Free Imperial City of Nuremberg

Origins

Nuremberg grew around an imperial castle first recorded in 1050 on a sandstone ridge above the Pegnitz. Its merchants gained privileges from the Salian and Hohenstaufen emperors, and in 1219 Frederick II's Great Charter of Freedom laid the basis for its self-government, gradually freeing it from the Hohenzollern burgraves who held the castle.

Rule and society

A closed circle of patrician families ran the council, excluding guilds from power. Metalwork, instruments, weapons and long-distance trade made the city rich, and from 1424 to 1796 it kept the imperial regalia. Albrecht Dürer, Veit Stoss, Hans Sachs and Martin Behaim, maker of the oldest surviving globe, worked there. Nuremberg turned Lutheran in 1525 and won a large rural territory in the Landshut War of 1504 to 1505.

Decline and legacy

War, debts and shifting trade routes weakened the city after 1600. In 1806 it was annexed by the Kingdom of Bavaria. It became a major industrial centre, and its old town was largely destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt.