European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 28, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The Lubeck town halt an Odd mix of building styles features thick Walls with Largo holes in its upper stories and is topped by Needle like Spires. Proud Lubeck the wealth of the hanseatic league lives on in its buildings amps photos by Gus Schuettler the holy ghost Hospital completed near the end of the 13th Century is now a Home for the  Ken Clauson Bremerhaven Bureau when the fictional Tonio Kroger walked the streets of Lubeck around the turn of the Century  under the squat old City Gate along by the Harbour and up the Steep wet Windy gabled Street to his parents House. His heart beat richly longing was awake in it and a gentle envy a faint contempt and no Little innocent  Kroger is the title character in a Thomas Mann Story set in the town of the author s childhood and adolescence. The City Gate he stepped through is the 500-year-old hoist nor As Good a place As any to begin a walking tour through Linbeck s historic City Center. Linbeck s Well preserved old City is on an Island ringed by a canal and the trave River about nine Miles from the Baltic sea. The Island is packed with buildings dating Back to the 13th Century most of them Are hundreds of years old and More than 1,000 Are protected by historic preservation Laws. The Island s architecture is a Rich Range of styles including gothic Renaissance baroque Rococo Neo classical and soulless contemporary steel and Glass. In 1159, Henry the lion founded the City that would experience its greatest glory As the administrative seat of the hanseatic league a 200-City Legal and Trade Union that flourished in the 1 3th, 14th and 15th centuries. Ideally situated on the Trade routes linking Northern and Western Europe with the Baltic Region Lubeck became extremely wealthy and its merchants poured Cash into the construction of the monumental Brick churches whose Spires still Mark the Skyline. It still Calls itself the Han Sestall Lubeck proud of its role As Queen of the hanseatic league. Lubeck was a free City state for More than 700 years but lost that status in 1937 during the nazi regime. The people of Lubeck so disliked Hitler according to a lifelong City resident that Der fihrer was unable to give a Public address there and had to deliver it in a nearby town. Perhaps that is Why the c Ity lost its Independence and is now part of the Northern  continued in Pae i november 28, 1991 stripes Magazine 7