Already in the Pomerellian period, a settlement of Slavic fishermen and amber gatherers had grown up under the protection of the ducal castle on the Mottlau, on the site of the later Teutonic Order's castle. The taverns belonging to this settlement are mentioned as early as a charter of Duke Sambor for the Oliva monastery, ostensibly from 1178. The charter is certainly at least a formal forgery, but it itself dates from the first half of the 13th century at the latest.

When the Teutonic Order seized the Danzig castle in 1308, they allowed this Slavic settlement to continue. In 1312, they confirmed the inhabitants' ancient rights to sea fishing and amber gathering. In 1348, the settlement was first officially recorded as "Hakelwerk" in connection with a dispute over certain lands mediated by the Danzig commander between the Main Town (Rechtstadt) and the "Poles from the Hakelwerk."

The term refers to a simple fortification made of hewn brushwood and hawthorn thickets, which had certainly existed since the Pomerellian period. Such fortifications were used to protect outer baileys at other castles as well (e.g., at Ragnit and Insterburg). Their primary purpose was to delay an attacker during a sudden assault until the inhabitants could flee with their belongings into the protective ramparts of the castle. This is vividly described in the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle during the Order's attack on the Semigallian castle of Doblen and its Hakelwerk in the winter of 1288/89.

Already during the Teutonic period, the territory belonging to the Danzig Hakelwerk, originally much larger, was gradually reduced to the area between the Bridgettine convent church and the castle. However, the settlement maintained its communal independence as a fishing village under Slavic law throughout the entire period of the Order's rule, similar to the Brandenburg Kietze (Slavic fishing settlements). In 1454, it was incorporated into the Main Town; the Slavic community was absorbed into the Germanized guild of the Seuner (net fishermen).

As late as the 16th century, the so-called Polish town hall still stood at the corner of Nätlergasse. Even in 1608, the local designation "Hakelwerk" encompassed the entire quarter of then-unnamed lanes between Hinter Adlers Brauhaus (Behind Adler's Brewhouse) and An der Schneidemühle (At the Sawmill). Only after this time was the designation narrowed as a street name to its present extent. By 1624, the well-known Hakelwerk lane, along with Kleine Ölmühlengasse and Am Spendhaus, was collectively referred to as "Forgotten Alley." The historian J. Hevelke mentions this street in his family history under the name Fieffingergasse (Five-Finger Lane), since five alleys branched off from it like the fingers of a hand.

History