For our family holiday this year we went to visit the Island of Gotland for a week, staying close to the island’s capital city Visby. The city is an old Hanseatic League town from medieval times and has a kind of haunted beauty. I wanted to get a better feeling for and understanding of the place before we went.

There doesn’t seem to be, at least in the english language, a much choice for books on the Hanseatic league. The one I found was by Helen Zimmern (1846-1934). It was first published under the title The Story of The Nations. The Hansa Towns in 1889. It’s in Public Domain now and can be downloaded on Project Gutenberg.

This is the magic of books when an author can speak to us from 125 years ago and be engaging, interesting and entertaining. Zimmern has written a higher opinionated and action packed short history of the League. It is a time and place in history which is often overlooked. While we rightly laud the rise of the Italian City States and their cultural heritage, the northern city states that rose at roughly the same time and which revolved around the Baltic and down the rivers of Germany are perhaps too much ignored.

Anyway I highly recommend this book if it’s something you think you may have some interest in. ★★★★ 📚