Free City of Mainz
The Free City of Mainz was as such by the awarding of the Freedom privilege by Archbishop Siegfried III. from Eppstein in 1244 to the end of the Mainz collegiate feud in 1462. This epoch, in which Mainz enjoyed extensive autonomy , especially the period up to 1328, is considered to be the heyday of its city history . “ Free cities ” - not to be confused with the “ imperial cities ” - are those communes which during the Middle Ages were able to emancipate themselves completely or partially from the supremacy of their bishop. Since the term is not described institutionally in the Imperial Constitution , the term “Free City” must be defined separately. In the case of Mainz, for example, the archbishop was left with individual city lordship rights.
history
prehistory
The history of the city of Mainz has always been largely determined by its function as the residence or cathedral seat of its elector or (arch) bishop. Already since Bishop Sidonius (around 565), but finally since the elevation of the diocese to the archbishopric in 780/82, the respective holder of the episcopal power exercised more or less the rule of the city. In the 9th and 10th centuries, the archbishops gained market, customs and mint rights , commanded the city fortifications, exerted influence over the rest of the nobility and dominated the courts . The exponents of this development were the Archbishops Wilhelm (954–968) and Willigis (975–1011). The direct exercise of these counts rights of the archbishop, however, lay with the aristocratic city bailiff , over whose appointment the emperor watched and who appears in the Mainz sources mostly only as "city count" or "burgrave". This city count could become a serious opponent of a possibly weak archbishop. In the course of the 12th century, however, the rulership of the city count became smaller and smaller, which was mainly due to the fact that religious places and their farm buildings were beyond his control. However, these made up an ever larger part of the city. In this way the archbishop was able to consolidate his sole rule of the city significantly.
A great nuisance for the citizens of that time were castles that were around the city and whose bailiffs could demand taxes and road tolls from them. These included the castles of Weisenau , Ingelheim ( Ingelheimer Kaiserpfalz ) and Landskron Castle (Oppenheim) . Citizens' efforts to free themselves from these burdens in order to trade more freely has been a critical factor on the road to urban freedom. This was already evident when the first freedom privileges were obtained at the beginning of the 12th century. In 1112, the Archbishop of Mainz, Adalbert I of Saarbrücken, fell out with Emperor Heinrich V and was imprisoned by him for three years (presumably at Trifels Castle ). When Heinrich V stayed in the city in 1115, the citizens, with the support of the city count, attacked the imperial palace and forced the archbishop to be released. Adalbert, who now wanted to free himself from further dangers, then with the help of the citizens destroyed the castle built by opposing princes in Oppenheim and gave the citizens the first privilege in gratitude for their support , which, however, can no longer be precisely dated. It is only certain that the award ceremony took place between 1119 and 1122. In essence, it contained the right to live within the walls according to traditional law and to have sole jurisdiction there. From then on, citizens of Mainz no longer had to answer to foreign bailiffs. Adalbert confirmed the privilege in 1135 and had it dug into the bronze doors of the Willigis. Today the doors form the market portal of the Mainz Cathedral , where the privilege can still be read today.
This privilege is the first of its kind to be granted to the Mainz people, but the archbishop's rule of the city only marginally reduced it. Citizens continued to enjoy freedom only within the framework of archbishopric power. Adalbert knew how to prevent citizens from being granted such privileges by other powers such as the emperor or the pope. Nevertheless, later documents testify that, even under these restricted conditions, the forerunners of bourgeois self-government slowly formed - initially in the form of loose colleges.
However, their privileges should not remain with the citizens for too long. In 1153, Friedrich I Barbarossa deposed Archbishop Heinrich I, who was not his favorite, and installed Arnold von Selenhofen, who was loyal to him, in his place. He had to thank him to follow him in his numerous wars, each of which devoured huge sums of money. But when Arnold wanted to collect this money through new taxes, the citizens refused with reference to the Adalbert privilege. In 1158 and 1159 there were serious disputes between the citizens and the unpopular archbishop, each of which ended with declarations of atonement by the Mainz people. Arnold trusted in this and returned to the city in 1160, where he was slain by angry citizens a day later, on June 24th, 1160.
At that time, however, the murder of a bishop was considered a particularly serious sacrilege , so that the citizens were first excommunicated and then banned by the Pope . In 1163 the emperor was punished: Frederick I withdrew all rights and privileges from the city, and he also had the city walls torn down. As a result, Mainz was completely defenseless for a few years in the middle of the feud- rich Middle Ages. The first city freedom was over.
Urban liberties
The urban freedoms that developed in the High Middle Ages are often summarized under the term Free Imperial City . In fact, however, this term is the result of a modern blurring of two different terms. Originally a distinction was made between imperial city and free city . Imperial cities were those that were not subject to any sovereign regiment, but were directly under the central authority - that is, the emperor. The Free Cities, on the other hand, had freed themselves from their (arch) episcopal rule and were no longer obliged to pay taxes or perform military services (except for crusades) to the emperor. As a result, the Free Cities had greater freedoms on paper than the Imperial Cities, but they had to be constantly re-confirmed. Ultimately, it was not privileges, rights or duties that determined the real importance of a city in the empire, but its directly asserted influence. In addition to Mainz, the Free Cities also included Basel , Strasbourg , Augsburg , Regensburg , Cologne , Worms and Speyer .
