Lübeck

Lübeck (Low German: Lübęk or Lübeek [ˈlyːbeːk]; Latin: Lubeca), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and the second-largest city in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, after its capital of Kiel, and is the 36th-largest city in Germany.

The city lies in the Holsatian part of Schleswig-Holstein, on the mouth of the Trave, which flows into the Bay of Lübeck in the borough of Travemünde, and on the Trave's tributary Wakenitz. The island with the historic old town and the districts north of the Trave are also located in the historical region of Wagria. Lübeck is the southwesternmost city on the Baltic Sea, and the closest point of access to the Baltic from Hamburg. The city lies in the Holsatian dialect area of Low German.

The name "Lübeck" ultimately stems from the Slavic root lub- ("love-"). Before 819, Polabian Slavs founded a settlement which they called Liubice on the mouth of the Schwartau into the Trave. Since the 10th century, Liubice was the second-most important settlement of the Obotrites after Starigard. Lübeck was granted Soest city rights in 1160, and, in 1260, it became an immediate city within the Holy Roman Empire. In the middle of the 12th century, Lübeck developed into the cradle of the Hanseatic League, of which it was considered the de facto capital and most important city from then on. The Lübeck law was eventually adopted by around 100 cities in the Baltic region. Lübeck could preserve its status as an independent city, which it held since 1226, until 1937.

Lübeck's historic old town, located on a densely built-up island, is Germany's most extensive UNESCO World Heritage Site. With 6 church towers surpassing 100 m, Lübeck is the city with the highest number of tall church towers worldwide. Nicknamed the "City of the Seven Towers" (Stadt der Sieben Türme), Lübeck's skyline is dominated by the seven towers of its five Protestant main churches: St Mary's, Lübeck Cathedral, St James', St Peter's, and St Giles's. The cathedral from 1173-1341 was the first large brickwork church in the Baltic region. St Mary's Church from 1265-1351 is considered the model on which most of the other Brick Gothic churches in the sphere of influence of the Hanseatic League are based. It is the second-tallest church with two main towers after Cologne Cathedral (which only surpassed it in 1880), has the tallest brick vault, and is the second-tallest brickwork structure after St. Martin's Church in Landshut.

Lübeck is home to the University of Lübeck with its University Medical Center Schleswig Holstein, the Technical University of Applied Sciences Lübeck, and the Lübeck Academy of Music. There are 18 museums in Lübeck, among which the European Hansemuseum, Lübeck Museum Port, and the Niederegger Marzipan Museum, dedicated to the culinary specialty the city is best known for: Lübeck Marzipan. Due to their southwestern location, Travemünde and the nearby seaside resorts of Niendorf, Timmendorfer Strand, Scharbeutz, Haffkrug, Sierksdorf, and Grömitz are among Germany's most visited.

Lübeck Main Station is located on the Vogelfluglinie railway line connecting continental Europe (Hamburg) to Scandinavia (Copenhagen) via the future Fehmarn Belt fixed link. The port of Lübeck is the second-largest German port on the Baltic Sea after the port of Rostock, and the Skandinavienkai in Travemünde is Germany's most important ferry port, with connections to Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. The city has its own regional airport at Lübeck-Blankensee, while nearby Hamburg Airport serves as Lübeck's main air hub.

History
Humans settled in the area around what today is Lübeck after the last Ice Age ended about 9700 BCE. Several Neolithic dolmens can be found in the area.

Around 700 AD, Slavic peoples started moving into the eastern parts of Holstein, an area previously settled by Germanic inhabitants who had moved on in the Migration Period. Charlemagne, whose efforts to Christianise the area were opposed by the Germanic Saxons, expelled many of the Saxons and brought in Polabian Slavs allies. Liubice (the place-name means "lovely") was founded on the banks of the River Trave about 4 km north of the present-day city-center of Lübeck.

In the 10th century, it became the most important settlement of the Obotrite confederacy and a castle was built. In 1128, the pagan Rani from Rügen razed Liubice.

