Imperial city of Nuremberg

; Territory in the Holy Roman Empire
Nuremberg
coat of arms
map
Form of rule	Imperial city
Ruler / ; government	magistrate
Today's region / s	DE-BY
Parliament	Swabian city bank
Reichskreis	Franconian Imperial Circle
Capitals / ; residences	Nuremberg
Denomination / ; Religions	Roman Catholic , from 1525: Lutheran
Language / n	German
area	1,200 km²
Incorporated into	1806 Kingdom of Bavaria

The imperial city of Nuremberg was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire , whose independence had taken place in several stages of development between the 13th and 15th centuries (acquisition of imperial freedom in 1219, granting of high jurisdiction in 1320, acquisition of the Nuremberg Burggrafenburg in 1427) and that until 1806 existed.

story

The beginnings of the city's history

View of the Nuremberg Castle. The so-called “five-corner tower” on the right in the picture was part of the Burggrafenburg complex.

The beginnings of Nuremberg are closely linked to the history of the burgraviate of Nuremberg . They go back to an imperial castle that was built in the first half of the 11th century on a sandstone rock near the Pegnitz .

Probably around the year 1040 King Heinrich III. initiated the construction of the castle complex and, with the creation of this base, which is located in the area of the Reichswald, pursued the intention of at least partially pushing back the influence of the Prince-Bishop of Bamberg . Because his predecessors had endowed this diocese with generous donations and thereby withdrew large parts of the Franconian area from royal rule.

Nuremberg was first mentioned in a document in 1050 in an imperial document of the acquittal of a serf named Sigena . In the terrain to the southeast of the castle rock, a community quickly developed, closely following the protective castle, which received market rights only twelve years after the first documentary mention.

Around the year 1105, the Counts of Raabs , who came from a Lower Austrian family, were enfeoffed with the Nuremberg castle and appointed as burgraves. In the following period these created the basis for an extensive imperial territory, which developed around the Nuremberg Castle and was later referred to as the Burggrafschaft (sometimes also as Burggraftum ) Nuremberg. The burgraviate played an important role in the development of the later imperial city of Nuremberg, because in the following centuries a bitter hostility to it and its successor territories, the Zoller margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Brandenburg-Bayreuth , developed.

In this early phase of the city's history, Emperor Friedrich I expanded Nuremberg into a frequently visited palace during his reign (1155 to 1190) , which gave important impetus to the city's further development. In the year 1200 Nuremberg received city rights and in the following years should develop into an important long-distance trading city, mainly due to its favorable location on north-south and east-west running trade routes, including the Golden Road .

When Konrad II, the last Count of Raabs, died around 1190 without male descendants, his son-in-law Friedrich I von Zollern took over his inheritance. Presumably in 1191 this was by King Heinrich VI. enfeoffed with the burgrave office, with which the counts of Zollern , who called themselves Hohenzollern from the middle of the 14th century , took control of the burgraviate. This gave them an initially unchallenged leadership role in the city of Nuremberg, which at that time was the sole administrative center of the sphere of influence they controlled.

The emergence of the imperial city

King Friedrich II issued a letter of freedom to the city in 1219.

Almost at the same time as the Zollern was appointed burgraves, a development began that led to an initially cautious, but then more and more emphatic emancipation of the city from the burgrave's rule. It manifested itself, among other things, in the establishment of a royal mayor's office , which was responsible for the administration of urban affairs from the end of the 12th century. With the freedom letter issued by King Friedrich II in 1219 , the city was placed under royal protection and thus achieved the status of imperial freedom. The letter of freedom was an important milestone and marked the beginning of the development that ultimately led to the development of the territorial independence of the imperial city of Nuremberg. Due to its repeatedly proven allegiance to the emperor, the city was also awarded other important privileges in the following decades . In 1256 the city joined the Rhenish Association of Cities and in 1320 it received the coveted high jurisdiction. With that the development to an independent empire territory was finally completed.

However, the independence of the city was already seriously jeopardized shortly afterwards when King Ludwig the Bavarian pledged the mayor's office in 1324 to the Nuremberg burgraves. In 1337 the influential and financially strong Nuremberg entrepreneur Konrad Groß was able to reverse this pledge. When the patrician council of the city for Pope Clement VI. supported Luxembourgish rival king Charles IV , he was overthrown in 1348 by an uprising mainly supported by craftsmen. The rule of the new council, supported by the insurgents, ended the following year, after Charles IV was able to assert himself in the internal disputes within the empire and then enforced the reinstatement of the old council. In the same year there was a pogrom against Jews that led to the destruction of the city's Jewish ghetto. The reinstated council was just as involved in the preparation of the pogrom as Charles IV himself, who approved its implementation in advance. In gratitude for the support received from the traditional council, Charles IV, who had meanwhile been crowned emperor, obliged every new Roman-German king in 1356 in the Golden Bull to hold his first court and imperial diet ( regalis curia ) in Nuremberg. In 1365, however, he pledged the mayor's office once more to the Nuremberg burgraves and it took two decades before the city council succeeded in redeeming the pledged office and the rights associated with it. After this finally succeeded in 1385 due to an acute financial shortage of the burgraves, the competencies of the mayor were massively restricted in the following period. This was intended to counter another threat to urban independence through a further pledge of the mayor's office. In 1424, the Roman-German King Sigismund entrusted Nuremberg with the imperial insignia for permanent storage. In 1427 the imperial city was able to acquire the Burggrafenburg, which had been destroyed in the course of the Bavarian War in 1420, from the Nuremberg burgraves. Together with the associated rights, the city was able to secure the final takeover of the mayor's rights. In addition to their previously held rights within the city walls , the burgraves sold their property in the Reichswald , but retained some rights in this area there (including wild bans , feudal rights , escort rights and material forest use).

The Landshut War of Succession

The Landshut War of Succession took place at the beginning of the 16th century . It was a military conflict between the two Wittelsbach lines of Bavaria-Munich and Bavaria-Landshut . The reason for the outbreak of war was the issue which of the two lines after the extinction of the male line of Bavaria-Landshut the succession in the Duchy should play Bayern Landshut. Duke Albrecht claimed the succession for Bavaria-Munich , for Bavaria-Landshut it was Count Palatine Ruprecht . In the run-up to the looming war, both parties to the conflict tried to secure the support of allies. The imperial city of Nuremberg cooperated with Duke Albrecht and concluded an alliance with him in February 1504. In it the city was made extensive territorial concessions in the event of military support for the duke. After the war had actually broken out, there was a confrontation with the Elector Palatine, Philipp von der Pfalz , who had intervened in the war on the side of his son Ruprecht. In the summer of 1504 imperial city troops therefore moved into the parts of the Electoral Palatinate east of the city and occupied them. The towns captured included the towns of Lauf , Hersbruck , Altdorf and Velden as well as other localities or fortified places such as Happurg , Engelthal , Betzenstein or Heimburg Castle . The Landshut War of Succession ended with the Peace of Cologne in 1505 , but the military conflicts between the imperial city and the Electoral Palatinate continued into 1520, often in the form of small wars . It was only after years of negotiations that a contract was finally concluded in December 1520 in which the imperial city was left with the vast majority of the conquests it had made. In addition to a financial compensation payment, the Palatinate only received the Heimburg office back. With the conclusion of this contract, the imperial city succeeded in having the occupations appropriated in the Landshut War of Succession recognized as contractually guaranteed property. As a member of the Swabian Confederation , Nuremberg, along with other trading cities, pushed ahead with the fight against robber barons, which led to the Franconian War in 1523 in the persecution of Thomas von Absberg (see also Wandereisen woodcuts from 1523 ).

