Digitising Records of Low German Municipal Assemblies
Historical background
Municipal assemblies, so called ‘diets’ (‘Tagfahrten’ in German), were among the most important events in the political landscape of the Middle Ages and early modern period. This was particularly true of cities dominated by Low German merchants, whose best-known and largest assemblies were the ‘Hansetage’ (diets of Hanseatic cities). From the first meetings until well into the 17th century, minutes of the proceedings were taken at the diets of the Hanseatic cities: the so-called ‘Hanserezesse’ (Hanseatic Resolutions).
Therefore, the archival records that have emerged from them are extensive. The archives of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck alone record more than 100 Hanserezesse.
In addition to the resolutions drafted at the General Diets, the project also covers other diets: from the overarching meetings of Hanseatic cities to regional assemblies and short-notice meetings, from the beginning of the assembly system of Low German cities in the 13th century to the end of the 17th century.
Project objectives
Overall, the project aims to enable clear and well-structured work with the Rezesse of the assemblies of Low German cities.
The first step in our project is to enter the final documents from the assemblies into a database. This involves creating an inventory of the Rezess manuscripts and diets. For this purpose, we are using the modular database ‘nodegoat’.
The systematic recording of the manuscript tradition is an important basis for further research into urban assembly culture. The results will then be made available to both researchers and the interested public.
Building on this, concepts for a comprehensive reappraisal of the Rezess tradition will be developed for further exploitation. In particular, the diverse possibilities of digital publication will be taken into account. A first step in this direction is the citizen science project ‘Read!Hanse.Sources.’. The results of the project will be published and made available via a read&search page.
Another aspect that the project intends to address is the question of source criticism for urban assembly documents. As a sub-project of the international research project ‘The Flow,’ standardised workflows are being developed to structure source studies on digitised material.