Everything about Magdeburg Law totally explained
Magdeburg Rights 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. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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.
Contents
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. Jews lived under privileges that they carefully negotiated with the king or
emperor. 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 couldn't be made
Gewährsmann, that is, he couldn't 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'd 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).
Further Information
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