In recent years, historiographical studies of the Holy Roman Empire have shown how early modern policies focused on defining and redefining the relationship between governors and citizens, and that they were – for a large part – shaped by negotiating practices. Historians have discussed such practices in the general context of politics and communication, as well as from more specialized perspectives, such as early modern criminal prosecution, and the politics of migration or religion. However, they have mostly neglected the field of premodern environmental politics. The same applies to another emerging, crucial approach to analyses of premodern urban societies that examines ritual, communal, and symbolic activities.

In contrast, although the history of the environment has been an established discipline in Germany for decades, guiding questions have concerned either the impact of the environment on human society or, vice versa, environmental change caused by economic activity or by the behaviour of the urban population. Moreover, research was often inspired by contemporary environmental problems and centred on the period from the middle of the eighteenth century onward, whereas the medieval and early modern periods were often glossed over or superficially regarded as a ‘dark’ precursor to subsequent developments. More nuanced interpretations have only recently been included in the general historiography of premodern society, despite Ulf Dirlmeier's work in the 1980s on the environment-related politics of government in medieval towns and cities.