Free imperial city

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The free imperial cities in the 18th century

In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective

term free and imperial cities (German:
Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free
imperial city (Freie Reichsstadt, Latin: urbs
imperialis libera), was used from the
fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city
that had a certain amount of autonomy
and was represented in the Imperial Diet.[1]
An imperial city held the status of Imperial
immediacy, and as such, was subordinate
only to the Holy Roman Emperor, as
opposed to a territorial city or town
(Landstadt) which was subordinate to a
territorial prince – be it an ecclesiastical
lord (prince-bishop, prince-abbot) or a
secular prince (duke (Herzog), margrave,
count (Graf), etc.).

Origin
The evolution of some German cities into
self-ruling constitutional entities of the
Empire was slower than that of the secular
and ecclesiastical princes. In the course of
the 13th and 14th centuries, some cities
were promoted by the emperor to the
status of Imperial Cities (Reichsstädte;
Urbes imperiales), essentially for fiscal
reasons. Those cities, which had been
founded by the German kings and
emperors in the 10th through 13th
centuries and had initially been
administered by royal/imperial stewards
(Vögte), gradually gained independence as
their city magistrates assumed the duties
of administration and justice; some
prominent examples are Colmar,
Haguenau and Mulhouse in Alsace or
Memmingen and Ravensburg in upper
Swabia.

The Free Cities (Freie Städte; Urbes liberae)

were those, such as Basel, Augsburg,
Cologne or Strasbourg, that were initially
subjected to a prince-bishop and, likewise,
progressively gained independence from
that lord. In a few cases, such as in
Cologne, the former ecclesiastical lord
continued to claim the right to exercise
some residual feudal privileges over the
Free City, a claim that gave rise to
constant litigation almost until the end of
the Empire.

Over time, the difference between Imperial

Cities and Free Cities became increasingly
blurred, so that they became collectively
known as "Free Imperial Cities", or "Free
and Imperial Cities", and by the late 15th
century many cities included both "Free"
and "Imperial" in their name.[2] Like the
other Imperial Estates, they could wage
war, make peace, and control their own
trade, and they permitted little interference
from outside. In the later Middle Ages, a
number of Free Cities formed City Leagues
(Städtebünde), such as the Hanseatic
League or the Alsatian Décapole, to
promote and defend their interests.
Rottweil, c. 1435. Swabian Rottweil maintained its
independence up to the mediatization of 1802–03.

In the course of the Middle Ages, cities

gained, and sometimes — if rarely — lost,
their freedom through the vicissitudes of
power politics. Some favored cities gained
a charter by gift. Others purchased one
from a prince in need of funds. Some won
it by force of arms[1] during the troubled
13th and 14th centuries and others lost
their privileges during the same period by
the same way. Some cities became free
through the void created by the extinction
of dominant families,[1] like the Swabian
Hohenstaufen. Some voluntarily placed
themselves under the protection of a
territorial ruler and therefore lost their
independence.
A few, like Protestant Donauwörth, which in
1607 was annexed to the Catholic Duchy
of Bavaria, were stripped by the Emperor
of their status as a Free City — for genuine
or trumped-up reasons. However, this
rarely happened after the Reformation, and
of the sixty Free Imperial Cities that
remained at the Peace of Westphalia, all
but the ten Alsatian cities (which were
annexed by France during the late 17th
century) continued to exist until the
mediatization of 1803.
Distinction between free
imperial cities and other
cities
There were approximately four thousand
towns and cities in the Empire, although
around the year 1600 over nine-tenths of
them had fewer than one thousand
inhabitants.[3] During the late Middle Ages,
fewer than two hundred of these places
ever enjoyed the status of Free Imperial
Cities, and some of those did so only for a
few decades. The military tax register
(Reichsmatrikel) of 1521 listed eighty-five
such cities, and this figure had fallen to
sixty-five by the time of the Peace of
Augsburg in 1555. From the Peace of
Westphalia of 1648 to 1803, their number
oscillated at around fifty.[notes 1]
Partial list of the Free Imperial Cities of Swabia based
on the Reichsmatrikel of 1521. It indicates the number
of horsemen (left hand column) and infantry (right
hand column) which each Imperial Estate had to
contribute to the defence of the Empire

