ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the question of political representation focusing on the imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire (Reichsstädte). Whereas some scholars affirm the existence and endurance of an urban republicanism north of the Alps, others, by contrast, stress the strictly secondary role the imperial cities played within the political context of the Holy Roman Empire, let alone foreign relations. This chapter proposes a middle position. It argues that in the early modern period, the technical and symbolic aspects of political representation were inseparably linked. Within the city walls, the question of who had the right to represent the city was negotiated by means of symbolic communication. Likewise, the political autonomy of the city and its status as a Reichsstadt had to be defended against competing claims on a symbolic level. Although the political culture of the cities differed in many regards from that of the princely states, “republican” principles like equality of rights, shared duties and political participation of the citizens were always challenged by diverging developments within the city walls. Since the second half of the 17th century the imperial cities adopted the dominant aristocratic model of political representation instead of sticking to their own “republican” traditions.
