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39-431: The Hanseaten ( German: [hanzeˈaːtn̩] , Hanseatics ) is a collective term for the hierarchy group (so called First Families ) consisting of elite individuals and families of prestigious rank who constituted the ruling class of the free imperial city of Hamburg , conjointly with the equal First Families of the free imperial cities of Bremen and Lübeck . The members of these First Families were

78-693: A daughter of a Hanseatic family and a noble was often undesired by the Hanseaten. From the late 19th century, being integrated into a German nation state, a number of Hanseatic families were nevertheless ennobled (by other German states, e.g. Prussia), but this was often met with criticism among their fellow Hanseaten. As the Hanseatic banker Johann von Berenberg-Gossler was ennobled in Prussia in 1889, his sister Susanne, married Amsinck , exclaimed " Aber John, unser guter Name! [But John, our good name!]" Upon hearing of

117-575: A demonstration. The Croatian police remained passive. With the help of his escort and thanks to the armor protection of his limousine, he was able to escape unharmed. In 1996, he declared his resignation from the EU Council of Foreign Ministers in Brussels a month after the 2nd assassination attempt after an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers decided to make concessions to the Croat leadership responsible for

156-507: A member of Bremen state parliament in 1955. On 26 November 1963, he was elected as Senator of Interior Affairs in the Senate under the leadership of Wilhelm Kaisen (SPD), successing Adolf Ehlers . After Kaisen's resignation, Koschnick was also Deputy President of the Senate and Mayor of the Senate of Willy Dehnkamp (SPD) from 20 July 1965. After the new parliament elections, he became Mayor of

195-492: A wide range of knowledge and interests in many influential organizations, and are, as Mills describes, "professional go-betweens of economic, political, and military affairs". Relentless expansion of capitalism and the globalizing of economic and military power bind leaders of the power elite into complex relationships with nation states that generate global-scale class divisions. Sociologist Manuel Castells writes in The Rise of

234-405: Is acquired. According to Mills, the power elite rose from "the managerial reorganization of the propertied classes into the more or less unified stratum of the corporate rich". In G. William Domhoff ’s sociology textbooks, Who Rules America? editions, he further clarified the differences in the two terms: "The upper class as a whole does not do the ruling. Instead, class rule is manifested through

273-474: The Congress of Vienna in 1815, the three cities have been officially named the " Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg" ( Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg ), the "Free Hanseatic City of Bremen" ( Freie Hansestadt Bremen ) and the "Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck" ( Freie und Hansestadt Lübeck ), the latter being simply known since 1937 as the "Hanseatic City of Lübeck". ( Hansestadt Lübeck ). Hamburg

312-568: The European Union as EU Administrator of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina , coordinating the reconstruction, administration and infrastructure of the war-torn city. In 1994, Croatian nationalists attacked Koschnick with grenades, destroying his hotel room in Mostar but leaving him unharmed. A second attack in 1996 also failed. An angry Croatian crowd attacked Koschnick in his armored company car during

351-704: The President of the Bundesrat in 1970/71 and 1981/82, and afterwards served as a member of the Bundestag , the German federal parliament, from 1987 to 1998. Between 1994 and 1996, Koschnick was the EU administrator of Mostar . Koschnick grew up in the Gröpelingen neighborhood of Bremen. His childhood was shaped by his parents' activism. His father, who was a trade unionist and official of

390-543: The Revolutionäre Gewerkschafts-Opposition , was arrested on the evening of 1 May 1933, the day before the Nazis stormed union offices all over Germany. He was charged with high treason for having organized a May Day rally and made a speech and was sent to a zuchthaus and then Sachsenhausen concentration camp , before being released "on leave" in 1938. In 1943, he was drafted into military service and

429-574: The planter class , plantations, large-scale farms where large numbers of enslaved Africans were held captive and forced to produce crops to create wealth for a white elite, emerged. According to the London School of Economics (LSE): "The dominant elite in the South before the Civil War were the wealthy landowners who held people in slavery, the so-called "planter class". Their influence in politics before

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468-449: The "hanseatic rejection". It is reflecting the spirit of unconditional independence, modesty and equality of the citizens of hanseatic cities. In an early version of the Hamburg constitution from 1270 it is written that "the fact that the externally visible insignia of the order should distinguish the decorated one from his colleagues and fellow citizens as a superior one" as a circumstance that

507-489: The (landed) nobility elsewhere in Europe, although the Hanseaten often regarded the (rural) nobility outside the city republics as inferior to the (urban and often more affluent, and in their own view, cultivated) Hanseaten. Thomas Mann , a member of a Lübeck Hanseatic family, portrayed this class in his novel Buddenbrooks (1901), principally for which he received the 1929 Nobel Prize for Literature . The relationship between

