Lübeck law

TheLübeck law(German:Lübisches (Stadt)Recht) was the family of codified municipal law developed atLübeck,which became afree imperial cityin 1226 and is located in present-daySchleswig-Holstein.It was the second most prevalent form of municipal law inmedievalandearly modernGermany next to theMagdeburg Law.

Lübeck Law provided for municipal self-government and self-administration yet did not negate dependence upon a lord, be it a bishop, duke, king or, in Lübeck's case, an emperor. Instead, it allowed the cities a certain degree of autonomy and self-reliance in legislative, judicial and executive matters. While these authorities were vested in the city council (Rat), the members of which could be elected byco-option,the Lübeck Law represents a significant modernization of governance in that a class ofburghers,as opposed tonobles,were responsible for the day-to-day affairs of governing.^[2]

The Lübeck Law is not analogous to Hanseatic law.Hanseatic citiesadopted either Lübeck orMagdeburg law.^[3]

History

Lübeck set about spreading its form of government to other cities around theBaltic Sea.Eventually about 100 adopted a government based on the law. It still serves as a foundation forGerman town lawsin many of those cities. Later in the 13th century, cities predominantly governed by the Lübeck Law formed into a powerful trade association, theHanseatic League,which amounted to a quasi-confederacy with headquarters at Lübeck. However, by the 15th century, majorkontoreand smaller trading posts of theHanse,which was then at the high point of its influence, spread throughout northernCentral Europeand the British Isles, fromLondontoVeliky Novgorodand fromTrondheimtoFrankfurt,dominating trade far beyond German-speaking regions and also far beyond the cities where Lübeck law was in force.

The earliest Latin manuscript transmitting the Lubeck law dates to 1226, the oldestMiddle Low Germanmanuscript to 1270. The earliest reference to a Lübeck law manuscript is attributed to 1188. The Lübeck law is influenced by the merchants fromWestphaliawho settled Lübeck as well as by theHolsteinland law and theSchleswigLaw.^[4]

Lübeck law was prevalent throughout cities in Northern and Northeastern Germany (Niederdeutschland) until 1900, when the modern German civil code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch) was implemented.

Main principle

The Lübeck law provided that a city should be governed by aRat(Council), having 20Ratsherrn(council members).^[a]They were not elected by the citizens, but they would appoint a new member on their own from the city's merchantguilds.This was considered a key to representation of the guilds in the Rat of the city. The period of office was in principle 2 years, but theRatcould ask aRatsherrto stay in office, which usually happened, so that the election was effectively for life.

TheRatelected up to fourBürgermeister(burgomaster,mayor) from its members, who shared the power of government. The "first burgomaster", usually the eldest of them, acted as aprimus inter pares.These rules were in force up to the middle of the 19th century. The burgomasters stayed in office as long as they could. There are several examples from the Middle Ages in which burgomasters of Hanseatic League cities were sentenced to death for unsuccessful politics.

This model of a city government provided that only the most experienced, influential and personally most successful merchants - and a few lawyers, calledSyndics- became members of theRat.It was also a rule that a father and his son, or brothers, could never be members of theRatat the same time, so that influential families could not get too large a share of influence on the city's politics.

Cities with Lübeck law

Lübeck
1188 -Hamburg
1218 -Rostock
1226 -Wittenburg
1234 -Stralsund
1235 -Gdańsk
1236 -Plön
1238 -Itzehoe
1242 -Kiel
1243 -Tønder
1246 - Elbing (Elbląg)
1248 - Reval (Tallinn)
1250 -Greifswald
1253 -Damgarten
1254 or 1258 - Memel (Klaipėda)
1255 - Kolberg (Kołobrzeg)
1260 - Dirschau (Tczew)
before 1263 -Gdańsk (Danzig),the name used there was e.g. Danceke
1282 -Wolgast
1282 -Wilster
1284 - Braunsberg (Braniewo)
1302 - Wesenberg (Rakvere)
1310 - Stolp (Słupsk)
1310 - Neustettin (Szczecinek)
1312 - Rügenwalde (Darłowo)
1313 - Pollnow (Polanów)
1317 - Schlawe (Sławno)
1343 - Zanow (Sianów)
1345 - Narwa (Narva) (until 1585)
1585 - Hapsal (Haapsalu)
1613 -Bergen auf Rügen
Wismar

Notes

^"Ratsherr" literally meant: "council lord", with "Herr" meaning "lord" in those days. "Herrn" or "Herren" is the plural of "Herr". A similar institution in those days were the "Domherrn" or "Domherren", literally: "cathedral lords", who governed the cathedral and its affairs in a town that had a bishop's see.

Citations

^"Lübisches Recht, Jurjewetz".Handschriftencensus.Albrecht von Bardewik. 1294.Retrieved21 August2020.
^Isenmann, Eberhard (2003). "Ratsliteratur und städtische Ratsordnungen des späten Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit". In Monnet, Claude (ed.).Stadt und Recht im Mittelalter.Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 217–228.ISBN 3-525-35170-4.
^Cordes, Albrecht (2004). "Lübisches Recht". In Cordes, Albrecht (ed.).Handwörterbuch zur deutschen Rechtsgeschichte Band III.Erich Schmidt Verlag. pp. 1072–1079.ISBN 978-3-503-00015-9.
^Buchhester, Dörthe & Mario, Müller (2014) [1st pub. 2014]. "Lübisches Recht". In Achnitz, Wolfgang (ed.).Deutsches Literatur Lexikon des Mittelalters, Band 6 das wissensvermittelnde Literatur bis zum Ausgang des 14. Jahrhunderts(in German). Walter de Gruyter Verlag. pp. 508–516.ISBN 978-3-598-24996-9.

References

Dollinger, Phillipe.The German Hansa.Translated and Edited by D. S. Ault and S. H. Steinberg. Stanford University Press, 1970.
Wilhelm Ebel: Lübisches Recht. 1. Band, Lübeck 1971ISBN 3-7950-0030-0

External links

Heutiges Lübisches Stadtrecht nach der Revision vom Jahre 1586

[5] "Ratsherr" literally meant: "council lord", with "Herr" meaning "lord" in those days. "Herrn" or "Herren" is the plural of "Herr". A similar institution in those days were the "Domherrn" or "Domherren", literally: "cathedral lords", who governed the cathedral and its affairs in a town that had a bishop's see.

[1] "Lübisches Recht, Jurjewetz".Handschriftencensus.Albrecht von Bardewik. 1294.Retrieved21 August2020.

[2] Isenmann, Eberhard (2003). "Ratsliteratur und städtische Ratsordnungen des späten Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit". In Monnet, Claude (ed.).Stadt und Recht im Mittelalter.Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 217–228.ISBN 3-525-35170-4.

[3] Cordes, Albrecht (2004). "Lübisches Recht". In Cordes, Albrecht (ed.).Handwörterbuch zur deutschen Rechtsgeschichte Band III.Erich Schmidt Verlag. pp. 1072–1079.ISBN 978-3-503-00015-9.

[4] Buchhester, Dörthe & Mario, Müller (2014) [1st pub. 2014]. "Lübisches Recht". In Achnitz, Wolfgang (ed.).Deutsches Literatur Lexikon des Mittelalters, Band 6 das wissensvermittelnde Literatur bis zum Ausgang des 14. Jahrhunderts(in German). Walter de Gruyter Verlag. pp. 508–516.ISBN 978-3-598-24996-9.

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