Stadtluft macht frei

Stadtluft macht frei[1] ("urban air makes you free"), or Stadtluft macht frei nach Jahr und Tag ("city air makes you free after a year and a day"), is a German saying describing a principle of law in the Middle Ages.

From the 11th century onwards, liberated serfs and other members of the Third Estate founded settlements alongside the old Roman or Germanic ones.

With the Statutum in favorem principum ("Statute in Favor of the Princes"), this regulation of customary law was officially abolished for the Holy Roman Empire in 1231/32.

According to the statute, cities under royal jurisdiction were forbidden to protect serfs originally owned by the regional princes or their vassals.

The statute is an example of power devolving from Imperial authority to that of territorial magnates during the drawn-out contest between the Hohenstaufen emperors and the Papacy.