In 1143, Adolf II, Count of Schauenburg and Holstein, founded the modern town as a German settlement on the river island of Bucu. He built a new castle, first mentioned by the chronicler Helmold as existing in 1147. Adolf had to cede the castle to the Duke of Saxony, Henry the Lion, in 1158. After Henry's fall from power in 1181, the town became an Imperial city for eight years.

Emperor Barbarossa (reigned 1152–1190) ordained that the city should have a ruling council of 20 members. With the council dominated by merchants, pragmatic trade interests shaped Lübeck's politics for centuries. The council survived into the 19th century. The town and castle changed ownership for a period afterwards and formed part of the Duchy of Saxony until 1192, of the County of Holstein until 1217, and of the kingdom of Denmark until the Battle of Bornhöved in 1227.

Hanseatic city


Around 1200, the port became the main point of departure for colonists leaving for the Baltic territories conquered by the Livonian Order, and later, by the Teutonic Order. In 1226, Emperor Frederick II elevated the town to the status of an Imperial free city, by which it became the Free City of Lübeck.

In the 14th century, Lübeck became the "Queen of the Hanseatic League", being by far the largest and most powerful member of that medieval trade organization. In 1375, Emperor Charles IV named Lübeck one of the five "Glories of the Empire", a title shared with Venice, Rome, Pisa, and Florence.

Several conflicts about trading privileges resulted in fighting between Lübeck (with the Hanseatic League) and Denmark and Norway – with varying outcome. While Lübeck and the Hanseatic League prevailed in conflicts in 1435 and 1512, Lübeck lost when it became involved in the Count's Feud, a civil war that raged in Denmark from 1534 to 1536. Lübeck also joined the pro-Lutheran Schmalkaldic League of the mid-16th century.

Decline
After its defeat in the Count's Feud, Lübeck's power slowly declined. The city remained neutral in the Thirty Years' War of 1618–1648, but the combination of the devastation from the decades-long war and the new transatlantic orientation of European trade caused the Hanseatic League – and thus Lübeck with it – to decline in importance. However, even after the de facto disbanding of the Hanseatic League in 1669, Lübeck still remained an important trading town on the Baltic Sea.

From the Napoleonic wars to the Franco-Prussian war
In the course of the war of the Fourth Coalition against Napoleon, troops under Marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte (who would later become King of Sweden) occupied Lübeck after a battle against Prussian General Gebhard Blücher on 6 November 1806 due to the latter's illegal use of the city as a fortress, in violation of Lübeck's neutrality, following the French pursuit of his corps after the Battle of Jena-Auerstadt. Under the Continental System, the State bank went into bankruptcy. In 1811, the French Empire formally annexed Lübeck as part of France but the anti-Napoleonic allies liberated the area in 1813.

After Napoleon's defeat, the Congress of Vienna of 1815 recognised Lübeck as an independent free city. The city became a member of the German Confederation (1815–1866), the North German Confederation (1866–1871) and the German Empire (1871–1918).

During the Franco-Prussian War, the battalion de Fusilier of Lübeck was part of the "2nd Hanseatic Infantry Regiment No. 76". On the day of the Battle of Loigny the commander of the 17th Division, Hugo von Kottwitz, of the morning advanced in front of the Fusilier battalion of the regiment, urging them to "commemorate the bravery of the Hanseatic League". his attack in the north while the other battalions turned towards Loigny.

This shock surprised the French so much that they were invaded by their flank. They fled to the Fougeu place and were kicked out of this. The battle was to become the founding myth of the last Lübeck regiment, 3rd Hanseatic Infantry Regiment No. 162, which was founded in 1897. When the battalion commander returned to Lübeck with his battalion, he was appointed regimental commander.

