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105-526: From 1434 to 1438, at imperial diets in Eger and Nuremberg , the first attempts at Imperial Reform were undertaken, partly on the initiative of Emperor Sigismund , partly by the prince-electors . Feuds were banned, and discussions were held on a revision of the rights of coinage and escort ( Geleitrecht ) and an administrative division of the Empire into imperial circles . All the proposals foundered, however, on

210-537: A humid continental climate ( Köppen : Dfb ), with average temperatures in January and February below freezing and an average temperature of 0.0 °C (32.0 °F) in December. The average summer temperature is around 17.3 °C (63.1 °F), and it is not uncommon to see days with temperatures above 30.0 °C (86.0 °F). The town enters spring in late April and winter in early October. The earliest settlement in

315-573: A Council, the cowered Estates tried to resist. At his strongest point, though, he still failed to find a solution for the common tax matter, which led to disasters in Italy later. Meanwhile, he explored Austria's potential as a base for Imperial power and built his government largely with officials drawn from the lower aristocracy and burghers in Southern Germany. At the 1495 Diet, the Reception of Roman Law

420-724: A centralised authority on the occasions of threats and armed conflicts like the Hussite Wars . Maximilian I of Austria was elected King of the Romans from 1486. At the 1495 Diet, Maximilian asked the representatives of the estates not only for contributions but also for an imperial tax to be raised and for troops to be committed for his wars against the Ottomans in the East and the French in Italy. The deputies, led by Chancellor Bertold von Henneberg-Römhild ,

525-600: A dialectic between the Empire's un-state-like constitution and the state-forming ambitions of its constituent authorities". More recently, Georg Schmidt, also tying the matter of statehood to the Reform, argues that the Empire's early modern development was a kind of state formation, and that the reforms of 1495 'directed the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation onto the path towards statehood'. Another scholar whose approach

630-551: A final round of the Czechoslovak Individual Speedway Championship for three consecutive years from 1966 to 1968. On the rock in the northwest of the historic town centre lies Cheb Castle. It was founded around 1125 and was rebuilt into a Kaiserpfalz at the end of the 12th century. It is the only example of a Kaiserpfalz in the Czech Republic. At the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, the castle

735-456: A fraternal organisation of lay judges called "free judges" ( German : Freischöffen or French : francs-juges ). The original seat of the courts was in Dortmund . Proceedings were sometimes secret, leading to the alternative titles of "secret courts" ( German : heimliches Gericht ), "silent courts" ( German : Stillgericht ), or "forbidden courts" ( German : verbotene Gerichte ). After

840-638: A recent death are similar to the organization's killings. The Vehmgericht also appear as antagonists in The Strong Arm , an 1899 novel set in the Holy Roman Empire by British-Canadian author Robert Barr . Geoff Taylor's 1966 novel, Court Of Honor , features the Fehme being revived by a German officer and Martin Bormann in the dying days of the Third Reich. Season 3, episode 12 of The Blacklist , titled The Vehm

945-406: A serious nature, and especially those that were deemed unfit for ordinary judicial investigation, such as heresy and witchcraft, fell within its jurisdiction, as also did appeals by persons condemned in the open courts, and likewise the cases before those tribunals in which the accused had not appeared. The accused, if a member, could clear himself by his own oath, unless he had revealed the secrets of

1050-465: Is close to Schmidt's is Joachim Whaley with his 2012 work Germany and the Holy Roman Empire. Volume I: Maximilian I to the Peace of Westphalia 1493-1648. Robert von Friedeburg  [ de ] opines that Whaley brings out many compelling arguments but there are also certain problems: "Indeed, from the 1650s and then in particular the 1740s onwards, this reviewer finds that Whaley's attempt to downplay

1155-475: Is in current use and means "to ostracise", i.e. by public opinion rather than formal legal proceeding. A noun derived from this is Verfemter "outlaw, ostracised person". In an 1856 lecture, Karl Marx used the Vehmic courts as a metaphor to describe his predictions of the working-class revolution that would sweep Europe. Within the politically heated turmoil of the early German Weimar Republic after World War I,

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1260-567: Is now considered unlikely.), although it would not be abolished completely until 1811 (when it was abolished under the order of Jérôme Bonaparte ). The establishment in 1500 of six (from 1512 on: ten) Imperial Circles with their own Circle Diets. The Circles, originally meant as constituencies of the Imperial Government, enabled a more uniform administration of the Empire to better execute the Perpetual Public Peace, taxation, and

1365-562: Is protected by law as an urban monument reservation . Cheb is formed by 19 town parts and villages: The first name of the town, documented in 1061, was Egire . It was a Latin name, which was derived from the Celtic name of the Ohře River Agara . The German name Eger was then derived from the Latin name. The Czech name Cheb first appeared in the mid-14th century. The name is derived from