546-578: The 1980s, as well as the construction of a new Mercedes-Benz automobile plant in the district of Sebaldsbrück (1979-1982) for up to 18,000 employees. From 1971 to 1972 and from 1981 to 1982 he was Prime Minister of Bremen and President of Federal Council. From 1983 to 1985, he was also a representative of the Federal Republic of Germany for cultural affairs within the framework of the Franco-German cooperation agreement . From 1970 to 1991, Koschnick

585-654: The Bremen tram riots in 1968, the founding of the Bremen university (1971), the town friendship between Bremen and Haifa , as the first town friendship of a German city with city in Israel (1978, both became twin towns in 1988), the swearing-in ceremony in Bremen in 1980 with violent riots, the Expansion of the Bremerhaven container terminal (1978-1983) and the Bremen freight traffic center in

624-406: The Hanseatic and noble families varied depending on the city. The most republican city was Hamburg, where the nobility was banned, from the 13th century to the 19th century, from owning property, participating in the political life of the city republic, and even from living within its walls. Hamburg, however, was not a true democracy, but rather an oligarchy , with the Hanseaten as its elite occupying

663-497: The Network Society that contemporary globalization does not mean that "everything in the global economy is global". So, a global economy becomes characterized by fundamental social inequalities with respect to the "level of integration, competitive potential and share of the benefits from economic growth". Castells cites a kind of "double movement" where on one hand, "valuable segments of territories and people" become "linked in

702-464: The United States during the administration of President George W. Bush (in office from 2001 to 2009) identified 7,314 institutional positions of power encompassing 5,778 individuals. A later study of U.S. society noted demographic characteristics of this elite group as follows: In the 1970s an organized set of policies promoted reduced taxes , especially for the wealthy, and a steady erosion of

741-446: The activities of a wide variety of organizations and institutions...Leaders within the upper class join with high-level employees in the organizations they control to make up what will be called the power elite". The Marxist theoretician Nikolai Bukharin anticipated the elite theory in his 1929 work, Imperialism and World Economy : "present-day state power is nothing but an entrepreneurs' company of tremendous power, headed even by

780-403: The city Bremen and President of the Senate on 28 November 1967, i.e. head of government of the federal state of Bremen . During his reign, he was also Senator of Church Affairs from 1971 and Acting Senator for Economics and Foreign Trade in 1970 and Senator for Building for a few months in 1978 after the resignation of Senator Hans Stefan Seifriz (SPD). In his reign, it fell among things like

819-479: The decisions of the policymakers. The basis for membership of a power elite is institutional power, namely an influential position within a prominent private or public organization. A study of the French corporate elite has shown that social class continues to hold sway in determining who joins this elite group, with those from the upper-middle class tending to dominate. Another study (published in 2002) of power elites in

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858-535: The elite accept their fellows' position of importance in society. "As a rule, 'they accept one another, understand one another, marry one another, tend to work, and to think, if not together at least alike'." It is a well-regulated existence where education plays a critical role. As European settlers began to colonize the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries, they quickly realized the economic potential of growing cash crops which were in high demand in Europe. Owned by

897-464: The ennoblement of Rudolph Schröder (1852–1938) of the ancient Hanseatic Schröder family, Hamburg First Mayor Johann Heinrich Burchard remarked that the Prussian King could indeed "place" ( versetzen ) Schröder among the nobles, but he could not "elevate" ( erheben ) a Hanseatic merchant. The long standing tradition that Hanseaten do not accept medals and honors "of foreign powers" is called

936-405: The global networks of value making and wealth appropriation", while, on the other, "everything and everyone" that is not valued by established networks gets "switched off...and ultimately discarded". These evolutions have also led many social scientists to explore empirically the possible emergence of a new transnational and cohesive social class at the top of the social ladder: a global elite. But,

975-515: The mobility of workers." Youthful upper-class members attend prominent preparatory schools, which open doors to elite universities, known as the Ivy League , which includes Harvard University , Yale University , Columbia University and Princeton University (among others), and the universities' respective highly exclusive clubs, such as the Harvard Club of Boston . These memberships in turn pave

1014-635: The next year, sent to Finland. His mother was arrested for acting as a courier between several German Resistance groups and spent one year. She refused to join the German Labour Front (DAF) and "learn" the Hitler greeting, causing her to frequently lose her job until she finally secured a position as a sugared goods sales clerk and was relatively removed from DAF spot checks. These interruptions were combined with constant absences, so Koschnick grew up with his grandparents. He joined SPD in 1951 and became

