page_title: Nuremberg
section_title: Middle Ages
hierarchical_section_title: Nuremberg / History / Middle Ages
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Der Hof der de:Nürnberger Burg Sonstiges: Im Vergleich zu de:Bild:Nuernberg Burg Panorama.jpg neue, bessere Version mit PtGUI erstelltEnglish: Nuremberg Castle, courtyard. Better version
context_page_description: Nuremberg is the second-largest city of the German federal state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 511,628 inhabitants make it the 14th largest city in Germany. On the Pegnitz River and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it lies in the Bavarian administrative region of Middle Franconia, and is the largest city and the unofficial capital of Franconia. Nuremberg forms a continuous conurbation with the neighbouring cities of Fürth, Erlangen and Schwabach with a total population of 798,867, while the larger Nuremberg Metropolitan Region has approximately 3.6 million inhabitants. The city lies about 170 kilometres north of Munich. It is the largest city in the East Franconian dialect area, Nuremberg was one of the host cities of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
  There are many institutions of higher education in the city, including the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. With 39,780 students in 2017, it is Bavaria's third-largest and Germany's 11th-largest university, with campuses in Erlangen and Nuremberg and a university hospital in Erlangen. Technische Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm and Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg are also located within the city.
context_section_description: The first documentary mention of the city, in 1050, mentions Nuremberg as the location of an Imperial castle between the East Franks and the Bavarian March of the Nordgau. From 1050 to 1571 the city expanded and rose dramatically in importance due to its location on key trade-routes. King Conrad III (reigning as King of Germany from 1138 to 1152) established the Burgraviate of Nuremberg, with the first burgraves coming from the Austrian House of Raab. With the extinction of their male line around 1190, the last Raabs count's son-in-law, Frederick I from the House of Hohenzollern, inherited the burgraviate in 1192.
  From the late 12th century to the Interregnum (1254–73), however, the power of the burgraves diminished as the Hohenstaufen emperors transferred most non-military powers to a castellan, with the city administration and the municipal courts handed over to an Imperial mayor (German: Reichsschultheiß) from 1173/74. The strained relations between the burgraves and the castellans, with gradual transferral of powers to the latter in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, finally broke out into open enmity, which greatly influenced the history of the city.
   
  Nuremberg is often referred to as the "unofficial capital" of the Holy Roman Empire, particularly because the Imperial Diet (Reichstag) and courts met at Nuremberg Castle. The Diets of Nuremberg played an important role in the administration of the empire. The increasing demands of the Imperial court and the increasing importance of the city attracted increased trade and commerce in Nuremberg. In 1219 Emperor Frederick II granted the Großen Freiheitsbrief ('Great Letter of Freedom'), including town rights, Imperial immediacy (Reichsfreiheit), the privilege to mint coins, and an independent customs policy - almost wholly removing the city from the purview of the burgraves. Nuremberg soon became, with Augsburg, one of the two great trade-centers on the route from Italy to Northern Europe.
  In 1298 the Jews of the town were falsely accused of having desecrated the host, and 698 of them were killed in one of the many Rintfleisch massacres. Behind the massacre of 1298 was also the desire to combine the northern and southern parts of the city, which were divided by the Pegnitz. The Jews of the German lands suffered many massacres during the plague pandemic of the mid-14th century.
  In 1349 Nuremberg's Jews suffered a pogrom. They were burned at the stake or expelled, and a marketplace was built over the former Jewish quarter. The plague returned to the city in 1405, 1435, 1437, 1482, 1494, 1520 and 1534.
  The largest growth of Nuremberg occurred in the 14th century. Charles IV's Golden Bull of 1356, naming Nuremberg as the city where newly elected kings of Germany must hold their first Imperial Diet, made Nuremberg one of the three most important cities of the Empire. Charles was the patron of the Frauenkirche, built between 1352 and 1362 (the architect was likely Peter Parler), where the Imperial court worshipped during its stays in Nuremberg. The royal and Imperial connection grew stronger in 1423 when the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg granted the Imperial regalia to be kept permanently in Nuremberg, where they remained until 1796, when the advance of French troops required their removal to Regensburg and thence to Vienna.
  In 1349 the members of the guilds unsuccessfully rebelled against the patricians in a Handwerkeraufstand ('Craftsmen's Uprising'), supported by merchants and some by councillors, leading to a ban on any self-organisation of the artisans in the city, abolishing the guilds that were customary elsewhere in Europe; the unions were then dissolved, and the oligarchs remained in power while Nuremberg was a free city (until the early-19th century). Charles IV conferred upon the city the right to conclude alliances independently, thereby placing it upon a politically equal footing with the princes of the Empire. Frequent fights took place with the burgraves - without, however, inflicting lasting damage upon the city. After fire destroyed the castl
caption: The Imperial Castle
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