1470-587: Is represented by the football club FK Hvězda Cheb . It plays in the 4th tier of the Czech football system. Its predecessor was the club FC Union Cheb, which played in the Czechoslovak and Czech First League from 1979 to 1996, but then was abolished due to financial reasons. The team play at the Lokomotiva Stadium, located on street U Stadionu . The Lokomotiva Stadium once held motorcycle speedway and hosted

1575-575: Is the Schirdinger House. It is a Gothic house, built at the beginning of the 13th century and restored after the fire in the 15th century. The Renaissance reconstruction took place in 1622–1626. Today it houses a gallery and a café. Among the other valuable houses on the town square is the Town House, also known as Pachelbel's House or Juncker House. The house was first mentioned already in the 14th century. On 24 February 1634, Albrecht von Wallenstein

1680-505: Is the hill Zelená hora at 637 m (2,090 ft) above sea level. The Ohře River flows through the town. There are two large reservoirs in the municipal territory: Skalka (northeast of the town and supplied by the Ohře) and Jesenice (southeast of the town and supplied by the Wondreb ). There are also several small fishponds, especially in the southern part of the municipal territory. Cheb has

1785-457: Is the main church of the town and the oldest late Gothic building. It was established as a three-naved Romanesque basilica in the 1220s, of which the western portal and the lower part of the tower remain in place. After the fire in 1270, it was rebuilt in the Gothic style, another reconstruction took place in the 1470s. After the fire of 1742, the tower was rebuilt with a Baroque cupola , according to

1890-651: The 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye triggered civil unrest between the Sudeten German population and the new First Czechoslovak Republic , just as in the rest of the Sudetenland . In the interwar period, many ethnic Czechs came to the town with the boom of industry. During the Sudeten Crisis , the town was occupied by the Nazi German -sponsored Sudetendeutsches Freikorps paramilitary group. On 3 October 1938,

1995-575: The Archbishop of Mainz , agreed in principle to a Common Penny tax paid directly to the Empire, but in return set conditions: Maximilian generally opposed the institutions that weakened his power, but he supported the Land Peace, adoption of Roman law, sounder administrative procedures, better record-keeping, qualifications for offices, etc. Responding to the proposal that an Imperial Council (the later Reichsregiment) should be created, he agreed and welcomed

2100-584: The Emperor Sigismund himself became "a true and proper Freischöffe of the Holy Roman Empire." There is a manuscript in the Town Hall of the Westphalian town of Soest , which consists of an original Vehmic Court Regulation document, along with illustrations. By the middle of the 14th century these Freischöffen (Latin scabini ), sworn associates of the Fehme, were scattered in thousands throughout

2205-474: The Fehme was elaborate. The centre of each jurisdiction was referred to as a "free seat" ( German : Freistuhl ), and its head or chairman ( German : Stuhlherr ) was often a secular or spiritual prince, sometimes a civic community, the archbishop of Cologne being supreme over all ( German : Oberststuhlherren ). The actual president of the court was the "free count" ( German : Freigraf ), chosen for life by

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2310-452: The Fehme . If he were one of the uninitiated it was necessary for him to bring forward witnesses to his innocence from among the initiated, whose number varied according to the number on the side of the accuser, but twenty-one in favour of innocence necessarily secured an acquittal. The only punishment which the secret court could inflict was death. If the accused appeared, the sentence was carried into execution at once; if he did not appear, it

2415-502: The House of Habsburg , used imperial politics generally only if it served to support his own personal base of power at home. In 1495, an attempt was made at an Imperial Diet in the City of Worms to give the disintegrating Holy Roman Empire a new structure, commonly referred to as Imperial Reform. The fundamental idea of the reform was largely based on the theory of political concordance between

2520-562: The Landgraviates lost much of their power, and the Freigerichte disappeared, with the exception of Westphalia, where they retained their authority and transformed into the Vehmic court. The seat of the Vehmic court ( German : Freistuhl ) was at first Dortmund , in a square between two linden trees , one of which was known as the Femelinde . With the growing influence of Cologne during

2625-678: The Peace of Augsburg , which regulated more details of the responsibilities of the Imperial Circle Estates. Maximilian and Charles V (despite the fact both emperors were internationalists personally) were the first who mobilized the rhetoric of the Nation, firmly identified with the Reich by the contemporary humanists. With encouragement from Maximilian and his humanists, iconic spiritual figures were reintroduced or became notable. The humanists rediscovered

2730-499: The Reichshofrat , this act of restructuring seemed to suggest that, as Westphal quoting Ortlieb, the "imperial ruler – independent of the existence of a supreme court – remained the contact person for hard pressed subjects in legal disputes as well, so that a special agency to deal with these matters could appear sensible" (as also shown by the large number of supplications he received). According to Thomas Brady Jr. and Jan-Dirk Müller,