In the age of the Reformation

Andreas Osiander was one of the main actors in the Reformation in Nuremberg.

The enlightenment visions of the Reformation initiated by Martin Luther met with a relatively high level of popularity in Nuremberg from the start. As early as 1524, the Nuremberg citizens openly committed to the new teaching. After the Nuremberg Religious Discussion in the following year, it was decided in 1525 to introduce the Lutheran denomination throughout the territory of the imperial city of Nuremberg. In the following years, the city, which had always been loyal to the emperor, was increasingly drawn into the tensions that arose from the opposition between the Protestant camp and the Habsburg imperial family, which remained Catholic. This conflict situation eased, at least temporarily, in 1532, when Emperor Charles V concluded the Nuremberg Religious Peace with the Protestant estates of the empire on July 23 of that year . In the following year, 1533, the common Brandenburg-Nuremberg church order was put into effect, with which the Reformation in the imperial city and the Margraviate Brandenburg-Ansbach was also given an institutional framework.

The outstanding circumstance of this church order was that the imperial city and the Brandenburg-Ansbach margravate agreed for the first time on an important socio-political issue on a joint approach. However, this cooperation remained a one-time episode; until the end of the two territories, they could never again bring about a comparable close cooperation. During the Schmalkaldic War , the imperial city did not join the camp of Protestant forces, but took a neutral position. Despite this neutrality, however, after the Protestant defeat in 1548 in this conflict, it had to at least partially introduce the Augsburg Interim . In the Second Margrave War, Albrecht II. Alcibiades devastated the surrounding area and forced the unsuccessfully besieged city to make substantial payments.

The Thirty-Year War

Imperial city of Nuremberg, Steckenreiter , a gold strike from the stamps of the Silberklippe from 1650 on the Peace of Westphalia

In 1609 Nuremberg joined the Protestant Union , but after the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in 1618 it tried for a long time to assume a neutral position. The Protestant imperial city, traditionally loyal to the emperor, actually wanted to avoid an open break with the Habsburg imperial family . It was only with the approach of Gustav Adolf's Swedish army that she was finally forced to give up her previous wait-and-see attitude. When the Swedish king marched in front of the imperial city in 1632, it opened its gates to it voluntarily, but at the same time reluctantly. In the following years it was besieged by imperial forces for several months, but was able to assert itself militarily without major problems due to the presence of the Swedish troops. However, the costs imposed on the city by billeting and other war-related expenses led to dramatic indebtedness. This could not be removed until the end of the imperial city and was a major cause of its decline in the period that followed. In 1635 the imperial city joined the Peace of Prague , which ended the alliance with the Swedish invaders and sealed the rapprochement with the imperial camp.

The decline

After the end of the Thirty Years' War, the imperial city was burdened with a heavy burden of debt. Its role as a long-distance trading city suffered an increasing loss of importance in the following decades, because the colonial expansion of the European sea powers resulted in a profound shift in trade routes. The patrician city council showed that it was unable to respond adequately to these developments and could not prevent the debt from growing even further. The Council's apparent incompetence in financial management created increasing resentment among the citizens, which led to various internal conflicts during the 18th century, which ultimately even resulted in a lawsuit before the Imperial Court. Already under the influence of the French Revolution , a basic contract was concluded in 1794, with which the so-called named college was granted the function of an imperial city parliament.

The end of the imperial city

The modernization measures aimed at towards the end of the 18th century came too late to prevent the final fall of the imperial city of Nuremberg. With the beginning of the French Revolution and the associated political upheavals, as well as the resulting military conflicts , the general political climate changed fundamentally to the disadvantage of all imperial cities. The neighboring rivals of the imperial city had their territorial possessions in their sights and subsequently enforced their claims, based on extremely questionable legal titles, by means of military force. In 1790, Elector Karl Theodor von Pfalz-Bayern had all treaties and agreements terminated between the imperial city and the Palatinate and Bavaria since the Peace of Cologne in 1505. In doing so, he claimed that part of the imperial urban area that the city had won as a result of its participation in the Landshut War of Succession. In the following two years, Bavarian troops finally occupied some parts of this land area, in particular the part of the Velden Care Office east of the Pegnitz . A few years later, Hardenberg, as governor of the Prussian city of Ansbach-Bayreuth, asserted his claims on the part of the country area immediately adjacent to the city. He backed up his claims with the rights that the Nuremberg burgraves had reserved for this area in 1427 when the burgrave castle was sold. In 1796 Prussian troops occupied these areas, cutting the city off from the remaining land. This only consisted of a number of larger and smaller exclaves . In view of the overall military situation in southern Germany, Hardenberg could assume that his troops would not face any resistance from the population of the occupied areas. In the summer of 1796, French revolutionary troops began an initially extremely successful invasion of the right bank of the Rhine, and an army under the command of General Jourdan moved into the Frankish Empire , which was almost completely occupied. The only exceptions to this were the Prussian territories, because Prussia had concluded the Treaty of Basel with revolutionary France in April 1795 and thus left the front of the coalition against the revolution. All Prussian territories then enjoyed the status of neutrality, while the non-Prussian areas were left defenseless to the looting of the revolutionary troops and were also exposed to the excessive demands of the French army leadership for contributions. When the troops sent by Hardenberg marched into the parts of the imperial urban land area claimed by Prussia, they could count on a certain benevolence from the local population, because they also came under the protection of Prussian neutrality and were spared the circumstances caused by the war, but differently the imperial city and its remaining territories, these were exposed to the French reprisals in full severity. Just like the remaining land area, the imperial city itself was occupied by French troops and, in addition to high contribution payments, also had to accept harassment from a soldier. After the withdrawal of the revolutionary troops, there were massive demands in the Nuremberg citizenship, calling for the imperial city to be voluntarily subordinated to Prussian rule. The city council finally gave in to these demands and signed a treaty on September 2, 1796, by which the imperial city of Nuremberg was placed under Prussian sovereignty. Thereupon Prussian troops moved into the city area and the remaining imperial city territories. However, the Prussian government in Berlin refused to confirm the treaty because it feared tensions with Austria and Russia if it were ratified. In addition, Prussia would have had to take on the imperial city's now immense debt. The voluntary submission of the city to Prussian sovereignty had thus failed and the Prussian troops withdrew after a few weeks. However, this only extended the agony of the imperial city by another decade. In 1803 it was spared again in the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , but three years later it was deprived of its independence in 1806 with the Rhine Confederation Act , concluded on July 12, 1806 in Paris, with Article 17 and given to the Kingdom of Bavaria as property. The end of the imperial city of Nuremberg is to be equated with the end of its tax system , which ceased to exist on September 15, 1806 when the French army handed it over to Bavaria.

Political impact

The imperial city of Nuremberg was not only one of the most important and leading members of the Frankish imperial circle, it was also the advertising city of this district. She was also a member of the Swabian Bank in the Reichsstädtekollegium of the Reichstag . It played a special role as a conference and congress location, as well as the seat of the first Reich regiment .

Inner development

administration

The formation of the city council took place around the middle of the 13th century. Around the year 1400 its development was essentially complete and from this point on the city council consisted of an internal council with 42 members and an external council consisting of 200 to 300 named persons . The latter, however, was only of relatively minor importance. The actual city government was in the hands of a committee that acted as a secret council and consisted of seven members of the inner council. In 1348 a craftsmen's revolt took place in the city, through which the admission of eight representatives of the crafts into the inner council was allowed. However, this change was only of a cosmetic character, because until the end of the imperial city, the rule of the city continued to be almost exclusively patrician.

