Domfreiheit

This area stretched only a few hundred metres from the outbuildings of the cathedral, at most, and was usually surrounded by a fortified wall (Domburg).

This led to ever greater tension in many cities over the centuries, as is clear, for example, from the entry for 1612 in the Speyerer Chronicle by town secretary Christoph Lehmen.

Where the Reformation found root, most cloisters were secularised and, as a rule, the Domfreiheit also ceased to exist.

With the secularisation of the Diocese of Bremen as Bremen-Verden in 1648, after almost eighty years as a Lutheran bishopric, its Domfreiheit[2] in the centre of the city came under Swedish control.

Relatively well preserved Domfreiheiten include those in Halberstadt, Hildesheim, Magdeburg, Merseburg, Münster, Meissen, Naumburg and Trier.