Kontor

This article is about trading posts. For the record company, see Kontor Records.

The Hanseatic Warehouse in King's Lynn is the only surviving Hanseatic League building in England

The Oostershuis, headquarters of the Hanseatic League in Antwerp

A kontor (English pronunciation: /kɒnˈtɔər/) was a foreign trading post of the Hanseatic League.

In addition to the major kontore in London (Steelyard), Ipswich, Bruges, Bergen (Bryggen), and Novgorod (Peterhof), some ports had a representative merchant and a warehouse.

Of all the kontor buildings, only Bergen's kontor, known as Bryggen in Norway, has survived until the present day. The Hanseatic kontor at Bryggen was closed in 1754 and replaced by a "Norwegian kontor", run by Norwegian citizens, but still with a large element of German immigrants. Bergen's kontor is on the UNESCO list of the World Cultural Heritage sites.

The Hanseatic Warehouse in King's Lynn, England, survives – but it was converted into offices in 1971.

Panoramic view of Bryggen

Etymology

Through Middle Low German Kontor, from French comptoir, from Latin computāre "calculate, compute". After spreading via the League, the word kontor continues to mean "office" in the Scandinavian languages, while kantoor is used in Dutch.

References

Members of the Hanseatic League by Quarter

Chief cities shown in smallcaps.
Free Imperial Cities of the Holy Roman Empire shown in italics.

Wendish

Lübeck	Anklam Demmin Greifswald Hamburg Kolberg (Kołobrzeg) Lüneburg Rostock Rügenwalde (Darłowo) Stettin (Szczecin) Stolp (Słupsk) Stockholm Stralsund Visby Wismar

Saxon

Brunswick Magdeburg	Berlin Bremen Erfurt Frankfurt an der Oder Goslar Mühlhausen Nordhausen

Baltic

Danzig (Gdańsk)	Breslau (Wrocław) Dorpat (Tartu) Elbing (Elbląg) Königsberg (Kaliningrad) Cracow (Kraków) Reval (Tallinn) Riga (Rīga) Thorn (Toruń)

Westphalian

Cologne ¹ Dortmund ¹	Deventer Groningen Kampen Münster Osnabrück Soest

Kontore

Principal	Bryggen (Bergen) Hanzekantoor Bruges Antwerp² Steelyard (London) Peterhof (Novgorod)

Subsidiary	Bishop's Lynn Falsterbo Ipswich Kaunas Malmö Polotsk Pskov

Other cities

¹ Cologne and Dortmund were both capital of the Westphalian Quarter at different times.
² Antwerp gained importance once Bruges became inaccessible due to the silting of the Zwin channel.

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