20th century
At the end of the First World War and the fall of the German Empire, Lübeck became a member state of the Weimar Republic (1919–1933). After the Nazi seizure of power, Lübeck, like all other German states, was subjected to the process of Gleichschaltung (coordination). Subsequent to the enactment of the "Second Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich" on 7 April 1933, Friedrich Hildebrandt was appointed to the new position of Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) of Lübeck on 26 May 1933. Hildebrandt installed Otto-Heinrich Drechsler as the Bürgermeister, displacing the duly-elected Social Democrat,.

Additionally, on 30 January 1934, the Reich government enacted the "Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich," formally abolishing all the state parliaments and transferring the sovereignty of the states to the central government. With this action, the Lübeck popular assembly, the Bürgerschaft, was dissolved and Lübeck effectively lost its rights as a federal state. Under the provisions of the Greater Hamburg Act, Lübeck was absorbed into the Prussian Province of Schleswig-Holstein, effective 1 April 1937, thereby losing its 711-year status as an independent free city.

During World War II (1939–1945), Lübeck became the first German city to suffer substantial Royal Air Force (RAF) bombing. The attack of 28 March 1942 created a firestorm that caused severe damage to the historic centre. This raid destroyed three of the main churches and large parts of the built-up area; the bells of St Marienkircke plunged to the stone floor. Nearly 1,500 houses were completely destroyed, 2,200 heavily damaged and 9,000 slightly damaged. More than 320 people lost their lives. The industrial area of Lübeck was bombed on 25 August 1944 and 110 people were killed. In total, nearly 20% of the city centre was entirely destroyed, with particular damage in the Gründungsviertel neighborhood, where the rich merchants from the Hanseatic League had once lived. Germany operated a prisoner-of-war camp for officers, Oflag X-C, near the city from 1940 until April 1945. The British Second Army entered Lübeck on 2 May 1945 and occupied it without resistance.

On 3 May 1945, one of the biggest disasters in naval history occurred in the Bay of Lübeck when RAF bombers sank three ships: the SS Cap Arcona, the SS Deutschland, and the SS Thielbek – which, unknown to them, were packed with concentration-camp inmates. About 7,000 people died.

Lübeck's population grew considerably, from about 150,000 in 1939 to more than 220,000 after the war, owing to an influx of ethnic German refugees expelled from the former eastern provinces of Germany in the Communist Bloc. Lübeck remained part of Schleswig-Holstein after World War II (and consequently lay within West Germany). It stood directly on what became the inner German border during the division of Germany into two states in the Cold War period. South of the city, the border followed the path of the river Wakenitz, which separated Germany by less than 10 m in many parts. The northernmost border crossing was in Lübeck's district of Schlutup. Lübeck spent decades restoring its historic city centre. In 1987, UNESCO designated this area a World Heritage Site.

In April 2015, Lübeck hosted the G7 conference.

Climate
Lübeck has an oceanic climate (Cfb in the Köppen climate classification).

Population
Lübeck has a population of about 217,000 people and is the 2nd largest city in Schleswig-Holstein. Lübeck became a major city after becoming a part of the Hanseatic League in the 15th century. Lübeck later became one of the important and leading Hanseatic cities in Europe. Following World War II, the population of Lübeck grew rapidly due to the refugee crisis, as many people from East Prussia and other former parts of Germany and had to flee there after the war. The population began to decline in the 1970s but grew again in 1990s after the German Reunification, as many people from the former East Germany came to Lübeck due to the fact that it lies directly on the former East German border. Today Lübeck attracts many tourists due to its rich history and Hanseatic architecture, and it is known as one of the most beautiful cities in Germany.

The largest ethnic minority groups are Turks, Central Europeans (Poles), Southern Europeans (mostly Greeks and Italians), Eastern Europeans (e.g. Russians and Ukrainians), Arabs, and several smaller groups.

Politics
The current mayor of Lübeck is Jan Lindenau of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The most recent mayoral election was held in 2017. The Lübeck city council governs the city alongside the mayor.

