Adalbert of Bremen

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Archbishop Adalbert, bronze figure by Heinrich G. Bücker in the Bremen Cathedral Museum
Statue of Wandschneider in the facade of the Hamburg City Hall

Adalbert von Bremen (also: Albert, Adalbert I .; * around 1000 ; † March 16, 1072 in Goslar ) was Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen from 1043 to 1072 and one of the leading personalities of the empire at the time of Henry IV .

Origin and appointment

Adalbert came from the Saxon family of the Counts of Goseck an der Saale , from which the Wettins later emerged. He was educated at the cathedral school in Halberstadt and was also canon and provost of the cathedral in 1032. His brothers were the Count Palatine Dedo and Friedrich von Sachsen . Adalbert was considered an experienced and ambitious politician, albeit with a penchant for vanity and a quick-tempered temperament. Adalbert was invested as the successor to Archbishop Becelin , called Adalbrand, and by Benedict IX. provided with the archbishop's pallium .

Church politics

Adalbert tried to establish a patriarchate in Hamburg . In addition, he claimed the sole jurisdiction in his diocese and made many Saxon feudal lords bitter enemies, especially the Billunger.

Shortly before Clement II was enthroned as pope, Adalbert Adam von Bremen was briefly traded as the emperor's candidate for the Roman pontificate . Adam alone is also reported to have renounced his papal dignity in 1046 in favor of an attempt to establish a patriarchate of the north. The lofty patriarchal plans failed due to the resistance of the reform party in the curia , which did not want to allow any new intermediate bodies to arise.

1053 appointed Pope Leo IX. Adalbert became a legate and formally expanded the archbishopric to the Arctic Ocean. So the wish of the Danish king Sven Estridsson for a separate ecclesiastical province for his empire was initially rejected. Adalbert got and used the opportunity to expand his archdiocese in the Scandinavian mission area with numerous new suffragan dioceses . In 1056 he consecrated the Icelander Ísleifur Gissurarson as bishop over Iceland and Greenland .

Imperial politics

As an accompanying advisor to the emperor, he increasingly influenced the politics of Emperor Heinrich III. with which he was bound by a close relationship of trust. After accompanying him on trips to Italy and Hungary, he saved the ruler from an assassination attempt by the Billunger near his bishopric .

From 1056 Adalbert gained great influence over the underage King Henry IV. He ousted all other princes, especially Archbishop Anno II of Cologne, from the guardianship government and in 1064 became sole regent. He received at that time extensive forestry and hunting rights in forests of Bremen, Emsgau , Engerngau , Duisburg, Weserbergland and Westphalia. In 1066, Adalbert himself was overthrown because he had exploited the power of rule to enrich his church from crown property. For example, in 1065 he initiated the donation of the Reichshof in Duisburg by Heinrich IV. As a result, the Abodrites rose up against his missionary work in the new dioceses of Oldenburg , Ratzeburg and Mecklenburg .

After the kidnapping of Henry IV by the Archbishop Anno II of Cologne, he became regent of the empire alongside him . By pursuing his idea of ​​patriarchy, however, he increasingly came into conflict with Rome . And through the great influence on imperial politics and the enrichment of his archbishopric, the resistance of the German princes , especially the Billunger, was promoted, who finally removed Adalbert from the royal court and forced him to flee to his estate in Lochtum near Goslar. In 1069 he returned to the court and probably encouraged Henry IV in his policy of establishing a royal territory in the Harz . Adalbert was no longer able to regain his previous position of power, nonetheless he left behind a consolidated and powerful archdiocese .

Cathedral building

In Bremen, he played a key role in the reconstruction of the cathedral , which burned down in 1041 , and in order to obtain building material, he had the wall of the Domburg built by his predecessors removed. However, in 1064 this made it easier for the Saxon Duke Ordulf and his brother Count Hermann to take and plunder the bishopric of Bremen with their army. In honor of Adalbert, a valuable memorial and grave plaque was installed in the east crypt of Bremen Cathedral around 1940, which can still be viewed today.

Tradition, sources

The chronicler Adam von Bremen reports in detail about his work in his Hamburg Church History .

  • Adam of Bremen: Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum.
    • Online with a foreword by Georg Waitz (1813–1886)
    • In: Werner Trillmich , Rudolf Buchner (Hrsg.): Sources of the 9th and 11th centuries on the history of the Hamburg Church and the Empire (= FSGA. Volume 11). 7th edition, expanded compared to the 6th by a supplement by Volker Scior. Darmstadt 2000, ISBN 3-534-00602-X , pp. 137-499.
  • Otto Heinrich May : Regesten of the Archbishops of Bremen. Volume 1, Bremen 1937, p. 33 ff.

literature

  • Karl Ernst Hermann Krause:  Adalbert I. (Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen) . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, pp. 56-61.
  • Georg Dehio : History of the Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen. Volume 1, 1877, p. 175 ff.
  • Erich Maschke : Adalbert von Bremen. In: World of History. Volume 9 (1943), pp. 25-45.
  • Otto Heinrich May:  Adalbert I. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 42 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Maren Limbacher: Adalbert I . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 1 . Christians, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7672-1364-8 , pp. 13-15 .
  • Günter Glaeske: The archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen as imperial princes (937-1258). Hildesheim 1962, pp. 55-97.
  • Florian Hartmann: Archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen and the election of the Pope in December 1046. In: Archivum Historiae Pontificiae. Volume 40, 2002, pp. 15-36.
  • Wolfgang Seegrün : Archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen - personality and history. In: Hamburg Church History in Articles. Volume 1, Hamburg 2003, pp. 131-150.
  • Dieter Riemer : Archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen (around 1013 to 1072) and his clan. In: Genealogy (German journal for family history) 3/2016 pp. 194–216.

supporting documents

  1. ^ A b Karl Dannenberg : Archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen and the Patriarchate of the North (1877). State and University Library Hamburg , accessed on June 24, 2019 .
  2. ^ Dieter Strauch: Medieval Nordic law until 1500: a source study. Walter de Gruyter, 2011 ( books.google.de ) therein: Adam III, 78 (Werner Trillnich p. 430 f .; Philipp Jaffe No. 4290, Cu, nr. 23, p. 49 ff.) Of January 6th 1053 (cf. Otto May No. 241).
  3. ↑ Adam von Bremen, Volume III, Chapter 8.
  4. ↑ Clemens Dasler: Forest and Wildbann in the early German Empire. 2001, ISBN 978-3-412-12800-5 . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. ↑ Lacomblet, Theodor Joseph, in: Document book for the history of the Lower Rhine or the Archbishopric of Cologne, Certificate 205. 1840, Volume 1, 779 to 1200, p. 133.
  6. ↑ a b Adam von Bremen: Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum ( Memento of February 7, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) → Liber III., Capitulum 43. (Latin)
predecessor Office successor
Adalbrand Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen
1043-1072 		Liemar
personal data
SURNAME Adalbert of Bremen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Albert of Bremen; Adalbert I.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Archbishop of Hamburg and Bremen
DATE OF BIRTH around 1000
DATE OF DEATH March 16, 1072
Place of death Goslar