2835-619: The Stuhlherr from among the Freischöffen , who formed the great body of the initiated. Of these the lowest rank were the Fronboten or Freifronen , charged with the maintenance of order in the courts and the duty of carrying out the commands of the Freigraf . The immense development of the Fehme is explained by the privileges of the Freischöffen ; for they were subject to no jurisdiction but those of

2940-681: The Treaty of Eger was agreed upon, after Wenceslaus had failed to secure his interests in the town. In the 15th century, Cheb was one of the largest and wealthiest towns of Kingdom of Bohemia with 7,300 inhabitants. The town suffered severely during the Hussite Wars , during the Swedish invasion in the Thirty Years' War in 1631 and 1647, and in the War of the Austrian Succession in 1742. In 1634, during

3045-660: The United States Army on 25 April 1945. After the end of World War II the region was returned to Czechoslovakia. Under the Beneš decrees and Potsdam Agreement of the same year, the German-speaking majority was expelled . In 1910, only 0.5% of the population were Czech. Until 1945, it was part of the Northern Bavarian dialect area. After World War II, due to the expulsion of ethnic Germans and resettlement of Czechs,

3150-441: The 13th century as a noun with the meaning of "punishment". A document dated to 1251 has the reference illud occultum judicium, quod vulgariter vehma seu vridinch appellari consuevit. ("It is hidden justice, that by common fashion is habitually referred to as vehma or vridinch .") The general meaning of "punishment" is unrelated to the special courts of Westphalia which were thus originally just named "courts of punishment". But as

3255-439: The 15th century, the seat was moved to Arnsberg in 1437. The sessions were often held in secret, whence the names of "secret court" ( German : heimliches Gericht ), "silent court" ( German : Stillgericht ), etc. Attendance of secret sessions was forbidden to the uninitiated, on pain of death, which led to the designation "forbidden courts" ( German : verbotene Gerichte ). A chairman ( German : Stuhlherr ) presided over

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3360-719: The 1920s in mass media reports regarding violent acts of vengeance among the German Right. Vehmic courts play a key role in the novel Anne of Geierstein or, The Maiden of the Mist by Sir Walter Scott in which Archibald von Hagenbach, the Duke of Burgundy's governor at Brisach (Switzerland), is condemned and executed by the Vehmgericht. Scott drew his inspiration from Goethe 's play Goetz von Berlichingen which he had translated, incorrectly. Hector Berlioz 's first opera, Les francs-juges ,

3465-581: The Ancient Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. To realize his resolve to reform and unify the legal system, the emperor frequently intervened personally in matters of local law, overriding local charters and customs. This practice was often met with irony and scorn from local councils, who wanted to protect their local codes. The legal reform seriously weakened the ancient Vehmic court ( Vehmgericht , or Secret Tribunal of Westphalia , traditionally held to be instituted by Charlemagne but this theory

3570-623: The Bold , led to a revolution in communication and allowed ideas to spread. Unlike the situation in more centralized countries, the decentralized nature of the Empire made censorship difficult. Terence McIntosh comments that the expansionist, aggressive policy pursued by Maximilian I and Charles V at the inception of the early modern German nation (although not to further the aims specific to the German nation per se), relying on German manpower as well as utilizing fearsome Landsknechte and mercenaries, would affect

3675-462: The Empire around 1495/1500 as pragmatic responses to intensified consolidation and interconnection within the Empire, which were in turn the products of wider forces (greater military and fiscal demands and demographic growth, among others). While the reforms of this period ushered in a new 'constitutional' arrangement, in which power was formally divided between the monarchy and the estates, their long-term effects were unintended, and their implementation

3780-474: The Empire's sovereign and its most powerful prince. The imperial Estates appreciated a strong emperor capable of repelling the Ottomans, and were prepared to relinquish some of their cherished liberties to institutions they believed would bind the Habsburgs to performing their imperial duties. The Habsburgs accepted greater constitutional checks on prerogatives as the price for a more potent infrastructure to mobilize

3885-503: The German king too. Maximilian tried to direct the Reform according to his monarchical-centralization agenda. Whaley notes that the real foundation of his Imperial power lay with his networks of allies and clients, especially the less powerful Estates, who helped him to recover his strength in 1502 - his first reform proposals as King of the Romans in 1486 were about the creation of a network of regional unions. According to Whaley, "More systematically than any predecessor, Maximilian exploited

3990-466: The Habsburg monarchy "remained closely entwined with the Empire", but deliberately refrained from including their other territories in its framework. "Instead, they developed their own institutions to manage what was, effectively, a parallel dynastic-territorial empire and which gave them an overwhelming superiority of resources, in turn allowing them to retain an almost unbroken grip on the imperial title over

4095-624: The Imperial Reform was successful, although perhaps at the expense of the reform of the Church, partly because Maximilian was not really serious about the religious matter. According to Brady Jr., the Empire, after the Imperial Reform, was a political body of remarkable longevity and stability, "resembled in some respects the monarchical polities of Europe's western tier, and in others the loosely integrated, elective polities of East Central Europe." The new corporate German Nation, instead of simply obeying

