Would Germans have gone to Spain and Portugal to trade goods in 1237?

Question:

Would Germans have gone to Spain and Portugal to trade goods in 1237?

I am doing reserch to find a name for the S.C.A and want to know if both of my parents backgrounds can be included.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: The Hanseatic league was developing right about that time, but they were getting their alliances together in the Baltic in the early days. It would take a full 100 years before they were venturing further east than the border with what we now consider the Netherlands. I'm sure there were some merchant ships trading in the Iberian, but they would be nearly impossible to identify today. They weren't keeping the kind of records you'd need until the late 1300s...especially when all of those German states were independent of each other and individually owned and operation.

If you make the assertion that they were trading and use that for a group as savvy as the SCA without having the documentation, they'll laugh you out of there. But if you find the occasional record of a ship landing and trading with Spain, and you can tie it to your lineage, then go for it. It's all about the documentation. Sorry, don't know what the S.C.A is. Probaly. I mean the tip of Germany does touch Spain...