Creation of the Mark Brandenburg
The Margraviate of Brandenburg emerged as part of the high medieval state expansion, which was previously called the German East Settlement , but was at the same time part of a pan-European process in which the periphery of Europe became the Christian feudal center (between the Elbe and the Pyrenees , with the main axis between Milan and London ) was acculturated . The period under consideration is the time from the arrival of the Slavs in formerly Germanic areas after the end of the migration to the extinction of the founding dynasty of the Ascanian Margraves of Brandenburg . The prerequisite was a space between the Elbe and Oder that had remained without strict princely rule , in which only the Obotrites and Pomorans had adopted the principles of Christianization and feudal rule following the example of their neighbors .
The change in rulership took place in the area of tension between the Saxon part of the empire in the west (Ascanians, Welfs , Wettin and Magdeburg archbishops ), the Danes in the north and Poland ( Greater Poland , Pomerania and Silesia ) in the east and Bohemia in the southeast. In this triangle, inhabited by Elbe Slavs and Sorbs , also lies Niederlausitz , which only became part of the then Prussian province of Brandenburg from 1815 (also the little country Jüterbog ); Some things in the development of Lausitz ran parallel, some revealingly different than in Brandenburg. Since it is the German princes who prevailed in the long run, the research term Germania Slavica was chosen for this area . The brainchild of Brandenburg Ascanians in the 12th and 13th centuries, Mark retained its stability even in Brandenburg interregnum after their extinction, so that the cord under the following in the 15th century Hohenzollern to the central area of the Electorate of Brandenburg and from 1618 Brandenburg-Prussia , since In the middle of the 18th century the state of Prussia and ultimately also the German Empire from 1871 became.
The rise and expansion policy of the Ascanian margraves in the land between the Elbe and Oder are symptomatic of two structural change processes that were of general importance for Eastern Central Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries: the high medieval development of the country and the development of largely independent sovereign rulers .
In addition to the classic dates of the history of events (especially war campaigns and the succession of ruling dynasties) in the articles “ Mark Brandenburg ” and “ History of Brandenburg ”, this article therefore deals with structural- historical developments ( longue durée ); also, given the small number of sources , research problems. Inevitably, these are often general questions that go beyond the narrow framework of the early market; in case of doubt, however, the following representations refer exclusively to the area between the Elbe and Oder, between Fläming and the Mecklenburg Lake District . The article historical image of the emergence of the Mark Brandenburg deals with the founding myth / historical myth of the Mark .
The land between the Elbe and the Oder under Slavic rule
Slavic immigration in the 7th century
Triggered by the displacement of the Avars from the Aral Sea to the Black Sea in the 6th century AD, the Slavs for their part moved westwards, roughly as far as the Elbe-Saale-Obermain-Danube line. They only crossed this line in Ostholstein , in the Hannoversche Wendland , in the Altmark , in Franconia and in the Austrian Alps. Written they are first in the so-called Fredegar -Chronik for 631 32 / as Wenden noted that "on several occasions in Thuringia and other districts (pagi) of the Frankish Empire invaded to strip them."
They reached the area between the Oder and the Elbe in two phases: the so-called Sukow-Szeligi group , coming from the Vistula area across the Oder from the Lausitz to Mecklenburg and Ostholstein. Archaeologically it can be proven from 591 in Sukow (near Schwerin ), around 656 in Ahlbeck ( Usedom ), but not before 724 in Holstein . The oldest traces of the so-called Prague group , which later immigrated , from the Carpathian region from Prague down the Elbe to the Magdeburg region, are dendrochronologically verifiable in painke (near Brandenburg an der Havel ) shortly after 731. Their material cultures differ significantly from one another in the archaeological finds with regard to house type, ceramics and burial rite .
Traces of Germanic settlement break off in the area between the Oder and Elbe in the early 5th century. However, individual finds from the 5th to 7th centuries show that it was not completely deserted. The numerical ratio of the Slavs to the remaining Teutons was different in the entire area of distribution of the Slavs, as was the question of living together or separately. These two factors influenced the frequency and strength of conflicts between themselves.
In the area between the Elbe and Oder, those who remained were probably clearly in the minority. Apparently the Slavs first settled separately from them; Nevertheless, it can be assumed that the remaining Germanic tribes were assimilated relatively quickly because of their small number. Settlement continuity or even the continued existence of the Germanic ethnicity between the Elbe and Oder has not yet been proven. The material culture of the incoming Slavs did not differ significantly from that of the retreating Teutons.
The large tribal groups of the Obotrites , Wilzen and Pomorans formed between the Elbe and Oder, reinforced by later immigration . Between them and the Sorbs (between Saale and Neisse ) settled the Havel-Spree tribes, which are most likely to be seen in connection with the Wilzen and the Lutizen that arose from them . In the area of today's state of Brandenburg, the Wilzen / Lutizen settled in northern Brandenburg ( Prignitz and Uckermark ), the Heveller and Sprewanen in the Mittelmark and the Sorbs in Lower Lusatia. At the center of the Ascanian rule formation in early Germany, however, were primarily the Heveller and Sprewanen.
The Heveller were first mentioned in writing by the so-called Bavarian geographer around 845 as "Hehfeldi"; but they called themselves Stodoranen after their settlement area, the land of Stodor. At times they ruled as far as the Oder. The geographer merely reports the existence of eight castles, without giving their names; the center of rulership Brandenburg an der Havel (earliest dendro date 912 ) was certainly one of them, probably also Spandau and Potsdam . The origin of the Brandenburg is cautiously estimated by archaeologists to be around 850 - 870.
The tribal name of the Sprewanen (Zpriauani) was first mentioned in 948, their tribal area as lying on both sides of the Spree in 965. The oldest dendro date from their main castle Köpenick is 849.
Since there is a dendro date “shortly after 731” or “around 739” for painke (near Brandenburg an der Havel) and Berlin-Marzahn, regardless of the relatively late dendro dates in the main castles of Brandenburg, Spandau and Köpenick, it can be assumed that the Slavs settled in the Brandenburg area from around 700 onwards.
The ramparts as a typical West Slavic settlement element did not arise immediately with immigration, but only after the development of certain settlement and social structures from the 8th century, also as a result of contact and exchange with western neighbors. The ramparts initially had a central function in settlement chambers, so they did not serve as border castles or military installations in the modern sense, but as a place of refuge. Their shape and function changed towards the end of the 9th century as a result of the development of new social structures (formation of an upper class ). As an expression of stately structures, they now served as centers for large-scale rulers.
The river names Havel and Spree ("the spray end") are of Germanic origin, which underlines the likelihood of contacts between Slavs and Teutons. Apparently, the influx can be seen in two phases: the arrival of the new settlers from the 8th century was preceded by a century of contact through forays and first advance teams.
