The Imperial City comprised some , making it one of the largest imperial cities territories; after the
Imperial City of Bern left to join the
Old Swiss Confederacy in 1353, only the Imperial Cities of
Ulm and
Strasbourg had anything like the same amount of land. The area was divided into the Old and New Districts ( and ). The Old District, which also included Imperial forests (), was a conglomeration of lordships and possessions of Nuremberg burghers, monasteries and social facilities. That
high justice (
Zentgericht and
Freigericht) was administered by the
burgraviate – and subsequently the margraviates of
Brandenburg-Ansbach and
Brandenburg-Bayreuth – was a source of constant conflict. The New District is made up of the territory gained by Nuremberg in the
Landshut War of Succession; in this territory, the city had full sovereignty. In 1790, around 25,000 lived with city walls and a further 35,000 in the extramural territories of the city. The territorial expansion of imperial cities since the mid-14th century had several general causes, all found in the case of Nuremberg – the weakness of imperial power and an inability to maintain law and order; the debt crisis of neighbouring landed and knightly nobles in comparison with the capital income of the burgeoning urban middle classes; and the growing need for cities to secure an adequate supply of food for its inhabitants, raw materials for its craftsmen, and military self-protection. Before the end of the 18th century, with Bavarian and Prussian annexation of Nuremberger territory, the city territory was as described below:
Old District The Old District was located mostly between the ("border waters") of , and . It included the suburbs of (since 1342 a burgravial fief of the family of Nuremberg, since 1477 a Nuremberg protectorate) and (part of the burgravial of , over which Nuremberg gained jurisdiction in 1427) as well as the and Imperial forests and the ; the forests were territory directly belonging to the Empire (). The fiefdom in the southern () Imperial forest was jointly held by the Nuremberg families of (acquired by Nuremberg in 1396) and (acquired in 1372); the northern () forest, including the , was held by the burgraves and, thus, was acquired by Nuremberg in 1427 when it purchased the burgravial holdings, including the castle and, importantly, the right of high justice. Whilst this was later disputed by the Hohenzollern margraves, the ("Imperial Chamber Court") confirmed these rights to Nuremberg in the in 1583, though it remained a constant source of friction. Before 1790, Nuremberg held the and seigneurial rights for both woodland of and in the Old District, the of and the of the fortress with the judicial office of . At the time, the high courts held jurisdiction over the Nuremberg farmers' courts, the forest courts of the two Imperial forests and the
beekeepers' courts in . Within but especially outside of the Old District, there were also
exclaves () that were indirect estates and possessions of Nuremberg citizens and of former religious institutions (such as the monasteries secularised by the city in the 16th century) and charitable institutions (in particular the ). These territories extended geographically from the and
Franconian Switzerland in the north to the region of and in the south, from in the west to the arc of the
Franconian Jura in the east. The ("Nuremberg rural alms ") alone – responsible, amongst other things, for the land of the former Nuremberger monasteries – managed around 1790 properties in over 500 locations. In 1497, excluding the exclaves, the Old District available to Nuremberg, there were over 28,000 people, living in 5780 households in 780 towns. These tenants owed to the Imperial city allegiance, obedience, military service and tax obligations.
New District In 1504/05, the New District comprised in the following places, all now in except where indicated: • • with , now in • • • , bought in 1503 now in ) • and , bought in 1505 and 1511 • , and • , now in • (now in ) was successively acquired, in 1347 by Nuremberger families and in 1536 by the city itself • , purchased in 1406, now in The structure of the Nuremberg resembles the administrative structure of the
Electoral Palatinate and the
duchies of Bavaria office structure prior to 1504. In 1513, the Nuremberg were placed under the newly created as an intermediate authority. In contrast to the Old District, the of the New District were demarcated with stones showing the limits of the city's judicial, financial and administrative powers exercised by the district. Only in the of and and extending into parts of the Imperial forests, did the margraviate deny high justice to the city authorities; the self-government of cities (from 1575 including the
University of Altdorf), , , , and remained under Nuremberger administration.
Gradual mediatisation from 1790 provinces of and in 1805, with Nuremberg just south of center, showing most of the city's erstwhile possessions now in hands. ---- In both Margraves' Wars (
1449/50 and
1552–54) and in the
Thirty Years' War, the city's territory and its population were violently affected by quartering of troops, looting, troop movements and disease. After the ducal line of Bavaria fell extinct and the
Electorate of Bavaria was inherited by
Charles Theodore,
Count Palatine of Sulzbach in 1777, the Electorate began to claim Nuremberg's exclaves in the
Upper Palatinate as well as counting the of and into the
County Palatine of for judicial and tax purposes. In 1790/91, the Electorate used its historic claim from before the
Landshut War of Succession to occupy Nuremberger territories in what became known as the Bavarian Sequestrations (). Large parts of the , and and were now occupied, which led to corresponding tax losses for Nuremberg; protests to the Emperor and the Empire were in vain, due to the military-political situation at the time. The power-play over the Nuremberger legacy saw the Electorate providing goodwill and support to
Revolutionary France in competition with
Prussia, to whom the two Franconian margraviates had fallen in 1791. Since then, the
Minister President of Prussia, (1750–1822), had been trying to create an integral Prussian Province of Franconia. When Prussia, in the course of her , had already claimed the margravial rights of
high justice () over the Old District in 1796, Nuremberg was all but restricted to the territory circumscribed by town walls; Nuremberg retained the right of high justice only over the reduced and the exclaves within the
Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg, also diminished by annexation by the Electorate. In 1972, most of the former territories of Nuremberg – particularly those in the New District – were reunited into the Bavarian of . == References ==