[1] An unusual exception were the estates in the land of Hadeln, which were formed almost exclusively of the farmers of large farms (Großbauer).
In the Ständeordnungen, unlike absolutist systems of rule, the prince could not raise new taxes or adopt new laws outside his own personal estate (chamber goods or Kämmergüter) without the consent of the Landstände.
The records of the Roman historian, Tacitus, show that co-determination was already being practised in the classical period at important public occasions.
Even in the later Frankish Empire, alongside the general assemblies of the nobility and clergy, so-called placita are recorded; a form of representation of the people.
Even the imperial and knightly assemblies and the state things of the 12th and 13th centuries were structures that dealt with the general welfare of the land, but these meetings still lacked the character of an independent body.