Unlike the Free Imperial Cities, the second

category of towns and cities, now called
"territorial cities"[notes 2] were subject to an
ecclesiastical or lay lord, and while many
of them enjoyed self-government to
varying degrees, this was a precarious
privilege which might be curtailed or
abolished according to the will of the
lord.[4]

Reflecting the extraordinarily complex

constitutional set-up of the Holy Roman
Empire, a third category, composed of
semi-autonomous cities that belonged to
neither of those two types, is distinguished
by some historians. These were cities
whose size and economic strength was
sufficient to sustain a substantial
independence from surrounding territorial
lords for a considerable time, even though
no formal right to independence existed.
These cities were typically located in small
territories where the ruler was weak.[notes 3]
They were nevertheless the exception
among the multitude of territorial towns
and cities. Cities of both latter categories
normally had representation in territorial
diets, but not in the Imperial Diet.[5][6]

Organization
Free imperial cities were not officially
admitted as own Imperial Estates to the
Imperial Diet until 1489, and even then
their votes were usually considered only
advisory (votum consultativum) compared
to the Benches of the electors and princes.
The cities divided themselves into two
groups, or benches, in the Imperial Diet,
the Rhenish and the Swabian
Bench.[1][notes 4]

These same cities were among the 85 free

imperial cities listed on the Reichsmatrikel
of 1521[7] : the federal civil and military
tax-schedule used for more than a century
to assess the contributions of all the
Imperial Estates in case of a war formally
declared by the Imperial Diet. The military
and monetary contribution of each city is
indicated in parenthesis (for instance
Cologne (30-322-600) means that Cologne
had to provide 30 horsemen, 322 footmen
and 600 gulden).[8] These numbers are
equivalent to one simplum. If need be, the
Diet could vote a second and a third
simplum, in which case each member's
contribution was doubled or tripled. At the
time, the Free imperial cities were
considered wealthy and the monetary
contribution of Nuremberg, Ulm and
Cologne for instance were as high as that
of the Electors (Mainz, Trier, Cologne,
Palatinate, Saxony, Brandenburg) and the
Dukes of Württemberg and of Lorraine.

The following list contains the 50 Free

imperial cities that took part in the
Imperial Diet of 1792. They are listed
according to their voting order on the
Rhenish and Swabian benches.[9]
Rhenish Bench

1.  Cologne (30-322-600)
2.  Aachen (20-90-260)
3. Lübeck (21-177-550)
4. Worms (10-78-325)
5. Speyer (3-99-325)
6. Frankfurt (20-140-500)
7. Goslar (0-130-205)
8. Bremen (unlisted)
9.  Hamburg (20-120-325)
 10. Mühlhausen (0-78-180)
11. Nordhausen (0-78-180)
12.  Dortmund (20-100-180)
13. Friedberg (0-22-90)
14. Wetzlar (0-31-40)

Swabian Bench

1. Regensburg (20-112-120)
2. Augsburg (25-150-500)
3.  Nuremberg (40-250-600)
4. Ulm (29-150-600)
 5. Esslingen am Neckar (10-67-235)
6. Reutlingen (6-55-180)
7. Nördlingen (10-80-325)
8. Rothenburg ob der Tauber (10-90-
180)
9. Hall (today Schwäbisch Hall) (10-
80-325)
10. Rottweil (3-122-180)
11. Überlingen (10-78-325)
12. Heilbronn (6-60-240)
13. Gmünd (today Schwäbisch Gmünd)
(5-45-150)
14. Memmingen (10-67-325)
15. Lindau (6-72-200)
16. Dinkelsbühl (5-58-240)
17. Biberach an der Riß (6-55-180)
18. Ravensburg (4-67-180)
19. Schweinfurt (5-36-120)
20. Kempten im Allgäu (3-36-120)
21. Windsheim (4-36-180)
22. Kaufbeuren (4-68-90)
23. Weil (2-18-120)
24. Wangen im Allgäu (3-18-110)
25. Isny im Allgäu (4-22-100)
26. Pfullendorf (3-40-75)
27. Offenburg (0-45-150)
28. Leutkirch im Allgäu (2-18-90)
29. Wimpfen (3-13-130)
30. Weißenburg im Nordgau (4-18-50)
31. Giengen (2-13-60)
32. Gengenbach (0-36-0)
33. Zell am Harmersbach (0-22-0)
 34. Buchhorn (today Friedrichshafen)
(0-10-60)
35. Aalen (2-18-70)
36. Bopfingen (1-9-50)