Tourism
In 2019, Lübeck reached 2 million overnight stays. Lübeck is famous for its medieval city centre with its churches, Holstentor, and small alleys. Lübeck has been called "Die Stadt der 7 Türme" (the city of seven towers) because of its seven prominent church towers. Like many other places in Germany, Lübeck has a long tradition of a Christmas market in December, which includes the famous handicrafts market inside the Heiligen-Geist-Hospital (Hospital of the Holy Spirit), located at the northern end of Königstrasse.

Buildings
Over 80% of the old town has preserved its medieval appearance, with historic buildings and narrow streets. The rest has been and is currently in a process of restoration and reconstruction. At one time, the town could only be entered by any of four town gates, two of which remain today, the well-known Holstentor (1478) and the Burgtor (1444).

The old town centre is dominated by seven church steeples. The oldest are Lübeck Cathedral and the Marienkirche (Saint Mary's), both dating from the 13th and 14th centuries.

Built in 1286, the Hospital of the Holy Spirit at Koberg is one of the oldest existing social institutions in the world and one of the most important buildings in the city. The Hospital functions both as a retirement and a nursing home. Some historical parts have been made available for public viewing.

Other sights include:
 * The City Hall
 * St. Catherine's Church, a church that belonged to a former monastery, now the Katharineum, a Latin school
 * Thomas Mann's house
 * Günter Grass's house
 * Church of St Peter
 * Church of St Lawrence, located on the site of a cemetery for people who died during the 16th-century plague
 * Church of St James, 1334
 * Church of the Sacred Heart
 * Church of St Aegidien
 * the Salzspeicher, historic warehouses where salt delivered from Lüneburg awaited shipment to Baltic ports
 * The City of Travemünde on the Coast of the Baltic Sea.

Music, literature and the arts
The composer Franz Tunder was principal organist in the Marienkirche, Lübeck, when he initiated the tradition of weekly Abendmusiken. In 1668, his daughter Anna Margarethe married the Danish-German composer Dieterich Buxtehude, who became the new organist at the Marienkirche. Some of the rising composers of the day travelled to Lübeck to witness his performances, notably Handel and Mattheson in 1703, and Bach in 1705.

Writer and Nobel laureate Thomas Mann was a member of the Mann family of Lübeck merchants. His well-known 1901 novel Buddenbrooks made readers in Germany (and later worldwide, through numerous translations) familiar with the manner of life and mores of the 19th-century Lübeck bourgeoisie.

Lübeck became the scene of a notable art scandal in the 1950s. Lothar Malskat was hired to restore medieval frescoes of the Marienkirche, which were unearthed as a result of severe bomb damage during World War II. Instead, he painted new works, which he passed off as restorations, fooling many experts. Malskat later revealed the deception himself. Writer and Nobel laureate Günter Grass featured this incident in his 1986 novel The Rat; from 1995 he lived close to Lübeck in Behlendorf, where he was buried in 2015.

Museums
Lübeck has many small museums, such as the St. Anne's Museum Quarter, Lübeck, the Behnhaus, the European Hansemuseum, and the Holstentor. Lübeck Museum of Theatre Puppets is a privately run museum. Waterside attractions are a lightvessel that served Fehmarnbelt and the Lisa von Lübeck, a reconstruction of a Hanseatic 15th century caravel. The marzipan museum in the second floor of Café Niederegger in Breite Strasse explains the history of marzipan, and shows historical wood molds for the production of marzipan blocks and a group of historical figures made of marzipan.

Food and drink
Lübeck is famous for its marzipan industry. According to local legend, marzipan was first made in Lübeck, possibly in response either to a military siege of the city or a famine year. The story, perhaps apocryphal, is that the city ran out of all food except stored almonds and sugar, which were used to make loaves of marzipan "bread". Others believe that marzipan was actually invented in Persia a few hundred years before Lübeck claims to have invented it. The best known producer is Niederegger, which tourists often visit while in Lübeck, especially at Christmas time.

The Lübeck wine trade dates back to Hanseatic times. One Lübeck specialty is Rotspon, wine made from grapes processed and fermented in France and transported in wooden barrels to Lübeck, where it is stored, aged and bottled.

