Why visit Lübeck?

Lübeck is a World Heritage site. But nothing or nobody answers my question: Why visit Lübeck?

The Tourist Agency in Lübeck

Here are a number of other unanswered questions:

• Why is there almost no promotional material in English?
• Why can't I get a guide written by historians which evokes confidence instead of trivial boasting of Lübeck's past glory?
• Why are none of the old houses made into museums, so that people might get a chance to see and feel what life was all about in the old days? (There are models in the museum but no "live" sites).
• Why is the replica of the old Hanseatic trading ship, Lisa aus Lübeck, not open? Promoted?
• Why is the tourist office selling little green frogs in glass domes?

The answer to all these questions seems rather clear. It is evident that the city council prefer to cater for the so called "sea, sand, sex and shopping" segment than the cultural traveller. We must ask why?

Lübeck

Today Lübeck is a small and somewhat insignificant city on the North Coast of Germany. Of course in the high Middle Ages it used to be the Queen of the Hanseatic League, de facto governing more than one hundred cities around the Baltic and known for imposing its famous Law of Lübeck on its co-partners in the Baltic trade. The background for this position was its key location as a transit station for the salt- and herring trade as well as the trade in grain, timber, furs, tar, honey, and flax from the east and cloth and luxury-goods from the West and South. At that time Lübeck was the largest town in Northern Europe, second only to Cologne. With the shift towards the Atlantic trade in the 16th century this dominant position was, however, lost to the English and Dutch trading companies. Effectively Lübeck's powerful position ended in the 16th century and the last meeting of the Diets between the Hanseatic cities took place in 17th century. From then on it went downhill and Napoleon conquered the city in 1811 demolishing the city walls. The final coup was in 1937 when the "Freie Stadt" was included in Nazi Germany and in 1942 when the city was heavily bombed. Today it is a small sleepy town living in the shadow of Hamburg known primarily for its ferries and tourists. And then of course it is known for it's more than 400 old houses kept in a kind of time-capsule, created by the economic down-turn of the 17th century and onwards.

Tourism

Do people go to Lübeck? The answer is yes - and no. Of course there are people visiting Lübeck, 2/3 of which are Germans. Last year 145.000 foreigners came and stayed. But surprisingly this figure is less than in 1990. This is to say that in a period when growth in European Tourism and economy has been overwhelming, Lübeck has actually experienced a downturn in the number of foreign visitors. The statistics present a somewhat bleak picture although most of the tourists stay a little longer, which means that the number of overnights has gone slightly up. To this should be added that the numbers of visits to the museums overall fell with more than 25 % from 2000 - 2006. When counting visits to the Günther Grass House which opened in 2002 the decline is 20 %. This happened in a period when a brand new archaeological museum opened.

It is apparent that the city of Lübeck is busy discussing what should be done to make a visit more attractive. North of the city, in Travemünde, a casino recently opened. Nearby the city is planning to develop a summer-resort for 2000 families with children. In connection with that Lübeck aspires to be the shopping centre of the North. For this reason the city is investing in a number of shopping malls, Karstadt, Peek & Cloppenburg as well as a new project: the Haerder-Center, which will open in October 2008. This new centre will effectively bridge a whole block between the two main streets and thus block the view from one end of the medieval city to the other.

Why visit Lübeck?

I know of course why I am visiting Lübeck. It is the location for a conference on the interface between Unesco and tourism, and Lübeck was chosen as venue, since it can boast of having a world heritage status since 1987. Indeed it is an amazing town with most of its inner medieval city intact. On par with Visby, Provins in France and the heavily restored city of Carcassonne these are the places (among others) we may visit to get a feeling of the Middle Ages. And granted: In Lübeck I do get a sense of daily life in bygone times, the religious life by visiting the churches, the social life of the merchants by visiting Thomas Mann's birthplace, and the seafarers' life by dining in the famous Schiffergesellschaft.

On the other hand: If I came unprepared, I would not know where to begin or end to get a sense of what the city is about. I might of course join a tour of the town. I might also visit the Archaeological Museum and the museum in the Holstein Tor. But would this make me wiser on the town's history - that is the rise and fall of Lübeck? The answer is unfortunately no. The point is that as a cultural traveller I do not feel especially welcome. If, however, I belonged to the "Sea & Sand" segment I am sure that Lübeck could provide me with the usual tourist experiences of lousy fast food, shopping centres akin to those I know of from other German cities, fancy sports facilities and casino life in the evening.

Should Lübeck be de-listed?

We must ask: Is Lübeck queuing up among other German sites, asking to be de-listed from the catalogue of world heritage sites?