ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the city of Braunschweig, the second-largest town in Lower Saxony after Lübeck and a city famous for the political and constitutional independence of its five city quarters, which prevailed until the late sixteenth century. It shows that 'the city within the city' is a widespread phenomenon among medieval towns. The chapter examines the assumption that religious processions and other rituals were successful tools for the construction of a unified urban identity, through a comparison of secular and religious rituals in Braunschweig. According to Max Weber, the medieval western city, administered by city councils and economically based on long-distance trade, can be seen as a forerunner of modernity. The reality is far more complex. First, performative acts make it possible to communicate and create two conflicting elements: diversity and unity. Second, when religion is the central subject of ritual discourse, the city's constitutional structure is allowed to recede into the background.
