Nowhere in early modern Europe (fifteenth to eighteenth centuries) did religious refugees enjoy more special legal protections than they did in the so-called 'refugee-cities' (Exulantenstädte) of Germany. These were new cities founded, mostly in the seventeenth century, by German princes with the express intention of attracting religious refugees to settle them. Offering two case studies, of Neuhanau and Neuwied, this article examines the legal provisions that extended personal, economic, civil and religious rights to the refugees who settled them. The article shows that these rights reflected the needs and desires of refugees as well as the agendas of early modern princes. It also shows why, to achieve the goals of both parties, it became standard practice to combine the refugees' special rights with separate urban status for their settlements. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

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legal rights Germany refugee religion human rights social status social history