Jürgen Wullenwever

Jürgen Wullenwever was a German merchant who served as the burgomaster of Lübeck from 1533 to 1535 during a period of religious, political and trade turmoil.

He was born at Hamburg in the end of the 15th century. In order to practice the trade he settled in Lübeck, one of the largest and most prosperous towns in northern Germany. There he became the leader of the burgher party which in 1531 carried out a revolt against the domination of the city’s patriciate. In 1533 he was appointed burgomaster, and presided over a new council composed of non-patrician merchants and guild masters. One of his aspirations was to restore the former prominent position and primacy of Lübeck in the Baltic over Denmark and the Netherlands.

With that aim, Jürgen drew Lübeck into the so-called Counts’ War in Denmark (1534-36). But, the military defeats, the lack of unity among the Hanseatic cities, and the combined forces of the city’s patriciate and the northern German princes led to his fall and restoration of the old aristocratic regime in Lübeck (1535).

Wullenwever was captured by Christopher of Brunswick-Lüneburg, archbishop of Bremen, handed over to the Duke of Brunswick, and after being tortured and sentenced to death as a traitor and an Anabaptist, he was beheaded at Wolfenbüttel.

His life served as inspiration for tragedies by Heinrich Kruse and Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow, and a novel by Ludwig Köhler.