Reichsstadt

Reichsstadt, a city owing allegiance directly to the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (see Deutsches Reich, Altes) and not subject to any intermediate sovereign prince. The number of such cities was considerable and included cities of importance and tiny market towns. Augsburg, Nuremberg, and Ulm, Dinkelsbühl, Memmingen, and Wetzlar serve as examples. The Reichsstadt was in a less privileged position from a military and financial standpoint than the Freie Stadt or Freie Reichsstadt. Representatives of the free cities attended imperial diets occasionally before 1489, and invariably after that year. The significance of the term Reichsstadt ceased with the dissolution of the Empire in 1806.