The trademark system of Charlemagne around 800 as a security measure
At the time of Charlemagne , the settlement border between the Frankish-Saxon Empire and the Slavs was on the one hand the Limes Saxoniae , whose course between Kiel and Lauenburg / Elbe is easy to understand, as well as the Saale as the border between Thuringia and the Sorbs. Further information can be found in the Diedenhofen chapter of 805 , with which the arms trade with the Slavs was banned for ten cities between Bardowieck and Lorch (Upper Austria) , including Magdeburg and Erfurt , so that the borderline can be seen from it.
Karl set up border marks : the Breton mark , the Spanish mark and the Avar mark . Research has disputed whether there were any other brands on the eastern border of the Carolingian Empire. In addition to Denmark, this applies in particular to the sorbent market ; only the Limes Sorabicus is occupied . Based on the ancient model, Karl set up a border organization based on castles, which served to observe the apron and ward off any attacks.
It is an unproven assumption that Charlemagne attempted to advance to the rulership of Brandenburg during his campaign against the Wilzen from Magdeburg along the Havel in 789. Although his Frisian auxiliaries came to him by ship on the Havel, the first archaeological traces of the Brandenburg are not found until after 850. Havelberg, Demmin and the Peene are also mentioned as possible targets . The most important source, the Vita Caroli Magni of his historiographer Einhard , only reports a move to the unspecified civitas Dragoviti (ruler's seat of the Wilzen prince Dragowit ) and a devastating victory over the Wilzen. Karl did not leave a crew behind. The division of the inheritance and the extinction of Charles' Carolingian successors in eastern Franconia weakened his empire so much that an active policy on the eastern border can no longer be determined. However, the decline of the central power led to a resurgence of the tribal duchies .
The offensive defense under Henry I (928-936)
With the change from the East Franconian royal crown to Duke of the Saxons Heinrich I (coronation 919), the weight of the imperial power shifted to the east, so that activities on the Saxon eastern border of the empire again moved into the focus of historians. In the winter of 928/929 Widukind von Corvey reported the conquest of the Hevellian Brandenburg, called “Brennaburg” (not “Brennabor”) in the source. With his campaign, which began in 928, Heinrich wanted to secure the Slav frontier as a preventive measure in order to be able to lead the upcoming fight against the Hungarians more forcefully.
However, the Brandenburg was lost again a few years later for unknown reasons, because in 940 it came back into German hands due to the betrayal of the Slav prince Tugumir of his countrymen. In total, it changed hands at least thirteen times, until the final conquest in 1157 marked the birth of the Mark Brandenburg. Between 929 and 1157 there were frequent campaigns on both sides.
The new trademark system of Otto I (936–965)
With Heinrich's son Otto I began a new quality of the Eastern movement. In 936 he founded a new branding system. In the Billunger Mark (about the area of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) and the Saxon Ostmark (about the area of today's federal states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony), Slavic ramparts were transformed into early German Burgwarden and occupied with permanent German occupation, which was a locally resident Margrave were under: Hermann Billung and Gero . After Gero's death (965), the Saxon Ostmark was divided into five smaller brands, including the Nordmark (which was restructured to the Mark Brandenburg around 1150) and the Mark Lausitz .
At the same time as the Schleswig Mission Diocese , the dioceses of Havelberg and Brandenburg were founded in 946 and 948, respectively . In this phase of eastward expansion, however, no German settlements or monasteries were founded east of the Elbe, so that the successes of Christianization were also minor. Only the Slavic upper class was reached by missionary efforts. According to the understanding of the time, the main thing was that a Holy Mass was celebrated every day in the heathen country, that is, that God was glorified; the number of participants was of secondary importance.
The sparing of the Hevellian leadership class of Brandenburg after the conquest in 929 (in contrast to the execution of all armed men in the Sorbian main castle Gana in the same year) suggests that they may have already adopted Christianity; in the case of the obotritic naconids in Mecklenburg it is likely from around 955. At the latest since the Poles, through Mieszko I , succeeded in overcoming the tribal egoisms that also existed there and found a political unity under Christian auspices, it became clear to the Elbe Slavs that it was an option for them to go the same way. Only as a Christian tribal association did they have a chance to escape the missionary pressure of the Saxons, which always resulted in political submission. The German ruling organization, a combination of noble feudal constitution and ecclesiastical hierarchy , appeared to be more effective and therefore superior.
The lordly minimal structure of castles and dioceses primarily served the military security of the area in front of the East Franconian / Early German kingdom; However, the penetration and exploitation of the ruled area was stronger than in the trademark system of Charles I. In addition to attempts at Christianization, the collection of tributes from the subjugated tribes was important. To secure German rule, Margrave Gero did not shy away from murders, which, especially in Lower Lusatia, almost resulted in the extermination of the Slavic upper class.
The establishment of the Nordmark and the missionary dioceses (965–983)
Since the renewal of the empire and its coronation in 962, Otto I was at the height of power. He used the death of Margrave Geros (965) to restructure the eastern frontier of the empire on the other side of the Elbe: He redistributed the brands, founded new missionary dioceses ( Meißen , Zeitz and Merseburg ) and placed them under a new archbishopric in 968: Magdeburg , the also had responsibility for the dioceses of Brandenburg and Havelberg. The latter two presumably only arose at this point in time and in this context.
The overall concept underlines the will to expand to the east. However, the advance across the Oder was repulsed when Margrave Hodo , Gero's successor in the Lausitz region, lost the Battle of Zehden (opposite today's Oderberg) in 972 . In principle, the Oder not only remained the western border of Poland for more than 250 years, but Polish rule extended over the Lausitz and Lebus to Köpenick for longer periods of time .
The Slavic Marche region was surrounded by neighboring Christian states in the east and south: Poland had officially adopted Christianity through its Duke Mieszko I in 966, and in 973 Gniezno and Prague were elevated to dioceses. The neighborhood with Christian states of considerable strength brought with it a marriage policy in which there was hardly a significant noble family on either side who did not marry at least one of their children across the border. Emperor Otto I had a Slavic son, Wilhelm , who became Archbishop of Mainz (954–968). According to tradition, Otto's father Heinrich I had linked him to a Slavic princely daughter for political reasons; whether it was a marriage is unclear. As early as 906, another Hevellian princely daughter named Dragomira was married to Vratislav I (Bohemian duke from around 915-921), the brother of the founder of the Bohemian Přemyslid state . Such a connection was double-edged; on the one hand it could secure allies, but on the other hand it could also give rise to fear of inheritance claims.