Development into a free city
For Mainz, the path to the Free City began shortly after the punishments that followed the episcopal murder. These were evidently only intended to serve as a deterrent and short-term example, because the walls were soon erected again and those involved in the murder by the emperor were returned to their old positions of power. The emperor even held two glamorous court days in Mainz in the 1180s . The city soon began to prosper again, drawn by the general rise of the city in the 13th century. In 1226, the Mainz team concluded a first city alliance with the citizens of the cities of Worms, Speyer, Bingen and the imperial cities of Frankfurt am Main , Gelnhausen , Friedberg and possibly Oppenheim, about which nothing is known and which was abolished relatively soon by the king under pressure from the princes .
Ten years later, in 1236, the citizens of Mainz received some privileges again, for the first time through an emperor, namely ( Friedrich II. ), Which the archbishops had always been able to prevent. Friedrich II had already come to Mainz in 1235 to proclaim the so-called Reichslandfrieden or Mainz Landfrieden . The rights he gave to citizenship again included the privilege of jurisdiction and tax exemptions.
The pontificate of Siegfried III. from Eppstein
The then raging feud between the Pope and the Hohenstaufen and the term of office of Archbishop Siegfried III were decisive for achieving city freedom . from Eppstein . The elector , who had been in office since 1230, had also become imperial administrator north of the Alps in 1237 . In 1241 he joined the papal side, whereupon the war that had been raging in Italy since 1239 between Pope and Emperor was also fought in the Rhine-Main area . The citizens of Mainz took advantage of the conflict, did not take a clear position - although they tended towards the Hohenstaufen - and were wooed by both sides. Having a fortified city like Mainz on your side was a crucial advantage in such conflicts. The warring parties therefore did everything possible to secure the benevolence of the citizens and granted them various rights, such as: B. the imperial customs privilege granted by King Conrad IV . However, the city did not initially issue a clear statement in favor of a party, if only because of the immediate proximity of the fighting, which would have endangered the city if it had taken sides.
The liberty privilege of 1244
A turn in this policy did not become apparent until 1243. The Staufer commander of the Kastel fortress on the other side of the Rhine across from the city provoked an anti-Staufer mood among the citizens by ignoring the royal imperial customs privilege. The Mainz finally accepted the loss of the imperial customs exemption and in 1244 sided with the papal side. The specific reason for this is not known, nor is it known to the citizens, Siegfried III. to bring him to his extensive concessions in his city privilege. It is assumed that the archbishop would have let this happen only as a prisoner of the citizens. However, this cannot be proven.
It is certain that Archbishop Siegfried III. von Eppstein granted the citizens a comprehensive privilege of freedom on November 13, 1244. It was secured by confirmations from the Pope, the Archbishops of Cologne and Trier , the Bishop of Speyer and all other allies. Furthermore, the Mainz cathedral chapter swore to oblige every future archbishop to comply with the privileges.
content
The privilege of freedom went beyond all rights and freedoms that the citizens of Mainz had ever enjoyed until then. The archbishop confirmed all previous rights to a separate place of jurisdiction in the city and various tax exemptions. In addition, in Article 8 he set up a 24-member city council elected by the citizens . This council initially received rights over the administration of the hospital and the removal of unauthorized superstructures on the street, from which a kind of building control authority developed over time. In addition, the citizens no longer had to do military service for the archbishop outside the city. Against their will, they could no longer be used to finance such companies. The privilege of freedom also contained provisions on mutual assistance and benevolence, which placed the relationship between the archbishop and the citizens on the basis of equality. The archbishop undertook to free the people of Mainz from the annoying castles and not to build any fortified structures within a radius of over 7 km beyond the city limits. Finally he promised to hold on to the so-called "protection of Jews" ; see Magenza .
Although the archbishop remained formally head of the city, the independent council and the received legal, economic and military rights had made Mainz a free city that could now administer itself on a kind of communal level.
The composition of the city council
In terms of its composition and distribution of power, the city council was a child of its time. In the beginning, it was almost exclusively the "patriciate", the urban upper class, who had the say. It was not until 1332 that the guilds pushed their way into the city administration. However, there was never an openness for all social classes.
The first years
The first years of the Free City were still marked by the Staufer War. The Mainzers cleverly exploited the fighting for their own purposes and destroyed Weisenau Castle , which had always been a thorn in the side of the citizens. After the destruction of Kastel by Siegfried III. In December 1244, all of the larger fortifications in the immediate vicinity of the city had disappeared. The opposing king Wilhelm of Holland , who was fighting against the Hohenstaufen dynasty , withdrew into the protection of the Mainz city walls from 1250 and, like Conrad IV before, granted the citizens the customs privilege , preferential treatment before royal courts and a construction ban on fortifications within a radius of 30 km the town. In addition, the citizens succeeded in extending their district to parts of the Weisenau area.
