Initially, the city was a part of an ecclesiastical principality (Hochstift) in the Holy Roman Empire, led by the Archbishop of Cologne in his position as the prince-elector (Kurfürst). Tension between the ruler and the urban community (Gemeinde) arose in the early medieval period as wealthy burghers sought to protect their own interests (such as privileges and trade monopolies) in the city, apart from the Archbishop’s influence. Matters escalated during the Investiture Controversy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when, as noted by Huffman, “Cologne burghers showed remarkably expanded collective agency by interjecting themselves into the controversy”. For instance, one of the leading parties of the Investiture Controversy, Emperor Henry IV, officially recognised the Gemeinde as a legal authority. Similarly, his successor, Henry V, also negotiated with the city of Cologne without the interference of the Archduke. After Archbishop Siegfried II suffered a decisive defeat at the Battle of Worringen in 1288, Cologne’s urban community managed to claim official political independence. While the Archbishop remained the lord of the city (until it became a free imperial city in 1475), his influence was reduced to appointments for the high court and, in the fifteenth century, he moved his seat to the nearby city of Bonn.

Furthermore, Cologne’s political structure was significantly impacted between 1391 and 1396, when the rising new merchant class revolted against the ruling patriarchy and claimed dominance over the urban council. During the early medieval period, wealthy citizens (the Patrizier families or the meliores, the self-proclaimed ‘better people’) and ministeriales took on the role of Schöffen (also called scabini) in the city, lay-judges who also had seats in the Archbishop’s High Court. From 1369 onwards, the urban council was dominated by members of prominent merchant families and the urban guilds. The 22 so-called Gaffeln, associations of burghers based on their occupation, elected the majority of the urban council members. The Gaffeln encompassed a wide spectrum of economic activities, including craft guilds, for example, tailors, shoemakers, and bakers, and merchant guilds, such as the Rhenish wine merchants. Each Gaffel was entitled to send a fixed number of representatives, ensuring that political power was more evenly distributed among the city’s economic sectors. They elected 36 individuals in total, with 13 other magistrates (the Gebrech) chosen by the urban council itself. Lastly, two burgomasters, elected from different Gaffeln, led the council for one year at a time. The burgomasters functioned as the chief representatives of the city, both internally and externally. Internally, they presided over council meetings and oversaw the execution of council decisions. They were also responsible for supervising the city’s finances, legal affairs, and public order, often working closely together with the urban secretaries and other officials. Externally, the burgomasters represented Cologne in negotiations with imperial authorities, neighbouring cities, and the Archbishop. They led diplomatic embassies, signed treaties, and handled diplomatic correspondence.

Urban secretaries (or scribes) also played a crucial and increasingly professionalised role within Cologne’s urban government. The day-to-day functioning of the council relied heavily on university-trained bureaucrats. The secretaries formed the administrative backbone of Cologne’s civic government, handling documentation, correspondence, legal matters, and record-keeping. Urban secretaries had often enjoyed a university education, frequently comprising legal training in Roman or canon law. Thanks to their often long-term positions, they helped maintain internal administrative continuity, which was especially important given the annually rotating offices of council members and the shared governance among the Gaffeln. Though technically subordinate to the council, experienced secretaries could wield considerable informal influence. Their knowledge of procedure, precedent, and law often meant that they shaped the formulation of council decisions. Some even held overlapping roles as notaries or legal advisors.

As a result of its political independence from the Archbishop, its position as a free and, later on, imperial city and its membership of the Hanse, Cologne had significant autonomy and influence. Within the organisational structure of the Hanse, Cologne was the leader of its own regional quarter, which included cities such as Münster, Wesel, Nijmegen, and Deventer. Additionally, the city joined various other urban bonds, such as the Rhenish League (Rheinischer Städtebund) in the second half of the thirteenth century. Such often overlapping city leagues, protecting specific shared interests, were part and parcel of the medieval period.

With Cologne’s many urban connections and internal cooperations between the merchant class and guilds, its burghers could access various courts, with only some limited boundaries between these legal spaces. An inhabitant of Cologne who had obtained citizenship could access the urban council’s court, but also the courts of the city’s guilds, the Archbishop, and the Holy Roman Empire (the Reichkammergericht). Thanks to their city being part of the Hanse, burghers involved in trade could also access other urban courts within the League, or turn towards the Hanseatic outposts (Kontore) in foreign trading regions.

Cologne’s urban court, led by its council members, heard cases that typically involved disputes among citizens, such as issues of property and inheritance, contracts, or other commercial transactions. The council also handled public order cases, including cases of theft and assault. While the council served as the final court of appeal in many cases, it often delegated legal tasks to specialised courts or judges for specific types of cases. For many legal matters, Cologne relied on the Schöffengericht, who, since 1296, were elected among the burghers, every half year, by the council. These judges would hear a broad range of cases, including criminal trials and some civil disputes. While the Schöffen were not trained legal professionals, they were respected citizens whose judgments were based on customary law and local ordinances. The presence of both councillors and Schöffen in the courts ensured that legal decisions reflected both the community’s customs and the urban council’s policies.