The loss of the Nordmark through the Great Slav uprising in 983
Otto I died in 973. His son Otto II had great difficulties in asserting himself against a German prince opposition; his military forces were bound by the battle for Italy. His defeat in the Battle of Cotrone in Calabria on July 13, 982 was not unknown east of the Elbe either, so that the Wilzen tribes came together as a Lutizenbund to shake off German rule. With the attack on the bishopric of Havelberg on June 29th, 983, the German rulership structure between the Elbe and Oder was smashed; a few days later the Brandenburg was conquered. The Laurentiuskloster Kalbe (Milde) in the Altmark was destroyed. Since the Lutizen had allied themselves with the Abodrites , the uprising reached as far as Hamburg . In contrast to the Abodrites, the Sorbs between Saale and Neisse did not join the Slav uprising, presumably as a result of the extermination of the Slavic upper class by Gero.
The growing influence of the Piasts on the Nordmark (983–1002)
Mieszko I , the founder of the Piast state , married Dubrawka , daughter of the Bohemian Duke Boleslaw I , in 965 , which gave rise to the official adoption of Christianity in Poland (966). Since Boleslaw was the son of Dragomira von Stodor , the Saxon Nordmark threatened a covetous Polish-Bohemian alliance. After Dubrawka's death, Mieszko married Oda, the daughter of the incumbent Margrave Dietrich von Haldensleben . His tough behavior towards the Slavs had sparked the 983 uprising. He was reportedly deposed for this failure; he died in 985. Since his successor Lothar von Walbeck only appears in the sources as a margrave from 993 or 997, it has been assumed that Mieszko, as Dietrich's son-in-law, has in the meantime assumed the office of margrave of the North Mark, on behalf of Otto III. whom he had paid homage to in Quedlinburg in 986 . Undoubtedly, he had the necessary position of power, also in Lusatia and Lebus .
Mieszko had married his son Boleslaw I. Chrobry (from his first marriage to Dubrawka) to a daughter of the Margrave Rikdag von Meissen. Boleslaw dissolved the marriage for political reasons and married the daughter Emnilda of a high Sorbian nobleman in order to justify claims to the Lausitz. Shortly before his death, Mieszko had apparently tried to use his son Mieszko from his second marriage (with Oda von Haldensleben) as his successor. However, Boleslaw Chrobry prevailed against the descendant of Stodor and margrave grandson, which in connection with his position of power in Lusatia and in the country of Lebus (since around 960-1249) conjured up a confrontation with the empire. Piast rule in Lusatia therefore ended in 1031 with a campaign by Emperor Conrad II after Boleslaw died in 1025.
You can either ally yourself with a strong neighbor or try to subdue them. Otto III. (983-1002) chose the alliance with Poland as part of his idea of a universal Christian empire ( Renovatio Imperii Romanorum ), which should include Italia , Gallia , Germania and Sclavinia . He therefore made Duke Boleslaw Chrobry king in 1000; Gnesen was raised to an archbishopric in consultation with the Pope and the newly founded dioceses of Wroclaw , Cracow and Kolberg were subordinated to this. The campaigns of Otto III. against the Lutizen to regain the northern mark remained unsuccessful.
After the death of Otto III. His successor Heinrich II (1002-1024) chose the opposite alternative: He led a total of four campaigns against Boleslaw Chrobry, but after repeated defeats in the Peace of Bautzen (1018) had to leave Lusatia and Lebus to his opponent. For the fight against the strong Christian Duke of Poland, Henry II had allied himself with the pagan Lutizen, which aroused outrage in church circles.
The decline of the Piasts, the weakness of the empire and the Obotritic rule over the Hevellers (1025–1102)
After the death of Boleslaw Chrobry, the Piast state was weakened by internal struggles, high-cost wars against Bohemia, and finally by dividing inheritance; the power as it was under Boleslaw Chrobry was never regained. Lebus remained in the possession of the Piasts, but a further expansion on the west bank of the Oder was until Boleslaw III took office. Schiefmund (1102–1138) excluded, also because of the strength of the lutizen collar.
For almost the entire 11th century, the written sources regarding the Hevellerland are silent. Again and again, border battles or campaigns took place between the Lutizen and the empire without the Saxon princes being able to create a fundamentally new situation. Rather, they directed their power against the Salier kings Heinrich III. (1039-1056) and Henry IV. (1056-1105 / 1106). They felt that they had neglected their Saxon interests; Incidentally, like most of the secular and ecclesiastical imperial princes, they are fighting for more sovereign rights of their own in their territories. The internal struggles, the investiture dispute (1075–1122) and wars with Bohemia and Hungary prevented an active eastern policy of the empire. Meanwhile, the offices of margraves and missionary bishops were reassigned again and again - even if only according to their title; the claim to unrestricted rule over the Nordmark was not given up.
But the rule of the Lutizenbundes between Elbe and Oder also declined due to internal wars (1057) in which the contending parties optionally asked the Danes, the Saxons and the Abotrites for help. Under their Christian Slav prince Gottschalk (1043-1066) this led to a temporary rule of the Abotrites over the Lutizen (including the Heveller ) and to the destruction of the Rethra sanctuary in the winter of 1067/1068 by Bishop Burchard II of Halberstadt . Gottschalk's son Heinrich increased the power of the Obotrite state, which from 1093 to 1127 also comprised the Land of Stodor, i.e. the tribal area of the Heveller.
The first call to the crusade and the resurgence of the Piasts (1102–1127)
After the Great Slav uprising in 983, the empire succeeded in retaking Brandenburg three times (991, 993 and 1101), only to lose it again after a short time. In 1108 the Archbishop of Magdeburg and his five suffragan bishops (Havelberg, Brandenburg, Merseburg, Naumburg and Meißen) called for a crusade to the secular and ecclesiastical princes in Saxony, Franconia, Flanders and Lorraine with the request to help out through constant attacks by the Slavs caused the suffering of Christians, which were described as particularly cruel, to be ended with a “holy battle”.
A new conception was conspicuous: Up until now the aim had been to punish and defeat the enemy by means of a campaign, to impose tribute on them and then to return home victorious in order to collect the tribute in the next few years. For the first time, however, at the end of the appeal written by the archbishop it was said:
"The heathen are bad, but their land is rich in meat, honey, flour [...] and, when it is cultivated, brings so rich harvests that none is like it [...] Here you can save your souls as well, if you want, win the best land to settle there. ”This allows several conclusions:
- It had become clear by now that annual campaigns did not bring lasting results.
- The call was clearly influenced by the novel phenomenon of the crusade , which had been called for shortly before by the ecclesiastical authority (the Pope ) for the first time in 1095 and which had led to the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099. A contemporary chronicler of the First Crusade reported the result: "Whoever was poor over there, God makes him rich here [...] Who over there did not even own a village, has a town here [...]."
- As in the mass awakening of the First Crusade, the appeal of 1108 also expresses the population surplus that began towards the end of the 11th century and was looking for outlets in less populated countries. Additional agricultural areas were required to feed the larger population.
- The Saxon princes tried, like all other princes of the empire, to expand their powers of rule at the expense of the kingship in their territories and to expand them themselves. Towards the east, this possibility was most likely given against the Slavs who did not belong to the empire.