Like other coastal North German communities, Fischbrötchen and Brathering are popular takeaway foods, given the abundance of fish varieties.

Sports
Lübeck is home to 3. Liga side VfB Lübeck who play at the 17,849 capacity Stadion an der Lohmühle. In addition to the football department the sports club has departments for badminton, women's gymnastics, handball, and table tennis.

Education
Lübeck has three universities, the University of Lübeck, the Technical University of Applied Sciences Lübeck, and the Lübeck Academy of Music. The Graduate School for Computing in Medicine and Life Sciences is a central faculty of the university and was founded by the German Excellence Initiative. The International School of New Media is an affiliated institute of the university.

Districts


The city of Lübeck is divided into 10 zones. These again are arranged into altogether 35 urban districts. The 10 zones with their official numbers, their associated urban districts and the numbers of inhabitants of the quarters:

The Innenstadt is the main tourist attraction and consists of the old town as well as the former ramparts. It is the oldest and smallest part of Lübeck. Sankt Jürgen is one of three historic suburbs of Lübeck (alongside St. Lorenz and St. Gertrud). It is located south of the city centre and the biggest of all city parts. Moisling is situated in the far south-west. Its history dates back to the 17th century. Buntekuh lies in the west of Lübeck. A big part consists of commercial zones such as the Citti-Park, Lübeck's biggest mall. Sankt Lorenz-Süd is located right in the south-west of the city centre and has the highest population density. The main train and bus station lie in its northern part. Sankt Lorenz-Nord is situated in the north-west of Lübeck. It is split from its southern part by the railways. Sankt Gertrud is located in the east of the city centre. This part is mainly characterized by its nature. Many parks, the rivers Wakenitz and Trave and the forest Lauerholz make up a big part of its area. Schlutup lies in the far east of Lübeck. Due to forest Lauerholz in its west and river Trave in the north, Schlutup is relatively isolated from the other city parts. North of river Trave lies Kücknitz. It is the old main industrial area of Lübeck. Travemünde is located in far northeastern Lübeck at the Baltic Sea. With its long beach and coast line, Travemünde is the second biggest tourist destination.
 * 01 City centre (~ 12,000 inhabitants)
 * 02 St. Jürgen (~ 40,000 inhabitants)
 * Hüxtertor / Mühlentor / Gärtnergasse, Strecknitz / Rothebek, Blankensee, Wulfsdorf, Beidendorf, Krummesse, Kronsforde, Niederbüssau, Vorrade, Schiereichenkoppel, Oberbüssau
 * 03 Moisling (~ 10,000 inhabitants)
 * Niendorf / Moorgarten, Reecke, Old-Moisling / Genin
 * 04 Buntekuh (~ 10,000 inhabitants)
 * 05 St. Lorenz-South (~ 12,000 inhabitants)
 * 06 St. Lorenz-North (~ 40,000 inhabitants)
 * Holstentor-North, Falkenfeld / Vorwerk / Teerhof, Großsteinrade / Schönböcken, Dornbreite / Krempelsdorf
 * 07 St. Gertrud (~ 40,000 inhabitants)
 * Burgtor / Stadtpark, Marli / Brandenbaum, Eichholz, Karlshof / Israelsdorf / Gothmund
 * 08 Schlutup (~ 6,000 inhabitants)
 * 09 Kücknitz (~ 20,000 inhabitants)
 * Dänischburg / Siems / Rangenberg / Wallberg, Herrenwyk, Alt-Kücknitz / Dummersdorf / Roter Hahn, Poeppendorf
 * 10 Travemünde (~ 15,000 inhabitants)
 * Ivendorf, Alt-Travemünde / Rönnau, Priwall, Teutendorf, Brodten

Twin towns – sister cities
Lübeck is twinned with:


