Kompagnietor
The Kompagnietor, a gate built in 1602-04, is one of Flensburg's most iconic architectural monuments. Decorated with the Flensburg city coat of arms, and the Danish royal coat of arms of King Christian IV, it served as meeting place for the skippers' guild, ”Schiffergelag”. This guild of Flensburg captains and skippers, which is still active today, held its meetings in this beautiful building. Weather-beaten sailors met in the premises after a successful return from their long voyages to the Caribbean, the Arctic Ocean, or the Mediterranean. In the large meeting hall, the Gelagsbrüder (guild brothers) celebrated their annual party, the Gelagsfest. Precious silver jugs, some of them gold-plated, adorned the festively laid table at which the guild members gathered on the Monday after Epiphany. The silver treasure is now displayed in the Flensburg Maritime Museum, ”Schifffahrtsmuseum Flensburg”, where it can be admired by the public.
Admission to the Schiffergelag was an important professional and social goal for the captains. In addition, the city council refused to issue a sea pass to skippers, who did not belong to the guild. For the concerned party, this meant lawlessness at sea, and thus danger to goods, life and limb on their perilous voyages far from home.
The rooms adjoining the gateway served as a trading exchange. Here, merchandise and ship shares were bought and sold; news were exchanged, messages transmitted and announcements posted. In the southern part of the building, the town scales were located in a side gate. Here, not only landed loads were weighed, but also the customary weights were controlled in order to prevent misuse. The town council demanded: "Everything that is sold by a merchant over a ship's pound (13.25 kg) shall be weighed on the town scales - for the common good of the town and in good accordance with the weights". Until 1838, the Kompagniewirt (host and innkeeper) was in charge of the scales. Followingly, the boatmen and carters could enjoy the good Flensburg beer in his tavern, located in the same building.
Because of its proximity to the harbour, the Kompagnietor was repeatedly hit by floods. Often enough, the ground floor of the gate building was submerged by water. The small plaques on the façade indicate the high water level of the storm surges in 1649, 1835 and 1872.
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