Reichsstädtische Außenbeziehungen in der Frühen Neuzeit (Krischer)

Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz

Today we’re reviewing André Krischer’s ‘Reichsstädtische Außenbeziehungen in der Frühen Neuzeit’, which appeared in the 2018 collection ‘Neue Stadtgeschichte(n). Die Reichsstadt Frankfurt im Vergleich’ edited by Schmidt-Funke and Schnettger #RetroConflictInspirations.

It offers an excellent account of how, in Frankfurt and elsewhere, Imperial Cities actively pursued diplomatic contact, which has left a rich set of sources on diplomatic travel and on cities' correspondence with the Imperial court, nearby states, and other cities. Drawing on Thiessen and Windler (2010), Krischer shows how the perspective of foreign policy in its modern sense offers us less when thinking about Imperial Cities than the concept of ‘Außenbeziehungen’, which better captures the social component of early modern politics. He emphasizes that ‘Außenbeziehungen’, by foregrounding agency and relationships, addresses the asymmetries of the period’s politics, an idea also important for our project as we consider cities in conflict with states, the Empire, the Hanse, and with one another. The ceremonial part of cities’ relationships is important here too. Despite challenges for urban republics trying to fit in to a society of princes, ceremonial interaction allowed them to carve out a political niche, which opened up new strategies for conflict management.

Read the chapter at [url]https://academia.edu/36534811/Reichsst%C3%A4dtische_Au%C3%9Fenbeziehungen_in_der_Fr%C3%BChen_Neuzeit_Patronage_Zeremoniell_Korrespondenz or find the full book at https://transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3482-2/neue-stadtgeschichte-n/ [/url]

AC

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Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz

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