- The Saxons suspiciously watched the re-strengthening of the Piast state, whose wishes for expansion to the west were unmistakable; they wanted to forestall that. In addition, there was the rivalry between the archbishopric of Magdeburg and Gnesen for responsibility for the not yet Christianized Slavs (especially in Pomerania).
Boleslaw III, Duke of Silesia and Lesser Poland since 1102, ruthlessly ousted his brother and in 1107 became the sole ruler of the Piast state. Through skilful negotiations with the empire, the Pope and Bohemia, he kept his back free to conquer the Pomeranians in 1113–1116 and Pomerania in 1121/1122 . He had strengthened his position in Lebus to such an extent that a diocese was founded there in 1124 as a bridgehead on the west bank of the Oder. He supported Otto's mission from Bamberg in 1124 and 1128 in Pomerania, for which he also achieved the establishment of a diocese (Wollin 1140) , although he (1138) and Otto (1139) died shortly before.
Count Otto von Ballenstedt , eloquently named the rich, the father of Albrecht the Bear , was also one of the signatories of the appeal for crusades . In 1112 he temporarily held the office of Duke of Saxony. Another co-signer was Bishop Hartbert von Brandenburg, who built a wooden church in Leitzkau around 1110 , which was replaced by a stone church in 1114. As the previous titular bishop, he made it clear that he was determined to actually exercise his office again in his diocese on the other side of the Elbe. Even if the call of 1108 had no consequences, the pressure on the Slavic land between the Elbe and the Oder increased from all sides.
The rule of Pribislaw-Heinrich over the land of Stodor (1127–1150) and his alliance with Albrecht the Bear
1125 was with Lothar III. For the first time a Saxon Duke became a German king (imperial coronation 1133), which shifted the focus of imperial politics to the northeast and increased pressure on the Slavic border. In 1127, with the death of Heinrich von Alt-Lübeck, the Abotritic rule over the Hevellerland (referred to as Land Stodor by the Hevellers ) ended. In the same year, Prince Meinfried died a violent death there.
Following the example of the Abotritic Naconids in Mecklenburg, the Slavic rulers of Brandenburg had probably been baptized Christian since the 10th century, albeit possibly with brief interruptions by pagan counter-princes, in order to be able to counter covetous attempts at Christianization by their neighbors. This did not seem to be enough for the young Pribislaw-Heinrich in view of the growing pressure. Probably also because of the fight with his relative Meinfried (uncle or older brother) for rule in the Hevellerland, he made an alliance with Albrecht the Bear .
After the death of his father Otto the Rich in 1123, Albrecht was appointed margrave of Lusatia (until 1131) by Duke Lothar of Saxony. His allodial property , which he had taken over from his father , not only included substantial parts of the Altmark, but also extended on the eastern bank of the Elbe to the Möckern - Loburg - Lindau - Zerbst line , thus bordering the Zauche , the most south-western part of the Hevellerland.
Pribislaw-Heinrich probably offered an alliance to this powerful Saxon prince in the immediate vicinity between 1123 and 1125. He awarded Albrecht's son Otto I as a godparent gift as a coveted land bridge to Brandenburg . The childless Pribislaw-Heinrich appointed the margrave himself as heir for the Brandenburg itself and its dominion . In return, Albrecht promised support in the power struggle with Meinfried as well as protection and protection against attempts at conquest by other princes. Albrecht's support for Otto's missionary attempts from Bamberg in Pomerania in 1128 gives an indication of the Ascanian’s far-reaching goals.
Albrecht the Bear as Margrave of Nordmark (1134–1157)
In 1128 Albrecht's brother-in-law Heinrich von Stade , Margrave of Nordmark, died without an heir. Albrecht immediately registered claims to the northern mark, which was more favorable to him, and tried to enforce them so vigorously that Lothar III, now king, withdrew the Lausitz mark from him in 1131. In 1133 Lothar III. his coronation as emperor in Rome can only be achieved through battles in which Konrad von Plötzkau (Margrave of the Nordmark 1130–1133) fell, but Albrecht distinguished himself, so that he was installed as Konrad's successor in 1134.
Between 1129 and 1134 Pribislaw-Heinrich was raised to king, which was possibly promoted by Albrecht. This and the following increases in the rank of Albrecht by the German king or emperor can be seen as double-edged: on the one hand, they increased Albrecht's reputation and abundance of power; on the other hand, the ruler made it clear to him that he was dependent on imperial power.
Albrecht fought several times as Margrave of the Nordmark in 1136/1137 against Slavs, apparently in the Havelberg area, where he presumably secured his own territorial claims. 1138 he was by the new King Konrad III. , who had to fight for recognition with the Guelphs , was initially employed as Duke of Saxony. Between 1139 and 1144 Albrecht acquired the monastery bailiffs for Leitzkau and Jerichow . Ownership rights around the Dornburg (near Leitzkau) underlined his increase in power.
He used skillful diplomacy to counter the loss of the ducal dignity of the Welfs Heinrich the Lion in 1142 . Wibald von Corvey , notary in the royal chancellery under Conrad III, conducted negotiations with the Pope and Byzantium on his behalf . This important man first referred to Albrecht around 1142 as "Margrave of Brandenburg", possibly in connection with the loss of the ducal dignity as a kind of compensation and promise for the future. Conversely, Albrecht then supported Wibald's claims on Rügen as part of the Wendenkreuzzug in 1147 .
Albrecht had another partner at the royal court in Bishop Anselm von Havelberg (1129–1155), whom he supported in his defensive battles against the Slavs in 1136/1137. Anselm served three kings (Lothar III, Konrad III and Friedrich I ) as a diplomat : he negotiated with the Pope about the imperial coronation of Frederick I, was sent by him to Byzantium to negotiate alliances and in 1155 became Archbishop of Ravenna . Anselm became important to Albrecht through his appointment as papal legate in the Wendenkreuzzug in 1147. Albrecht thus determined a network of good friends.
The Wendish Crusade (1147)
At the Frankfurt Reichstag in March 1147, at which the Second Crusade was discussed from 1147 to 1149, the Saxon princes were “not inclined to move to the Orient”, referring to the warlike pagan neighbors on their own frontiers. The crusade preacher Bernhard von Clairvaux took her at her word, so that one of the three armies "dedicated itself to the parade against our border neighbors, the Obotrites and Lutices, in order to avenge death and destruction which they had over the Christians, especially the Danes, had brought ”(Helmold I, 62).
In contrast to the First and Second Crusades against the Muslims in Palestine , the Wenden Crusade was not only about the "liberation" or "recapture" of a Christian claim, but also about the baptism of the conquered pagans, if necessary with force. Since the loss of the divided Saxon Ostmark during the Great Slavic Uprising in 983, the following situation had arisen: The Christian-early German rule in the Lausitz region had been able to hold on. The lost Billunger Mark was not continued, presumably because the Obotrite state was mostly ruled by Christian-Slavic princes who definitely entered into alliances with the German side.
