Dietrich von Grüningen

Dietrich von Grüningen (or: von Gröningen ) (* around 1210; † September 3, 1259 ) was a knight , landmaster and German master of the Teutonic Order .

Entry into the Order

He came from a ministerial family near Weißensee in Thuringia in the service of the Ludowinger Landgraves of Thuringia, who named themselves after the place Grüningen (today part of Greußen ). He probably joined the Germans on November 18, 1234 in Marburg (Lahn) , together with the later Grand Master Konrad von Thuringia (1206-1240) and eight other followers of the latter, including the later Grand Master Hartmann von Heldrungen († 1282) Medal a. The reason was probably the penance imposed on them for the total destruction of the city of Fritzlar and the desecration of the collegiate church there two years earlier.

Dietrich von Grüningen

Religious offices

When the Livonian Brotherhood of the Sword was severely defeated by the Lithuanian Žemaites in the Battle of Schaulen (September 22nd, 1236) in 1237 by an arbitration decision by Pope Gregory IX. When the Livonian Order was merged with the Teutonic Order, Dietrich von Grüningen was supposed to become landmaster in Livonia in the same year . However, the Grand Master at the time, Hermann von Salza , refrained from doing this and instead appointed Hermann von Balk , the Landmeister of Prussia , in Livonia, probably because Dietrich von Grüningen had only entered the order a few years earlier and was still very young. However, Grüningen may have already acted as Balk's deputy in Livonia . As early as 1238, when Balk had left the country because of serious illness and serious disputes with the Bishop of Riga , Nikolaus von Nauen , over the sovereignty rights in the area of ​​the former Order of the Sword, Dietrich von Grüningen followed him as landmaster in Livonia.

Grüningen remained Landmeister in Livonia until 1251, briefly interrupted in 1241–1242 by Andreas von Felben's interim term . However, he was often absent as an anti- Hohenstaufen order diplomat. As early as 1245 he was temporarily acting as deputy to the German master. From 1246 to 1259 he was also Landmeister of Prussia , where he succeeded Poppo von Osterna (1244-1246). From 1254 to 1256 he was under Grand Master Poppo von Osterna in personal union both Landmeister of Prussia and German Master . Grüningen completed the conquest of Courland and built a number of castles, for example in Goldingen (Kuldīga) and Amboten (Embūte) .

In 1254 he led an embassy of the order to Pope Innocent IV in Rome; In doing so, he achieved that the Pope obliged the bishops of Kulm , Pomesanien and Kurland to support the order in the Christianization of the conquered landscapes of Barten and Galinden in a bull . In December 1254 he concluded a settlement on behalf of the order with the Archbishop of Riga and the Bishops of Ösel , Courland and Dorpat , in which they agreed on their respective claims to rule in Livonia. During the campaign of King Ottokar II of Bohemia against the Prussians in Samland in the spring of 1255, Dietrich von Grüningen joined him in Elbing with a contingent of knights from Kulm and the Warmia ; Margrave Otto III was also there. of Brandenburg .

literature

• Kurt Forstreuter :  Grüningen (Gruningen, Groningen), Dietrich von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-428-00188-5 , p. 200 ( digitized version ).
• Theodor Kallmeyer (ed.): The establishment of German rule and Christian faith in Courland during the thirteenth century (Elibron Classics Facsimile Reprint of the edition by Nicolai Kymmel , Riga, 1859). BookSurge Publishing, 2003, ISBN 1-4212-4508-6 , ISBN 978-1-4212-4508-9
• Friedrich Benninghoven : The order of the sword brothers. Cologne; Graz, 1965 (p. 462).
• Maciej Dorna: Bracia zakonu krzyżackiego w Prusach w latach 1228–1309 , Wydawnictwo Poznańskie, Poznań, 2004 (pp. 132–141) (Polish)
• Lutz Fenske & Klaus Militzer (eds.), The Knight Brothers in the Livonian Branch of the Teutonic Order , Böhlau, Cologne, 1993, ISBN 3-412-06593-5 , ISBN 978-3-412-06593-5 (pp. 277-279 )

Web links

• The Pomeranian noble family von Grüningen. Retrieved November 1, 2011 . 
• Friedrich Wachtsmuth: About the sources and the author of the older Livonian rhyming chronicle 1878, pp. 11-12 (accessed on November 1, 2011).
• Willigis Eckermann: Textbook of the history of religion and mythology of the most excellent peoples of antiquity 1848, pp. 393, 404, 405 (accessed on November 1, 2011).

predecessor	Office	successor
Hermann von Balk	Landmaster in Livonia of the Teutonic Order 1238–1241	Andreas von Felben
Andreas von Felben	Landmaster in Livonia of the Teutonic Order 1242–1246	Heinrich von Heimburg
Poppo from Easter	Landmeister of Prussia of the Teutonic Order 1246–1249	Hartmut von Grumbach
Eberhard von Sayn	German Master of the Teutonic Order 1254–1256	Conrad of Nuremberg