Reichskammergericht

Reichskammergericht, supreme court of the Holy Roman Empire. The court was established by Maximilian I in 1495 and survived as the empire’s highest court until the empire’s dissolution in 1806.

From the early Middle Ages, the Holy Roman Empire’s supreme court had been the Hofgericht, in which the emperor presided and a body of assessors sat in judgment. The Hofgericht ceased to act when the emperor was abroad and was dissolved upon his death. When the emperor ceased to command respect around the 15th century, his court lost the confidence of his subjects and discontinued sittings after 1450. The Kammergericht (the king’s personal court) had appeared side by side with the Hofgericht in 1415 and replaced it after the Hofgericht’s sittings had terminated. The king or his deputy presided in the Kammergericht. After the creation of the imperial Aulic Council, which was formed in 1497 by Maximilian to serve as an advisory council to the emperor, all members of the Kammergericht also became officials—consiliarii—of the Aulic Council. Generally, those members of the council who had legal backgrounds sat in the Kammergericht. As they were usually doctors of civil law, the court tended to act according to that law and thus contributed to the reception of Roman law in Germany toward the end of the 15th century.

Even the Kammergericht fell into disuse, however, in the later years of the reign of Frederick III (1452–93). The creation of a new and more efficient court became a matter of pressing necessity, and as a result the Reichskammergericht was created at the Imperial Diet of Worms in 1495. Distinguished from the Kammergericht by the fact that it was not the personal court of the emperor but the empire’s official court, it was paid by the empire and thus was not dependent on the will or money of the emperor. The emperor appointed the chief justice, who had to be a high aristocrat, and two (later four) presidents of court senates. The emperor also nominated some members, but a majority of the judges were nominated by the various component states of the empire. Although initially half the members were to be doctors of Roman law and half were to be knights, after 1548 it became necessary for all members to have formal legal training. The court resided first at Frankfurt, later at Speyer (1527–1689), and finally at Wetzlar.

As a result of both the composition of the court and its methods of using Roman law, the final reception of Roman law in Germany was achieved. The court’s influence was even greater as a model for other princes. The composition of the court was imitated in the various states of the empire, and Roman law (already the central law) became the local law of the empire.

The province of the Reichskammergericht was gradually defined by statute and use. It covered breaches of the public peace, cases of arbitrary imprisonment, pleas that concerned the treasury, violations of the emperor’s decrees or laws passed by the Diet, disputes about property between immediate vassals of the empire or the subjects of different rulers, and suits against immediate vassals of the empire—with the exception of criminal charges and matters relating to imperial fiefs, which went to the Aulic Council. The Reichskammergericht acted as a court of appeal from territorial courts in civil and, to a small extent, criminal cases, except in territories that enjoyed privileges of nonappeal, such as the territories of the electors.