 * 🇫🇮 Kotka, Finland (1969)
 * 🇩🇪 Wismar, Germany (1987)
 * 🇫🇷 La Rochelle, France (1988)
 * 🇱🇹 Klaipėda, Lithuania (1990)
 * 🇸🇪 Visby, Sweden (1999)

Friendly cities
Lübeck also has friendly relations with:


 * 🇮🇹 Venice, Italy (1979)
 * 🇯🇵 Kawasaki, Japan (1992)
 * 🇳🇴 Bergen, Norway (1996)
 * 🇨🇳 Shaoxing, China (2003)

Transport


Lübeck is connected to three main motorways (Autobahnen). The A1 Motorway is heading north to the Island of Fehmarn and Copenhagen (Denmark) and south to Hamburg, Bremen and Cologne. The A20 Motorway heads east towards Wismar, Rostock and Szczecin (Poland) and west to Bad Segeberg and to the North Sea. The A226 Motorway starts in central Lübeck and is heading to the north-east and the Seaport-City of Travemünde.

Lübeck is served by multiple railway stations. The principal one is Lübeck Hauptbahnhof, with about 31,000 passengers per day, is the busiest station in Schleswig-Holstein. The station is mostly served by regional rail services to Hamburg, Lüneburg, Kiel, the Island of Fehmarn and Szczecin (Poland). There are some long-distance trains to Munich, Frankfurt-am-Main and Cologne. During the summer holidays, there are many extra rail services. Until the end of 2019, Lübeck was a stop on the "Vogelfluglinie" train line from Hamburg to Copenhagen (Denmark).

Public transport by bus is organised by the Lübeck City-Traffic-Company (Lübecker Stadtverkehr). There are 40 bus lines serving the city and the area around Lübeck, in addition to regional bus services.

The district of Travemünde is on the Baltic Sea and has the city's main port. The Scandinavienkai (the quay of Scandinavia) is the departure point for ferry routes to Malmö and Trelleborg (Sweden); Liepāja (Latvia); Helsinki (Finland) and Saint Petersburg (Russia). It is the second-biggest German port on the Baltic Sea.

Lübeck Airport is located in the south of Lübeck in the town of Blankensee. It provides regional flights to Munich and Stuttgart and some charter flights to Italy and Croatia.

Religion



 * Laurentius Surius (1522–1578), Carthusian monk and hagiographer
 * August Hermann Francke (1663–1727), pedagogue, theologian, founded the Francke Foundations
 * Johann Lorenz von Mosheim (1693–1755), Lutheran church historian
 * Lübeck Martyrs Three Roman Catholic priests and one Evangelical Lutheran clergyman were executed by beheading on 10 November 1943 less than 3 minutes apart from each other at Hamburg's Holstenglacis Prison (1943)
 * Ephraim Carlebach (1879–1936), rabbi and founder of the Higher Israelite School in Leipzig
 * Joseph Carlebach (1883–1942), rabbi, victim of the Holocaust
 * Felix Carlebach (1911–2008), rabbi

Politics



 * Johann Wittenborg (1321–1363), Mayor of Lübeck, lost the Battle of Helsingborg
 * Jürgen Wullenwever (c.1492–1537), burgomaster of Lübeck from 1533 to 1535
 * George Wulweber, 16th-century Protestant who was tortured on the rack
 * Friedrich Krüger (1819–1896), diplomat for the Hanseatic cities of Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen
 * John Rugee (1827–1894), politician in Wisconsin, USA
 * Gustav Radbruch (1878–1949), legal scholar and politician
 * Hermann Lüdemann (1880–1959), CDU politician
 * Otto-Heinrich Drechsler (1895–1945), Mayor of Lübeck 1933 to 1937, set up the Riga ghetto
 * Haim Cohn (1911–2002), Israeli jurist and politician
 * Willy Brandt (1913–1992), SPD politician, German chancellor
 * Björn Engholm (born 1939), SPD politician
 * Robert Habeck (born 1969), writer and politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens
 * Birgitt Ory (born 1964), diplomat
 * Beatrix von Storch (born 1971), AfD politician, former MEP

