Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire)
The Imperial Diet (Latin: Dieta Imperii or Comitium Imperiale German: Reichstag) was the Diet, or general assembly, of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire.
During the period of the Empire, which lasted formally until 1806, the Diet was not a parliament in today's sense; instead, it was an assembly of the various estates of the realm. More precisely, it was the convention of the Imperial Estates, legal entities that, according to feudal law, had no authority above them besides the Holy Roman Emperor (or King of the Romans) himself. The deputies convened occasionally at different cities, until in 1663 the Perpetual Diet was established at the Regensburg city hall.
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[edit] History
The precise role and function of the Imperial Diet changed over the centuries, as did the Empire itself, in that the estates and separate territories gained more and more control of their own affairs at the expense of imperial power. Initially, there was neither a fixed time nor location for the Diet. It started as a convention of the dukes of the old Germanic tribes that formed the Frankish kingdom when important decisions had to be made, and was probably based on the old Germanic law whereby each leader relied on the support of his leading men. For example, already under Emperor Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars, the Diet, according to the Royal Frankish Annals, met at Paderborn in 777, and the Diet of Aix in 802/803 officially determined the laws concerning the subdued Saxons and other tribes.
At the Diet of 919 in Fritzlar the dukes elected the first King of the Germans, who was a Saxon, Henry the Fowler, thus overcoming the longstanding rivalry between Franks and Saxons and laying the foundation for the German realm. After the conquest of Italy, the 1158 Diet of Roncaglia finalized four laws that would significantly alter the (never formally written) constitution of the Empire, marking the beginning of the steady decline of the central power in favour of the local dukes. In 1356, the Golden Bull cemented the concept of "territorial rule" (Landesherrschaft), the largely independent rule of the dukes over their respective territories, and also limited the number of electors to seven. The Pope, contrary to modern myth, was never involved in the electoral process but only in the process of ratification and coronation of whomever the Prince-Electors chose.
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19th century painting by Hermann Wislicenus
However, until the late 15th century, the Diet was not actually formalized as an institution. Instead, the dukes and other princes would irregularly convene at the court of the Emperor; these assemblies were usually referred to as Hoftage (from German Hof "court"). Only beginning in 1489 was the Diet called the Reichstag, and it was formally divided into several collegia ("colleges"). Initially, the two colleges were that of the prince-electors and that of the other dukes and princes. Later, the imperial cities, that is, cities that had Imperial immediacy and were oligarchic republics independent of a local ruler that were subject only to the Emperor himself, managed to be accepted as a third party.
Several attempts to reform the Empire and end its slow disintegration, notably starting with the Diet of 1495, did not have much effect. In contrast, this process was only hastened with the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, which formally bound the Emperor to accept all decisions made by the Diet, in effect depriving him of his few remaining powers. From then to its end in 1806, the Empire was not much more than a collection of largely independent states.
Probably the most famous Diets were those held in Worms in 1495, where the Imperial Reform was enacted, and 1521, where Martin Luther was banned (see Edict of Worms), the First Diet of Speyer of 1526 and the Second there of 1529 (see Protestation at Speyer), and several in Nuremberg (Diet of Nuremberg).
Only with the introduction of the Perpetual Imperial Diet in 1663 did the Diet permanently convene in a fixed location, which was the city of Ratisbon.
For a list of members of the Imperial Diet from 1792, near the end of the Empire, refer to List of Reichstag participants (1792).
[edit] Collection of records
After the formation of the new German Empire in 1871, the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences started to collect imperial records (Reichsakten) and imperial diet records (Reichstagsakten). In 1893 the commission published the first volume. At present the years 1524–1527 and years up to 1544 are being collected and researched. A volume dealing with the 1532 Diet of Regensburg, including the peace negotiations with the Protestants in Schweinfurt and Nuremberg, by Rosemarie Aulinger of Vienna was published in 1992.
[edit] Locations of Imperial Diets
- Note: this list is incomplete
[edit] Bibliography
- Peter Claus Hartmann: Das Heilige Römische Reich deutscher Nation in der Neuzeit 1486–1806. Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-15-017045-1.
- Axel Gotthard: Das Alte Reich 1495–1806. Darmstadt 2003, ISBN 3-534-15118-6
- Edgar Liebmann: Reichstag. In: Friedrich Jaeger (Hrsg.): Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit, Bd. 10: Physiologie-Religiöses Epos. Stuttgart 2009, str. 948-953, ISBN 3-534-17605-7
- Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger: Des Kaisers alte Kleider. Verfassungsgeschichte und Symbolsprache des Alten Reiches. München 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57074-2
- Helmut Neuhaus: Das Reich in der frühen Neuzeit (Enzyklopädie Deutscher Geschichte, Band 42). München 2003, ISBN 3-486-56729-2.
- Heinz Angermeier: Das alte Reich in der deutschen Geschichte. Studien über Kontinuitäten und Zäsuren. München 1998, ISBN 3-486-55897-8
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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