By the time of the Peace of Westphalia, the

cities constituted a formal third "college"
and their full vote (votum decisivum) was
confirmed, although they failed to secure
parity of representation with the two other
colleges. To avoid the possibility that they
would have the casting vote in case of a
tie between the Electors and the Princes, it
was decided that these should decide first
and consult the cities afterward.[10][11]

Despite this somewhat unequal status of

the cities in the functioning of the Imperial
Diet, their full admittance to that federal
institution was crucial in clarifying their
hitherto uncertain status and in
legitimizing their permanent existence as
full-fledged Imperial Estates.
Constitutionally, if in no other way, the
diminutive Free Imperial City of Isny was
the equal of the Margraviate of
Brandenburg.

Development
Having probably learned from experience
that there was not much to gain from
active, and costly, participation in the
Imperial Diet's proceedings due to the lack
of empathy of the princes, the cities made
little use of their representation in that
body. By about 1700, almost all the cities
with the exception of Nuremberg, Ulm and
Regensburg (where by then the Perpetual
Imperial Diet was located), were
represented by various Regensburg
lawyers and officials who often
represented several cities
simultaneously.[12] Instead, many cities
found it more profitable to maintain agents
at the Aulic Council in Vienna, where the
risk of an adverse judgment posed a
greater risk to city treasuries and
independence.[13]
Weissenburg-im-Nordgau in 1725

Audience of the Reichskammergericht in Wetzlar,

1750. The Imperial city was saved from oblivion in
1689 when it was decided to move the Imperial
Chamber Court to Wetzlar from Speyer too exposed
Chamber Court to Wetzlar from Speyer, too exposed
to French aggression.

Territory of the free imperial city of Mühlhausen

Hamburg with its outlying exclaves

Württemberg more than doubled its size when it

absorbed some 15 Free Cities (in orange) and other
territories during the mediatisations of 1803 and
1806.
The territory of most Free Imperial Cities
was generally quite small but there were
exceptions, such as Ulm, Nuremberg and
Hamburg, which possessed substantial
hinterlands or fiefs that comprised dozens
of villages and thousands of subject
peasants who did not enjoy the same
rights as the urban population. At the
opposite end, the authority of Cologne,
Aachen, Worms, Goslar, Wetzlar, Augsburg
and Regensburg barely extended beyond
the city walls.
The constitution of Free and Imperial
Cities was republican in form, but in all but
the smallest cities, the city government
was oligarchic in nature with a governing
town council composed of an elite,
hereditary patrician class, the so-called
town council families (Ratsverwandte).
They were the most economically
significant burgher families who had
asserted themselves politically over time.

Below them, with a say in the government

of the city (there were exceptions, such as
Nuremberg, where the patriciate ruled
alone), were the citizens or burghers, the
smaller, privileged section of the city's
permanent population whose number
varied according to the rule of citizenship
of each city. To the common town dweller
– whether he lived in a prestigious Free
Imperial City like Frankfurt, Augsburg or
Nuremberg, or in a small market town
such as there were hundreds throughout
Germany – attaining burgher status
(Bürgerrecht) could be his greatest aim in
life. The burgher status was usually an
inherited privilege renewed pro-forma in
each generation of the family concerned
but it could also be purchased. At times,
the sale of burgher status could be a
significant item of town income as fiscal
records show. The Bürgerrecht was local
and not transferable to another city.

