In general, an imperial good is known as a good, that belongs to the empire. As such it is subordinated to the disposal of the ruling king or emperor.
It is difficult to differentiate the imperial good from the so called domestic good. It was set up in the time after the "Karolinger"under the table good register of the roman king and the register of the empire. The imperial good is recognizable by donations, disposals or barter and it arranges itself in crown good, empire church good and empire fief good. In "merowinger" and "karolinger" times the imperial good was prevailing fiscal possession at places of the "Pfalz" or rather at places of kings like "Worms" and "Mainz" and along the track of "Straßburg". With the building of crownvasality and fiefmaster, already in "karolinger" times the imperial good passed over to aristocratic families, also as finctional equipment of earls, or turned out as possession into churchal decreecontrol. After the "Ottonen" and the "Salier", large regions were built out of the imperial good. The direct utilization of the imperial good was more and more compensated by exaggeration of fiscal output from "Regalienvergabungen" or rather from taxpayments of empire cities or deliveries for jewprotection. Around 1020 the differentiation and arrangement of imperial good and domestic good happens by Heinrich II. But only in the first third of the 12th century the domestic good and the imperial good were also separated from each other in government experience with the help of the investitution fight at the German king`s court. The king, who increases the empire, had free decreecontrol about imperial good, only as far as he took barterdeals without disadvantage for his followers, however the upper property of the empire`s imperial church good is required. Pawn of imperial cities was formally considered by the rule of disposal of imperial rights or rather imperial good. With the end of the Staufer, the imperial good more and more lost its importance. Fiefation, usurpation and pawnation led to extension of domestic good and its administration by economical and political existence, nevertheless records of imperial good around "Nürnberg" and in the "Speyergau" still are interested in ancient possessionships.
So, monastery Niedernburg in Passau became imperial good, when the power over Passau went over from the deposed Bavarian duke Tassilo III. to Charlemagne.
worked out by: Ulrich Sommer
translation by: susanne Fischer
(2004/24.8.2005)