LUBECK, an independent republic in the north of Germany, consisting of the city of that name, a part of the town of Bergedorf, divided between Hamburg and Lubeck, and sixty-eight villages and hamlets. It extends over 148 square miles, and contains 6437 houses, and 46,508 inhabitants, who all profess the Lutheran religion, except 300 Calvinists, 400 Catholics, and 300 Jews. The income of the state amounts to L.40,000 a year, but is burdened with a heavy debt of near L.300,000. It is governed by a senate of four burgomasters and sixteen counsellors, with two syndics and a procurator, who, though the executive power, have no votes in the senate. The lower house of assembly is chosen by the twelve guilds or companies of the free burgesses. The military force amounts to about 600 men of horse and foot.

The city of Lubeck, the capital of the republic, is situated in latitude 53. 50. 22. north, and longitude 10. 4L 32, east. It stands on a gentle elevation between the rivers Trave and Wakenitz, the former of which is navigable to the Baltic Sea, which it enters at Travemund, about twelve miles below the city. It has good wide streets, with massive houses, built in a very antique style. At present it displays a picture of decay when compared with the evident signs which remain of its former prosperity. After the battle of Jena in the year 1806, Blucher, with the wreck of the Prussian army, took refuge within the walls, and were followed by the French. A battle was fought in every street, which spread horror and a degree of suffering which has never been effaced.

The French, during their possession, robbed it of all that was moveable, and the trade on which it depended disappeared in the absence of the capital with which it had been carried on. The number of dwelling-houses is 3070, but that of inhabitants does not now exceed 23,000, a striking disproportion when the size of the houses is taken into consideration. The most prominent public building is the church of the holy virgin, with a magnificent altar of black marble, a most curious astronomical clock, and two towers 400 feet in height. The Rathshouse, in which the representatives of the Hans Towns assembled, with its extensive cellars, in better times stocked with many hundred pipes of the oldest Rhenish wine, all taken away by the French, is a fine old building. There is little trade, the chief part of which consists in the conveyance of goods from Hamburg to the ports of Sweden and Russia, and bringing back the products of those countries, r There are some shipowners, and about ninety vessels, great and small, belonging to the port of Lubeck. There are some small establishments for making snuff’ and tobacco, for refining sugar, and for other smaller manufactures.

Lubeck is remarkable for what it has been, rather than for what it now is. It was once the head of a confederacy of cities, in which the spirit of freedom and of active commerce was carried on, whilst the rest of Europe was deeply sunk in military despotism and in disgraceful indolence. At that time it was respected, feared, and its alliance courted, by the monarchs of the most powerful states; and its powerful fleets overawed the whole of the shores of the Baltic Sea. As the history of this place is curious, a few lines may be devoted to it.

It appears that in the beginning of the ninth century a tribe of Sclavonians built on the little river Schwartau a fortified place to protect themselves against another tribe called the Obotrittens. This was the ancient Lubeck. It was, however, taken and made the residence of Henry kin g of the Obotrittens, who continued there till 1139, when it was captured and demolished, and the present city founded on the river Trave, by Rudolph of Holstein, and peopled by fugitives from Westphalia and the Netherlands. In the year 1158 it was transferred to Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, who granted to the city those privileges which it long enjoyed, and which were gradually assumed by the other cities which had acquired independence. Their naval power then rose rapidly; and a war having broke out between the emperor of Germany and Henry, the citizens maintained the cause of the latter with so much resolution, that, though attacked, they only submitted in consequence of a treaty which insured to them all the rights and privileges they had previously enjoyed. The possession of the city then became an object of contest between Saxony, Holstein, and Denmark, by the last of which, in 1201, Lubeck was captured; but at length, in 1226, it threw itself under the protection of the empire, when Frederick the Second affirmed its freedom, and instated it as an imperial city, with all the privileges of an independent member of the Germanic body.

In 1241 the first alliance was formed with Hamburg, and in 1260 Bremen and other free cities had become members of the confederacy, of which Lubeck was declared the head, and the place of assembly of the whole representatives. This commenced the flourishing period of its existence, which long continued, till all the cities, excepting Lubeck, Hamburg, Bremen, and Frankfort, had been one after another subjugated, and united to the dominions of the several princes by whom they were surrounded. This had taken place towards the end of the sixteenth century, when the trade of Lubeck took another direction; and this place, though nominally the head of the remaining confederacy, was the poorest and least populous of any of them. In 1802, when so many German states lost their independence, Lubeck still nominally retained hers, till she fell under the French yoke in the year 1806. In 1810 Lubeck was formed into a portion of the French department of the Mouths of the Elbe, of which Hamburg was declared the capital. After the victory of Leipzig in 1813 its freedom was restored, and afterwards secured by the congress of Vienna in 1815. The restoration of its ancient power is now hopeless.