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The beginning of the Hansa is marked by the founding in Wendish territory in about 1159 of the city of Lübeck, a western European gateway to the east. It soon became, and thereafter remained, the head of the Hansa. But in 1418 Lübeck had just been officially recognised as the head of the Hansa by the Hansetag, the general diet, attended by delegates from all the towns.
Key issue in this paper is to examine Lübeck'sposition in the Hansa towns before the Hansetag of 1418 conferred the leadership of the Hansa. When German migration towards the east began early in the twelfth cnetury, Lübeck, as a assembling-point for emigrants from the west, imparted continuous impetus to the foundation and expasion of the maritime towns of eastern Europe. A number of towns were build on or near the coast, accessible to seaborne shipping. according to the law of Lübeck.
Although the Empire had lost its authority in this area by the mid-thirteenth century, Lübeck had obtained a chater from Frederick Ⅱ,extending its privileges and granting it the status of an "imperial city", which was to be awarded to no other town beyond the Elbe. The dignity of imperial city certainly contributed the recognistion of Lübeck's pre-eminence within the Hansa community.
Lübeck's leadership was generally conceded because of its merchants' early preponderance in the community's affairs, and most of all its central geographical position; goods shipped from the eastern Baltic had to be unroaded for transport by land across the Jutland peninsula on their way west.
The special Visby's status as the center of the international merchant community was abolished in 1293, when the Wendish towns resolved that the court of appeal for Kontor in Novgorod should be transferred from Visby to Lübeck. Most of the towns from Prussia to Lower Rhine combined to withdraw the right of Visby seal in 1299 and ratified using the Lübeck seal. Thus Lübeck was recog- nized of her superiorty from nearly all German towns.
Finally, it was also Lübeck which took the initiative in summoning a general diet. Its council sent the summons to the other Wendish towns and to the principal towns, which in turn passed on the invitation to the other towns in their area.
the Hansa community relied on Lübeck to take all the necessary decisions, except in matters of major importance, since Lübeck was in fact in charge during the intervals between general diets. The leadership of Lübeck had become firmly established as early as the thirteenth century. In the fourteenth century, it had become even more marked, and it was officially recognised in 1418, when the towns was asked, in association with the Wendish towns, to take charge of the interests of the community.