Dietrich II of Katlenburg

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Dietrich II of Katlenburg (* 10 ??; † January 21, 1085 in Berka / Werra ) was count in Liesau and Rittigau from 1056 with the Einbeck estate . In contemporary sources, unlike his ancestors, he is referred to for the first time in the Saxon region from 1075 onwards as Count of Katlenburg after the new type of hilltop castles. It is likely that he used the Katlenburg, which was probably created in the 11th century, near today's Katlenburg in a strategic location on the edge of the Harz Mountains and to use his forest rights in the Vorharz area as a manor.

He was the only son of Count Dietrich I of Katlenburg and Bertrada of Holland (daughter of Count Dietrich III of Holland , the Jerusalemites ).

Dietrich probably belonged to a leading group in the uprising of the East Saxon and Enrician nobility against King and Emperor Heinrich IV . Heinrich IV. Had increasingly begun to claim rulership rights in Eastern Saxony and in the Harz region and to build new types of hilltop castles. Count Dietrich, in turn, had seized the market and coinage rights in Gittelde as well as the forestry law in this pre-Harz region. This made the Counts of Katlenburg one of the few noble families in Northern Germany who owned a coin ; as a safeguard, Dietrich II or his son built the nearby Stauffenburg on former imperial territory.

If Dietrich wanted to expand his position of power, King Henry's influence in this area had to be weakened. In 1075 Dietrich II took part in the battle of Homburg on the Unstrut , but like most of the rebels had to submit. In 1076 he and Hermann Billung († 1086), the first from the group of imprisoned princes, managed to return to Saxony, where they resumed the fight against King Henry IV .

In January 1085 in Gerstungen there were negotiations between Heinrich and the Saxons in which the Gregorians (supporters of Pope Gregory VII ) tried to unite the Saxons again in a front against Heinrich. During the subsequent meeting of the Saxons in nearby Berka, a dispute broke out among them because they believed that Dietrich and the Hildesheim bishop Udo von Gleichen-Reinhausen had switched to the king's side. In the scuffle, he and a relative of the same name were killed.

Around 1080 he founded the church and the St. Alexandri monastery as a family monastery at his hereditary farm in Einbeck. During excavations in the church in 1975, a stone-framed head niche grave was discovered in a prominent position, which is interpreted as the burial place of the founder Dietrich II. The day of his death was apparently remembered in St. Alexandri in the 16th century.

Marriage and children

He married Gertrud the Younger of Braunschweig (* around 1060), the daughter of Margrave Ekbert I of Meißen .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Hans-Joachim Winzer: Einbeck and the Counts of Katlenburg-Einbeck . In: Einbecker yearbook . tape 50 , 2007, p. 174-195 .
  2. ↑ Andreas Heege: Einbeck in the Middle Ages . Isensee, Oldenburg 2002, ISBN 3-89598-836-7 , p. 134 .
personal data
SURNAME Dietrich II of Katlenburg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Count of Katlenburg
DATE OF BIRTH 11th century
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1085
Place of death Berka / Werra