Brick Gothic (German: Backsteingotik) is a reduced style of Gothic architecture common in Northern Europe, especially in Northern Germany and the regions around the Baltic Sea without natural rock resources. The buildings are built more or less using only bricks. Brick Gothic buildings therefore are to be found in the Baltic countries Denmark, Finland, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Russia and Sweden. Brick Gothic architecture of the Iberian Peninsula is different in nature; it is discussed under Mudéjar Gothic.

The use of baked red brick in Northern Europe began during the 12th century, so the oldest such buildings belong to the Brick Romanesque. In the 16th century, Brick Gothic was superseded by Brick Renaissance architecture.

Brick Gothic is characterised on the one hand by the lack of figural architectural sculpture, widespread in other styles of Gothic architecture, but impossible to achieve on the basis of brick, and on the other by its creative subdivision and structuring of walls, using built ornaments and the colour contrast between red bricks, glazed bricks and white lime plaster.

Many of the old town centres dominated by Brick Gothic, as well as some individual structures, have been listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_Gothic