Editing Nuremberg (section)

===Middle Ages===
{{see also|Burgraviate of Nuremberg|Imperial City of Nuremberg}}
[[File:Nuremberg defensive wall north f burggarten bastion f w.jpg|thumb|left|Old fortifications of Nuremberg]]

The first documentary mention of the city, in 1050, mentions Nuremberg as the location of an [[imperial castle]] between [[East Francia]] and the [[Margraviate of the Nordgau]] of [[Bavaria]].<ref>Compare: {{in lang|de}} [http://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/artikel/artikel_45427 Nürnberg, Reichsstadt: Politische und soziale Entwicklung] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151118055026/http://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/artikel/artikel_45427 |date=18 November 2015 }} (Political and Social Development of the Imperial City of Nuremberg), ''[[:de:Historisches Lexikon Bayerns|Historisches Lexikon Bayerns]]'': "Nürnberg ist erstmals 1050 als Reichsburg inmitten eines großen Reichsgutkomplexes schriftlich bezeugt. [...] Die Stadt Nürnberg entstand um die Wende zum 11. Jahrhundert in Anlehnung an eine 1050 erstmals erwähnte Reichsburg inmitten eines ausgedehnten Reichsgutkomplexes in Ostfranken und dem bayerischen Nordgau." [The first written attestation of Nuremberg occurs in 1050 as an Imperial castle in the middle of an extensive complex of Imperial property. [...] The city of Nuremberg originated about the turn of the 11th century inconnection with an Imperial castle (first mentioned in 1050) in the centre of an expansive complex of Imperial property in East Franconia and in the Bavarian Nordgau.]</ref> From 1050 to 1572 the city expanded and rose dramatically in importance due to its location on key trade-routes. [[Conrad III of Germany|King Conrad&nbsp;III]], reigning as [[King of Germany]] from 1137 to 1152, established the [[Burgraviate of Nuremberg]], with the first [[burgrave]]s coming from the Austrian [[Raabs an der Thaya|House of Raabs]]. With the extinction of their male line around 1189, the last Raabs count's son-in-law, [[Frederick I, Burgrave of Nuremberg|Frederick I]] of the [[House of Hohenzollern]], inherited the burgraviate in 1193.

From the late 12th century to the [[Holy Roman Empire#Interregnum|Interregnum]] (1254–1573), 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 ({{langx|de|link=no|[[:de:Reichsschultheiß (Nürnberg)|Reichsschultheiß]]}}) from 1173/74.<ref name="HLB:Nürnberg Entwicklung"/><ref name="Cath:Nuremberg">{{Cite Catholic Encyclopedia |id=11168a |title=Nuremberg}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Cath:Nuremberg"/>

[[File:Nuernberg Burg Panorama PtGUI.jpg|left|thumb|The Imperial Castle]]

The city and particularly [[Nuremberg Castle]] would become one of the most frequent sites of the [[Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire)|Imperial Diet]] (after [[Regensburg]] and [[Frankfurt]]), the [[Diet of Nuremberg|Diets of Nuremberg]] from 1211 to 1543, after the first Nuremberg diet elected [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]] as emperor. Because of the many Diets of Nuremberg, the city became an important routine place of the administration of the Empire during this time and a somewhat 'unofficial [[capital city|capital]]' of the Empire.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} In 1219 Emperor Frederick II granted the {{lang|de|Großen Freiheitsbrief}} ('Great Charter of Freedom'), including [[German town law|town rights]], [[Imperial immediacy]] ({{lang|de| Reichsfreiheit}}), the privilege to mint coins, and an independent customs policy – almost wholly removing the city from the purview of the burgraves.<ref name="HLB:Nürnberg Entwicklung">{{in lang|de}} [http://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/artikel/artikel_45427 Nürnberg, Reichsstadt: Politische und soziale Entwicklung] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151118055026/http://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/artikel/artikel_45427 |date=18 November 2015 }} (Political and Social Development of the Imperial City of Nuremberg), ''[[:de:Historisches Lexikon Bayerns|Historisches Lexikon Bayerns]]''</ref><ref name="Cath:Nuremberg"/> 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 Germany|Jews]] of the town were accused of [[host desecration]] 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,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Image Gallery of the Coins of Nürnberg |url=http://www.medievalcoinage.com/gallery/germany-nurnberg.htm |website=www.medievalcoinage.com |access-date=2020-05-20 |archive-date=8 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308233952/http://www.medievalcoinage.com/gallery/germany-nurnberg.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> which were divided by the [[Pegnitz (river)|Pegnitz]]. The Jews of the German lands suffered [[Black Death Jewish persecutions|many massacres]] during the [[Black Death|plague]] pandemic of the mid-14th century.