The burghers were usually the lowest

social group to have political power and
privilege within the Holy Roman Empire.
Below them was the disenfranchised
urban population, maybe half of the total in
many cities, the so-called "residents"
(Beisassen) or "guests": smaller artisans,
craftsmen, street venders, day laborers,
servants and the poor, but also those
whose residence in the city was
temporary, such as wintering noblemen,
foreign merchants, princely officials, and
so on.[14]

Urban conflicts in Free Imperial Cities,

which sometimes amounted to class
warfare, were not uncommon in the Early
Modern Age, particularly in the 17th
century (Lübeck, 1598–1669; Schwäbisch
Hall, 1601–1604; Frankfurt, 1612–1614;
Wezlar, 1612–1615; Erfurt, 1648–1664;
Cologne, 1680–1685; Hamburg 1678–
1693, 1702–1708).[15] Sometimes, as in
the case of Hamburg in 1708, the situation
was considered sufficiently serious to
warrant the dispatch of an Imperial
commissionner with troops to restore
order and negotiate a compromise and a
new city constitution between the warring
parties.[16]

The number of Imperial Cities shrank over

time until the Peace of Westphalia. There
were more in areas that were very
fragmented politically, such as Swabia and
Franconia in the southwest, than in the
North and the East where the larger and
more powerful territories, such as
Brandenburg and Saxony, were located,
which were more prone to absorb smaller,
weaker states.
In the 16th and 17th century, a number of
Imperial Cities were separated from the
Empire due to external territorial change.[1]
Henry II of France seized the Imperial
Cities connected to the Three Bishoprics
of Metz, Verdun and Toul. Similarly, Louis
XIV seized many cities based on claims
produced by his Chambers of Reunion.
That way, Strasbourg and the ten cities of
the Décapole were annexed. Also, when
the Old Swiss Confederacy gained its
formal independence from the Empire in
1648 (it had been de facto independent
since 1499), the independence of the
Imperial Cities of Basel, Bern, Lucerne, St.
Gallen, Schaffhausen, Solothurn, and
Zürich was formally recognized.

Obernstraße, Free City of Bremen, 1843

Frankfurt, c. 1911. After more than 600 years as a
Free City, Frankfurt am Main was annexed to Prussia
in 1866

With the rise of Revolutionary France in

Europe, this trend accelerated enormously.
After 1795, the areas west of the Rhine
were annexed to France by the
revolutionary armies, suppressing the
independence of Imperial Cities as diverse
as Cologne, Aachen, Speyer and Worms.
Then, the Napoleonic Wars led to the
reorganization of the Empire in 1803 (see
German Mediatisation), where all of the
free cities but six — Hamburg, Bremen,
Lübeck, Frankfurt, Augsburg, and
Nuremberg — lost their independence and
were absorbed into neighboring territories.
Finally, under pressure from Napoleon, the
Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in
1806. By 1811, all of the Imperial Cities
had lost their independence — Augsburg
and Nuremberg had been annexed by
Bavaria, Frankfurt had become the center
of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt, a
Napoleonic puppet state, and the three
Hanseatic cities had been directly annexed
by France as part of its effort to enforce
the Continental Blockade against Britain.
Hamburg and Lübeck with surrounding
territories formed the département of
Bouches-de-l'Elbe, and Bremen the
Bouches-du-Weser.
When the German Confederation was
established by the Congress of Vienna in
1815, Hamburg, Lübeck, Bremen, and
Frankfurt were once again made Free
Cities,[1] this time enjoying total
sovereignty as all the members of the
loose Confederation. Frankfurt was
annexed by Prussia in consequence of the
part it took in the Austro-Prussian War of
1866.[1] The three other Free Cities
became constituent states of the new
German Empire in 1871 and consequently
were no longer fully sovereign as they lost
control over defence, foreign affairs and a
few other fields. They retained that status
in the Weimar Republic and into the Third
Reich, although under Hitler it became
purely notional. Due to Hitler's distaste for
Lübeck[17] and its liberal tradition, the need
was devised to compensate Prussia for
territorial losses under the Greater
Hamburg Act, and Lübeck was annexed to
Prussia in 1937. In the Federal Republic of
Germany which was established after the
war, Bremen and Hamburg became
constituent states, a status which they
retain to the present day. Berlin, which had
never been a Free City in its history, also
received the status of a state after the war
due to its special position in divided post-
war Germany.

