Landtag

Landtag (German): was a territorial assembly of representatives of the estates of the realm. Starting about the beginning of the fourteenth century, most of the duchies, principalities and kingdoms of the Holy Roman (German) Empire (800-1806) had these diets or assemblies composed of representatives of the three estates, i.e., the nobility, the clergy and the third estate or commons (chiefly the burghers, landowners and lesser aristocrats). These Landtage were often important checks on the provincial rulers before the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) which devastated much of Germany, reduced the population by more than one half and reduced the powers of the Landtage to assemblies that merely endorsed the wishes of their rulers. However, the Ständische Landtage continued to exist as nominal but powerless bodies until the end of the Empire and in a few cases even to the middle of the nineteenth century.