Art



 * Benjamin Block (1631–1690), German-Hungarian Baroque painter
 * Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646–1723), court painter of several British monarchs
 * Catharina Elisabeth Heinecken (1683–1757), artist and alchemist
 * Carl Heinrich von Heineken (1707–1791), art historian
 * Friedrich Overbeck (1789–1869), painter and head of the Nazarenes
 * Johann Wilhelm Cordes (1824–1869), landscape painter
 * Gotthardt Kuehl (1850–1915), painter
 * Maria Slavona (1865–1931), impressionist painter, sister of Cornelia Schorer
 * Erich Ponto (1884–1957), actor
 * Walter D. Asmus (born 1941), theatre director
 * Justus von Dohnányi (born 1960), actor
 * Jonas Nay (born 1990), actor

Music



 * Franz Tunder (1614–1667), organist and composer
 * Thomas Baltzar (c. 1631–1663), violinist and composer.
 * Rüdiger Bohn (born 1960), conductor and professor
 * Dieterich Buxtehude (c.1637–1707), composer and organist
 * Andreas Kneller (1649–1724), composer and organist
 * Friedrich Ludwig Æmilius Kunzen (1761–1817), composer
 * Anja Thauer (1945–1973), cellist

Science



 * Joachim Jungius (1587–1657), mathematician, physicist, and philosopher
 * Heinrich Meibom (1638–1700), medical expert, discovered the Meibomian gland
 * Hermann von Fehling (1811–1885), chemist
 * Robert Christian Avé-Lallemant (1812–1884), physician and research traveler
 * Ernst Curtius (1814–1896), classical archaeologist and historian
 * Georg Curtius (1820–1885), philologist
 * Friedrich Matthias Claudius (1822–1869), anatomist
 * James Behrens (1824–1898), entomologist.
 * Friedrich Matz (1843–1874), archaeologist
 * Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav Bruhn (1853–1927), invented the taximeter
 * Cornelia Schorer (1863–1939), one of Germany's first female physicians
 * Heinrich Lüders (1869–1943), orientalist and indologist
 * Justus Mühlenpfordt (1911–2000), nuclear physicist
 * Wolfgang Luthe (1922–1985), physician, psychotherapist and autogenic training pioneer

Writing



 * Erasmus Finx (1627–1694), polyhistorian, author and church writer
 * Christian Adolph Overbeck (1755–1821), mayor and poet
 * Johann Bernhard Vermehren (1777–1803), romanticist and lecturer
 * Emanuel Geibel (1815–1884), poet
 * Gustav Falke (1853–1916), author
 * Heinrich Mann (1871–1950), novelist
 * Thomas Mann (1875–1955), novelist, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929
 * Friedrich Ranke (1882–1950), a German medievalist, philologist, folklorist and writer
 * Jörg Wontorra (born 1948), sport journalist
 * Nicolai Riedel (born 1952), philologist, author and an editor

Sport

 * Sandra Völker (born 1974), swimmer, won three medals at the 1996 Summer Olympics
 * Marie-Louise Dräger (born 1981), five-time world champion lightweight sculler
 * Tobias Kamke (born 1986), professional tennis player
 * Maximilian Munski (born 1988), rower, silver medallist at the 2016 Summer Olympics

Other



 * Adam Brand (c. 1692–1746), merchant and researcher
 * Christian Friedrich Heinecken (1721–1725), "the infant scholar of Lübeck", a child prodigy
 * Kurd von Schlözer (1822–1894), diplomat and historian
 * Hermann von der Hude (1830–1908), architect
 * Hermann Blohm (1848–1930), shipbuilder and company founder
 * Hermann Pister (1885–1948), Nazi SS commandant of Buchenwald Concentration Camp
 * Walter Ewers (1892–1918), flying ace of WWI
 * Hans Blumenberg (1920–1996), philosopher
 * Jörg Ziercke (born 1947), chief commissioner of the Federal Criminal Police Office 2004–2014