Imperial Free City (original) (raw)

In the Holy Roman Empire, an Imperial Free City (in German: Freie Reichsstadt) was a city formally responsible to the Emperor only – as opposed to the majority of cities in the Empire, which belonged to a territory and were thus governed by one of the many princes and dukes of the Empire.

To be precise, a distinction was made between Imperial Cities (Reichsst�dte) and Free Cities (Freie St�dte); the latter was mostly used for cities formerly governed by a bishop that had managed to gain independence to a degree comparable to the Imperial Cities during the High Middle Ages.

The number of Imperial Free Cities varied greatly over the centuries, but rose into several hundreds; however, at the 1792 Reichstag, a mere 51 cities were left bearing this status (see List of Reichstag participants (1792)). Free and Imperial Cities were only officially admitted as a Reichsstand to the Reichstag in the 15th century, and even then their votes were less significant compared to the Kurf�rsten (Electors) and other dukes.

The most powerful Reichsst�dte included Augsburg, Bremen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, L�beck and Nuremberg. In the southwest, which had a more diverse and scattered political structure, many more free cities existed than in the north and in Bavaria, where larger territories had established themselves.