Red Book (Bern)

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Book cover of the oldest surviving Red Book in the city of Bern (1549)
Copy for Vincenz Friedrich Steiger (around 1765)
Town clerk Emanuel Rodt with the Red Book (1704)
Binding of the register of materials for the Red Book from the Council Chamber (18th century)

The Red Book is a collection of the most important statutes ( fundamental laws ) on elections, oaths of office and citizenship of the city ​​and republic of Bern .

As in Basel and other cities of the empire , statutes were also collected in Bern in a volume called the Red Book . The Red Book, accessible for the first time in Bern in 1549, arose from the introduction to the oldest Easter book (election book) from 1485 and from the statutes of the late Middle Ages. This resulted in a collection of basic laws that were later referred to as Fundamental Laws and that became the constitutional charter of the ruling citizens. The first version of the Red Book contained statutes for the elections that take place at Easter , the oaths of office for council members, civil servants and servants, statutes for the societies ( guilds ), as well as for citizenship, the settlement and the prohibitions of the journey . In the later versions, the statutes were arranged on a daily basis according to the elections held from Maundy Thursday to Easter Wednesday. From 1703, the statutes contained in the Red Book could only be changed by a two-thirds increase in the Grand Council.

Since the statutes contained in the Red Book refer exclusively to the citizens of the city of Bern, this cannot be regarded as the actual constitution of the city and republic of Bern . The territories acquired in the course of time had their own particular rights. Bern did not unify its laws in all areas. However, since the ruling citizens (members of the Grand Council) ruled in the territories as officials (bailiffs, governors, castleans) or as private rulers, the Red Book nevertheless had legal effects on the entire national territory .

By 1798 there were a total of ten versions. The Red Book was never printed and was only available to council members. Members of the councils were allowed to have a copy made. The original version thus became a symbol of the orderly regiment of the city republic. In addition to the official versions, there are innumerable private copies, especially from the 18th century. The registrar Christian Jakob von Wagner (1747–1809) produced copies and material registers. His register was known as Wagner's register .

Archives

literature

  • Dario Gamboni, Georg Germann (ed.): Signs of freedom. The image of the republic in the art of the 16th to 20th centuries. Bern 1991, p. 374.
  • Hermann Rennefahrt: The legal sources of the canton of Bern. The town charter of Bern V, Constitution and Administration of the State of Bern , Aarau 1959 (SSRQ BE I / 5).
  • Christoph von Steiger: Internal problems of the Bernese patriciate at the turn of the 18th century , Bern 1954.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ von Steiger 1954, p. 110.
  2. ↑ von Steiger 1954, pp. 110-111.
  3. ↑ von Steiger 1954, p. 113.
  4. ↑ Gamboni / Germann 1991, p. 374.
  5. ^ Register on the essential laws of the Red Book and the Burgerspunkte, the police and mandate books (until 1785), entries in the council manuals, the Venner regulations and the Curialienbuch, 1792, Mss.hhLII.177 in the catalog of the Burgerbibliothek Bern
  6. ↑ SSRQ Bern I / 5, p. 85 ( online ).
  7. ↑ SSRQ Bern I / 5, p. 155 ( online ).
  8. ↑ SSRQ Bern I / 5, p. 189 ( online ).
  9. ↑ SSRQ Bern I / 5, p. 267 ( online ).
  10. ↑ SSRQ Bern I / 5, p. 292 ( online ).
  11. ↑ SSRQ Bern I / 5, p. 334 ( online ).
  12. ↑ SSRQ Bern I / 5, p. 411 ( online ).
  13. ↑ SSRQ Bern I / 5, p. 414 ( online ).
  14. ↑ SSRQ Bern I / 5, p. 501 ( online ).