[SunkenCiv]

There was also the Hanseatic League, which was a cooperative venture organized by northern German city-states, persisting for about 400 years, ending for all practical purposes due to the Thirty Years' War.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The history of the Hanseatic League is quite fascinating. I was reading it recently as part of my genealogy research. My great grandparents gave my grandparents a wedding present in 1920 -- an original oil painting of the Krantor in Danzig. It dates back to the Hanseatic trading in Danzig.

The oldest documented mention of Krantor (Zuraw) as a wooden port crane was in 1367. What you see today, however, was reconstructed in the middle of the 15th century after a devastating fire devoured the original structure. The large crane was used to place masts on ships and to load cargo.