The Rheinische Städtebund
The uncertainty of the political balance of power and constant small conflicts on the territory of the Reich prompted the cities of Mainz and Worms in February 1254 to form a protective alliance. Oppenheim and Bingen soon joined the alliance. The aim was to use united forces to restore peace in the country - which the cities had to do business with - in the empire. The local alliance soon expanded into a new type of supra-regional association, the Rhenish City Association . This alliance ultimately comprised more than 100 cities - and the spiritual electors. According to the (poor) sources, the originator of this political agreement was the Mainz citizen Arnold Walpod (Walpod = messenger of violence, owner of police violence). The Rhenish League of Cities, on the basis of which the empire could have been reformed, would have had a decisive influence on the history of the Free City of Mainz, but after the sudden death of Wilhelm of Holland on January 28, 1256, the league of cities quickly began to decline.
Until the end of the interregnum in 1273
After the league of cities broke up, the civil war began again. The establishment of a new state peace order was therefore the primary goal of the citizenship and the new Archbishop Werner von Eppstein (1259-1284). To this end, the cities of Mainz, Worms and Oppenheim initially restored the old city union on June 29, 1259. Archbishop Werner endeavored during his long pontificate to conclude peace with the neighboring princes, which alone could grant a lasting peace in the country. To this end, on June 21, 1264, he first concluded an alliance with the Elector Palatinate, who was also Duke of Bavaria. This alliance was a forerunner of the later Kurvereine , which, however, were far more effective because they were on a broader basis. The alliance of 1264 initially only referred to the holdings of the participating princes on the Middle Rhine, so it only had local effects. But as early as 1265 the archbishop succeeded in moving all the important powers of this area to join the wetterauischen land peace.
The city federations and state peace regulations remained characteristic of the German late Middle Ages. At a time when the central kingship and the rising territorial princes were deprived of power by the “ Confoederatio cum principibus ecclesiasticis ”, these protective agreements alone were able to secure the peace that the cities in particular urgently needed for trade.
But these land peace regulations were only regionally valid. It was not until 1269 that a general royal peace was passed at the Diet of Worms . Although this new land peace treaty did not have any impact across the entire Reich, it was at least adhered to on the Rhine. King Richard named Cornwall , who was practically without sovereign power, Werner von Eppstein as the guardian of the new peace . His pontificate was overshadowed by the first conflicts between the city clergy and the bourgeoisie since the city was granted freedom. The reason - as in previous times - of these disputes was that the clergy claimed protection from the citizens, but evaded their access to jurisdiction and tax matters. In times of urban freedom, the citizens were apparently no longer willing to simply accept this inequality. They therefore allowed themselves to violate archbishop's rights and claims and refused to join the land peace of 1269.
The Archbishop was only able to overcome these differences through skillful diplomacy and only towards the end of the interregnum . The forthcoming election of a king after the death of King Richard on April 2, 1272 finally reunited the citizens and the archbishop. On February 5, 1273, under the leadership of the Mainz people, a federation was even concluded between cities in the weather and the Middle Rhine, whose members only wanted to accept a unanimously elected king. Archbishop Werner then expressly confirmed the citizenship of Siegfried III on June 5, 1273. conferred rights. It was decided to set up an arbitration tribunal for future disputes .
From the end of the interregnum to the diocese dispute of 1328
The new unity, however, was short-lived. Shortly after the election of a king on October 1, 1273, when Count Rudolf Habsburg was elected king with the active support of the Archbishop , the old disputes broke out again. The king himself came to Mainz to mediate between the citizens and the archbishop. In addition, he confirmed the Mainzers their previous rights. So he was able to settle the dispute, but the relationship between the archbishop and the citizens remained tense.
These tensions also prevented the conclusion of two new peace treaties. Instead, Archbishop Werner began a feud against areas in the Rhinegau. It was not until 1281, when Werner had defeated his opponents there, that a final atonement could be mediated at a court conference convened by King Rudolf in Mainz. On December 14th, a new land peace was sworn there.
During his lifetime, Archbishop Werner von Eppstein always knew how to prevent the king from granting the citizens of Mainz new privileges, the content of which went beyond privileges already granted. But after his death on April 2, 1284, on June 26, 1285, in addition to the already documented right not to be able to be called before foreign courts, the citizenship also received exemption from the royal court . From then on, complaints against Mainz citizens could only be brought before the king himself.
Influences of imperial politics on the city
In addition to the influence that the function as archbishop's seat exerted on the fortunes of the city, imperial politics also played an increasingly important role. The citizens of the Free City had the power to get involved in imperial politics by taking a position between the emperor and the archbishop, always making their support dependent on the benevolence of the respective ruler. If the emperor fought the elector himself or the Archbishop of Mainz, it was helpful for him to have the citizens of Mainz on his side. Conversely, the archbishop could not stand against the emperor without the support of the citizens of his episcopal city. Both the emperor and the archbishop therefore had to make sure that the citizens of the city did not oppose them. In order to secure support, both the emperor and the archbishop repeatedly renewed the privileges conferred by their predecessors. This renewal was of vital importance to the Free City. In contrast to the imperial cities , which were subordinate to the emperor and thus per se had a patron for their claims, the free cities were dependent on the constant confirmation of their rights.
