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STÖRTEBEKER FESTSPIELE 2018
HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND
On 24 October 1375 the Danish King Waldemar Atterdag IV died. Waldemar Atterdag left be-
hind two daughters, Ingeborg and Margarete, who were married outside Denmark. Ingeborg,
the elder daughter, was married to Duke Henry III of Mecklenburg, brother of the Swedish
King. According to the German order of succession, her son Albrecht IV the Younger would
have been next in line, which was further supported by a succession arrangement in favour
of Albrecht by Waldemar in 1371. However, Denmark had an electoral monarchy and was not
a region under German law. Margarete, Waldemar‘s younger daughter, was married to the
Norwegian King Hakon VI and claimed the Danish throne for her son Olaf VI.
Legally, the situation was open from the Danish point of view, and it was now crucial for both
parties to win as large a following as possible for their own cause. To what extent this would
impress the Hanseatic League, which had been forced into the role of referee, was unclear. In
this situation the - not only - political struggle between the two camps erupted.
Margarete‘s skillful diplomacy in Denmark, combined with Albrecht‘s unwise conduct towards
the Danish nobility, finally led to the election of Olav VI as Danish King on 3 May 1376 - with
the consent of the Hanseatic League.
The Duke‘s House of Mecklenburg had to watch on as the political constellation developed to
the disadvantage of Albrecht IV, and stumbled on “a strange way out” by campaigning among
the numerous pirates active in the Baltic Sea for their participation in privateering between
Mecklenburg and Denmark.
This means that the Mecklenburg princes did not easily relinquish their fight for the Danish
crown, which in their opinion was Albrecht’s, and entered into a privateering war against
Denmark.
However, the pirates could not be persuaded to limit the privateering completely to their op-
ponent Denmark. More and more frequently they also attacked Hanseatic ships, which was
certainly not in the interest of the dukes of Mecklenburg nor in the interest of the Hanseatic
cities of Rostock and Wismar.
Klaus Störtebeker and Goedeke Michels were clearly named for the first time as captains of
the Victual Brothers in 1394. Störtebeker and Michels developed an extremely strong effec-
tiveness over a number of years and were feared as pirates first in the Baltic Sea and later
also in the North Sea.
Of course, it became clear quite early on that triggering the privateering war against Denmark
by opening Mecklenburg‘s seaports to all those who wanted to harm the Kingdom of Denmark
led to the rise of a power that ultimately could no longer be controlled by anyone.
An end to the war between Mecklenburg and Denmark would show to what extent the pirates
and their privateering raids had become independent and whether their cohesion and the
authority of their captains were strong enough to maintain their existence beyond the war.
from: Dr Matthias Puhle
Die Vitalienbrüder.
Klaus Störtebeker und die Seeräuber der Hansezeit
Campus Verlag ISBN 978-3-593-39801-3