Editing Flensburg (section)

===Middle Ages===
[[File:Stadtrechtsurkunde Flensburgs von 1284 (The Town Charter of Flensburg).JPG|thumb|The town charter of Flensburg (1284)]]
[[File:Nordertor im Schnee (Flensburg, Januar 2014).JPG|thumb|The [[Nordertor]], a town gate, in winter]]
Flensburg was founded at the latest by 1200 at the innermost end of the [[Flensburg Firth]] by [[Denmark|Danish]] settlers, who were soon joined by German merchants. In 1284, its town rights were confirmed and the town quickly became one of the most important in the [[Duchy of Schleswig]]. Unlike [[Holstein]], Schleswig did not belong to the German [[Holy Roman Empire]]. Therefore, Flensburg was not a member of the [[Hanseatic League]], but did maintain contacts with it.

Historians presume that there were several reasons this spot was chosen for settlement:
*Shelter from heavy winds
*A trade route between Holstein and North [[Jutland]] (namely the ''[[Hærvejen]]'' or ''Ochsenweg'', a series of roads between Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland, possibly dating from the [[Bronze Age]])
* The Angelnway: a trade route between [[North Frisia]] and [[Angeln]]
*A good [[herring]] fishery

Herrings, especially [[kipper]]ed, brought about the blossoming of the town's trade in the [[Middle Ages]]. They were sent inland and to almost every [[Europe]]an country.

On 28 October 1412, Queen [[Margaret I of Denmark]] died of the [[Bubonic plague|plague]] aboard a ship in Flensburg Harbour.

From time to time plagues such as bubonic plague, caused mainly by rat fleas ([[Xenopsylla cheopis]], a parasite found on [[brown rat]]s), "red" [[dysentery]] and other scourges killed much of Flensburg's population. [[Leprosy|Lepers]] were strictly isolated at the St.-Jürgen-Hospital (''Helligåndshospital'', built before 1290), far outside the town's gates, where St. Jürgen Church is now. About 1500, [[syphilis]] also appeared. The church hospital "Zum Heiligen Geist" ("To the Holy Ghost") stood in Große Straße, now Flensburg's [[pedestrian precinct]].

A Flensburger's everyday life was very hard, and the old roads and paths were bad. The main streets were neither paved nor lit at night. When the streets became really bad, citizens made the dung-filled streets passable with wooden pathways. Only the few upper-class houses had windows. In 1485, a great fire struck Flensburg. [[Storm tide]]s also beset the town occasionally. Every household in the town kept [[livestock]] in the house and the yard. Townsfolk furthermore had their own cowherds and a swineherd.