Conrad Letzkau

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Conrad Letzkau (Polish Konrad Leczkow ; † April 6, 1411 in Danzig , Teutonic Order ) was a Dutch merchant and mayor of the legal city of Danzig from 1406 to 1411. He was murdered by the order commander Heinrich von Plauen .

Life

Origin and youth

His father was probably Count von Benten in Wieringen near Alkmaar in the Netherlands . After the father's murder, his mother and the children fled to the state of the Teutonic Order. There she was enfeoffed with the village of Letzkau near Danzig by the Grand Master. The boy was brought up by the Teutonic Order and then trained as a merchant in Königsberg and Marienburg .

Activities in Gdansk and for the Order

In 1387 he became a citizen of the city of Danzig after Letzkau was incorporated. In 1393 Konrad Letzkau became a lay judge and in 1395 a councilor in Danzig. In 1398 he fought as a captain in the fleet of the Teutonic Order against the Vitalienbrüder on Gotland .

In 1406 Conrad Letzkau became one of the four mayors of the right city of Danzig. He was on the road a lot for the Hanseatic League . In 1407 he traveled to Gotland, Pomerania and Braunschweig on behalf of Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen . From 1410 he was also on the road for the new Grand Master Heinrich von Plauen .

After the Battle of Tannenberg , the mayors Conrad Letzkau and Arnold Hecht placed Danzig under the Polish king in the autumn of 1410 .

assassination

After the First Peace of Thorn in 1411, the city came back to the Teutonic Order. Its new Commander Heinrich von Plauen carried out tough measures against the city. On April 5th, he invited the mayors Conrad Letzkau and Arnold Hecht and the councilor Bartholomäus Groß to peace negotiations at his castle in Gdansk. A few hours later he had the three murdered there. The bodies were only released a few days later.

tomb

His grave is in St. Mary's Church in Gdansk, near the main altar. The inscription on the grave slab reads: Hic iacent Honorabiles Viri Conradus Letzkau et Arnoldus Heket, Proconsules Civitatis Dantzke, qui obierunt Feria Secunda post Festum Palmarum, Anno Domini 1411. Orate pro eis. (Here lie the honorable Messrs Coradus Letzkau and Arnoldus Heket, Mayors of Gdansk, who died on the Monday after Palm Sunday in the year of the Lord 1411. Pray for them. )

Historical reviews

The murder of Letzkau, Hecht and Groß caused great consternation in Danzig. It led to a further distancing of the city from the Teutonic Order, from which it finally renounced in 1454. In the tradition the three were always martyrs for the independence of the city.

For Polish historiography, her murder once again demonstrated the severity and ruthlessness of the Teutonic Order. In contrast, some Prussian representations saw traitors in Letzkau and Hecht who had handed the city of Danzig over to the Polish king.

In fiction

Ernst Wichert described Heinrich von Plauen in his novel . Historical novel from the German East. the events around Conrad Letzau based on the historical models.

literature

  • Hans Prutz : The catastrophe of the Danzig mayor Conrad Letzkau , in: Altpreußische Monatsschrift (AltprMschr) 3, 1866, pp. 597–629 ( PDF )
  • Johannes Voigt : History of Prussia from the oldest times to the fall of the rule of the Teutonic Order , Königsberg 1827–1839, 9 vols.
    • Sixth volume: The time of Grand Master Konrad von Jungingen, from 1393 to 1407. Constitution of the order and the country . Königsberg 1834, 769 pages, online.
    • Seventh volume: The time of Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen 1407 until the death of Grand Master Paul von Rußdorf in 1441 . Königsberg 1836, 787 pages (correction of printing errors on p. 789), online.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Daniel Gralath and all later authors.
  2. ↑ Johannes Voigt , Heinel
  3. ^ Schild-Verlag, Munich 1959 (2 vol., Reprint of the edition of the German Book Community Berlin, 1881), also Ernst Wichert : Heinrich von Plauen in the project Gutenberg-DE
personal data
SURNAME Letzkau, Conrad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leczkow, Konrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Mayor of Danzig right city
DATE OF BIRTH 14th Century
PLACE OF BIRTH Danzig
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 1411
Place of death Danzig , Teutonic Order