page_title: Free Imperial City of Nuremberg
section_title: Early modern age
hierarchical_section_title: Free Imperial City of Nuremberg / Early modern age
caption_attribution_description: English: Albrecht-Dürer-Haus - Tiergärtnerplatz - Nuremberg, Germany.
context_page_description: The Imperial City of Nuremberg was a free imperial city — independent city-state — within the Holy Roman Empire. After Nuremberg gained piecemeal independence from the Burgraviate of Nuremberg in the High Middle Ages and considerable territory from Bavaria in the Landshut War of Succession, it grew to become one of the largest and most important Imperial cities, the 'unofficial capital' of the Empire, particularly because Imperial Diets and courts met at Nuremberg Castle. The Diets of Nuremberg were an important part of the administrative structure of the Empire. The Golden Bull of 1356, issued by Emperor Charles IV, named Nuremberg as the city where newly elected kings of Germany must hold their first Imperial Diet, making Nuremberg one of the three highest cities of the Empire.
  The cultural flowering of Nuremberg, in the 15th and 16th centuries, made it the center of the German Renaissance.
context_section_description: The cultural flowering of Nuremberg, in the 15th and 16th centuries, made it the center of the German Renaissance. The years between 1470 and 1530 are generally regarded as the city's heyday. Nuremberg traded in virtually all of the then-known world: Nürnberger Tand geht durch alle Land ("Nuremberg trinkets go all through the land") and Nuremberg's wealth was known as "the Imperial Treasure Chest". The city's revenues were said to have been greater than those of the whole kingdom of Bohemia. Nuremberg cities maintained trade offices in many cities, such as the Nürnberger Hof in Frankfurt. 
  The city government was exclusively run by about 50 wealthy patrician families who had an exclusive access to the "inner city council", such as the famous Tucher, Imhoff and Haller, a branch of the Welsers from Augsburg, and others, while newer families were also successful in trading. By the 15th century, more than half of the older families had extinguished and 22 new families were admitted to the "inner council". With the enactment of the dance statute of 1521, the circle of councilable families was finally established and the patriciate of then forty-two families was closed. Later, only very few further families were admitted. Among the ruling patricians were also the Behaim, Ebner von Eschenbach, Fürer von Haimendorf, Geuder von Heroldsberg, Grundherr, Gugel, Harsdörffer (Harsdorf), Hirschvogel, Holzschuher, Koler, Kress von Kressenstein, Löffelholz von Kolberg, Muffel, Nützel, Oelhafen, Paumgartner, Peller, Pfinzing, Pirckheimer, Pömer, Rieter, Rummel, Scheurl, Schürstab, Stromer, Volckamer. 
  Many of these wealthy families became important patrons of art. At that time, many notable artists lived and worked in Nuremberg, such as Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), Martin Behaim (1459–1507) built the first globe and Peter Henlein (c. 1485–1542) produced the first pocket watch. Also notable from this period are the woodcarver Veit Stoss (1447–1533), the sculptor Adam Kraft (c. 1460–1508/09) and the master founder and sculptor Peter Vischer the Elder (c. 1460–1529). Only literature was not as dominant as the other arts, but meistersinger (lyric poet), playwright and shoemaker Hans Sachs (1494–1576) provides at least one major literary figure who lived at this time in Nuremberg.
  Nuremberg was one of the founding 27 territories of the Franconian Circle at the Diet of Augsburg on 2 July 1500. At the beginning of the 16th century, siding with Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria-Munich, in the Landshut War of Succession led the city to gain substantial territory, resulting in lands of 25 sq mi (65 km²), becoming the largest Imperial city in the Empire, acquisitions confirmed by Maximilian I in 1505. In 1525, Nuremberg accepted the Protestant Reformation, and in 1532, the religious Peace of Nuremberg, by which the Lutherans gained important concessions, was signed there. During the 1552 revolution against Charles V in the Second Margrave War, Nuremberg endeavoured to purchase its neutrality by the payment of 100,000 guilder; but Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, one of the leaders of the revolt, attacked the city without declaring war and forced the conclusion of a disadvantageous peace. At the Peace of Augsburg, the possessions of the Protestants were confirmed by the Emperor, their religious privileges extended and their independence from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Bamberg affirmed, while the 1520s' secularisation of the monasteries was also approved.
  The state of affairs in the early 16th century, Columbus's discovery of the New World and Dias's circumnavigation of Africa and the territorial fragmentation in the Empire led to a decline in trade and, thus, the city's affluence. The ossification of the social hierarchy and legal structures contributed to the decline in trade; under Leopold I (reigned 1658–1705) the patriciate was converted to a hereditary corporation, leading the merchant class to appeal to the Imperial counsellor, albeit unsuccessfully. During the Thirty Years' War it did not always succeed in preserving its pol
caption: Albrecht Dürer's House
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