The bourgeoisie therefore repeatedly took a position in imperial politics. It owed its freedom of city to the fact that it took sides for its archbishop in 1244. The imperial political influences on the city were of particular importance from 1295–1328. During this time, the power struggles between the emperor and the college of the seven electors reached their preliminary climax.
After King Adolf von Nassau was deposed at the instigation of the Elector of Mainz, Gerhard II von Eppstein , the college elected Albrecht I (1298–1308) as the new king. This turned out to be not a good choice, as Albrecht I soon began the so-called electoral war . First of all, he lifted all tariffs introduced since 1250, which deprived the Rhenish electors of Mainz, Trier , Cologne and Rhine for a considerable part of their income. He also branded her as a peace breaker. When the electors then took to the field against him, he defeated them in the tariff war of 1300-1302. The king could only conduct such a policy with the help of the affected Rhenish cities, for whose support he sought and which eventually became his most important helpers. In 1298 he confirmed all royal privileges to Mainz and on May 13, 1301 also the archbishopric privileges, which was extremely unusual at the time.
In 1306 the Pope appointed the then Basel Bishop Peter von Aspelt as the new Archbishop of Mainz (1306-1320). Shortly after his appointment, he confirmed the privileges of the citizenry. Peter von Aspelt soon turned out to be the ideal occupation for the Archbishopric of Mainz, as he was able to bring in his great political talent there. During Peter's pontificate, Mainz was the central point of German imperial politics.
Ludwig the Bavarian , who was enforced by Peter in 1314 with the support of the citizens in the election as the new king, issued a seven-year country peace in 1317, which was intended to secure the food trade urgently needed in the cities after bad harvests and famine. This land peace soon became fragile again when there were better harvests again from 1318. The customs system revived and Ludwig soon refrained from taking action.
After Peter von Aspelt's death on June 5, 1320, the Benedictine monk Matthias von Buchegg was appointed the new archbishop after a year-long vacancy . In contrast to his predecessor, he held back politically, but led - like many of his predecessors - a serious feud against the Hessian landgrave. For this he had to be sure of the support of the citizens. However, since he had previously wanted to use these for taxes and customs duties, the ratio was extremely bad. In order to change this, he had to grant the citizens more extensive privileges . On February 25th and March 11th, 1325 he undertook not to impose the interdict on monetary matters any more, to no longer give protection to enemies of the city outside of the city and lifted the immunity of clergymen in matters of nocturnal disturbance of the peace. He also confirmed all previous freedoms. Against this advancing privilege, the increasingly powerful Mainz cathedral chapter protested , which from then on came into ever stronger opposition to the bourgeoisie. For his elevation to Archbishop Matthias von Buchegg had to pay huge sums to the Pope in Avignon and was therefore in constant financial need. In order to be able to levy a special tax on the clergy for this reason, he needed the approval of the cathedral chapter, which in return wrested a privilege that was contrary to the freedoms of the citizens. In addition, it had a statute confirmed by the archbishop in 1326, according to which only nobles were allowed to be included in the chapter. This deepened the rifts between the chapter and the citizenry. In these disputes the archbishop took a reserved and fickle attitude. He was therefore never able to stabilize conditions in the city. The conflicts that broke out again and again until 1462 then also played an important role in the decline of the Free City.
The Mainz diocese dispute
The period from the so-called Mainz diocese dispute has not yet been conclusively described historically. The reason for this is the poor source situation, which was mainly caused by the turmoil of the Mainz collegiate feud .
After the death of Archbishop Matthias von Buchegg on September 9, 1328, violent disputes broke out over the successor to the most important bishopric in the empire. Not only the pope, emperor and cathedral chapter were involved, but also the citizens of Mainz. The Pope had Henry III. von Virneburg was appointed the new archbishop, while the cathedral chapter had chosen the Trier archbishop Baldwin of Luxembourg . Since neither side was ready to give in, there was a schism from this point on , which would last for several years. It divided the citizenry and the clergy into two camps. The Mainz city council decided after a phase of neutrality in 1329 in favor of the papal candidate. However, this did not mean that all layers of the citizenry agreed with this decision. As already described, the city council consisted of citizens from the upper class. They were opposed to the cathedral chapter and its candidate, if only because the cathedral chapter had repeatedly tried to curtail the privileges granted to the citizens.
The difficult relationship between the citizenry and the clergy
The antagonism between large parts of the citizenry and the chapter soon turned into open confrontation. After the troops of the Archbishop of Trier had taken position around the city, his supporters were expelled from the city. The citizens also used the march as a pretext for occupying the monasteries around the city , whose privileges were a thorn in their side. There were attacks on church buildings and evictions of the clergy. Thereupon the city fell under the interdict; Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian also imposed the imperial ban .