4200-410: The Reform was not the product of a carefully laid out plan by any side, but the result of compromises on practical issues. Stollberg-Rilinger notes that, "Maximilian I's rule set the stage for the structural evolution of the Empire in the following three hundred years." Stollberg also links the development of the Reform to the concentration of supranational power in the Habsburgs' hand, which manifested in

4305-471: The Reform. The Estates on the other hand wanted to make sure they had a voice in the government if they were to provide him with money. Berthold von Henneberg played a crucial role in coording the formulation of Reform laws in the Diet of 1491. Stollberg-Rilinger remarks that Henneberg's political platform was remarkably coherent. In the end though, the political frame and future-oriented structures that emerged after

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4410-504: The Thirty Years' War, Albrecht von Wallenstein was killed here. In 1723, Cheb became a free royal town . The northern part of the old town was devastated by a large fire in 1809, and many middle-age buildings were destroyed. In 1757, the town's financial self-government was abolished for the sake of Austrian centralization. In 1848, the citizen's council demanded separation from Bohemia and reconstitution of its Landtag . The terms of

4515-404: The Westphalian courts: whether as accused or accuser they had access to the secret sessions, and they shared in the discussions of the general chapter as to the policy of the society. At their initiation these swore to support the Fehme with all their powers, to guard its secrets, and to bring before its tribunal anything within its competence that they might discover. They were then initiated into

4620-405: The additional resources from the imperial Estates needed to meet their own ambitions and commitments." He calls the post-Reform Empire "a mixed monarchy in which the emperor shared power with an increasingly finely graduated hierarchy of princes, lords and cities collectively known as the imperial Estates". The institutions and structures developed by Imperial Reform mostly served German lands, while

4725-505: The area was a Slavic gord at what is now known as the Cheb Castle complex, north of the town centre. In 807 the district of today's Cheb was included in the new margraviate of East Franconia , which belonged at first to the Babenbergs , but from 906 to the margraves (marquis) of Vohburg . The first written mention of Cheb is from 1061. Děpolt II founded the castle on the site of

4830-406: The bench, before which a table, with a sword and rope upon it, was placed. The court was held by day and, unless the session was declared secret, all freemen, whether initiated or not, were admitted. The accusation was in the old German form; but only a Freischöffe could act as accuser. If the offence came under the competence of the court, meaning it was punishable by death, a summons to the accused

4935-567: The construction of cross-border highways and roads, as well as many other matters in the early modern civilization process. Wolfgang Wüst opines that even if some aspects remained incomplete, the formation of the Imperial Circles proved to be an essential influence on the development of Early Modern Europe . Maximilian responded to the Reichskammergericht by establishing the concurrent Aulic Council ( Reichshofrat ) in 1497. Throughout

5040-566: The core of a national political culture." Maximilian's reign also witnessed the gradual emergence of the German common language, with the notable roles of the imperial chancery and the chancery of the Wettin Elector Frederick the Wise . The development of the printing industry together with the emergence of the postal system ( the first modern one in the world ), initiated by Maximilian himself with contribution from Frederick III and Charles

5145-499: The country. Today the former monastery is owned by the town and is used as the venue of occasional concerts. The monastery also includes publicly accessible monastery garden. The monastery of the order of Poor Clares with the Church of Saint Clare was founded at the end of the 13th century next to the Franciscan monastery. In 1707–1709, it was demolished and built again according to the design of Christoph Dientzenhofer . The monastery

5250-556: The court, and lay judges ( German : Freischöffen ) passed judgment. The court also constituted a Holy Order . Any free man "of pure bred German stock" and of good character could become a judge. The new candidate was given secret information and identification symbols. The "knowing one" ( German : Wissende ) had to keep his knowledge secret, even from his closest family ("vor Weib und Kind, vor Sand und Wind"). Lay judges had to give formal warnings to known troublemakers, issue warrants, and take part in executions. The organization of

5355-593: The court. With the growing power of the territorial sovereigns and the gradual improvement of the ordinary process of justice, the functions of the Fehmic courts were superseded. By the action of the Emperor Maximilian and of other German princes they were, in the 16th century, once more restricted to Westphalia, and here, too, they were brought under the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts, and finally confined to mere police duties. With these functions, however, but with

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5460-518: The decisive government institution since 1502. In 1496, the emperor created a general treasury ( Hofkammer ) in Innsbruck, which became responsible for all the hereditary lands. The chamber of accounts ( Raitkammer ) at Vienna was made subordinate to this body. Under Paul von Liechtenstein  [ de ] , the Hofkammer was entrusted with not only hereditary lands' affairs, but Maximilian's affairs as

