber
On this date in 1573, the Hanseatic city of Hamburg beheaded the Seeräuber Hans von Erschausen with his crew, leaving naught but a vast row of pike-mounted heads and some excellent woodcuts. Also on...
View Article1393: Karsten Sarnow, Stralsund mayor
On this date in 1393 the mayor of Stralsund was beheaded. From the perspective of that Hanseatic city‘s hereditary patricianate, Karsten Sarnow was a chancer — a burgher who championed the political...
View Article1350: Tidericus the organist
On or very near this date in 1350,* the plague-ravaged city of Visby burned a man remembered as Tidericus (Diderik) the organist. The Gotland capital at this point stood at the fore of the Hanseatic...
View Article1525: Klaus Kniphoff, pirate
Pirate Claus/Klaus Kniphoff was beheaded at Hamburg on this date in 1525. He was the stepson of the former mayor of Malmö, a Hanseatic port on the southern reach of what is now Sweden, but which at the...
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