Lübeck - St. Marien

The area around Lübeck, today a large city with a population of more than 200,000, had been settled by Slavs since the 7th century. Slavs had a settlement north of the present city called "Liubice", which was razed by the pagan Rani tribe in 1128.

15 years later 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 as existing in 1147. Adolf II 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. Emperor Barbarossa ordained that the city should have a ruling council of 20 members. With the council dominated by merchants, trade interests shaped Lübeck's politics for centuries.

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.

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 a civil war that raged in Denmark from 1534 to 1536. From then on Lübeck's power slowly declined. The city remained neutral in the Thirty Years' War, but 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, Lübeck still remained an important trading town on the Baltic Sea.

In 1160 Henry the Lion moved the bishopric of Oldenburg to Lübeck and endowed a cathedral chapter. In 1163 a wooden church was built, however, at the beginning of the 13th century, it was no longer sufficient to meet the representative demands of the self-confident burghers.

St. Marien was built 1250 - 1350. It has always been a symbol of the power and prosperity of the Hanseatic city. It situated at the highest point of the island that forms the old town.

Gothic cathedrals in France and Flanders made of natural stone were the models for the new construction of Lübeck's three-nave basilica.

St. Marien epitomizes North German "Brick Gothic" and set the standard for many churches in the Baltic region. The church embodied the towering style of Gothic architecture using brick.

The incentive for the City Council to undertake such an enormous project was rooted in the bitter dispute with the Lübeck bishopric. As a symbol of the long-distance merchants' desire for freedom and the secular power of the city, which had been free of the Empire since 1226, the church building in the immediate vicinity of Lübeck's city hall and the market square was intended to clearly and uncatchably surpass in size the city's bishop's church, Lübeck Cathedral.

In March 1942, St. Marien (as well as the Cathedral and St. Peter) was almost completely burned out during the air raid on Lübeck, which destroyed one-fifth of the city centre. Reconstruction of the church began in 1947 and was essentially completed around 1960.

The frescoes in St. Marien will always be connected to Lothar Malskat.

After the WWII damages, the medieval frescoes on the walls had nearly disappeared. Malskat was one of the painters who was commissioned to restore the frescoes of the Marienkirche. The work was completed in September 1951.

The frescoes were unveiled during the 700th-anniversary celebrations of the founding of the Marienkirche, dignitaries were present and 2 million postage stamps depicting the frescoes got printed.

The next year Malskat announced that he had painted the frescoes himself. He told that when the work had begun, the walls had been nearly empty of frescoes. Instead of restoring the original frescoes, Malskat had whitewashed the walls and painted them over. New pictures included various anachronisms like an image of a turkey, which had not reached Europe at the time the original frescoes had been painted. Malskat was sentenced to 18 months and the frescoes were washed off the church walls.