5565-469: The design of the indigenous architect Balthasar Neumann . The top of the twin steeples were destroyed by bombardment at the end of World War II and restored in summer 2008. The church tower is open to the public as a lookout lower. The Franciscan monastery with the Church of the Annunciation was founded in 1256 and rebuilt after the fire in 1270. The church is one of the oldest Gothic hall churches in

5670-482: The division of the duchy of Saxony after the fall of Henry the Lion , when the archbishop of Cologne Engelbert II of Berg , (also duke of Westphalia from 1180) placed himself at the head of the Fehme as representative of the emperor. The organization then spread rapidly. Every free man born in lawful wedlock and not excommunicated nor an outlaw was eligible for membership. Princes and nobles were initiated; and in 1429 even

5775-723: The early series of British television interviews presented by John Freeman . In William Makepeace Thackeray 's novel Vanity Fair "Was Rebecca guilty or not?" the Vehmgericht of the servants' hall had pronounced against her. A character in the Dorothy L. Sayers novel Murder Must Advertise appears at a fancy-dress party as a member of the Vehmgericht, which allows him to wear a hooded costume to disguise his identity. People in Femgericht costumes also appear in Arthur Schnitzler 's 1926 novella Dream Story . In Fritz Lang ' s M ,

5880-467: The educated classes that represented the small territorial lordships of the counts and barons ( Freiherren ) as well as the imperial knights but also the imperial cities and the smaller ecclesiastical territories supported the emperor having a powerful position, because it offered better protection against the demands of their own lords. The emperor himself, however, who from the time of Sigismund's successor, Albert II , almost always came from

5985-614: The emperor and the Imperial States , developed by Nicholas of Kues . After the fall of the House of Hohenstaufen in the mid-13th century, the power of the emperors gradually declined in favour of the Estates of the Realm , especially of the prince-electors assigned by the Golden Bull of 1356 . The autonomous estates had nevertheless become painfully aware of the disadvantages of the absence of

6090-410: The emperor, negotiated with him. Wilson tied the Reform to the territorial and power expansion of the Habsburgs: "The family's territorial expansion coincided with the high point of imperial reform around 1520, accelerating and transforming that process. The material power that made the dynasty the obvious choice as emperors, also threatened German liberties. The emperor assumed a Janus-faced position as

6195-466: The execution of a death sentence, the corpse could be hanged on a tree to advertise the fact and deter others. The peak of activity of these courts was during the 14th to 15th centuries, with lesser activity attested for the 13th and 16th centuries, and scattered evidence establishing their continued existence during the 17th and 18th centuries. They were finally abolished by order of Jérôme Bonaparte , king of Westphalia, in 1811. The Vehmic courts were

6300-405: The fall of the Iron Curtain , Cheb has also had cordial relationships with the neighbouring German towns of Waldsassen and Marktredwitz . Vehmic court The Vehmic courts , Vehmgericht , holy vehme , or simply Vehm , also spelt Feme , Vehmegericht , Fehmgericht , are names given to a tribunal system of Westphalia in Germany active during the Late Middle Ages , based on

6405-422: The gord around 1125. In 1149, Cheb was described as a fortified marketplace. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa acquired Cheb in 1167. In 1203, it was first referred to as a town. It became the centre of a historical region called Egerland . From 1266 to 1276, the town was property of King Ottokar II of Bohemia . The historic town centre was established after the fire in 1270. King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia held

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6510-411: The large Vietnamese community. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, the Vietnamese community gradually established seven markets here, and even customers from Germany came to Cheb for cheap goods. Today, three Vietnamese markets operate here. The D6 motorway from Prague to Karlovy Vary and Cheb (part of the European routes E48 and E49 ) forks in Cheb and continues to the Czech-German border to

6615-411: The length and breadth of Germany, known to each other by secret signs and pass-words, and all of them pledged to serve the summons of the secret courts and to execute their judgment. That an organization of this character should have outlived its usefulness and ushered in intolerable abuses, such as corruption was inevitable; from the mid-fifteenth century protests were raised against the enormities of

6720-409: The local criminals of an unnamed city (probably Berlin) capture a child murderer and hold a vigilante court. In The Illuminatus! Trilogy , the Vehmic courts are mentioned as being connected to Nazi Werwolf commandos as well as the Illuminati . In A Study in Scarlet , a Sherlock Holmes novel by Arthur Conan Doyle , a newspaper article mentions the Vehmgericht, stating that the features of

6825-411: The lower storey is in Romanesque style, while the upper storey is Gothic . On the first floor, there are original capitals of marble columns, decorated with figurative scenes of angels with Bibles as well as lewd scenes. In the centre of the historic town centre is the Krále Jiřího z Poděbrad Square. One of the symbols of the Cheb architecture is a group of houses known as Špalíček . It is located in

6930-457: The media frequently used the term Fememord to refer to right-wing political homicides, e.g. the murder of Jewish politicians such as Kurt Eisner (1919) or Walther Rathenau (1922) and other politicians including Matthias Erzberger (1921) by right-wing groups such as Organisation Consul . In 1926, the 27th Reichstag commission officially differentiated the contemporarily common Fememorde from political assassination in that assassination

