Editing History of Germany (section)

===Imperial reform===
{{Main|Imperial Reform}}
[[File:Germania by Jorg Kolderer.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Personification of the Reich as [[Germania (personification)|Germania]], a figure reinvented by Maximilian and his humanists,{{Sfn|Wilson|2016|p=2}} by [[:de:Jörg Kölderer|Jörg Kölderer]], 1512. The "German woman", wearing her hair loose and a crown, sitting on the Imperial throne, corresponds both to the self-image of Maximilian I as King of Germany and the formula ''Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation'' (omitting other nations). While usually depicted during the Middle Age as subordinate to both imperial power and Italia or Gallia, she now takes central stage in Maximilian's [[Triumphal Procession]], being carried in front of [[c:File:Roma in Maximilian'sTriumphal Procession.jpg|Roma]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Strieder |first1=Peter |title=Zur Entstehungsgeschichte von Dürers Ehrenpforte für Kaiser Maximilian |journal=Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums |date=8 May 2017 |pages=128–142 Seiten |doi=10.11588/azgnm.1954.0.38143 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hirschi |first=Caspar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4_v4iySQgnsC&pg=PA45 |title=The Origins of Nationalism: An Alternative History from Ancient Rome to Early Modern Germany |date=8 December 2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-1395-0230-6 |page=45 |language=en |access-date=7 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Brandt |first=Bettina |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jJLM607h6jsC&pg=PA37 |title=Germania und ihre Söhne: Repräsentationen von Nation, Geschlecht und Politik in der Moderne |date=2010 |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |isbn=978-3-5253-6710-0 |page=37 |language=de |access-date=8 February 2022}}</ref>]]

