Kulm law, Culm law or Chełmno Law (german: Kulmer Recht; lat, Jus Culmense vetus; pl, Prawo chełmińskie) was a legal

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princip ...

for a

municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

form of government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

used in several Central European cities during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. It was initiated on 28 December 1233 in the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights by Hochmeister Hermann von Salza and Hermann Balk when the towns of Thorn (Toruń) and Chełmno (Kulm) received German town law, in particular as a modification of

Magdeburg rights Magdeburg rights (german: Magdeburger Recht; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within ...

. Named after the town it was signed in, the original document (''Kulmer Handfeste'') was lost in 1244 when the town hall burned due to an attack by Swantopolk II, Duke of Pomerania. The renewed charter of 1 October 1251 was based on a copy in Thorn, but the rights were reduced. This type of law was mostly granted by the

Teutonic Order The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...

to cities within their monastic state, but also adopted by cities elsewhere, mainly in the neighboring independent Duchy of Masovia. In addition, the Kulm law was expanded, independently from the Knights, to a larger set of laws called ''

Alter Kulm Alter may refer to: * Alter (name), people named Alter * Alter (automobile) * Alter (crater), a lunar crater * Alter Channel, a Greek TV channel * Archbishop Alter High School, a Roman Catholic high school in Kettering, Ohio * ALTER, a command in ...

''. Cities located under Kulm law include:

Literature

* ''Jus Culmense ex ultima revisione, oder das vollständige culmische Recht, mit Anmerkungen''. Danzig: Johann Friedrich Battels, 1767

* Janicka, Danuta. ''Prawo karne w trzech rewizjach prawa chełmińskiego z XVI wieku''. Toruń: TNT, 1992. * Janicka, Danuta. ''Nauka o winie i karze w dziejach klasycznej szkoły prawa karnego w Niemczech w 1 połowie XIX wieku''. Toruń: Wydaw. Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, 1998. * Johanek, Peter. "Alter Kulm." In ''Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon'', vol. 1, edited by Kurt Ruh, 267–269. Berlin: Auflage, 1978. * Rogatschewski, Alexander. "Zur Geschichte des 'Alten Kulms' und anderer preußischer Rechtsbücher nach St. Petersburger Quellen." In ''Deutschsprachige Literatur des Mittelalters im Östlichen Europa: Forschungsstand und Forschungsperspektiven'', edited by R. G. Päsler and D. Schmidtke, 199–244. Heildelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2006. * Päsler, Ralf G. ''Deutschsprachige Sachliteratur im Preußenland bis 1500: Untersuchungen zu ihrer Überlieferung'', 197, 222–224, 243–252. Köln: Bohlau, 2003. * Urban, William. ''The Prussian Crusade'', 123–128. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1980. Kulm law, Legal history of the Holy Roman Empire Urban planning in Germany {{Poland-hist-stub

See also

Literature