Lower German (Plattdeutsch or Niederdeutsch) is now spoken only in some areas of Northern Germany and northeastern Holland. It differs significantly from Hochdeutsch (the official language of Germany) and Upper German dialects. They are essentially different languages.
But until now, Lower German shows great similarity with English and Dutch, which indicates a common origin.
By today, lower German has lost its meaning. In the Middle Ages, however, he dominated the Baltic Sea region, where he served there as the language of interethnic communication. Was an important literary language. It, along with Latin, was used to draw up trade and legal documents. Theological books were written on it. Several ancient Bible translations into this language are known.
The flowering of Lower German is associated with the activities of the Hanseatic League, where it was the official language. Hansa is an association of several merchant guilds that carried out trade exchanges between Russia during the Golden Horde and Western Europe. Through the port of Veliky Novgorod, timber, furs, resins, flax, honey, wax, wheat, rye and much more were supplied to the west. In the opposite direction there were fabrics from England and Flanders, copper and iron products from southern Sweden, herring from Scandinavian countries …
The history of the Hansa is dark and mysterious. It is not known who and when created this trade union. It seems that even contemporaries had a vague idea of this. According to legend, once, somewhere in the 15th century, the city court of the city of Bremen, examining a dispute between Hamburg and Cologne, demanded documents on the registration of the Hanseatic League. And such documents, allegedly, did not appear even then. In general, the word "Hansa" is found only after the middle of the 14th century. Before that, the word "Varangian" was used.
The Hansa began to lose power in the first half of the 17th century, when nation-states began to emerge in Europe. The trade union suffered the greatest damage during the "Thirty Years War", after which it only lost its significance. The last strongholds of the Hansa - the cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck - were joined to the German Confederation in 1867.
Together with the Hansa, the lower German language also lost its influence, giving way to new national languages. In Germany itself, it was practically supplanted by the Upper Germanic languages.