1053-451: The overseers of the national economy. Also appreciating that it is not only a moral, but a practical necessity to focus beyond their group interests. Doing so would hopefully alleviate various destructive conditions affecting large numbers of less affluent citizens. Mills determined that there is an "inner core" of the power elite involving individuals that are able to move from one seat of institutional power to another. They, therefore, have

1092-503: The persons in possession of hereditary grand burghership ( Großbürgerschaft ) of these cities, including the mayors ( Bürgermeister ), the senators ( Senatoren ), joint diplomats ( Diplomaten ) and the senior pastors ( Hauptpastoren ). Hanseaten refers specifically to the ruling families of Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen, but more broadly, this group is also referred to as patricians along with similar social groups elsewhere in continental Europe . Since

1131-475: The position held by noble and princely families elsewhere. According to Richard J. Evans , "the wealthy of nineteenth-century Hamburg were for the most part stern republicans, abhorring titles, refusing to accord any deference to the Prussian nobility, and determinedly loyal to their urban background and mercantile heritage." Many grand burghers considered the nobility inferior to Hanseatic families. A marriage between

1170-443: The president, and a handful of key cabinet members, as well as close advisers, major corporate owners and directors, and high-ranking military officers. These groups overlap and elites tend to circulate from one sector to another, consolidating power in the process. Unlike the ruling class , a social formation based on heritage and social ties, the power elite is characterized by the organizational structures through which its wealth

1209-442: The same persons that occupy the leading positions in the banking and syndicate offices". The power elite is a term used by Mills to describe a relatively small, loosely connected group of individuals who dominate American policymaking. This group includes bureaucratic, corporate, intellectual, military, media , and government elites who control the principal institutions in the United States and whose opinions and actions influence

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1248-538: The war can best be illustrated by highlighting that of the 15 presidents before Abraham Lincoln, eight held people as slaves while in office." While the Civil War ended slavery, the former planter class kept control over their land, and thus, they also remained politically influential. As stated by the LSE, "this persistence in "de facto power" in turn allowed them to block economic reforms, disenfranchise Black voters, and restrict

1287-432: The way to the prominent social clubs located in major cities and serve as sites for important business contacts. According to Mills, men receive the education necessary for elitist privilege to obtain their background and contacts, allowing them to enter three branches of the power elite, which are: According to Mills, the governing elite in the United States primarily draws its members from political leaders, including

1326-479: The welfare safety net. Starting with legislation in the 1980s, the wealthy banking community successfully lobbied for reduced regulation. The wide range of financial and social capital accessible to the power elite gives their members heavy influence in economic and political decision making, allowing them to move toward attaining desired outcomes. Sociologist Christopher Doob gives a hypothetical alternative, stating that these elite individuals would consider themselves

1365-419: The wide-ranging effects of global capitalism ultimately affect everyone on the planet, as economies around the world come to depend on the functioning of global financial markets, technologies, trade and labor. Hans Koschnick Hans Koschnick (2 April 1929 – 21 April 2016) was a German politician ( SPD ) and elder statesman. He was the President of the Senate and Mayor of Bremen from 1967 to 1985,

1404-559: Was Klaus Wedemeier , chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in Bremen. From 1987 to 1994, Koschnick was a member of the German Bundestag as a directly elected member of the Bremen-West constituency. He was deputy chairman of the foreign affairs committee, foreign policy spokesman a possible foreign minister in the early 1990s. From 23 July 1993 to 2 April 1996, Koschnick was appointed by

1443-408: Was a member of the federal execute committee of SPD and from 1975 to 1979 deputy SPD chairman and thus deputy to Willy Brandt . At that time, Koschnick pushed Ostpolitik forward and signed the first West German - Polish town twinning with Gdańsk on 12 April 1976. After almost 18 years as Prime Minister and 22 years in the Senate, he resigned at his own request on 17 September 1985. His successor

1482-632: Was in decisive contradiction to the spirit of the city constitution. Politician Hans Koschnik (Bremen), former chancellor Helmut Schmidt (Hamburg) and several others people from Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen refused the Order of the Federal Cross of Merit referring to the "hanseatic rejection". Bremen and Hamburg are also the only federal states that have not created their own orders of merit. A few prominent families are listed here. Elite American sociologist C. Wright Mills states that members of

1521-573: Was one of the oldest stringent civic republics, in which the Hanseatics preserved their constitutional privileges, which were granted in 1189 by Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor , until the German Revolution of 1918–19 and the Weimar Constitution . Hamburg was strictly republican, but it was not a democracy , but rather an oligarchy . The Hanseaten were regarded as being of equal rank to

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