But even after 983, margraves were used unchanged for the reconquest of the Nordmark. At the latest with Meinfried and Pribislaw-Heinrich it became clear that the Slavic ruling class in the Hevellerland also tended to Christianity. The generous policy of Pribislaw-Heinrich's alliance with Albrecht (sponsorship gift from Zauche, inheritance contract for the Land of Stodor) can be explained by the pressure of the circumstances. Apparently, the Hevellerfürst was determined to avert the worst from his people. This should also explain the demonstrative laying down of his royal crown in Leitzkau, presumably against the background of the approaching Wendenkreuzzug.
In fact, the alliance partners Heinrich and Albrecht managed to lead the crusade via Havelberg to the northwest, past the Hevellerland, which was to be protected. From the point of view of Bernhard von Clairvaux's request for baptism, the goal of the crusade could only be the area of the pagan Lutizen, who did not know any princely upper class who - if they had adapted themselves - would have been willing to form alliances with Christian partners.
Logically, the main department under Albrecht the Bear (as Margrave of the Nordmark) and the Archbishop of Magdeburg turned in July 1147 from Magdeburg via Havelberg and Malchow / Malchin to Demmin to besiege it. A smaller department under Heinrich the Lion (as Duke of Saxony) and the Archbishop of Bremen turned against the Obotritenstaat. This was ruled by the Christian prince Niklot , but in order to defend himself from the pressure of his Christian neighbors, he had repeatedly played them off against each other, which now took revenge.
In view of the fruitless siege of Demmin, a detachment moved on to Stettin . The besieged Pomerania, however, appeared with crosses on the ramparts and complained about the attack, since they had been converted to Christianity by Otto von Bamberg twenty years ago. The Saxon bishops then advised their warriors to conclude peace.
In order to starve places that had been besieged for a long time, the surrounding land was usually devastated. Tellingly about the purpose of the crusade, Helmold von Bosau had the besiegers of Dobin say:
“Is it not our country that we are devastating and our people that we are fighting? Why do we behave like our own enemies and destroy our own income? Do these losses not affect our feudal lords? ”Helmold judges the motives of Heinrich the Lion:“ On the various campaigns that he undertook into the Slavic country, Christianity was not mentioned at all, only money ”(Helmold I, 68).
From the point of view of contemporary chroniclers, the Wendekreuzzug ended disappointingly, with no impressive results. However, the position of Anselm, the papal legate, as bishop in Havelberg had been strengthened, just as numerous dioceses were in fact restored or newly established. The Saxon princes had demonstrated their military superiority and created approaches for Christianization. Presumably the Ascanians took possession of the area around Gransee , Zehdenick , Lychen and Templin, which adjoins the Hevellerland to the north . Apparently the noble gentlemen Gans zu Putlitz settled in the Prignitz, the gentlemen von Jerichow in the little country Friesack , the gentlemen from Plotho around Kyritz and Wusterhausen / Dosse as well as the counts von Arnstein in the country Ruppin . Other members of smaller noble families, including evidently even Reich ministerials as agents of the king, established their own lordships around Belzig , Beelitz , Treuenbrietzen , Luckenwalde , Trebbin , Gröben , possibly also in Zossen , Teupitz and Storkow before 1150 .
The inheritance of Brandenburg (1150) and the interim rule of Jaxas (1153 (?) - 1157)
Pribislaw-Heinrich died in 1150. His (also Christian) widow Petrissa kept his death a secret for three days and had Albrecht notified as soon as possible. The latter hurried over with a large group of armed men, took possession of the castle, drove out opposing (pagan?) Slavs and left behind a German-Slavic guards when he withdrew. The inclusion of trustworthy Slavs in his castle garrison was supposed to increase the acceptance of his rule by the Slav opposition.
The news of death and change of ownership soon reached Jaxa , an uncle of the deceased, who ruled as a prince in Poland and was therefore a Christian. Should this Jaxa be identical with the otherwise known Jacza de Copnic, the rule of Poland would have also included the tribal area of the Sprewanen at that time. Jaxa bribed the guards and invaded Brandenburg with a Polish army. According to the Tractatus de captione urbis Brandenburg , only a short time passed before this coup (“tempore brevi”, about 1153 [?]); on the other hand, it is hard to imagine that Albrecht would not have done anything against this overthrow for about six years (until 1157). Albrecht had his eldest son Otto I with Judith of Poland , sister of the Polish dukes Bolesław IV and Mieszko III. , married. The reasons why this political marriage had no effect on the battle for Brandenburg is not known, because Jaxa was probably subordinate to these dukes.
The Mark Brandenburg among the Ascanians
The final establishment of rule over the Brandenburg by Albrecht the Bear (1157–1170)
With the help and support of Archbishop Wichmann of Magdeburg and other princes and nobles, Albrecht gathered a large army, distributed the troops to three locations around the castle and had to besiege it for a long time because of its strength ("longo tempore"). "After blood had flowed on all sides" and the besieged "realized that they could not escape the power of their opponents, they were forced to surrender" on June 11, 1157 to the margrave under assured conditions. So the festival didn't fall by storm. Albrecht "marched in splendidly with a large retinue, had his victory banner put up in a raised place and praised God for a fee."
The source does not reveal whether Albrecht and Jaxa were present during the entire siege, nor whether they personally conducted the surrender negotiations. The escape of Jaxa and the persecution by Albrecht up to the Havel near Spandau is certainly a legend . The castle had moved back and forth between the Slavs and Saxons at least thirteen times; the final end of this change of ownership on June 11, 1157 is therefore considered to be the birth of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, especially since Albrecht himself documented himself a quarter of a year later (October 3, 1157) with the title "Margrave in Brandenburg".
He obviously wanted to express that he did not reside there on behalf of the king as Margrave of the Nordmark, but ruled the former tribal area of the Heveller (which differed from the Nordmark in terms of parts of Western Pomerania) as a legal heir and additionally by virtue of his own sword according to martial law ( iure belli ). Albrecht therefore did not regard his “Mark” as an imperial fief, but as an allodial property . Although the king nevertheless appointed a burgrave to exercise his rights and the Bishop of Brandenburg also made claims, Albrecht prevailed with his view in the long term.
After the successful completion of his decades of efforts, he went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with his wife in 1158 . After his return he began to settle his new Mark in 1159, as he had apparently already done before 1150 on the western edge of the Hevellerland.
“Finally, when the Slavs were gradually declining, he sent to Utrecht and the Rhine region, and also to those who live by the ocean and suffered from the violence of the sea, the Dutch, Zeeland and Flemings, and brought in and left large numbers of people there they live in the castles and villages of the Slavs. The dioceses of Brandenburg and Havelberg were also strengthened by the incoming immigrants, because the churches increased in number and the tithe grew to an enormous yield. "
In his report, Helmold von Bosau (I, 89) apparently highlighted the immigrants from the coast because of their expertise in drainage work, although they also settled plateaus like the Fläming. It goes without saying that newcomers came from the Ascanian homeland and generally from Saxony (including Westphalia ), as has also been proven by place name research (transfer of place names from the areas of origin of the new settlers).
