Across the German Sea

Book excerpt: In Across the German Sea: Early Modern Scottish Connections with the Wider Elbe-Weser Region Zickermann analyses the commercial, maritime and military relations between Scotland and the German cities (Hamburg, Bremen) and territories (Bremen and Verden, Holstein, Braunschweig-Lüneburg) located alongside the lower parts of the rivers Elbe and Weser. Based on a wealth of British, German and Scandinavian archival material, the study demonstrates the importance of the region for Scottish commodity exchange and network building across political borders, whilst contributing significantly to our understanding of the formation of Scottish communities abroad. It also shows that Scottish commercial, political, military and religious activities within the region – which featured a Danish-Norwegian and Swedish dimension - were intertwined and cannot be studied in isolation.