ABSTRACT
In the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth century, Gdansk experienced a period of extraordinary prosperity, which gave the city a strong political position within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and great economic importance in the region, and therefore in the historiography defined it as a 'golden age'. Of primary importance were the privileges obtained by Gdansk in the years 1454-1457 from the Polish King Kazimierz Jagiellonczyk, which became the foundation of the city constitution. The obligation for citizens to participate in such units was derived directly from the standards of German municipal law, and was practised in Gdansk into the Middle Ages. The need to maintain public order made the municipal authorities of Gdansk of Early Modern Times carry out another task, namely the upkeep of criminal justice and the protection of the urban community against crime. The basic element of sixteenth-century Gdansk criminal justice was the death penalty.