At that time, the tribal area of the Hevellers apparently reached as far as the Havel - Nuthe line, marked by the Slavic castles in Spandau and Potsdam . Current research agrees that Albrecht had to share the conquered lands with those princes and nobles who supported him in the conquest of Brandenburg, above all with the Archbishop of Magdeburg, who received the land of Jüterbog.
Presumably after the Wendenkreuzzug in 1147 the noble gentlemen Gans zu Putlitz had established themselves in the Prignitz, the gentlemen von Jerichow in the little country Friesack, the gentlemen from Plotho around Kyritz and Wusterhausen as well as the counts von Arnstein in the Ruppiner Land. Other members of smaller noble families, including apparently even Reichsministeriale as agents of the king, had - perhaps before 1150 - established their own lordships around Belzig, Beelitz, Treuenbrietzen, Luckenwalde, Trebbin and Gröben, possibly also in Zossen, Teupitz and Storkow. After 1157 at the latest, these claims had to be confirmed, as had those of the Bishop of Brandenburg and his cathedral chapter . Albrechts own dominion so limited next to the Altmark on hevellische Havelland and Zauche, the Brizanen -region to Havelberg and Rezanen area in the upper reaches of the Havel; apparently he had already subjugated the tribes of the Brizans and Rezans during the Wendekreuzzug in 1147.
His first city charter in 1160 relates to the Altmark by granting Stendal Magdeburg city charter. In this document, the castles of Arneburg , Osterburg , Salzwedel , Tangermünde and Werben are listed as the most important places in his dominion (all in the Altmark); only Brandenburg and Havelberg are mentioned for the country east of the Elbe. In 1165 the foundation stone for the cathedral in Brandenburg was laid, in 1170 Albrecht attended the consecration of the cathedral in Havelberg . He died three months later on November 18th.
Up to this point in time there were only nine stone churches between the middle Elbe and Oder - as far as is known - five of them in and around the Brandenburg: Pribislaw-Heinrichs Burgkapelle St. Petri, the later parish church of the old town St. Gotthardt, the cathedral, the Marienkapelle on the Harlunger Berg and the Nikolaikirche of the neighboring settlement Luckenberg; It is unclear whether the two chapels were actually built of stone in 1170. The remaining churches were in Leitzkau, Jerichow and Havelberg.
The Margraviate of Brandenburg under Margrave Otto I (1170–1184)
He was succeeded by his eldest son Otto I, whom he had appointed as co-regent by 1144 at the latest and who had already been dubbed “Margrave of Brandenburg” by the imperial chancellery in the same year. Soon afterwards he was also named as Reich treasurer . The fact that Otto's brother Siegfried was Archbishop of Bremen (1168 / 1180–1184) and his brother Bernhard Duke of Saxony (1180–1212), as well as his marriage to Judith (1148–1175), his sister, was certainly useful for the growth of the Mark of the Polish dukes Bolesław IV. and Mieszko III.
Since Albrecht's itinerary shows him surprisingly seldom in the areas east of the Elbe, it can be assumed that Albrecht supported his life's work primarily through good relationships with important imperial princes and the royal court, so that Otto (who had already received the Zauche as a godparent gift) , east of the Elbe was more involved than his father.
It is noticeable that two of the relatively rare dendro dates coincide with the change of government in 1170.
- The bridge of the Slavic ramparts of Spandau was last renewed in 1168; immediately afterwards (1170 [?]) the water level of the Havel rose considerably, probably due to a mill jam . The rise in water and / or other considerations led to the abandonment of the castle wall and instead relocated the part of the settlement to the north in the area of today's old town of Spandau and the part of the castle to the site of today's citadel .
- On the Cölln Spree island, a split plank was found in the cellar of the house at Breite Str. 28 (the tree was felled "around or shortly after 1171"), which was reused as a wall mount for the cellar, which was built in "the first half of the 13th century" is dated.
So around 1170 new types of activities become apparent, which may be related to the change of government; the previous co-regent was finally able to implement his own plans. Otto's merits in the further development of the state are particularly evident in the establishment of two monasteries: the Cistercian monastery of Lehnin (in der Zauche, 1180), intended to be the burial place of the Ascanian margraves and to celebrate their memoria , and the Benedictine monastery in Arendsee (in the Altmark, 1183). Otto achieved a small expansion of the mark by acquiring the Ländchen Gliens and the Landes Löwenberg . He pushed back the influence of the bishop and the royal burgrave in Brandenburg and brought a number of smaller aristocratic lords, which had arisen in connection with the military campaigns of 1147 and 1157, into margravial feudal dependency by superimposing fiefs. Otto's merits are more consolidating than expanding in nature.
The Margraviate of Brandenburg under Margrave Otto II. (1184–1205)
Otto II is regarded as a ruler of lesser importance, especially because of his "exaggerated" religiosity . Through generous donations for religious purposes, he earned the nickname "the generous". The donation in 1196 of the entire margravial property (allodial property) to the archbishopric of Magdeburg, in order to then take the march from this as a fiefdom , is completely puzzling and has not yet been explained convincingly ; He had this donation confirmed by the emperor.
Since Albrecht the Bear, the eastern border of the Mark was on the Havel-Nuthe line, including the respective eastern bank. Since the end of the 12th century, the Ascanians have penetrated the north-western part of the Teltow up to the Bäke . This first settlement phase (for example: Museumsdorf Düppel ) was not yet determined by the large-scale, planned redesign of village and corridor shapes . It is very likely that the Knights Templar was brought to the Teltow during the reign of Otto II .
The Margraviate of Brandenburg under Margrave Albrecht II (1205–1220)
Another aspect of religiosity, namely the religious self-confidence of the Ascanians, is most clearly evident in Otto I († 1184) other sons: Count Heinrich von Gardelegen and Margrave Albrecht II Heinrich, the brother of Otto II († 1205), had planned its own diocese in the Altmark with a cathedral in Stendal by 1188 at the latest , but died before it was realized. Albrecht II tried shortly before 1210 with the plan, if not a diocese, then at least a diocesan-free collegiate church in the "novae terrae" east of the Havel, for which he had even won the support of the Brandenburg bishop and the pope . Presumably this was planned as a preliminary stage of a regional diocese, based on the model of the regional dioceses in Oldenburg / Lübeck , Mecklenburg / Schwerin including Ratzeburg, established by Heinrich the Lion with imperial approval "in the province beyond the Elbe" . The process of establishing this exempt collegiate church dragged on because the successors of the Brandenburg bishop contradicted it. In essence, the question was to whom the church tithing was to be paid: to the bishop or the margrave. The church tithe dispute was only decided with the settlement of 1237/1238.
