Adalbrand of Bremen

Adalbrand von Bremen , also Alebrand von Bremen, Becelin, Bezelin, Bencelin , († April 15, 1043 in Bücken , buried in Bremen ) was a German cleric and archbishop of Hamburg and Bremen.

Adalbrand was originally a clergyman in Cologne , where he later worked as a royal chaplain (chaplain of the court orchestra ) and Cologne canon . In 1035 Emperor Konrad II named him the successor of Hermann (1032-1035) as the twelfth Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen ( Archdiocese of Hamburg ) and 15th Bishop of Bremen ( Diocese of Bremen ). The investiture is likely to have taken place before October 16, 1035, when he already received market fairness for Bremen from the emperor as bishop , along with customs and minting rights . On December 21 of that year he was consecrated in Hamburg by his suffragan bishops and some Saxon bishops.

Neither in the imperial service of Conrad II nor under Heinrich III. he stepped into greater appearance. Presumably he had been assigned missionary activities in the north, which exempted him from participating in the royal days and military journeys. Relations with neighboring Slavs also remained peaceful during his tenure. In 1040 Adalbrand rejected the claims made by the Archbishop of Cologne on the old diocese of Bremen.

In addition to promoting the mission, he encouraged extensive construction work. During Adalbrand's time in office, the fortification of the cathedral district with a circular wall, which had begun under his predecessor Hermann, was continued and a renovation of the Bremen cathedral began, which was then destroyed again in the Bremen fire in 1041 .

In Hamburg, which had been rebuilt after being destroyed by the Slavs under Unwan , he had the wooden Hamburg cathedral replaced with ashlar and built the heavily fortified stone house as an archbishop's palace. The Hamburg Bischofsturm (foundations in the Bischofsburg showroom exposed) remained the first stone fortification structure north of the Elbe, as a planned expansion of the city fortifications with walls and towers was thwarted by his death. However, in spite of the peaceful relationship with Adalbrand, the Counts of Billung in Hamburg built competing fortresses during this time .

Adalbrand's (Bezelin's) grave in Bremen Cathedral

We owe the first written mention of Scharmbeck to Adalbrand . His stay in Scirnbeci (Scharmbeck) in 1043 was noted by Adam von Bremen (chronicler through his history of the Archdiocese of Hamburg from 1070-1076) especially because the archbishop had taken a barefoot walk to Scirnbeci and became ill. Apparently not recovered, he died on April 15, 1043 in Bücken and was buried in the Bremen Cathedral .

The fire in Bremen on September 11, 1041 also fell during his term of office .

Individual evidence

1. ^ W. Lammers: Bezelin . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 2, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-7608-8902-6 , Sp. 34.

literature

• Hans Jürgen Rieckenberg:  Bezelin-Alebrand. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 210 ( digitized version ).
• Günter Glaeske: The archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen as imperial princes (937-1258). Hildesheim 1962, pp. 46-54.
• Herbert Schwarzwälder: The bishops and archbishops of Bremen, their origin and term of office - their death and their graves . In: The graves in the St. Petri Cathedral in Bremen . Sheets of the "Mouse", Society for Family Research eV, Bremen, Issue 16 December 1996, No. 15 Bezelin (Alebrand) 1035-1043.
• Franklin Kopitzsch , Dirk Brietzke : Bezelin. In: Hamburg biography . Lexicon of persons. Volume 2. Christians, 2003, p. 49 ff.

predecessor	Office	successor
Hermann	Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen 1035-1043	Adalbert I.