thumb|Session of the Imperial Chamber Court in [[Wetzlar, 1750]]
The ; ; ) was one of the two highest judicial institutions in the Holy Roman Empire, the other one being the Aulic Council in Vienna. It was founded in 1495 by the Imperial Diet in Worms. All legal proceedings in the Holy Roman Empire could be brought to the Imperial Chamber Court, except if the ruler of the territory had a so-called privilegium de non appellando, in which case the highest judicial institution was found by the ruler of that territory (though the privilege could be bypassed if a litigant could claim they had been denied due process). Another exception was criminal law in which the Imperial Chamber Court could intervene only if basic procedural rules had been violated.
The Imperial Chamber Court was infamous for the long time that it took to reach a verdict. Some proceedings, especially in lawsuits between different states of the Empire, took several hundred years. Some of the lawsuits had not been brought to an end when it was dissolved in 1806 following the downfall of the Holy Roman Empire. However, it has lately been discovered that it could often be attributed to a loss of interest on the part of the parties involved, and that the court was sometimes much more efficient than previously thought. Sometimes, the court even ordered injunctions within a few days.
Recent research has also brought to light that especially in the 18th century, the rulings of the court anticipated in many ways the constitutional establishment of civil liberties in Germany. For instance, the inviolability of one's housing or freedom of trade was legally introduced in the Empire by rulings of the court. In the late 18th century, some contemporaries even compared the Imperial Chamber Court to the National Assembly in Revolutionary France.
History
thumb|Imperial Chamber Court building in Wetzlar, 2014
At its foundation, the Imperial Chamber Court was seated in Frankfurt. It was later moved to Worms, Augsburg, Nürnberg, Regensburg, Speyer, Esslingen, Speyer again (from 1527 to 1689), and finally to Wetzlar until it was dissolved in 1806.
From the early Middle Ages, there had been a supreme court for the Empire, the Hofgericht, in which the Emperor himself presided.
Since technically anyone could appeal to the Reichskammergericht, in the 18th century, Peasant appeals were extremely common. A member of the court in 1767 said that "these kinds of lawsuits [that is, complaints against rulers] have unfortunately become so frequent of late that every day whole flocks of peasants may be seen [on their way to court]".
The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ruled that half of the members of the court must be Protestant, and called for a total of 50 judges to be appointed at any time. However, this number was not reached, as the Imperial Estates, who had to finance the court, was unwilling to pay for so many judges. After Westphalia, the court consisted of 20 judges which were divided into 2 "senates" that heard cases independently. In 1782, the number of judges went up to 28, making up 3 senates.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! width="10%" style="background:#FFDEAD"| Nr.
! width="60%" style="background:#FFDEAD"| Name
! width="30%" style="background:#FFDEAD"| Period
|-
| 1
| style="text-align:left" | Eitel Friedrich von Zollern
| 1495–1496
|-
| 2
| style="text-align:left" | Jakob II von Baden
| 1496–1499
|-
| 3
| style="text-align:left" | Adolf von Nassau
| 1500–1501
|-
| 4
| style="text-align:left" | Wiguleus Fröschl
| 1503–1504,<br />1507–1508
|-
| –
| style="text-align:left" | Adolf von Nassau (2nd term)
| 1509–1511
|-
| 5
| style="text-align:left" | Sigismund von Fraunberg
| 1512–1518
|-
| 6
| style="text-align:left" | Adam von Beichlingen
| 1521–1535
|-
| 7
| style="text-align:left" | Johann von Pfalz-Simmern
| 1536–1539
|-
| 8
| style="text-align:left" | Johann von Montfort
| 1541–1547
|-
| 9
| style="text-align:left" | Wilhelm Werner von Zimmern
| 1548–1555
|-
| 10
| style="text-align:left" | Johann von Hoya
| 1556–1557
|-
| 11
| style="text-align:left" | Michael Helding
| 1558–1561
|-
| 12
| style="text-align:left" | Friedrich von Löwenstein
| 1562–1568
|-
| 13
| style="text-align:left" | Marquard von Hattstein
| 1569–1581
|-
| 14
| style="text-align:left" | Philipp von Winneberg
| 1582–1583
|-
| 15
| style="text-align:left" | Eberhard von Dienheim
| 1584–1610
|-
| 16
| style="text-align:left" | Philipp Christoph von Sötern
| 1611–1652
|-
| 17
| style="text-align:left" | Wilhelm von Baden
| 1652–1676
|-
| 18
| style="text-align:left" | Johann Hugo von Orsbeck
| 1676–1710
|-
| 19
| style="text-align:left" | Franz Alexander von Nassau-Hadamar
| 1711
|-
| 20
| style="text-align:left" | Froben Ferdinand von Fürstenberg-Mößkirch
| 1717–1721
|-
| 21
| style="text-align:left" | Philipp Karl von Hohenlohe-Bartenstein
| 1722–1729
|-
| 22
| style="text-align:left" | Franz Adolf Dietrich von Ingelheim
| 1730–1742
|-
| 23
| style="text-align:left" | Ambrosius Franz von Virmont
| 1742–1744
|-
| 24
| style="text-align:left" | Karl Philipp Franz zu Hohenlohe-Bartenstein
| 1746–1763
|-
| 25
| style="text-align:left" | Franz Joseph Spaur von Pflaum und Valeur
| 1763–1797
|-
| 26
| style="text-align:left" | Philipp Karl zu Oettingen-Wallerstein
| 1797–1801
|-
| 27
| style="text-align:left" | Heinrich Alois von Reigersberg
| 1803–1806
|}
References
External links
- Society for Imperial Chamber Court Research, Wetzlar
- Museum and Research Centre of the Imperial Chamber Court