business

For the imperial city, the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern age was not only the pinnacle of its power-political importance, it was also the pinnacle of its economic prosperity . At this time, but especially in the time of the Reformation, which began a little later, economic life flourished particularly well. One of the most important branches of the economy was arms production, in which the city played a prominent role. The mills along the Pegnitz river, which flows through the city of Nuremberg, formed an essential basis for this. In these mills, above all, endless wires were produced, which were required as a preliminary product for the manufacture of weapons and on whose manufacturing process the city had a monopoly that had been kept secret for a long time. The casting of guns was also an important part of this branch of industry. In the handicraft sector, goldsmithing , tin foundry and the manufacture of clocks were also important. In the latter trade, Peter Henlein in particular made a name for himself as the inventor of one of the first portable watches. Long-distance trade was one of the most important economic factors for the imperial city. The basis for this was in particular the numerous exemptions or benefits when paying customs on many long-distance trade routes. These had either been granted to the city through imperial privileges, or they had been mutually guaranteed through contractual arrangements. These activities were supplemented by participation in the financing of economic ventures in other countries. In the 16th century, the Nuremberg Stock Exchange served as a link in trade between Italy and other European economic centers. There was a lively exchange of goods with the Levant via Venice .

Culture

Albrecht Dürer

The 15th and 16th centuries were the heyday of cultural and artistic activities. During this period of time, cultural life was of importance far beyond the region. Numerous artists contributed to this, such as the painters Albrecht Dürer and Michael Wolgemut , the sculptors Adam Kraft and Veit Stoss , or ore founders, such as the Vischer family (especially Peter Vischer the Elder ). Furthermore, with Martin Behaim , Hans Leo Haßler , Hans Sachs , Willibald Pirckheimer and Regiomontanus , well-known scholars, musicians and poets also played an important role in the cultural life of the imperial city.

Territorial division

Acquiring territorial property outside the city walls turned out to be relatively difficult for the imperial city over a long period of time because it was faced with a powerful rival in the burgraviate of Nuremberg, which surrounded the city. The first activities for the acquisition of land ownership were initially made of individual urban citizens, which is why this is also called self gentlemen called their acquired possessions. From the middle of the 14th century, however, the city council increasingly took the initiative in expanding the imperial city's territorial holdings. In 1427, with the purchase of the Nuremberg Burggrafenburg, the council succeeded in acquiring the Sebald and Lorenz imperial forests, which stretched on both sides of the Pegnitz and bordered almost directly on the eastern city walls. However, Nuremberg was able to achieve the greatest area growth in the Landshut War of Succession. With the land area gained, it became the imperial city with the largest territorial holdings on the soil of present-day Germany .

Land area

The Lichtenau Fortress - formerly owned by the imperial city.

The territorial possessions of the imperial city of Nuremberg was more comprehensive than a dozen administrative regions ( Pfleg- and forest offices divided), which, however, not all had consistently inventory.

Office of the fortress
Altdorf Nursing Office
Betzenstein Nursing Office
Engelthal care office
Nursing Office Gostenhof
Graefenberg Care Office
Nursing Office Hauseck (until 1610, then co-administered by the Nursing Office Velden)
Nursing Office Hersbruck
Hiltpoltstein Nursing Office
Hohenstein Nursing Office (until 1764, then co-administered by the Hiltpoltstein Nursing Office)
Nursing department run
Nursing Office Lichtenau
Reicheneck nursing office
Nursing Office Velden
Wildenfels nursing office (until 1625, then co-administered by the Hiltpoltstein nursing office)

In addition to the nursing offices, there were also two forest offices that were responsible for the administration of the forest areas of the Nuremberg Reich Forest .

Exclaves

The Lichtenau Nursing Office, acquired by Nuremberg in 1406, with the town and fortress of the same name , was the largest and at the same time the most important exclave of the imperial city.