Regensburg was, apart from hosting the

Imperial Diet, a most peculiar city: an
officially Lutheran city that nevertheless
was the seat of the Catholic prince-
bishopric of Regensburg, its prince-bishop
and cathedral chapter. The Imperial City
also housed three Imperial abbeys: St.
Emmeram, Niedermünster and
Obermünster. They were five immediate
entities fully independent of each other
existing in the same small city.

Image gallery
Regensburg
Rothenburg in 1572
 Lubeca urbs imperialis libera – Free
Imperial City of Lübeck

See also
Free city (antiquity)
Imperial immediacy
 List of Free Imperial Cities
Lübeck law
Royal free city

Notes
1. This figure does not include the ten
cities of the Décapole, which, while
still formally independent from 1648 to
1679, had been placed under the
heavy-handed "protection" of the
French king.
2. "Territorial city" is a term used by
modern historians to denote any
German city or town that was not a
Free Imperial City.
3. Examples of such cities were Lemgo
(county of Lippe), Gütersloh (county of
Bentheim) and Emden (county of East
Frisia).
4. All the cities of Southern Germany
(located in the Swabian, Franconian
and Bavarian circles) belonged to the
Swabian bench, while all the others
 belonged to Rhenish bench, even cities
such as Lübeck and Hamburg that
were quite far from the Rhineland.

Citations
1. Holland, Arthur William (1911).
"Imperial Cities or Towns"  . In
Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia
Britannica. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge
University Press. p. 342.
2. Whaley, vol.1, p. 26.
3. John G. Gagliardo, Germany under the
Old Regime, 1600–1790, Longman,
London and New York, 1991, p. 4.
4. Gagliardo, p. 5
5. Joachim Whaley, Germany and the
Holy Roman Empire, Oxford University
Press, 2012, vol. 1, pp. 250, 510, 532.
6. Gagliardo, pp 6–7.
7. The Reichsmatrikel contained errors.
Some of the 85 cities listed were not
free imperial cities (for instance
Lemgo) while some cities were
 omitted (Bremen). Among cities on the
list, Metz, Toul, Verdun, Besançon,
Cambrai, Strasburg, and the 10 cities
of the Alsatian Dekapolis were to be
absorbed by France, while Basel,
Schaffhausen and St. Gallen would
join the Swiss Confederacy.
8. G. Benecke, Society and Politics in
Germany, 1500–1750, Routledge &
Kegan Paul and University of Toronto
Press, London, Toronto and Buffalo,
1974, Appendix II.
 9. G. Benecke, Society and Politics in
Germany, 1500–1750, Routledge &
Kegan Paul and University of Toronto
Press, London, Toronto and Buffalo,
1974, Appendix III.
10. Whaley, vol. 1, pp. 532–533.
11. Peter H. Wilson, The Holy Roman
Empire, 1495–1806, Palgrave
Macmillan, 1999, p. 66
12. Whaley, vol. 2, p. 210.
13. Whaley, vol. 2, p. 211.
14. G. Benecke, p. 162.
15. Franck Lafage, Les comtes Schönborn,
1642–1756, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2008,
vol. II, p. 319.
16. Franck Lafage, p. 319–323
17. Lubeck , Europe à la Carte

References
This article incorporates text from a
publication now in the public
domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "article
 name needed". The Nuttall Encyclopædia.
London and New York: Frederick Warne.

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