The council is expanded
The council succeeded in negotiating an atonement, but it cost him a great deal of money that had to be recovered from the citizens through taxes. This required deliberations, in which the city council had to involve a 22-person committee from the community. This did not consist of representatives of the patriciate, but mainly of cooperative associations and other organized parts of the common population. This new body finally achieved the status of a kind of subsidiary government, which demanded a say in all important decisions of the city council and enforced this right against all resistance of the long-established bourgeoisie. After years of disputes, an agreement was reached in 1333, according to which the membership of the council was doubled to 58 members. As before, half formed the upper class, the other half was now occupied by members of the guilds. While the members of the upper class belonged to the council for life, the representatives of the guilds were re-elected annually, with re-election being permitted. Even after this compromise, however, the Council did not form a unit.
The end of the schism
The schism that had determined the Mainz diocese dispute could only be overcome in 1337, after Baldwin of Luxembourg renounced the Mainz ore chair. This resignation of his candidate was not to the detriment of the Mainz cathedral chapter, which could now demand far-reaching privileges for his support from Heinrich von Virneburg by electoral surrender. The most important of these privileges was that from that point on the cathedral chapter was entitled to the appointment of city treasurer. The city treasurer was the most important office of the city at that time and from now on until the fall of the electoral city glory in 1799 always a cathedral capitular. Furthermore, the chapter achieved that citizens were only allowed to enjoy those privileges that had once been granted with its consent. In this way the capitulars strengthened their influence on the city rulers. From that moment on, however, the city's efforts to extend its autonomy were critically hindered.
The end of freedom privileges
The road to the end of urban freedom is a gradual development for which several factors were responsible. Last but not least, it was decisive that the citizenship could never finally prevail against the clergy led by the archbishop. Above all, the Mainz cathedral chapter viewed the development of increasing autonomy of the citizens through granted privileges with rejection and tried again and again to thwart the citizens' aspirations for freedom, while the citizens were forced to constantly and aggressively defend the freedoms granted to them.
In addition - after a long period of stability - at the beginning of the 15th century internal tensions between the citizens and the city council, especially between the guilds and their councilors, increased. However, according to the current state of research, it is not possible to precisely assess the individual groups, in particular the patrician families. Only family stories such as that of Johannes Gutenberg (Johannes Gensfleisch zur Lade) have been researched in more detail.
What is certain is that after an unspecified prelude at the beginning of 1411, a conflict arose in which some members of the guilds came into opposition to their own council representatives who did not see themselves adequately represented. Apparently their council rule had taken on oligarchic features. As in the 14th century, the opposition formed a committee of 18 members, which claimed control and a say over the city's budget management. Despite several concessions such as the guilds' right to information and participation in the Committee of 18, the conflict continued to smolder until an agreement in August 1411. This agreement gave the guilds greater leeway to make demands against the patricians in the city council, which the guilds also repeatedly asserted in the following years. It often happened that patrician families therefore left the city and moved to Frankfurt or Worms.
The paralysis of administrative tasks brought about by the disagreement between the city council and the guilds as well as increasing economic problems led to increasing deficits in the city treasury, which is why a 10-member committee of the guilds 1428/29 demanded control over the finances for ten years. The committee agreed on tax increases, which were negotiated with the council for months with the mediation of non-residents (who were mostly creditors of the city). Eventually, the council dissolved and was replaced by a new council of 35, in which the distinction between patricians and guilds was abolished. Now only seven council representatives came from the patriciate, but they continued to hold influential positions.
But just one year later, on March 28, 1430, the council constitution was changed again. After the modification, the council should now have 36 members, and the patriciate retained its old privileges. These modifications in the organization of the Council did not, of course, solve the pressing financial problems. 1435 failed in the Pfaffenrachtung finally the participation of the clergy in the urban tasks. Despite the increasingly difficult financial situation, the city bought the strategically important town of Vilzbach in 1436, which tore further holes in the city's treasury. Debt and repayment of interest were financed primarily with new loans from Frankfurt, Worms and Speyer. In 1437, delegates from these cities submitted an expert report on the financial situation on behalf of the Mainz city council, which made the disaster clear. The patriciate now saw its chance to reverse the unpleasant modifications of the council constitution of 1429/30. After long negotiations, a new council constitution was agreed, which provided for a 28-member council, half of which consisted of patricians.
Even this council was only able to keep the city afloat with new loans from Frankfurt. In 1444 the situation had become so catastrophic that the council was forced to discuss the financial problems on a broader basis. The old opponents of the patriciate saw their chance to push back the influence of the sexes. They accused them of serious financial policy failures. The envoys from the cities of Frankfurt, Worms and Speyer, who were involved as mediators, were interested in a quick settlement of the dispute because of their immense demands on the city and its citizens. So they finally supported the resignation of the city council. The council abdicated and was replaced by a 29-strong new council, which no longer included representatives of the patriciate. Several of them subsequently moved to Frankfurt.
