Reichsexekution

In German history, a Reichsexekution (sometimes "Reich execution" in English) was an imperial or federal intervention against a member state, using military force if necessary. The instrument of the Reichsexekution was constitutionally available to the central governments of the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806), the German Empire of 1848–49, the German Empire of 1871–1918, the Weimar Republic (1918–33) and Nazi Germany (1933–45). Under the German Confederation (1815–66) and the North German Confederation (1867–71), the same right belonged to the confederal government and is called Bundesexekution.

The basis of the Holy Roman Emperor's right to act against an Imperial Estate, by military means if necessary, lay in the imperial reforms enacted by the Diet of Worms in 1495, most importantly the declaration of Eternal Peace within the bounds of the empire. Against those who broke the peace, the emperor could obtain a ruling from the Imperial Chamber Court or the Imperial Aulic Council and then issue a Reichsexekution against the offending estate. Often, the imperial execution would be delegated to one or several other estates belong to the same Imperial Circle as the offender. When this was insufficient, it fell to the empire as a whole and the Reichsarmee (imperial army) to enforce the verdict of the court, resulting in a full Reichskrieg (imperial war), which may be known as a Reichsexekutionskrieg or Exekutionskrieg. This final escalation required the approval of the Imperial Diet after 1648.

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