citizens, but they would appoint a new member on their own from the city's merchant guilds. This was considered a key to representation of the guilds in the Rat of the city. The period of office was in principle 2 years, but the Rat could ask a Ratsherr to stay in office, which usually happened, so that the election was effectively for life. The Rat elected up to four Bürgermeister (burgomaster, mayor) from its members, who shared the power of government. The "first burgomaster", usually the eldest of them, acted as a primus inter pares. These rules were in force up to the middle of the 19th century. The burgomasters stayed in office as long as they could. There are several examples from the Middle Ages in which burgomasters of Hanseatic League cities were sentenced to death for unsuccessful politics. This model of a city government provided that only the most experienced, influential and personally most successful merchants - and a few lawyers, called Syndics - became members of the Rat. It was also a rule that a father and his son, or brothers, could never be members of the Rat at the same time, so that influential families could not get too large a share of influence on the city's politics. Cities with Lübeck law See also German town law Kulm law Magdeburg rights Notes Citations References Dollinger, Phillipe. The German Hansa. Translated and Edited by D. S. Ault and S. H. Steinberg. Stanford University Press, 1970. Wilhelm Ebel: Lübisches Recht. 1. Band, Lübeck 1971 External links Heutiges Lübisches Stadtrecht nach der Revision vom Jahre 1586 Legal history of the Holy Roman Empire History of Lübeck Hanseatic League Urban planning in Germany