However, the financial problems proved unsolvable. Finally, the city of Frankfurt was offered the whole of Mainz as a pledge for a loan of 60,000 guilders. The citizens could no longer play a powerful role in upcoming events.
The Mainz collegiate feud
The final end of city freedom was then sealed by the so-called Mainz collegiate feud . This dispute between Archbishop Diether von Isenburg, who was elected but not confirmed by the Pope, and Adolf II of Nassau , who in turn wanted to assert claims to the Archbishopric of Mainz, began in 1461 and ended on October 28, 1462. In the morning hours of that day, we climbed under cover the late night 500 soldiers of Adolf II near the Gautore over the city wall. The citizens who had previously sided with Diether von Isenburg had neglected precisely this point of the city wall because of its supposed insurmountability. But it is also possible that some Mainz citizens came to the aid of the invaders. In any case, according to a Mainz chronicle from 1600, Adolf II was astonishingly well informed about the conditions and events in the city. After the invasion of Adolf's army and his allies, there was a street battle lasting several hours, which ended victorious for Adolf II. He therefore ordered the city council and all male citizens to appear on the Dietmarkt - today's Schillerplatz - on October 30, 1462 . But instead of having the male citizens swear an oath of allegiance, as expected by them, Adolf II expelled almost all of them from the city. He also obtained all citizenship privileges that were revoked from then on.
After the end of the "Free City"
The loss of freedom privileges degraded Mainz to a pure “priest town”, in which from now on the archbishop alone had the say. Integrated into the Archbishopric, it lost importance and the citizens lost their political influence. In addition, the new Archbishop Adolf II of Nassau humiliated the citizens beyond the day of their defeat. In 1463 almost 400 citizens were expelled again and until 1469 the remaining citizens lived in the city without any rights. The archbishop's aim was to smash the old, self-confident bourgeoisie, which he succeeded in doing. So from 1468 he was able to allow legal guarantees again. The guilds were now referred to as “orders” that were not allowed to be involved in any political activity. He promised protection from reprisals to the municipal bodies that still existed but were deprived of their independence. The citizens were no longer entitled to self-determination. However, these privileges were only valid for citizens who had paid homage to the Archbishop and the Mainz Cathedral Chapter. The cathedral chapter thus acquired great power over the city, which reached its peak in the developments after the archbishop's death in 1475. It again elected Diether von Isenburg as archbishop who, in gratitude, had to give him control of the city. However, when the citizens noticed that the archbishop, whom they had supported at the time of the collegiate feud, had left them in the lurch, an uprising broke out in August 1476, the aim of which was to restore urban freedom. However, this undertaking failed due to the archbishop's resistance, but at least ended the short phase of sole city rule of the cathedral chapter. Ten years later, on May 2, 1486, King Maximilian I confirmed in a document that from now on the city of Mainz, as an electoral country city, should be under the authority of the Archbishop of Mainz. It stayed that way until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806.
Aspects
Spiritual center
Although the city of Mainz from 1244 by Archbishop Siegfried III. After the privilege granted to it had become a free city , it remained an ecclesiastical metropolis and the center of the archbishop's spiritual jurisdiction. Furthermore, diocesan and provincial synods were held here, with which the archbishop led the archdiocese and coordinated the organization of the largest church province on the other side of the Alps.
In this sense, a focal point of ecclesiastical events, the number of religious settlements in the city rose sharply, especially in the 13th and 14th centuries. After all, almost all forms of high medieval religious life, including the orders of knights, were resident in the city.
The monasteries with their libraries and schools brought the city a rich spiritual culture, which made it interesting for foreign artists to come to Mainz. From 1312, for example, Heinrich von Meißen, called Frauenlob, was one of the most important minstrels in the city. The numerous parishes, monasteries of the city and especially the school at the cathedral were responsible for this culture and schooling . The office of the scholaster was there next to that of the cantor, the custodian, the dean and the provost the most important office within the cathedral chapter . Several archbishops of Mainz had previously been scholasters. During the time as the Free City and in the following century, there was no secular school in Mainz because of this wide range of offers. The training was always in spiritual hands.
In addition, the parishes and monasteries were also responsible for pastoral care . Each of the first five parishes ( St. Quintin , St. Emmeran , Udenmünster, St. Ignaz and St. Christoph ), the cathedral parish ( with its neighboring monasteries Liebfrauen , St. Johann and St. Moritz), the remaining monasteries ( St. Stephan and St. Peter ) as well as some monasteries, which also had parishes, had an independent and immune area (Muntat) or belonged to such an area. In this way, a not inconsiderable part of the town's land was owned by the church and thus completely beyond the influence of the citizens. Such privileges often led to great tension with the clergy, with the archbishop at their head.
Jurisdiction and Administration
Spiritual jurisdiction
The judges of that time not only pronounced justice, but also exercised administrative tasks at the same time, which distinguishes them from today's concept of judges.
