22 Hammel-Kiesow
important in accommodating traffic between west/central Europe and the
Baltic.28 The cathedrals in Ribe and Schleswig as well as numerous other
churches in Jutland dating from 1120–1260, all of which were constructed
using tuff (tufa) from the Rhine region, are proof of the very pronounced
South-North trade. Written, architectural, and archeological sources demon-
strate close trade relations between the Rhineland (especially Cologne) and
Schleswig. These commercial relations reached as far as Southern France in
the west and more than likely extended beyond Schleswig in the east. Beyond
its geographically advantageous location in the center of trade, the metamor-
phosis of Schleswig into a clerical and royal center during the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries further exemplifies the importance of the City on the River
Schlei.29
On the southern coasts of the Baltic Sea, we have definitive proof that
Saxons settled in the important Slavic trade centers of Wolin and Stettin in
the time of Adam of Bremen (mid-eleventh century) and in the time of the
missionary, Otto of Bamberg (early twelfth century). Indirectly, we can also
demonstrate Saxon settlement in Old Lübeck.30
During the very lifetime of the chronicler from Bremen, Western Europeans
began to become more and more interested in the Baltic; Adam’s interest in the
unknown countries of the North is the first proof of that. Since Adam reports
that ships constantly left the port of Schleswig in order to sail to the lands of
the Slavs, Sweden, Samland, and Greece (meaning Novgorod in Northwestern
Russia), it is most probable that he received his information about the Slavic
Regions from merchants.31
Beginning with the last quarter of the eleventh century, economic develop-
ment in the Baltic Region appears to have accelerated; a trend that is consistent
with what was happening in both western and central Europe. Indicators of
this acceleration include the expansion of Schleswig (especially its port), and
28 Klaus Brandt, ed., Hollingstedt an der Treene: Ein Flusshafen der Wikingerzeit und des
Mittelalters für den Transitverkehr zwischen Nord- und Ostsee (Neumünster: Wachholtz
2012).
29 A new valuation of the importance of Schleswig, also during most of the thirteenth
century, is made by Carsten Jahnke, “... und er verwandelte die blühende Handelsstadt
in ein unbedeutendes Dorf.” “Die Rolle Schleswigs im internationalen Handel des 13.
Jahrhunderts,” in Gerhard Fouquet, Mareike Hansen, Carsten Jahnke and Jan Schlürmann,
ed., Von Menschen, Ländern, Meeren. Festschrift für Thomas Riis zum 65. Geburtstag
(Tönning et al.: Der andere Verlag, 2006), 225–268.
30 Lech Leciejewicz, “Sachsen in den slawischen Ostseestädten im 10.–12. Jahrhundert,”
Zeitschrift für Archäologie 21 (1987), 75–81.
31 Adam, Gesta Pontificum, iv, 1, p. 434. Regarding the Slavic areas ibid. ii, 21, 22.