7035-402: The middle of the town square and dates from the 13th century. The bizarre complex of eleven houses consists of narrow, four and five-storey houses without a courtyard, divided by a 1.6 metres (5.2 ft) wide alley. They are mostly in the late Gothic style. The outline of the two blocks can still be seen on the oldest existing records of 1472. The most valuable burgher house on the town square

7140-427: The modern period, the Aulic Council remained by far the faster and more efficient among the two Courts. The Reichskammergericht on the other hand was often torn by matters related to confessional alliance. Around 1497-1498, as part of his administrative reforms, he restructured his Privy Council ( Geheimer Rat ), a decision which today induces much scholarly discussion. Apart from balancing the Reichskammergericht with

7245-513: The most important governmental changes targeted the heart of the regime: the chancery. Early in Maximilian's reign, the Court Chancery at Innsbruck competed with the Imperial Chancery (which was under the elector-archbishop of Mainz, the senior Imperial chancellor). By referring the political matters in Tyrol, Austria as well as Imperial problems to the Court Chancery, Maximilian gradually centralized its authority. The two chanceries became combined in 1502. Jan-Dirk Müller opines that this chancery became

7350-407: The next three centuries." Cheb Cheb ( Czech pronunciation: [xɛp] ; German : Eger ) is a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic . It has about 33,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Ohře river. Before the expulsion of Germans in 1945, the town was the centre of the German-speaking region known as Egerland . The historic town centre is well preserved and

7455-408: The old Czech word heb (modern Czech oheb, ohyb ), which means "bend". It is related to bends of the Ohře River. Cheb is located about 38 kilometres (24 mi) southwest of Karlovy Vary , on the border with Germany . The northern and western parts of the municipal territory lie in the Fichtel Mountains ; the rest of the territory lies in the Cheb Basin , named after the town. The highest point

7560-450: The old forms long since robbed of their impressiveness, they survived into the 19th century. They were finally abolished by order of Jérôme Bonaparte , king of Westphalia, in 1811. The last Freigraf died in 1835. Following the abandonment of the Vehmic courts, the term acquired a connotation of mob rule and lynching . In Modern German , the spelling of Feme is most common. Other variant forms are: Fehme, Feime, Veme. The verb verfemen

7665-492: The opposing interests of emperor and imperial princes . Both parties were striving to create a more workable government of the empire, but they were working in opposite directions. The emperor was interested in strengthening his central control; the princes wanted collegiate, corporate leadership in which they could participate. The journals of the time, including publications like the Reformatio Sigismundi , show that

7770-475: The participation of the Estates, but he alone should be the one who appointed members, and the council should function only during his campaigns. He supported modernizing reforms (which he himself pioneered in his Austrian lands) but also wanted to tie them to his personal control, above all by permanent taxation, which the Estates consistently opposed. In 1504, when he was strong enough to propose his own ideas for such

7875-838: The population significantly dropped. The current population includes a large group of Vietnamese people . Their families were invited to the country as guest workers during the Communist era . The pillars of Cheb's economy are mainly services and tourism, and there are no large companies here. The largest employer is the Town of Cheb. Only four industrial enterprises with 200–250 employees are based in Cheb: BWI Czech Republic (manufacturer of automobile parts), Nexans Power Accessories Czech Republic (manufacturer of components for conductors), Playmobil CZ (toys manufacturer), and Tritia (bakery). Many entrepreneurs and small traders come from

7980-560: The potential of regional leagues and unions to extend imperial influence and to create the possibility of imperial government in the Reich." To the Empire, the mechanisms involving such regional institutions bolstered the Land Piece ( Ewiger Landfriede ) declared in 1495 as well as the creation of the Imperial Circles .) between 1500 and 1512, although they were only fully functional some decades later. The Swiss Confederacy did not accept

8085-406: The problems of addressing the Empire as 'state' has an increasing price." According to Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger , different sides in the Reform sought different goals and had different strategies. Maximilian sought to raise revenues to repulse the Ottomans in the East and the French in Italy and at the same time wanted to assert central authority and his ascension provided the direct incentive for

8190-451: The raising of troops. The establishment of the Imperial Circles was a long-overdue response to the administrative impotence of the Empire at the local level regarding the questions of levies, implementation of justice, customs, beggars, poor people, and healthcare (implemented by medical police, or medizinische Policey, who took care of the drinking water supply and protection against epidemics). After some time, they also took responsibility for

8295-516: The regional courts of Westphalia which, in turn, were based on the county courts of Franconia . They received their jurisdiction from the Holy Roman Emperor , from whom they also received the capacity to pronounce capital punishment ( German : Blutgericht ) which they exercised in his name. Everywhere else the power of life and death, originally reserved to the Emperor alone, had been usurped by