The lower level of spiritual jurisdiction was exercised by the archipresbyter (forerunner of today's “dean”) of the city. He decided on marital disputes, ecclesiastical and moral offenses, but also on the law of wills and other areas of law that are now part of private law. Nobles and ministerials as well as other specific groups were, however, withdrawn from his access.
The highest ecclesiastical court of the city and the diocese consisted of two judges appointed by the archbishop, to whom a chancellery was assigned to support and who, like the Archipresbyter, always came from the cathedral chapter . These judges were responsible for all persons subject to canon law and also acted as appeal bodies for the spiritual courts of the suffragan dioceses . At the time of the Free City, the ecclesiastical province of Mainz had 14 suffragan dioceses, including Prague (until 1344) . The judges of the Supreme Court therefore had an extraordinary power. They were only subordinate to the Pope and Archbishop.
Secular jurisdiction
The archbishop's secular judgment
The best example of secular jurisdiction shows that the archbishopric rulership of the city was not completely lost after the privilege of freedom of 1244. This city-lordly court, which had replaced the old burgrave court, was called "Secular Court" since the end of the 13th century . It was occupied by the chamberlain, who presided, the mayor as representative of the chamberlain and four judges. They were all officials who dealt with case law (judges), e.g. Some of them were also entrusted with the administration ( Walpode , mint master , customs officer and market master ) or both (as in the case of the chamberlain and the mayor) and continued to be appointed by the archbishop, as whose ministerial they functioned. The chamberlain, who held the highest city office, was always a cathedral chapter from 1355 until the end of the electorate in the city.
This archbishop's secular court met in the archbishop's Palatinate (today's “ Höfchen ”). Clergymen, their servants and beneficiaries of archbishop's official or other ministerial loans were excluded from their jurisdiction. These had their own place of jurisdiction before the archbishop or his agent. The liberation of the clergy from secular judgment was seen as a privilege, over which conflicts between citizens and clergy flared up again and again.
In addition to criminal matters, the ban on blood (to which it had the sole right), the court also decided in civil law disputes such as purchase, exchange, donation, testamentary transfer, etc. In addition to the court, the archbishop's officials also had various supervisory and judicial functions, such as Monitoring of the movement of goods, supervision of calibration and food controls.
The jurisdiction of the mayors
The jurisdiction of the city council was derived from the strong position of the mayors after the reform of the city council. The basis for the intervention of the mayor as police force was primarily the cemetery command recorded in 1300 , which was revised or revised in 1317, 1335, 1352, 1437. The peace commandment had to be sworn by all citizens who formed such a confederation. It banned the carrying of weapons, rioting, collaboration with foreign enemies of the city, holding an armed private force as well as manslaughter, wounding, insubordination and physical or verbal quarrels (e.g. insults) in public. The mayors were able to intervene against any violation of the peace law and try the guilty party in a court-like session with the participation of four city lay judges. Since the death penalty and severe corporal punishment were due to the Secular Court as blood punishment, fines were mostly imposed.
There were often serious disputes over competence between the secular court and the jurisdiction of the city council. Initially, the council was able to record several successes: In 1366 the mayor's court was formally recognized by Archbishop Gerlach von Nassau , and in 1378 the city received a privilege from Emperor Charles IV , with the help of which the jurisdiction in judicial and taxation could be significantly expanded. However , the archbishop and clergy also obtained a privilege from his successor, King Wenceslaus , according to which their rights could not be affected by the city privileges. As a result, both sides fought over competencies, in that they were each able to invoke the privileges granted to them. The clergy, which was spread over the various monasteries, often formed so-called unions in order to be better able to hold their own against the citizens. The only exception were the mendicant orders , which were more on the side of the citizenry and helped them - as in the case of the interdict of 1382. Almost all conflicts were more or less based on tax issues, i.e. the question of who was entitled to which money. The conflicts did not end until 1435 with the so-called Pfaffenrachtung , in which the relationship between the city and the clergy was fundamentally regulated. The city had to give way on essential points. Despite the later worsening financial difficulties of the city, the clergy could not be persuaded to find a new compromise until the question of jurisdiction after the end of city freedom in 1462 became obsolete.
The City Council: Local government body
In addition to the ecclesiastical and secular court, in a sense the state sphere, which was still dominated by the archbishop, came the city council, which was generally independent of this and represented the communal element of administration. As early as the 1290s, efforts to achieve greater independence from the archbishop's officials led to the creation of a mayor's office . In the course of time there were four mayors who had extensive powers. In addition to the police and judicial tasks already described, they were responsible for the political representation of the city to the outside world, the military high command over the citizen contingent, the levying of a civic property tax (appraisal), the care for the cleanliness of the streets and the supervision of the construction industry. The responsibilities of the city council thus extended to areas that are to a large extent still part of local self-government today. In order to prevent abuse of office, the individual positions were filled by collegial staff and filled every year.
