Lübeck Law

Lübeck Law predicts the establishment of a council (German: Rat) with 20 members (German: Ratsherrn). The members were not elected by the citizens, but the council would appoint a new member on their own from the city's merchant guilds. The period of office was technically 2 years, but the other members of the council could simply ask a member to stay in office for another term, which usually happened.

This model of a city government provided that only the most experienced, influential and most successful merchants, as well as a few lawyers - became members of the council. It was also a rule that a father and his son, or brothers, could never be members of the council at the same time, so that influential families could not get too large a share of influence on the city's politics.

Mayors
The council elected up to four mayors (German: Bürgermeister) from its members, who shared the power of government. The "first mayor" (German: Erster Bürgermeister), usually the eldest member, acted as the de jure leader of the city, although he held the same power as the other four mayors. Being mayor was a hard job however, since there were multiple examples from the Middle Ages of mayors being sentenced to death for "unsuccessful politics".

History
The Lübeck law (German: Lübisches (Stadt)Recht) was a municipal form of government developed in Lübeck, after it was made a free city in 1226. The law provides for self-government. It replaced the personal rule of tribal monarchs descending from ancient times or the rule of the regional dukes and kings which had formerly been in use by most governments.

Lübeck law was prevalent throughout almost all cities in the northern regions of modern day Germany from it's founding in 1226 until 1900, when the modern German civil code (German: Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch) was implemented.