The Office by Øystein Hellesøe Brekke is the story of the Hanseatic League in Norway, now collected for the first time in a comprehensive presentation.
Around 1350, shortly after the ravages of the Black Death, Hanseatic merchants from northern Germany established an organization in Bergen: Kontoret. The Hanseatic merchants already dominated trade in northern Europe with similar offices in London, Bruges, and Novgorod.
They had their own rules and legal systems, and the Hanseatic cities equipped armies and military fleets to protect their own interests when necessary. In the 15th century, there were up to 2,000 permanent Hanseatic residents in Bergen, Oslo, and Tønsberg. They were a political and military power in Norway and would remain so for over 400 years.
Wealth and tragedies
The Office by Øystein Hellesøe Brekke examines this period in Norwegian and Nordic political history, while also providing a fascinating insight into the everyday lives of ordinary people in Norway, fishermen, farmers, and city dwellers.
«The book is about the merchants—the Hanseatic League who came to Norway from the continent over a period of half a millennium and traded here, in Tønsberg, Oslo, and at Bryggen in Bergen, where they established the large settlement that was named »Kontoret' (The Office)," says Hellesøe Brekke.
"It's about good times and bad years, wealth and tragedy, ruthless power politics and intricate diplomacy, peaceful trade and brutal wars, old customs and constant development and change. And not least, the people who experienced and shaped all of this," he explains.
About the author
Øystein Hellesøe Brekke is a historian who graduated from the University of Bergen with a master's thesis on the Hanseatic office in Bergen in the period 1490 to 1510. With his thorough knowledge of Hanseatic and Nordic history in the late Middle Ages, he is an authority in the field.
The Office will be launched on October 18.