Due to their strong position, the mayors succeeded in pushing the once powerful archbishop's officials, who were also represented in the council, into the background. From 1332 onwards, a move by officials to the positions of their deceased predecessors was completely ruled out. However, in contrast to other Free Cities, the mayors in Mainz never succeeded in completely replacing the organs from the Archbishop's sphere of rule with communal powers. Part of the power always remained with the Archbishop and his ministerials until he took full power again after 1462.
economy and trade
The development in the first 100 years of urban freedom
The strong economic boom that began at this time is of decisive importance for the urban development and the significance of the time as a free city within the city's history. This upswing promoted the emergence of secular buildings in the new Gothic style , made the churches rich through donations and caused a strong population growth. Around 1300 the city had 24,000 inhabitants - more than twice as many as 1180.
The upswing particularly favored the patriciate, the gender aristocratic upper class of the city. They acquired rich property within and around the city, sometimes even in other cities. Marriage connections, inheritance or economic success made it possible for people from lower classes to move up to this leadership class. It was not until the 14th century, when the social structures were cemented by guilds and an increasing aristocracy, that advancement could no longer easily be achieved even through accumulation of wealth.
The most important trading goods on the export side were wine (→ viticulture in Mainz ), grain from the Mainz hinterland and cloth goods. However, export only played a subordinate role in trade. Due to the growing wealth of its citizens, Mainz had become a city of consumption and not of production. The import of luxury goods of all kinds was therefore much more important for the Mainz markets. The long-distance trade merchants who were based in Mainz earned money from this import . Business was done with Dutch cloth manufacturers, the trade fairs in Flanders , Brabants and Champagne, as well as the cities of Cologne, Paris and Venice . Far more important than this long-distance trade, however, was the trade that the Mainz merchants operated nearby, namely at the Frankfurt trade fair . This fair gave them the opportunity to buy most of the goods in demand in the neighborhood.
Another way of supplying goods was to use the transit traffic of goods through the so-called stacking habit, which the emperor could grant as stacking rights . The stacking habit meant that boatmen who had to dock in the port of Mainz to pay customs had to offer their goods to citizens for three days. The “Am Brand” department store, first mentioned around 1311, was built for this trade. After it was partially demolished in the 19th century and completely destroyed in the Second World War, it still exists today as a modern building complex.
The development up to the end of urban freedom in 1462
The economic boom as well as the staple rights and the wealth of the citizens made Mainz, together with Cologne , one of the most important trading centers in the Holy Roman Empire . As in politics, in the second half of the 14th century, the economy began to decline slowly.
In the first half of this century there was still no sign of this. There were 58 corporations of guilds and crafts in the city. Trades were mainly shipping, transport, viticulture and agriculture, metalworking, cloth making, leather and furrier trade, fishermen, stonemasons and roofers.
But with the change in the routes of goods from the 1320s and the strengthening of the city of Frankfurt am Main and the trade fair industry there (from which Mainz was initially able to benefit due to its interim storage function), the signs were already set for worse economic times. In essence, however, one cannot speak of a specific cause that finally ushered in the decline of the Free City as a business location. Rather, it is an interplay of several factors. On the one hand, there were the huge compensation payments after the diocese dispute of 1328, the epidemics of the 1360s that decimated the population, and the clashes between the city council and the guilds. Increasingly, income had to be obtained through loans, which made the city also dependent on creditors. The attempt to resolve the financial crisis by making greater demands on the rich families only accelerated their migration from the city, mostly to neighboring Frankfurt.
However, the citizens were held liable for the city's debts abroad. This meant that Mainz merchants threatened to confiscate their goods at trade fairs to cover the city's liabilities. This hindered trade more and more, which in turn put an even greater strain on the city's finances. After all, 3/4 of the city's revenue had to be used up for interest. In 1437 and 1444 the city was therefore insolvent.
In 1444 the city had owed the citizens of almost all of the larger cities in the area, especially in the trade fair city of Frankfurt, where many former Mainz citizens now lived. With the conquest of the city in 1462, all these outstanding debts were lost. The end of the Free City was a severe blow to the cities around it.
Population development
The other aspects were also similar to the political, historical and economic developments. If there was a continuous rise in the years from 1244 onwards, a decline usually set in in the 14th century. At the beginning of the 14th century, the city was one of the few large cities on the Rhine with over 20,000 inhabitants . With the emergence of the plague in Europe from the second half of the 14th century, a dramatic decline set in, which could not be compensated for by immigration in the beginning of the 15th century. In 1463, after the turmoil of the Mainz collegiate feud , the city was only a medium-sized town, while some sources even assume that there were only 6,000 inhabitants. (→ see main article: Population development in Mainz )
literature
- History of the City of Mainz Vol. III - Mainz in its heyday as a Free City from 1244–1328, Ludwig Falck , Walter Rau Verlag, Düsseldorf 1973. ISBN 3-7919-0142-7
- Mainz - The history of the city; Ed .: Franz Dumont, Ferdinand Scherf, Friedrich Schütz; 2nd ed.; Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1999 ISBN 3-8053-2000-0
Coordinates: 50 ° 0 ' N , 8 ° 16' E