Jurgen Wullenwever

Born circa 1492, in Hamburg; died Sept. 24, 1537, in Wolfenbüttel. Leader of the burgher party in the German city of Lübeck, which in 1531 carried out a revolt directed against domination by the city’s patriciate and accompanied by the final victory of the church Reformation.

Wullenwever became the first burgomaster in 1533. In an effort to strengthen his own position and the declining power of the Hansa, he drew Liibeck into the so-called Counts’ War in Denmark (1534-36). He supported the Danish burghers and peasantry in their struggle against the domination of the aristocracy. Military defeats, the lack of unity among the Hanseatic cities, and the combined forces of the city’s patriciate and the northern German princes led to Wullenwever’s downfall and the restoration in Liibeck of the old aristocratic regime (1535).Wullenwever was executed.