Margarethe von Merwitz

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Margarethe von Merwitz (* unknown; † 1469 in Gernrode ) was abbess of the combined monasteries of Gernrode and Frose from 1463 to 1469 .

Life

Margarethe von Merwitz comes from an unknown and probably noble family. Members of the family have only appeared in Gernrode since the first half of the 14th century. We are probably not dealing with members of the von der Merwitz family from Brandenburg, who were of the ministerial status. The hometown could rather be the desert of Merwitz in northern Thuringia.

When exactly she was born cannot be determined. It appears for the first time in the election of the abbess Agnes Schenk von Landsberg in 1425, because at that time the conditions for the election of the provost Agnes as abbess were laid down in writing. In order to be elected, the new abbess had to make some concessions to the chapter. The collegiate offices to be filled were also assigned, and Margarethe von Merwitz was made provess of Frose. This meant that she ran the monastery in Frose.

She became the successor of Mechthild II. Von Anhalt, who died in 1463, in the office of abbess of the united convents of Gernrode and Frose monasteries.

Some documents give information about their activities, on which their seal can be seen. After the death of Prince Bernhard von Anhalt on September 26, 1468, she enfeoffed Prince Georg I of Anhalt-Zerbst and, in lean, Prince Adolf and Albrecht, “ with Plötzkau Castle and accessories, the Bailiwick of Gernrode and Badeborn , gentlemen's service and half an inch to Gernrode, goods in Asmersleben, the tithe to Frose and a Freihof, as well as some rights in Jezer, Balberge , Pösigkau and Möllendorf and the Vogtei of Waldau . "

Nothing is known about her further activities in Gernrode. Margarethe von Merwitz died in 1469, her successor in office was Scholastika von Anhalt .

literature

Primary literature

  • Andreas Popperodt: Historia Ecclesiae Gerenrodenses 1560, printed by Johann Christoph Beckmann , in: Accessiones Historiae Anhaltinae (1716) udT Annales Gernrodensis .

Secondary literature

  • Hans Hartung: On the past of Gernrode , 1912.
  • Hans Schulze, Reinhold Specht, Günther Vorbrodt: The Gernrode Abbey , 1965.
  • Klaus Voigtländer: The Collegiate Church of Gernrode and its restoration 1858 - 1872 , 1980.
  • Otto von Heinemann : History of the abbey and description of the collegiate church at Gernrode , 1877.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hertel, Die Wüstungen im Nordthüringgau , pp. 253-254.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Margarethe von Merwitz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION abbess
DATE OF BIRTH 14th century or 15th century
DATE OF DEATH 1469
Place of death Gernrode