Bethenzer

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The Bethenzer (also Bethenzr , Bethenici , Bytenici or Bethelclereri ) were a small west Slavic tribe that settled in southern Mecklenburg or northwestern Brandenburg in the 9th century .

Surname

The name of the Bethenzer is mentioned in the Chronicon Moissiacense for the year 811 only in the Bavarian Geographer .

Settlement area

According to the sources, the settlement area of ​​the Bethenzers was on the right bank of the Elbe near the Linonen . Their tribal area is fixed for the 9th century. It was in the Lenzen area . The settlement area of ​​the Bethenzers could have joined an imaginary semicircle around Lenzen.

Originally, the settlement area of ​​the Bethenzer on the Elbe and Boize was assumed, partially extending northwards into the Boitin region . , Largely due linguistic considerations: Due to a still dravänopolabischen detectable sound shift from y to oi then are from the Bytenici the Boitzer have become. However, the thesis has so far not been confirmed by excavation finds.

As a result, the Bethenzers were mostly suspected to be north of the Havelberg between Wittenberge and Dosse or generally in the Prignitz .

Based on the castle landscape, excavation finds and a reference to later border lines, the Bethenzers are now assigned the area between Goldberg and Plau am See as a settlement area. In the area in question, west of the Plauer See, are the three early Slavic ramparts Wangelin , Gaarz and Fahrenhorst I , all of which were abandoned in the 10th century, as evidenced by the lack of excavation finds from the period thereafter. At the same time, the island castle Quetzin am Plauer See was built, which is already part of the Warnower tribe , who most likely occupied the tribal area of ​​the Bethenzers.

history

In 808 the Danish King Gudfred attacked the Abodrites who had been settled in northern Albingia by Charlemagne to protect the northern Franconian border . After the Danes had withdrawn, Charles the Younger only had a retaliatory campaign against the Linonen and Smeldinger, allied with the Danes. To this end, he crossed the Elbe on a bridge and devastated its land. But as early as 810 the Wilzen undertook a successful counterattack and destroyed the fort on the Höhbeck . In the year 811 the Reichsannalen then report of a renewed military campaign by Franconians and Saxons against the Linons and of the reconstruction of the Franconian outpost on the Elbe, which was destroyed in the previous year. According to the report in the Chronicle of Moissac, this campaign was also directed against the Bethenzers, who are only mentioned once again in the Bavarian Geographers.

From the disappearance of the tribal name in the 9th century, it is generally concluded that there was a loss of independence. Are represented u. a. a recording together with the Smeldingers to a united tribe of the Linonen, a connection with the Smeldingen and the Linonen to the Redariern and a connection with the Smeldingen and eastern Abodrites to the Warnower tribe

Remarks

  1. ↑ Chronicon Moissiacense for the year 811: Misit Karolus imperator exercitum Francorum et Saxonorum ultra Albiam ad illos Sclavos qui nominantur Lanai et Bethenzr. Et vastaverunt regiones illas, et aedificaverunt castellum, in loco qui dicitur Abochi. (Emperor Charlemagne sent an army from Franconia and Saxony across the Elbe against those Slavs who are called Linonen and Bethenzer. And they devastated their areas and built a fortress at a place called Höhbeck .).
  2. ↑ Linaa est populus, qui habet civitates VII. Prope illis resident, quos vocant Bethenici et Smeldingon et Morizani, qui habent civitates XI. (The Linonen are a tribe that has 7 castles. In their vicinity there are [tribes] who call themselves Bethenzer and Smeldinger and Morizani, they have 11 castles.).
  3. ^ First probably Joachim Heinrich Neuendorff: The Stiftsländer of the former diocese of Ratzeburg. Represented topographically and historically. Verlag der Stiller'schen Hofbuchhandlung, Rostock et al. 1832; Gottlieb Matthias Carl Masch : History of the diocese of Ratzeburg. Asschenfeldt, Lübeck 1935, p. 3; Paul Kühnel: The Slavic place names in Mecklenburg. In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology. Vol. 46, 1881, ISSN  0259-7772 , pp. 3-168, online ; Richard Hagen, Uwe Wieben: An overview of the history of the city of Boizenburg until 1917. In: Council of the city of Boizenburg (Hrsg.): Boizenburg. Contributions to the history of the city. 1255-1280. City of Boizenburg, Boizenburg 1980, p. 8 f .; finally as far as can be seen Siegfried Spantig: In the wheel of history. (Local history from the Boize to the Sudebogen). Eichenverlag, Hagenow 2003, p. 22.
  4. ↑ The area between Delvenau and Boize and adjacent to it is relatively poor in funds. Oldest Slavic ceramics in Boizenburg Vipperower culture, from 950. Oldest German ceramics from the 12th century.
  5. ↑ Max Bathe: The security of the imperial border on the Middle Elbe by Charlemagne. In: Saxony and Anhalt. Vol. 16, 1940, ISSN  0945-2842 , pp. 1-44.
  6. ↑ Christian Hanewinkel: The political importance of the Elbe Slavs with regard to the changes in rule in the East Franconian Empire and in Saxony from 887–936. Political sketches of the eastern neighbors in the 9th and 10th centuries. Münster 2004, p. 58 (Münster, Universität, Dissertation, 2004).
  7. ↑ Fred Ruchhöft : From the Slavic tribal area to the German bailiwick. The development of the territories in Ostholstein, Lauenburg, Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania in the Middle Ages (= archeology and history in the Baltic Sea area. Vol. 4). Leidorf, Rahden / Westphalia 2008, ISBN 978-3-89646-464-4 ; Fred Ruchhöft: The development of the cultural landscape in the Plau-Goldberg area in the Middle Ages (= Rostock studies on regional history. Vol. 5). Neuer Hochschulschriftenverlag, Rostock 2001, ISBN 3-935319-17-7 .
  8. ↑ Wolfgang H. Fritze : Problems of the abodritic tribal and imperial constitution and its development from a tribal state to a ruling state. In: Herbert Ludat (ed.): Settlement and constitution of the Slavs. Between the Elbe, Saale and Oder. Schmitz, Giessen 1960, pp. 141–219, here p. 144, note 26.
  9. ↑ Wolfgang H. Fritze: A map on the relationship between the early medieval Slavic and high medieval settlements in Ostprignitz. In: Wolfgang H. Fritze (ed.): Germania Slavica (= Berlin historical studies. Vol. 4). Volume 2. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1981, ISBN 3-428-05043-6 , pp. 41-92, here p. 64.
  10. ↑ Christian Hanewinkel: The political importance of the Elbe Slavs with regard to the changes in rule in the East Franconian Empire and in Saxony from 887–936. Political sketches of the eastern neighbors in the 9th and 10th centuries. Münster 2004, p. 146 (Münster, Universität, Dissertation, 2004).
  11. ↑ Fred Ruchhöft: From the Slavic tribal area to the German bailiwick. The development of the territories in Ostholstein, Lauenburg, Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania in the Middle Ages (= archeology and history in the Baltic Sea area. Vol. 4). Leidorf, Rahden / Westfalen 2008, ISBN 978-3-89646-464-4 , p. 92.