Срочно! Помогите, пожалуйста, с переводом текста, даю много баллов!
P.S. переводчиком я и сама могу воспользоваться.
Заранее спасибо! :3
Introduction
The Hanseatic League was founded in Germany - in the Rhine area and firmly on the coast of the Baltic sea in the 12th century. It rapidly grew into an international trade-organisation, which developed enormous political and economical power. The Hanseatic League dominated northern Europe for about 500 years and was spread in England, the Nordic countries, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium. The last Diet (meeting) within the League was held in Lübeck in 1669.
Originally, the League described a fraternal association formed among travelling German merchants, and their monetary contribution to a common fund. Local associations for protection - Gild merchants - existed earlier than the birth of the Hanseatic organisation.
In the middle of the 14th century, when the League had changed from an organisation of city-merchants to a compact of cities, more than 100 towns in Northern Europe were members of the Hanseatic League. No more than 70-80 towns were active members however, and shared the costs of the organisation. Among the members was one sole sovereign, the Grandmaster of the Order of Teutonic Knights.
There was a constant fluctuation in the numbers of cities under the League. None of the authorities lists agree. This paper is based on Ph. Dollinger, Die Hanse, Stuttgart 1976. His list contains more than 220 towns; Hanseatic towns, Kontore and Factories (list of towns and map after Ph. Dollinger at the end of the paper)/
A Hanseatic town meant that the whole administration followed the rules of the Hanseats and that the town was represented at the Hanseatic Diets (Hanseatic Days), held mostly once a year. A Hanseatic Kontor was a delimited town-area, which belonged to the Hanseatic organisation and where strict Hanseatic rules and customs were in force. The Kontor was only represended on special occasions at the Hanseatic Diets (without vote). A Factory was a branch office of the League with only small possibilities to influence the decisions of the Organisation. Most of the Factories were situated in the outermost areas.
From the very beginning to the end of the history of the Hanseatic League, Lübeck kept the leadership of the Organisation.
From the many towns connected with the Hanseatic League, only a small selection has been chosen as highly recommended for the cultural tourism. The choice is based on the sum of several criteria, such as the amount of preserved monuments fromHanseatic times, the presence of an original street plan, and the actual condition of the medieval and 16th and 17th century monuments. The main criterion together with all these factors is the presence of the difficultly defineable "ancient atmosphere".
Many of the Hanseatic towns were destroyed in wars during previous centuries, for instance The Thirty Years`War in the 17th century. Other towns were well preserved until the last years of World War II, when large amounts of Europe`s cultural inheritance were wiped out. Some towns were saved until after the last war, but have been modernized in the prosperous years from the 50`s until the 90`s at the expense of the heritage from the past, for instance by new traffic routes or by furnishing the buildings with modern windows, shop-fronts and modern roofings.
The war damage is today in most cases unrepairable, but some of the changes made in the last decades can be restored. Efforts are beeng made for such restorations in some old town centres.