Magdeburg rights - Citizendia

Magdeburg Rights (German: Magdeburger Recht) or Magdeburg Law were a set of German town laws regulating the degree of internal autonomy within cities and villages granted with it by a local ruler. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. German town law (Deutsches Stadtrecht or German municipal concerns ( Deutsches Städtewesen) concerns Town privileges used by many cities towns and villages Modelled and named after the laws of the Imperial Free City of Magdeburg developed during many centuries of the Holy Roman Empire, it was possibly the most important set of Germanic mediæval city laws. In the Holy Roman Empire, a free imperial city (in German: freie Reichsstadt) was a City formally ruled by the Emperor only &mdash Magdeburg ( Low Saxon: Meideborg ˈmaˑɪdebɔɐx the Capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany The Holy Roman Empire ( HRE; German Heiliges Römisches Reich (HRR, Latin Sacrum Romanum Imperium (SRI was a union of territories in Adopted by numerous monarchs in Central and Eastern Europe, the law was a milestone in urbanization of the region and prompted the development of thousands of villages and cities. Apart from Magdeburg itself, notable towns located on Magdeburg Law (or its local variants) were Biecz, Frysztak, Sandomierz, Kraków, Kurów, Poznań, Wrocław, Złotoryja, Hrodna, Kiev, Lviv, Brody, Lutsk, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Sanok, Sniatyn, and Nizhyn, as well as Bardejov, Humenné and Krupina in present-day Slovakia, then the Kingdom of Hungary. Biecz - town and municipality in south-eastern Poland, in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in Gorlice Countydrobne in the Carpathian Mountains Frysztak (פֿריסטיק Fristik; Freistadt) is a village in the Frysztak commune, Strzyżów County, in the historical region often referred Sandomierz (Sandomir Sandomiria is a city in south-eastern Poland with 25714 inhabitants ( 2006) Kraków, in English also spelled Krakow or Cracow (ˈkrækaʊ M-W: krăk'ou krāk'ō is one of the largest and oldest cities in Poland Kurów is a Village in south-eastern Poland, located between Puławy and Lublin, on the Kurówka River Poznań Lublin Voivodeship This article is about the city in Poland Wrocław (Breslau Vratislav Vratislavia or Wratislavia Yiddish: ברעסלוי) is the chief City of the historical region of Lower Silesia Złotoryja (Goldberg Latin: Aureus Mons, Aurum) is a town in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, southwestern Poland. Kiev, also known as Kyiv ( Ukrainian:, Kyiv, ˈkɪjiw Russian:, Kiyev; see also Cities' alternative names) is the Lviv ( Ukrainian: Львів, L’viv, Lwów Lemberg Львов L'vov; see also other names) is a major city in western Brody (Броди Brody Броды Yiddish: בּראָד translit Lutsk (Луцьк translit Luts’k, Łuck is a city located by the Styr River in north-western Ukraine. Volodymyr-Volynskyi or Vladimir-Volynsky (Володимир-Волинський translit Sanok ( Latin: Sanocum, German: Saanig, Yiddish: Sonik, Ukrainian: Сянiк, in full The Royal Sniatyn (Снятин Śniatyń is a City located in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, in western Ukraine. Nizhyn (Ніжин Нежин Nezhin) is a city located in the Chernihiv Oblast of northern Ukraine, along the Oster River, 150 km north-east Bardejov ( Bartfeld Bártfa Bardejów is a town in North-Eastern Slovakia. Humenné ( Homenau Homonna is a town in the Prešov Region ("kraj" in eastern Slovakia and the second largest town of the historic Zemplín Krupina (Karpfen Korpona is a town in southern central Slovakia. Slovakia (long form Slovak Republic; Slovak:, long form, is a Landlocked country in Central Europe with a population of over five million The Kingdom of Hungary (short form Hungary) was a considerable state in Central Europe that existed from 1001 to 1918 then from 1919 to 1946

Spread of the law

Among the most advanced systems of old Germanic law of the time, in the 13th and 14th centuries, Magdeburg rights were granted to more than a hundred cities, in the north and east towards Russia, including Schleswig, Bohemia, Poland, especially in Pomerania, Prussia and in Lithuania following the Christianization of Lithuania. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Bohemia (Čechy; Bohemia Czechy is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland "Prussians" redirects here "Prussians" may also refer to citizens of the former German state of Prussia. Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublika is a Country in Eastern often referred to as Northern Europe or in the The Christianization of Lithuania (Lietuvos krikštas was the event that took place in 1387 initiated by the Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland In these lands they were mostly known as German or Teutonic law. Since the local tribunal of Magdeburg thus also became the superior court for these towns, Magdeburg, together with Lübeck, practically defined the law of northern Germany, Poland and Lithuania for centuries, being the heart of the most important "family" of city laws. A court is a forum used by a power base to adjudicate disputes and dispense civil, labour administrative and criminal Justice under its Lübeck ( is the second largest City in Schleswig-Holstein, in Northern Germany, and one of the major Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublika is a Country in Eastern often referred to as Northern Europe or in the This role remained until the old Germanic laws were successively replaced with Roman law under the influence of the Reichskammergericht, in the centuries after its establishment during the Imperial Reform of 1495. Roman law is the legal system of Ancient Rome. As used in the West the term commonly refers to legal developments prior to the Roman/Byzantine state's adopting The Reichskammergericht (Imperial Chamber Court was one of two highest judicial institutions in the Holy Roman Empire, the other one being the Reichshofrat In 1495, an attempt was made at a Reichstag in the city of Worms to give the disintegrating Holy Roman Empire a new structure commonly referred

As with most medieval city laws, the rights were primarily targeted at regulating trade to the benefit of the local merchants and artisans, who formed the most important part of the population of many such cities. In medieval Poland, Jews were invited along with German merchants to settle in cities as part of the royal city development policy.

Jews and Germans were sometimes competitors in those cities. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ The German people (Deutsche are an Ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture, descent and speaking the German language as Jews lived under privileges that they carefully negotiated with the king or emperor. The Holy Roman Emperor (Römischer Kaiser or Römisch-Deutscher Kaiser Romanorum Imperator was the elected monarch ruling over the many varying numbers of states They were not subject to city jurisdiction. These privileges guaranteed that they could maintain communal autonomy, live according to their laws, and be subjected directly to the royal jurisdiction in matters concerning Jews and Christians. One of the most interesting provisions of the settlement privileges granted to Jews was that a Jew could not be made Gewährsmann, that is, he could not be compelled to tell from whom he acquired any object which had been sold or pledged to him and which was found in his possession. This effectively amounted to permission to buy stolen property. Other provisions frequently mentioned were a permission to sell meat to Christians, or employ Christian servants.

External merchants coming into the city were not allowed to trade on their own, but instead forced to sell the goods they had brought into the city to local buyers, if any wished to buy them.

Being a member of the Hanseatic league, Magdeburg thus was one of the most important trade cities also, maintaining commerce with the west (towards Flanders), with the countries of the Baltic Sea, and the interior (for example Braunschweig). The Hanseatic League (also known as the Hansa) was an alliance of trading cities and their Guilds that established and maintained trade Flanders (Vlaanderen Flandre Flandern is a geographical region located in parts of present day Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. The Baltic states (Balti riigid Baltijas valstis Baltijos valstybės or Baltic countries are three countries in Northern Europe, all members of the Braunschweig, known as Brunswiek in Low German, is a city of 245810 people (as of 31 December 2007 located in Lower Saxony, Germany.

Spread of the law

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