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In the Holy Roman Empire, a free imperial city (in German: freie Reichsstadt) was a city formally ruled by the emperor only — as opposed to the majority of cities in the Empire, which belonged to a territory and so were governed by one of the many princes (Fürsten) of the Empire, such as dukes or prince-bishops. The Holy Roman Empire ( HRE; German Heiliges Römisches Reich (HRR, Latin Sacrum Romanum Imperium (SRI was a union of territories in The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. A city is an Urban area with a large Population and a particular Administrative, Legal, or Historical status An emperor (from the Latin " Imperator " is a (male Monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an Empire or another type of (plural Fürsten) is a German title of nobility, usually translated into English as Prince. A duke is a member of the Nobility, historically of highest rank below the Sovereign, and historically controlled a Duchy or a Dukedom A Prince-Bishop is a Bishop who is a territorial Prince of the Church on account of one or more Secular principalities usually pre-existent titles of nobility Free cities also had independent representation in the Reichstag of the Holy Roman Empire. The Reichstag ( German for "Imperial Diet " was the Parliament of the Holy Roman Empire, the North German Confederation, The Holy Roman Empire ( HRE; German Heiliges Römisches Reich (HRR, Latin Sacrum Romanum Imperium (SRI was a union of territories in

To be precise, a distinction on paper was made between imperial cities (Reichsstädte) and free cities (freie Städte). Free cities were each formerly governed by a prince-bishop but had gained independence from their bishop during the High Middle Ages. The High Middle Ages was the period of European history in the 11th 12th and 13th centuries (AD 1000&ndash1299 They were Basel (1000), Worms (1074), Mainz (1244, revoked 1462), Ratisbon (1245), Strasbourg (1272), Cologne (1288) and Speyer (1294). "Basilia" redirects here For the Fly Genus, see Basilia (fly. Worms (voɐms is a City in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River Mainz (ˈmaɪ̯nʦ (Mayence is a City in Germany and the capital of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Regensburg ( also Ratisbon, Ratisbona Řezno originally Castra Regina) is a City (population 131000 in 2007 in Bavaria, Germany Strasbourg (Strasbourg stʁazbuʁ Alsatian: Strossburi,; Straßburg) is the capital and principal City of the Alsace région Speyer (English formerly Spires) is a City in Germany ( Rhineland-Palatinate) with approx Although the legal details varied greatly among them, Free Cities originally had more rights and privileges than Imperial Cities. For example, they only had to support the Emperor during the crusades and organise their own protection, while Imperial Cities also had to pay taxes to the Emperor and supply troops for his military campaigns. The Crusades were a series of military campaigns of a religious character waged by much of Christian Europe against external and internal opponents

But over time, the difference became more and more blurred so that the "Free and Imperial Cities" were collectively known in the Diet as "Free Imperial Cities". Rather than legal matters, what mattered more was the difference in wealth: rich cities, such as Lübeck or Augsburg, were genuinely self-ruling enclaves within the Empire; they waged war and made peace, controlled their own trade and permitted little interference from outside. Lübeck ( is the second largest City in Schleswig-Holstein, in Northern Germany, and one of the major Augsburg is an independent City in the south-west of Bavaria. In the later Middle Ages, many free cities formed alliances (Städtebünde); most notably the Hanseatic League, although some of their members were never Free cities and joined with the permission of their territorial ruler. The Hanseatic League (also known as the Hansa) was an alliance of trading cities and their Guilds that established and maintained trade

The cities gained (and sometimes lost) their freedom among the vicissitudes of medieval power politics. Some favored cities gained a charter by gift and others were wealthy enough to purchase theirs from a prince in need of cash; some won it by force of arms, others took it during times of chaos; a number of cities became free through the extinction of dominant families, like the Hohenstaufen. A charter is the grant of authority or rights stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified

Some free cities lost their privileges. Some voluntarily placed themselves under the protection of a territorial magnate. Others, like Donauwörth in 1607, were stripped of their privileges by the emperor on genuine or trumped-up offenses; others were pawned away by the Emperor, such as Mühlhausen, Duisburg and Offenburg, although the latter was able to regain its immediacy. Donauwörth is a city in the German State of Bavaria (Bayern in the region of Swabia (Schwaben The Holy Roman Emperor (Römischer Kaiser or Römisch-Deutscher Kaiser Romanorum Imperator was the elected monarch ruling over the many varying numbers of states Mühlhausen (official Mühlhausen/Thüringen) is a City in the Federal state Thuringia, Germany. Duisburg (ˈdyːsbʊɐ̯k is a German city in the western part of the Ruhr Area ( Ruhrgebiet) in North Rhine-Westphalia. Offenburg is also the German name of Baia de Arieş in Romania