As a significant religious centre, Cologne also had ecclesiastical courts, which dealt with matters concerning canon law. These courts were separate from the city’s municipal courts and had jurisdiction over religious matters, including marriage disputes, inheritance issues involving clergy, and cases of heresy or moral conduct. The Archbishop of Cologne, as the city’s spiritual leader, had authority over these courts, though his influence was typically limited to matters within the church’s domain. Furthermore, since Cologne was a Free Imperial City, it was subject to the broader legal framework of the Holy Roman Empire. This meant that certain high-profile cases, especially those involving nobles, were heard by imperial courts. The Reichskammergericht was established in 1495 by Emperor Maximilian I as the principal imperial court for the Holy Roman Empire, tasked with resolving disputes among the empire’s various territories. It had both civil and criminal jurisdiction, addressing issues that were too complex or significant to be handled by local courts. As the highest judicial body in the Empire, the Reichskammergericht was empowered to hear appeals from lower courts and to arbitrate in legal matters involving the empire’s nobility, cities, and ecclesiastical authorities.

Throughout the medieval and early modern period, Cologne’s merchants were active on both local and international markets, facilitating the exchange of goods and fostering the city’s economic growth. Cologne’s location on the Rhine made it an essential trading hub in North-Western Europe. The city was strategically positioned at the crossroads of major trade routes connecting the North Sea, the Baltic, Flanders, Brabant, and Italy. Due to the city’s guest law (Gastenrecht), foreign merchants could only trade with the assistance of a Cologne burgher. Cologne’s own merchants engaged in the exchange of a wide variety of goods, including wool, wine, cloth, herring, salt, grain, and spices. Being one of the first German groups to obtain privileges in England and the Low Countries – before grants from the local rulers, mainly for convenience, had grouped merchants who spoke Low German together as the so-called ‘Hanse’ – Cologne’s urban council maintained strong political ties with these regions throughout the medieval and early modern period. In particular, as part of the cloth trade, Cologne’s merchants mainly divided their English trade businesses between London and Antwerp. In the latter city, Cologne merchants set up a long-lasting system of buyers, representatives, and sellers, moving goods to England and exporting others from Antwerp’s harbour deeper inland.

Due to its Rhenish wine staple, Cologne was also a mandatory stop for merchants and skippers transporting wine barrels from the Rhine region to the markets of, among others, Dordrecht, Antwerp, and Bruges. Here, the urban infrastructure also played an important part, in particular Cologne’s circa 1 kilometre long harbour, which allowed access to increasingly large ships that traversed the Rhine, as well as witnessing the implementation of several cranes.

Cologne’s involvement in the wine trade was closely tied to the Middle Rhine and Moselle regions, which were famous for producing high-quality wines. Municipal authorities regulated the wine trade through strict market controls and toll systems. Imported wines were subject to inspection and customs duties upon arrival at Cologne’s ports. The city also maintained detailed records of wine shipments and prices, which helped stabilise the market and provided revenue for the urban administration.

Seasonal wine fairs attracted regional traders and allowed Cologne to assert economic dominance in the Rhine corridor. Several of the city’s Gaffeln were directly or indirectly involved in the Rhenish wine trade, reflecting the trade’s economic significance and the city’s corporative structure. Among the 22 Gaffeln, we can discern the wine merchants and the shippers guild, two groups that were most directly engaged with the trade and distribution of wine; the coopers’ guild, responsible for producing and maintaining barrels for storage and transport; and the innkeepers’ guild, whose members bought wine in bulk to sell to their visitors.

In addition, the city also benefited from its thriving textile industry. In the medieval period, Cologne became a significant producer of cloth, particularly woollen textiles, which were in high demand across Europe. This industry attracted skilled labourers and artisans from across the Holy Roman Empire, and Cologne’s textile production became an essential part of its economic fabric. Cologne’s prominent economic position can also be gleaned from the widespread implementation of its commercial weights and measurements (the Cologne mark) in other cities of commerce.

From the late sixteenth century onwards, Cologne’s previously leading role within European trade began to decrease slightly. Several factors contributed to this decline in prominence, in particular the growing significance of transatlantic trade and the subsequent rise of competing commercial centres. Although the city’s trade in Rhenish wine remained strong, it suffered from inflation, and its customer base began to shrink, with Rhenish wine becoming more of a luxury product. Additionally, historians have noted the rising popularity of beer consumption, thanks to the newly introduced use of hops in its production.