The rise of the margraves to the royal electors under the brothers Johann I and Otto III. (1220–1266 / 1267)
When their father Albrecht II died, Johann I and Otto III. probably only seven or five years old, so they were under guardianship . When their mother also died five years later, they took over the government anyway, because Johann I was considered to be of age at the age of twelve and since then has also documented in his brother's name. In 1231 the brothers received their swords and from the emperor the enfeoffment with the mark, including the feudal sovereignty over Pomerania.
Their lifelong harmony was exceptional (they died within a year in 1266/67). It was a decisive reason for the expansion and rise of the mark to become the most important principalities of the empire. In 1257, for the first time, a royal election was carried out exclusively by seven ecclesiastical and secular “ electors ”, including the Margraves of Brandenburg. During the Interregnum (1250–1273) Otto III ran. 1256 even for royal dignity.
The great-grandchildren of Albrecht the Bear took much more space and methodology than their predecessors in their concept of rule. The Märkische Fürstenchronik , created around 1280, sums up their merits: "From Mr. Barnim they acquired the countries Barnim, Teltow and many others, bought the Uckerland up to the Welse, acquired castles and bailiwicks in the Harz, built Berlin, Strausberg, Frankfurt, Angermünde, Stolpe, Liebenwalde, Stargard, Neubrandenburg and many other places, and thus, turning deserts into fields, they had an abundance of all goods. In an effort to organize the services, they stopped many clergymen and settled preachers and Friars Minor as well as monks of the Cistercian order within their borders. "
Duke Barnim I of Pomerania (1220-1278) recognized the margravial rule over the states of Barnim and Teltow , probably around 1230 , after these areas north and south of the Spree were long between the Pomeranians, the Brandenburgers and other powers (especially the Wettin and the Archbishops of Magdeburg) had been controversial. With the Teltow War (1239-1245), the brothers finally prevailed against their Saxon rivals .
From these centrally located landscapes in the area between the Elbe and Oder, the margraves continued their policy of acquisition and conquest to the north and east. In 1236 they acquired the land of Stargard . After they had acquired the southern Uckerland shortly before , they were able to complete the ownership of the Uckermark with the Treaty of Landin in 1250 . Almost at the same time they acquired a large part of the land of Lebus, on both sides of the Oder, so that this land bridge led to the foundation of the Neumark ( Landsberg founded in 1257, Soldins bought from the Knights Templar in 1261). The core of the marrow had thus gained its greatest permanent extent until the Ascanians died out.
In 1258, Johannes and Otto agreed to divide the estate in order to maintain unity in the margravial house. At the same time - in addition to Lehnin - another house monastery was founded as a burial place for the Johannine line: Mariensee Monastery , which was moved to Lake Chorin in 1273 before completion. Since Johann was the older brother, his descendants were the leading regents; the Ottonian descendants were merely co-rulers . In principle it was possible to preserve the intended unity. Only through the widow of the co-regent Albrecht III. In 1299 the state of Stargard was lost to Mecklenburg.
The margrave brothers are often referred to as "the city founders". This formulation does not sufficiently reveal that their “state development program” was a combined urban-rural settlement, the intention of which was to make a profit through planned clearing and grain cultivation combined with long-distance trade ( see here ). This systematic development of the country, which was previously only sparsely populated according to traditional methods, led to great financial gains for the margraves and relative prosperity for the residents. On this economic basis, the sovereigns, who as margraves were traditionally considered princes, rose to the new kind of imperial prince or elector class that emerged in the 13th century .
Even if the cities of Brandenburg and Spandau retained their role as the frequently visited residences of the margraves, Berlin developed into the center of economic growth for reasons of its central location. This is shown by the fact that the first known Brandenburg state parliament took place in Berlin-Cölln in 1280 and that “Berliner Roggen” appears as a branded item in long-distance trade in the Hamburg debt register. The extensive loamy soils of the Teltow and Barnim plateaus are among the most fertile regions of Brandenburg (the Havelland and Zauche, on the other hand, are dominated by sandy soils). The development areas of Teltow and Barnim delivered two important commercial items to their central long-distance trading center Berlin-Cölln (with the right to settle and coin ) that were needed in the rich regions of the North and Baltic Sea coasts: the tree trunks felled during the extensive clearing that floated over the Spree and Havel were used as building material for the dynamically growing Hanseatic cities (including shipbuilding), as well as the grain that was specifically cultivated on the cleared areas with the intention of making a profit for the rapidly growing population in the craft regions of Flanders . In this clearing phase of the high medieval state development there was less forest in the Mittelmark than today; in addition, it was warmer on average for the year ( warm phase of the climate ).
In addition to this expansion of town and country, the Märkische Fürstenchronik explicitly mentions the efforts of the margraves to expand Christian institutions. Of course, the still developing state rule did not have the classic administrative departments, which were only formed in the early modern period under the condition of territorial rule and permanent chancellery administration, but the elementary foundations had all been created by a single-minded church policy, which is in today's terminology could be described as follows: "foreign policy" through Christian-accentuated cooperation with the most important neighboring princes (including marriage policy and personnel policy when filling important church offices), "defense policy" through the use of religious orders to secure borders (Cistercians and Knights Templar), "financial policy" through increases the "state revenue", not only through the use of the "church tax" in the New Lands, but through the use of the religious orders for infrastructure and economic structure promotion (including Lehnins as "state investment bank") and for Tec technology transfer (e.g. B: Mill construction ). The main tasks of the " State Chancellery " were in the hands of clerics ; the provosts functioned alongside the bailiffs as regional administrative centers.
The Margraviate of Brandenburg under the Margraves Otto IV. And Waldemar (1266–1319)
The only thing that was denied to the margrave brothers was the access to the Baltic Sea at the mouth of the Oder , which Albrecht the Bear had striven for : direct access to the international long-distance trade market . Even under Otto IV ("with the arrow"), who is better known as a minstrel and candidate for the royal elections in 1292 and 1298, only relatively little progress was made. Otto IV ruled together with several brothers and cousins, but was considered the sole representative of the Mark in the empire. Around 1282 Albrecht III broke up. from the community government (consequence: loss of the land of Stargard). Otto V , the Tall One, temporarily opposed his cousin Otto IV. In 1283, however, he succeeded in getting his brother Erich to the archbishopric of Magdeburg; through this, the archaeological part of the country of Lebus finally came to the mark.
The expansion of the Mark to the north was prevented by an alliance between Pomerania and Lübeck , for whom the rapid rise of the Ascanians to a great power was a thorn in their side. The acquisition of Pomerania including Danzig only succeeded for a short time (1306–1308); Even Niederlausitz, bought in 1303, could only be held until the end of the Ascan rule in 1319, as were the Landsberg and Meißen brands .