In 1349, Nuremberg's Jews suffered a [[pogrom]].<ref>"[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1114&letter=B Black Death] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110804223403/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1114&letter=B |date=4 August 2011 }}". JewishEncyclopedia.com</ref> They were burned at the stake or expelled, and a marketplace was built over the former Jewish quarter.<ref>''Cities and People: A Social and Architectural History'', Mark Girouard, Yale University Press, 1985, p.69</ref> The plague returned to the city in 1405, 1435, 1437, 1482, 1494, 1520, and 1534.<ref>Jerry Stannard, Katherine E. Stannard, Richard Kay (1999). ''Herbs and herbalism in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.'' University of Michigan Press. {{ISBN|0-86078-774-5}}</ref>
[[File:Nuremberg chronicles - Nuremberga.png|right|thumb |Nuremberg in 1493 (from the ''[[Nuremberg Chronicle]]'')]]

The largest growth of Nuremberg occurred in the 14th century. [[Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor|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.<ref name="HLB:Nürnberg Entwicklung"/> Charles was the patron of the [[Frauenkirche, Nuremberg|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, Holy Roman Emperor|Sigismund of Luxembourg]] granted the Imperial regalia to be kept permanently in Nuremberg, where they remained until 1796, when the [[War of the First Coalition|advance of French troops]] required their removal to [[Regensburg]] and thence to [[Vienna]].<ref name="HLB:Nürnberg Entwicklung"/>

In 1349 the members of the [[guild]]s unsuccessfully rebelled against the patricians in a {{lang|de| 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 Imperial City|free city]] (until the early-19th century).<ref name="HLB:Nürnberg Entwicklung"/><ref name="Cath:Nuremberg"/> 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 Holy Roman Empire|princes of the Empire]].<ref name="Cath:Nuremberg"/> Frequent fights took place with the burgraves without, however, inflicting lasting damage upon the city. After fire destroyed the castle in 1420 during a feud between [[Frederick I, Elector of Brandenburg|Frederick IV]] (from 1417, [[Margrave of Brandenburg]]) and the duke of [[Bavaria-Ingolstadt]], the city purchased the ruins and the forest belonging to the castle (1427), resulting in the city's total sovereignty within its borders.

Through these and other acquisitions the city accumulated considerable territory.<ref name="Cath:Nuremberg"/> The [[Hussite Wars]] (1419–1434), the [[Black Death#Second plague pandemic|second Black Death pandemic]] in 1437, and the [[First Margrave War]] (1449–1450) led to a severe fall in population in the mid-15th century.<ref name="Cath:Nuremberg"/> Siding with [[Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria|Albert IV]], Duke of [[Bavaria-Munich]], in the [[War of the Succession of Landshut]] of 1503–1505, led the city to gain substantial territory, resulting in lands of {{convert|25|sqmi|1|abbr=on}}, making it one of the largest imperial cities.<ref name="Cath:Nuremberg"/>

During the Middle Ages, Nuremberg fostered a rich, varied, and influential literary culture.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sobecki |first1=Sebastian |title=Nuremberg |journal=Europe: A Literary History, 1348–1418, ed. David Wallace |date=2016 |pages=566–581 |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/europe-9780198735359?cc=nl&lang=en& |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-873535-9 |access-date=2 June 2016 |archive-date=20 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220183041/https://global.oup.com/academic/product/europe-9780198735359?cc=nl&lang=en& |url-status=live }}</ref>