Enclaves

From a military point of view, the electoral Bavarian fortress Rothenberg was the most threatening enclave in the imperial city area. In political terms, however, it was the Brandenburg-Ansbach bailiwick of Schönberg , because the margravial and later Prussian side established their sovereignty claims on large parts of the imperial city land.

literature

Emil Reicke: History of the Imperial City of Nuremberg. Nuremberg 1896.
Sigmund Benker, Andreas Kraus (ed.): History of Franconia up to the end of the 18th century . Founded by Max Spindler. 3. Edition. Beck, Munich 1997. ISBN 3-406-39451-5
Max Spindler, Gertrud Diepolder: Bavarian History Atlas . Bayerischer Schulbuch-Verlag, Munich 1969
Gerhard Taddey (ed.): Lexicon of German history . Events, institutions, people. From the beginning to the surrender in 1945. 3rd, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-520-81303-3 .
Nuremberg country . Karl Pfeiffer's Buchdruckerei und Verlag, Hersbruck 1993. ISBN 3-9800386-5-3
Friedrich Eigler : Historical Atlas of Bavaria: Schwabach . Commission for Bavarian State History, Munich 1990.
Manfred Jehle, Historical Atlas of Bavaria: Ansbach. The margraves' offices in Ansbach, Colmberg-Leutershausen, Windsbach, the Nuremberg Nursing Office in Lichtenau and the Teutonic Order Office (Wolframs-) Eschenbach . Commission for Bavarian State History, Munich 2009.
Johannes Müllner: The Annals of the Imperial City of Nuremberg from 1623, Part II: From 1351-1469 . Nuremberg 1972.
Johannes Müllner, Michael Diefenbacher : The annals of the imperial city of Nuremberg from 1623, Part III: From 1470-1544 . Nuremberg 2003.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Nuremberg, Reichsstadt: Territorium on historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de, accessed on April 26, 2020
^ Johannes Voigt: Margrave Albrecht Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach . In: Volume 1 . Publishing house of Decker's Secret Ober-Hofbuchdruckerei, Berlin 1852, p. 292-315 .
↑ Rheinbundakte (accessed on September 9, 2018)
↑ Heinrich Lundardi: 900 years Nuremberg. 600 years of Nuremberg clocks. Vienna 1974.
↑ Thomas Eser: The oldest pocket watch in the world? The Henlein watch dispute. Publishing house of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, Nürnberg 2014. ISBN 978-3-936688-92-4 , passim.
↑ Michael Diefenbacher , Rudolf Endres (ed.): Stadtlexikon Nürnberg . W. Tümmels Verlag, Nuremberg 2000, ISBN 3-921590-69-8 , p. 823 .
↑ Michael Diefenbacher , Rudolf Endres (ed.): Stadtlexikon Nürnberg . W. Tümmels Verlag, Nuremberg 2000, ISBN 3-921590-69-8 , p. 1154 .

[1] Nuremberg, Reichsstadt: Territorium on historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de, accessed on April 26, 2020

[Johannes-Voigt-2] Johannes Voigt: Margrave Albrecht Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach . In: Volume 1 . Publishing house of Decker's Secret Ober-Hofbuchdruckerei, Berlin 1852, p. 292-315 .

[Rheinbundakte-3] Rheinbundakte (accessed on September 9, 2018)

[4] Heinrich Lundardi: 900 years Nuremberg. 600 years of Nuremberg clocks. Vienna 1974.

[5] Thomas Eser: The oldest pocket watch in the world? The Henlein watch dispute. Publishing house of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, Nürnberg 2014. ISBN 978-3-936688-92-4 , passim.

[StadtLex-Nbg-1-6] Michael Diefenbacher , Rudolf Endres (ed.): Stadtlexikon Nürnberg . W. Tümmels Verlag, Nuremberg 2000, ISBN 3-921590-69-8 , p. 823 .

[StadtLex-Nbg-2-7] Michael Diefenbacher , Rudolf Endres (ed.): Stadtlexikon Nürnberg . W. Tümmels Verlag, Nuremberg 2000, ISBN 3-921590-69-8 , p. 1154 .