Lübeck Town Hall

So the town mayor of Lübeck gave my group a personal tour of the town hall. And Lübeck isn't just some small random city as it has a population of over 200,000 so I decided to share my newfound knowledge of Lübeck's town hall.

There is a room that used to be used as a court room. The room is divided into two parts, a large open section and the jury area. Now the open section has been repurposed to gathering/party area. This area has also been used to welcome presidents and kings. The entrance to the room is a large double door. When closed both doors appear identical, however when opened the right one is ~1 head shorter. Large crowds of people would gather outside during the hearings to find out if the person in question is guilty. If he left through the left door, it would be because he was proven innocent. Otherwise he would end up a head shorter as guilty was equivalent to a public execution. The left door also has a slightly higher stone step whereas the right one is smooth. Depending on who asks, the tour guides might say it is because most people were found guilty. Although this is partially true, the steps were smoothed out on the right side as the defendant always had to face the jury unless he is proven innocent. This means he would have to leave the room backwards through the right door if is declared guilty. A step would have resulted in quite a few injuries prior to their executions.

The government of Lübeck actually owns a part of the church. This is a very uncommon occurrence as throughout history they aren't exactly that friendly. This is because the government realized that since nobody would ever steal from the church, so they should just build their treasury there. [The church is just across the street] Its contents have since been removed but a part of the church is still owned by Lübecks government.

The meeting hall where the different parties sit to discuss things is almost entirely made of oak wood. This wood has however been treated and is unbelievably sturdy. At one point they wanted to bore 2 small holes to run some cables and in the process they broke 4 drills. In the end they had to use a drill that was intended to be used on steel to get the job done. The top of the walls of the meeting room are connected by steel cables as a wall almost toppled at one point. Each year the walls are pulled ~4mm closer to each other until they return to their original positions.

At one point tbe government wanted to expand the town hall but wasn't able to as the town hall was situated right next to the marketplace. The gold smith was directly blocking the expansion and didn't want to move as it was the best position in the marketplace. The government couldn't do anything about it as the gold smith owned the land so they used a loophole and decided to just build over the gold smith.

All of the mayors have a painting in the town hall and they all carry items based on their preferences and hobbies. For example a flower would represent a botanist. However a lemon would mean that that person was executed because he failed. One reason would be losing a war as the mayors led the fleets to war, if they lost they would be held responsible. *If life gives you lemons and you are a mayor, then you're fucked because you're going to be executed.