8400-689: The resolutions of the Imperial Diet and explicitly refused to pay the Common Penny , one of the circumstances leading to the Swabian War of 1499 and the Confederacy's exemption from imperial legislation. Due to the obstinate resistance of several States the collection of the tax was finally suspended in 1505. The reform was more or less concluded with the Imperial Execution Order of 1555, part of

8505-450: The secret signs by which members recognized each other, and were presented with a rope and with a knife on which were engraved the mystic letters S.S.G.G., supposed to mean Stein, Strick, Gras, grün (stone, rope, grass, green). The Freistuhl was the place of session, and was usually a hillock, or some other well-known and accessible spot. The Freigraf and the Schöffen (judges) occupied

8610-522: The spelling with h unetymological in spite of its early occurrence in some 13th century documents, and hypothesizes a "lost root" " fëmen ", connecting with Old Norse fimr and conjecturing a Gothic " fiman, fam, fêmun? ". During 18th to 19th century Romanticism, there were various misguided attempts to explain the obscure term, or to elevate it to the status of a remnant of pagan antiquity, scoffed at by Grimm's entry in his Deutsches Wörterbuch . An etymology suggested by James Skene in 1824 derives

8715-408: The successful dynastic marriages of Maximilian and his descendants (and the successful defense of those lands, notably the rich Low Countries) as well as Maximilian's development of a revolutionary post system that helped the Habsburgs to maintain control of their territories. Duncan notes that Peter Moraw joins Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger in presenting "the accelerated change and consolidation within

8820-584: The territorial nobles; only in Westphalia, called "the Red Earth" because here the imperial Blutbann (jurisdiction over life and death) was still valid, were capital sentences passed and executed by the Vehmic courts in the Emperor's name alone. The term's origin is uncertain, but seems to enter Middle High German from Middle Low German . The word vëme first appears in the Middle High German literature of

8925-558: The town in 1291–1304, then Albert I of Germany acquired the region. It wasn't until 1322 that Cheb became a permanent part of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown , when King John of Bohemia acquired it from Emperor Louis IV . The later local history was marked by continued resistance against incorporation into Bohemia. On 5 May 1389, during a Reichstag between King Wenceslaus IV and a group of Imperial Free Cities of southwest Germany ,

9030-627: The town is also served by the Cheb-Skalka station. Cheb Airport is located 3 kilometres (2 mi) east of the town centre. It is the second-oldest airport in the country and the oldest still existing. Cheb is known for its Cheb Violin Making School . Two faculties of the University of West Bohemia , pedagogical and economic, have a detached workplace in Cheb and open study programs there. The town

9135-528: The town was visited by Adolf Hitler ; shortly afterward Wehrmacht troops marched into the Sudetenland and seized control. From 1938 until 1945, the town was annexed to Germany and was administered as part of the Reichsgau Sudetenland . The Gestapo and Ordnungspolizei operated a prison in Cheb, whose prisoners were subjected to forced labour . Cheb was liberated by the 97th Infantry Division of

9240-489: The way neighbours viewed the German polity, although in the longue durée, Germany tended to be at peace. The Reform's purpose and its level of success have been interpreted differently depending on the period and the scholar. Duncan Hardy notes that, "The earliest historians to engage with this topic, who coined and popularized the notion of 'imperial reform' (Reicksreform), judged it as a well-intentioned partial failure. For Leopold von Ranke and Erich Molitor, imperial reform

9345-400: The west (as E48) and to the north (as E49). Cheb is an important railway junction. The town lies on the railway line of national importance from Františkovy Lázně to Plzeň , Prague, Olomouc and Ostrava . Other railway lines that pass through the town are Prague– Chomutov –Cheb, Nuremberg–Cheb , Hof – Marktredwitz , Zwickau –Cheb and Cheb– Luby . In addition to the main railway station,

9450-536: The word entered the Southern German dialects via Saxony and Westphalia, the word's meaning in Early Modern German became attached to the activities of these courts specifically. Jacob Grimm thought that the word is identical in origin to a homophonous word for the raising of pigs on forest pastures ( Hutewald ), just as the more familiar German Zucht can mean both breeding and discipline. Grimm considers

9555-581: The word from Baumgericht (Lit. "Tree law"), supposedly the remnant of a pagan "forest law" of the Wild hunt and pagan secret societies. The Westphalian Vehmic courts developed from the High Medieval "free courts" ( Freigerichte ), which had jurisdiction within a "free county" ( German : Freigrafschaft ). As a result of the 14th century imperial reform of the Holy Roman Empire ( Golden Bull of 1356 ),

9660-413: The work Germania , written by Tacitus. According to Peter H. Wilson, the female figure of Germania was reinvented by the emperor as the virtuous pacific Mother of Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Whaley further suggests that, despite the later religious divide, "patriotic motifs developed during Maximilian's reign, both by Maximilian himself and by the humanist writers who responded to him, formed