Free and imperial cities were only officially admitted as a Reichsstand to the Reichstag in 1489, and even then their votes were usually considered only advisory compared to the Benches of the Kurfürsten (Electors) and the Princes. The Reichstag ( German for "Imperial Diet " was the Parliament of the Holy Roman Empire, the North German Confederation, The Prince-Electors (or simply Electors) of the Holy Roman Empire ( German: Kurfürst ( pl The leagues of cities divided themselves into two groups, or benches, in the Imperial Diet, the Rhenish and the Swabian. The Rhine (Rhein Rijn Rhin Reno Rain Rhenus is one of the longest and most important Rivers in Europe at 1320 kilometres (820 mi with an average discharge Swabia, Suabia, or Svebia ( German: Schwaben, Schwabenland or Ländle) is both a historic and linguistic By the time of the Peace of Westphalia (1648), the cities constituted a formal third "college" in the Diet. The term Peace of Westphalia refers to the two peace treaties of Osnabrück and Münster, signed on May 15 and October 24 of In Politics, a diet is a formal Deliberative assembly. The term is derived from Medieval Latin dietas, and ultimately comes from The most powerful Reichsstädte included Augsburg, Bremen, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Lübeck and Nuremberg. Augsburg is an independent City in the south-west of Bavaria. The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (German Freie Hansestadt Bremen) is the smallest of Germany's 16 Federal States ( Bundesländer) Hamburg (English, German: ˈhambʊɐk local pronunciation Low German / Low Saxon: Hamborg) is the second-largest city in Germany Lübeck ( is the second largest City in Schleswig-Holstein, in Northern Germany, and one of the major

The number of imperial free cities varied greatly over the centuries, as did their geographic distribution. In general, there were many more free cities in areas with a diverse and scattered political structure, than in areas where larger territories had established themselves. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica mentions a list drawn up in 1422 with 75 free cities, and another drawn up in 1521 with 84. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica Territorial consolidation gradually shrunk the number to the 51 cities present at the 1792 Reichstag towards the end of the Empire. The Holy Roman Empire was one of the strangest political structures in the world Many of those were in the Southwest and Franconia, some in the North and West, none in the East; most were former members of the formerly powerful Hanseatic League. Franconia (Franken is a historic region of Germany comprising the northern parts of the modern state of Bavaria and the area to its immediate west The Hanseatic League (also known as the Hansa) was an alliance of trading cities and their Guilds that established and maintained trade

Imperial cities in the Holy Roman Empire, 1648
Imperial cities in the Holy Roman Empire, 1648

In the 16th and 17th century, a number of free cities were separated from the Empire due to external territorial change. The troops of Henry II of France seized the free cities connected to the Three Bishoprics of Metz, Verdun and Toul. Henry II (Henri II (31 March 1519 &ndash 10 July 1559 of the House of Valois and the son and successor of Francis I, was King of France from 31 The Three Bishoprics (Trois-Évêchés constituted a province of pre- Revolutionary France consisting of the bisphoprics of Verdun, Metz Metz (mɛs in French) is a city in the northeast of France, capital of the Lorraine région and Préfecture Verdun (medieval Wirten official name before 1970 Verdun-sur-Meuse) is a city and commune Toul is a historic fortified town of France, a Sous-préfecture of the Similarly, the maréchals of Louis XIV of France seized many cities based on claims produced by his Chambers of Reunion. Early years Birth and ancestry Louis XIV was born in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye on September 5 1638 and bore the Heir apparent The Chambers of Reunion ( Chambres des Réunions) were French courts established by King Louis XIV in the early 1680s That way, in Alsace, Strasbourg and the ten cities of the Décapole were annexed. Alsace (Alsace alzas Alsatian and Elsass pre-1996 German: Elsaß; Alsatia is one of the 26 Regions of France, located on the eastern Strasbourg (Strasbourg stʁazbuʁ Alsatian: Strossburi,; Straßburg) is the capital and principal City of the Alsace région The Décapole ( Zehnstädtebund or Dekapolis in German) was an alliance of ten towns of the Holy Roman Empire in Alsace, in a Also, when the Swiss Confederacy gained its independence from the Empire in 1648, the Swiss imperial cities such as Basel, Berne and Zürich left the Empire as cantons of the confederacy. The Old Swiss Confederacy was the precursor of modern-day Switzerland. "Basilia" redirects here For the Fly Genus, see Basilia (fly. The city of Berne or Bern (, Berne, Berna, Romansh: Berna, Bernese German: Bärn) is the Bundesstadt ( Federal Zürich (, Zürich German: Züri, Zurich, Zurigo; in English generally Zurich) is the largest city in Switzerland and capital of the

