The success of the Hanseatic League was based on the networks and personal contacts of its merchants. Lübeck Low German was the lingua franca between Bruges in the west and Novgorod in the east. In the churches – mostly built in Brick Gothic style – the same saints were worshipped. The legal system was also familiar, since many cities in the east, including Reval (today Tallinn), were oriented towards the "Lübisch" law, the city law of Lübeck.
Young merchant sons learned far from home in the branch offices of trading partners. They were married on the basis of economic advantages and not out of love. The merchants, organised in guilds, regularly discussed their problems at "Hanseatic Days", which often took place in Lübeck. They dominated the city councils because of their prosperity and economic importance.
Despite the enormous distance, the North German cities like Luneburg were in many respects more like the Baltic cities than the geographically closer cities in Southern Germany.
Illustration:
The Reval Dance of Death by Bernt Notke (around 1435-1509) is not only an expression of the transience of life, but also of cultural transfer in the Hanseatic region. First, in 1463, under the impression of the plague, the artist created his first work in the Church of St. Mary in Lübeck, which was followed by a replica by the same artist in the Church of St. Nicholas in Reval (today Tallinn) around 1500.