Hansa - or the Hanseatic Union of merchants of trading cities in northern Germany - a unique phenomenon of European life of the XII-XVII centuries. Hanseatic merchants supplied the West with Russian furs and wax, Polish wheat, Hungarian and Swedish copper. To the East, they carried Flemish, Dutch and English cloth, French and Portuguese salt and wine. Largely thanks to them, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe became acquainted with Western literature, Gothic architecture and Renaissance painting. For 500 years, Hansa has helped establish economic, political, social and cultural ties between Western and Eastern Europe. Philipp Dollinger, a historian and professor at the University of Strasbourg, tells about this in detail, based on numerous original documents.