With the rise of Revolutionary France in Europe, this trend would accelerate enormously. The French Revolution (1789–1799 was a period of political and social upheaval in the History of France, during which the French governmental structure previously an First between 1789 and 1792 the areas west of the Rhine were annexed by the revolutionary armies ending the long tradition of free cities such diverse as Cologne, Aachen, Düren, Speyer and Worms. ( Ripuarian: Oche, Dutch: Aken, Spanish: Aquisgrán, Italian: Aquisgrana, French, Düren is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, capital of Düren district. Speyer (English formerly Spires) is a City in Germany ( Rhineland-Palatinate) with approx Worms (voɐms is a City in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River Then, the Napoleonic Wars led to the reorganization of the Empire in 1803 (see German Mediatisation), where all of the free cities but six — the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lübeck, and the cities of Frankfurt, Augsburg, and Nuremberg — were eliminated. The Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815 involved Napoleon's French Empire and a shifting set of European allies and opposing coalitions The German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany in 1795 &ndash 1814, during Hamburg (English, German: ˈhambʊɐk local pronunciation Low German / Low Saxon: Hamborg) is the second-largest city in Germany The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (German Freie Hansestadt Bremen) is the smallest of Germany's 16 Federal States ( Bundesländer) Lübeck ( is the second largest City in Schleswig-Holstein, in Northern Germany, and one of the major Augsburg is an independent City in the south-west of Bavaria. Finally, Napoléon dissolved the Empire in 1806. Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821 was a French military and political leader who had a significant impact on the History of Europe. By 1811, all of the free cities had been eliminated — 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. Bavaria ( German:, with an area of 70553 Km² (27241 square miles and almost 12 The Grand Duchy of Frankfurt was a German Satellite state of Napoleonic creation The Continental System was the Foreign policy of Napoleon I of France in his struggle against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland during the Hamburg and Lübeck with surrounding territories formed the département Bouches-de-l'Elbe, and Bremen the Bouches-du-Weser. In the context of the political and geographic organization of France and many of its former colonies a department (département depaʁtǝmɑ̃ is an Administrative division Bouches-de-l'Elbe (Elbmündungen is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Germany that survived three years Bouches-du-Weser (Wesermündungen is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Germany.

When the German Confederation was established in 1815, Hamburg, Lübeck, Bremen and Frankfurt were once again made free cities. The German Confederation (Deutscher Bund was the association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to serve as the successor to Frankfurt was annexed by Prussia in consequence of the part it took in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. Prussia ( Latin: Borussia, Prutenia; Prūsija Prūsija Prusy Old Prussian: Prūsa) was most recently a historic state The Austro-Prussian The three Hanseatic cities remained as constituent states of the new German Empire, and retained this role in the Weimar Republic and into the Third Reich, although under Hitler this status was purely notional. The German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from 1871 to 1918 when it was a semi- Constitutional monarchy: beginning with the Unification The term Weimar Republic ( ˈvaɪmarɐ repuˈbliːk is used by historians to signify the democratic and Republican period of Germany from 1919 to 1933 Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Hi and welcome to Wikipedia! Please understand that this article is frequently vandalized and vandalism is reverted immediately Due to Hitler's distaste for Lübeck and the need to compensate Prussia for its territorial losses under the Greater Hamburg Law, it was annexed to the latter in 1937. Prussia ( Latin: Borussia, Prutenia; Prūsija Prūsija Prusy Old Prussian: Prūsa) was most recently a historic state The Greater Hamburg Act (Groß-Hamburg-Gesetz was passed by the government of the German Reich on January 26 1937, and mandated the exchange of territories In the Federal Republic of Germany which was established after the war, Bremen and Hamburg became constituent states (Länder), a status which they retain to the present day. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Germany (Deutschland is a Federal Republic consisting of sixteen States, known in German as Länder (singular Berlin, which had never been a free city in its history, also received the status of a state after the war due to its status in divided post-war Germany. Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany.

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