During his reign from 1493 to 1519, [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian I]], in a combined effort with the Estates (who sometimes acted as opponents and sometimes as cooperators to him), his officials and his humanists, [[Imperial Reform|reformed]] the empire. A dual system of Supreme Courts (the ''[[Reichskammergericht]]'' and the [[Aulic Council|''Reichshofrat'']]) was established (with the ''Reichshofrat'' playing a more efficient role during the Early Modern period),{{Sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2021|p=52}} together with the formalized Reception of Roman Law;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=Daniel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3jfcCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA243 |title=Popular Sovereignty in Early Modern Constitutional Thought |date=19 February 2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1910-6244-5 |page=243 |language=en |access-date=20 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Thornhill |first=Chris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3JuU_MfVTbAC&pg=PA12 |title=German Political Philosophy: The Metaphysics of Law |date=24 January 2007 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-1343-8280-4 |page=12 |language=en |access-date=20 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Haivry |first=Ofir |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KNvFDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA118 |title=John Selden and the Western Political Tradition |date=29 June 2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-1070-1134-2 |page=118 |language=en |access-date=20 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mousourakis |first=George |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n6tBDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT435 |title=The Historical and Institutional Context of Roman Law |date=2 March 2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-3518-8840-0 |page=435 |language=en |access-date=20 November 2021}}</ref> the [[Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire)|Imperial Diet]] (''Reichstag'') became the all-important political forum and the supreme legal and constitutional institution, which would act as a guarantee for the preservation of the Empire in the long run;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Neuhaus |first=Helmut |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z9PnBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT48 |title=Das Reich in der Frühen Neuzeit |date=1 October 2010 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-4867-0179-1 |page=48 |language=de |access-date=14 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Brendle |first=Franz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MBxoAAAAMAAJ |title=Dynastie, Reich und Reformation: die württembergischen Herzöge Ulrich und Christoph, die Habsburger und Frankreich |date=1998 |publisher=W. Kohlhammer |isbn=978-3-1701-5563-3 |page=54 |language=de |access-date=14 February 2022}}</ref> a Permanent Land Piece (''Ewiger Landfriede'') was declared in 1495 with regional leagues and unions providing the supporting structure, together with the creation of the ''Reichskreise'' (''Imperial Circles'', which would serve the purpose of organize imperial armies, collect taxes and enforce orders of the imperial institutions);<ref>{{Cite book |last=Treichel |first=Eckhardt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n9iRCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT1549 |title=Organisation und innere Ausgestaltung des Deutschen Bundes 1815–1819 |date=14 December 2015 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |isbn=978-3-1104-2400-3 |page=1549 |language=en |access-date=14 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Putten |first=Jasper Cornelis van |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sSk_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA256 |title=Networked Nation: Mapping German Cities in Sebastian Münster's "Cosmographia" |date=6 November 2017 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-9-0043-5396-1 |page=256 |language=en |access-date=14 February 2022}}</ref>{{Sfn|Whaley|2011|pp=76, 77}} the Imperial and Court Chanceries were combined to become the decisive government institution;{{Sfn|Müller|2003|p=298}}{{Sfn|Brady|2009|p=111}} the [[Landsknecht]]e that Maximilian created became a form of imperial army;{{Sfn|Whaley|2011|p=74}} a national political culture began to emerge;{{Sfn|Whaley|2011|p=115}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Whaley |first=Joachim |title=Whaley on Silver, "Marketing Maximilian: the Visual Ideology of a Holy Roman Emperor" H-German H-Net |url=https://networks.h-net.org/node/35008/reviews/45722/whaley-silver-marketing-maximilian-visual-ideology-holy-roman-emperor |access-date=3 March 2022 |website=networks.h-net.org}}</ref> and the German language began to attain an unified form.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Tennant |first1=Elaine C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JdIDcGyUcN4C&pg=PA3 |title=The Habsburg Chancery Language in Perspective, Volume 114 |last2=Johnson |first2=Carroll B. |date=1985 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-5200-9694-3 |pages=1, 3, 9 |access-date=21 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927161255/https://books.google.com/books?id=JdIDcGyUcN4C&pg=PA3 |archive-date=27 September 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wiesinger |first1=Peter |title=Zwei Varietäten der deutschen Schriftsprache durch Konfessionalisierung im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert |journal=Jahrbuch für Germanistische Sprachgeschichte |date=16 August 2018 |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=213–234 |doi=10.1515/jbgsg-2018-0014 |s2cid=186566355 }}</ref> The political structure remained incomplete and piecemeal though, mainly due to the failure of the Common Penny (an imperial tax) that the Estates resisted.{{Sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2021|p=52}}{{Efn|"By no means all the Imperial Estates, for example, participated in the ''Reichstag''. Not every vassal of the emperor, even in the German lands, participated in the emerging political system from the start. In the period around 1500 what might be described as the political nation was largely confined to the south, to the old Hohenstaufen core territories south of the Main and the Saale, to the areas between Alsace in the west and the Austrian duchies in the east, where the Habsburgs had extended their territories and around them, their clientele.", pg. 39.{{Sfn|Whaley|2011|pp=12, 39, 40, 50, 72, 80}}}} Through many compromises between emperor and estates though, a flexible, future-oriented problem-solving mechanism for the Empire was formed, together with a monarchy through which the emperor shared power with the Estates.{{Sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2021|p=47}}{{Efn|"[...] it is a tribute to his success that what emerged by the end of his reign was not an oligarchy of princes but a strengthened monarchy", pg. 75; "The Reich emerged from the reforms of 1495 and 1500 as a polity in which the emperor and the Estates coexisted, but also competed, in uneasy equilibrium", pg. 95.{{Sfn|Whaley|2011|p=27, 75}}}} Whether the Reform also equated to a (successful or unsuccessful) nation building process remains a debate.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Friedeburg |first=Robert von |url=https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-17379 |title=Germany and the Holy Roman Empire |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1987-3101-6 |access-date=26 February 2022}}</ref>

The addition ''Nationis Germanicæ'' (of German Nation) to the emperor's title appeared first in the 15th century: in a 1486 law decreed by Frederick III and in 1512 in reference to the Imperial Diet in Cologne by Maximilian I. In 1525, the Heilbronn reform plan – the most advanced document of the [[German Peasants' War]] (''Deutscher Bauernkrieg'') – referred to the ''Reich'' as ''von Teutscher Nation'' (of German nation). During the fifteen century, the term "German nation" had witness a rise in use due to the growth of a "community of interests". The Estates also increasingly distinguished between their German Reich and the wider, "universal" Reich.{{Sfn|Whaley|2011|p=17, 73}}