9765-436: Was a missed opportunity: an attempt to impose nation-statehood on the Empire from above, inspired by 'patriotic' reform-minded polemicists, which foundered on the particularistic ambitions of the monarchy and the princes, but nevertheless engendered substantial constitutional shifts." In his influential 1984 study of Reichsreform, Heinz Angermeier took a less top—down view, but also saw the reformist initiatives as "the product of

9870-447: Was abolished in 1782 and the buildings served various purposes. The Dominican monastery with the Church of Saint Wenceslaus was built in 1294–1296. The monastery was badly damaged and the church destroyed during the Thirty Years' War. The new Baroque church was built in 1674–1688. The monastery was dissolved in 1950. The church is still in use, the convent now serves cultural purposes. The early Baroque pilgrimage complex Maria Loreto

9975-420: Was accelerated and formalized. The Roman Law was made binding in German courts, except in the case it was contrary to local statutes. In practice, it became the basic law throughout Germany, displacing Germanic local law to a large extent, although Germanic law was still operative at the lower courts. Other than the desire to achieve legal unity and other factors, the adoption also highlighted the continuity between

10080-413: Was by definition exerted upon open political opponents, whereas a Fememord was a form of lethal vengeance committed upon former or current members of an organization that they had become a traitor to. This definition is also found in the common pseudo-archaic, alliterating right-wing phrase, "Verräter verfallen der Feme!" ("Traitors shall be ostracized!", i. e. killed), as it was often quoted throughout

10185-510: Was founded in the village of Starý Hrozňatov (today just Hrozňatov). It was founded next to the Church of the Holy Spirit, which dates from 1557. It belongs to the most visited pilgrimage sites in the country. The complex was built in 1664 and extended in 1675–1683. The Stations of the Cross that leads to Maria Loreto was originally composed of twenty-nine stations. Cheb is twinned with: Since

10290-514: Was inspired by Scott's presentation of the Vehmic Courts. Though the work was never staged the overture survives as a concert piece. In the very first concert of Berlioz's work, on 26 May 1828, the overture was performed along with the Opus 1 Waverley overture, a further indication of Berlioz's debt to Scott's fiction. The Les francs-juges overture later became the signature tune for Face to Face ,

10395-455: Was issued under the seal of the Freigraf . This was not usually served on him personally, but was nailed to his door, or to some convenient place where he was certain to pass. Six weeks and three days' grace were allowed, according to the old Saxon law, and the summons was thrice repeated. If the accused appeared, the accuser stated the case, and the investigation proceeded by the examination of witnesses as in an ordinary court of law. The judgment

10500-505: Was murdered here. Since 1873, the house serves as the town museum. The museum was later expanded to the neighbouring house. The Grüner House on the town square is a Gothic-Baroque house. It belonged to the well-known Wrendl family from 1591 until 1876, whose family coat of arms is above the entrance. When the house was owned by magistrate councillor Grüner in the first half of the 19th century, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe frequently spent time here. The Church of Saints Nicholas and Elisabeth

10605-613: Was partially rebuilt into a Baroque fortress citadel. Although the castle is mostly a ruin, the torso of the palace, the defensive Black Tower and the Chapel of Saints Martin Erhard and Ursula. The Chapel of Saints Martin, Erhard and Ursula is a unique Romanesque-Gothic double chapel. It is the best preserved example of the Hohenstaufen architecture in Central Europe. The chapel has two storeys;

10710-450: Was presented as a restoration of (imagined) good old customs and order. The notion that structural change was founded upon a unified reform programme contained in fifteenth-century treatises and polemics has also been called into question." Brady Jr. notes that, the Empire, now the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, gained most of its institutions, that endured until its final demise in the nineteenth century. Thomas Brady Jr. opines that

10815-423: Was put into execution on the spot if that was possible. The secret court, from whose procedure the whole institution has acquired its evil reputation, was closed to all but the initiated, although these were so numerous as to secure quasi-publicity; any one not a member on being discovered was instantly put to death, and the members present were bound under the same penalty not to disclose what took place. Crimes of

10920-520: Was quickly made known to the whole body, and the Freischöffe who was the first to meet the condemned was bound to put him to death. This was usually done by hanging, the nearest tree serving for gallows. A knife with the mystic letters was left beside the corpse to show that the deed was not a murder. It has been claimed that, in some cases, the condemned would be set free, given several hours' head start and then hunted down and put to death. So fearsome

11025-594: Was the reputation of the Fehme and its reach that many thus released committed suicide rather than prolonging the inevitable. This practice could have been a holdover from the ancient Germanic legal concept of outlawry ( Acht ). Legend and romance have combined to exaggerate the sinister reputation of the Fehmic courts; but modern historical research has largely discounted this, proving that they never employed torture, that their sittings were only sometimes secret, and that their meeting-places were always well known. The system, though ancient, came into wider use only after

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