The corporation of German traders in Venice, the "Nazione Alemana", which has resided in the Fondaco dei Tedeschi since the Middle Ages, was traditionally a symbol of the divided decline of Venice and the Upper German imperial cities in the 17th and 18th centuries On the other hand, it is shown here that the German traders in northern Italy, who came almost exclusively from imperial cities, developed a completely new activity in global trade in the 18th century - not only in Venice, but also in Livorno Formation of a "pietistic dealer network" in Venice as a figuration of German traders who also opened up to North German merchants and facilitated the development of reliable relationships of trust in long-distance trade. The resulting interaction between the imperial city traders in Livorno and Venice made it possible for them to reach out into the world.