Otto IV, Albrecht the Bear and Albrecht II were the only Ascanians who lived to be more than sixty, namely about seventy. Otto IV died in 1308. His successor was his nephew Waldemar , who became famous above all as the last Ascanian († 1319) (including the aftermath with the false Waldemar ). In courtly splendor he was equal to the minstrel Otto IV. The wars he waged cost huge sums of money, with the result that smaller parts of the rulership on the edge of the march, hardly won, had to be sold again or pledged.
The extinction of the Ascanians (1320)
Despite the costly war campaigns (e.g. in the North German Margrave War ), the breakthrough to the Baltic coast did not succeed; the resistance of the coastal neighbors, especially the Hanseatic cities and the Teutonic Order (Pomeranian) was too great. The acquisitions south of the Mittelmark (the brands Landsberg, Lausitz and Meißen) could only be wrested from the Wettins temporarily.
The Ascanians' expanding rulership was only lastingly successful among the pagan-Slavic tribes between the Elbe and Oder (Heveller, Sprewanen and southern Lutizen), i.e. in the Central March. Only the archbishops of Magdeburg could be permanently eliminated as competitors. The Wettin margraves, the dukes of Pomerania and the princes of Mecklenburg retained their strong positions in their regions, but were unable to penetrate the march for their part. The acquisition of the Neumark is due to the fact that this area, which has long been disputed between Poland and Pomerania, after a situation of weakness due to the Mongol invasion (1241) as a dowry of the daughter of the Polish Grand Duke Přemysl I in 1254 in the possession of her Ascanian husband, Margrave Konrad I (brother of Otto IV) came.
Within the Mark (within the limits until the Ascanians died out), smaller independent rulers continued to exist, both ecclesiastical as well as secular property: The territory of the Diocese of Brandenburg included half of the Burgward Brandenburg, the Burgwarde Pritzerbe and Ziesar as well as the Land Löwenberg, the In Ascanic times they were exchanged with an equivalent area around Königsberg / Neumark . Half of the Burgward Havelberg, the Burgwarde Nitzow, Putlitz and Wittstock as well as the little land Bellin, acquired by the Ascanians in 1294, belonged to the territory of the Diocese of Havelberg . At least the area around Seelow belonged to the unclear possession of the diocese of Lebus .
The direct rule of the Noble Gans zu Putlitz in northern Prignitz ended in 1220. In addition to the core area around Putlitz, they only had smaller fiefdoms around Wittenberge . The domains of the Lords of Plotho (around Kyritz and Wusterhausen) and the Lords of Jerichow ( Ländchen Friesack ) were incorporated into the Mark after 1259. The rule of the Counts von Lindow-Ruppin from the aristocratic von Arnstein family , which was initially presumably imperial direct, lasted much longer , namely until it died out in 1524.
Around 1290 19 Ascanian margraves met on a mountain near Rathenow ; then death dragged almost everyone away. In 1318 only Waldemar and Heinrich II. The child lived. It was a political catastrophe when the childless Waldemar died in 1319, because his underage cousin only survived him by a year. At the same time, the time of the Ascanian rule-building and country development finally ended.
The emergence of the Mark Brandenburg as a prime example of high medieval structural change processes
The core of the emergence of the early German rule in Brandenburg was not the conquest of additional lands to expand an existing territory with the aim of gaining more power and influence through more residents and the associated higher taxes. The Ascanians, worthy of enfeoffment with the dignity of a margrave or duke of Saxony, had extensive property in the north-eastern foreland of the Harz Mountains and in the Altmark, but no closed territory. The Mark Brandenburg is not an extension, but a new creation, even if the Altmark remained an important part until 1815.
The three most important basic factors of the success of this new creation can be presented as examples of a pan-European innovation and transformation process during the High Middle Ages.
Christianization
The Roman Empire was the cultural center of Europe until around 500 AD, and for this reason alone (and for climatic reasons) it was a popular destination for migrations . The invasion of Germanic tribes caused cultural decline in the provinces far from the Mediterranean even before its collapse. In the former Germanic provinces, the cultural level of Roman times was not regained until the late Middle Ages. The alternative to forcibly penetrating the Roman Empire was to spread the level of culture reached there across Europe ( acculturation ).
In the Roman Empire was Christianity the state religion . The Christianization of the formerly non-Roman areas brought with it the most important achievements of the clergy's use of writing for administrative and educational purposes as well as the stone building technique for church building, which was then also used for secular purposes (castles, town halls and city walls). The frequent use of writing and stone building techniques were equally unknown to the Germans and Slavs before the adoption of Christianity.
The adoption of Christianity in the hitherto pagan areas of the Teutons and Slavs east of the Rhine, in Ireland and Scotland , in Scandinavia (including Finland ) and the Baltic states as well as Hungary happened partly voluntarily, partly involuntarily. The adoption of Christianity in pagan Central Europe basically meant the adoption of the Roman level of culture with its effective administration and the associated state revenue. The Frankish Merovingian kings were the first to recognize this opportunity ; Clovis I was baptized in Reims shortly after 496. In the years that followed, the princes were usually more approachable than their people.
At the time when the Mark Brandenburg was founded, the Slavic duchies of the Obotrites (Mecklenburg) and Pomorans (Pomerania) had already adopted Christianity. Also in the central towns of the Heveller and Sprewanen, Brandenburg and Köpenick, there had been Christian Slavic princes from time to time. Albrecht the Bear's contemporaries, Pribislaw-Heinrich von Brandenburg and Jaxa von Köpenick, had already been baptized before they contacted him. At the same time, the Danes and Swedes evangelized on the Slavic Baltic coast and in the Baltic States . Bohemia, Poland and Russia were Christian even before the turn of the millennium, not imposed but on the initiative of their rulers. As early as 845 fourteen Bohemian greats appeared surprisingly in Regensburg to be baptized.
Two peculiarities are to be noted for the spread of Christianity in Brandenburg: In contrast to the Altreich with its original parishes including branch churches , the village communities attached importance to having their own church in the village from the start. And, unlike in the Altreich, there are no densely populated monastery landscapes between the Elbe and the Oder, but at first it was more like monastery islands, mostly owned by the Cistercians; other medals are rare. The mendicant orders ( Franciscans and Dominicans ) ran urban monasteries, so they had little importance for the agricultural development of the country, just as little as the numerous women's monasteries, which were more of a supply institutions for noble daughters.
The high medieval development of the country
The sharp increase in population in the west of the 11th century due to the medieval climate optimum had numerous consequences, for example the crusades , which diverted the excess population to the Middle East, and the increased building of (stone) churches. However, not only had the religious needs of a growing population to be met, but above all their food had to be ensured; this was best done through grain.
In order to achieve higher grain harvests, it was necessary to find new village and field forms that enabled more effective management ("graining"). Where the condition of the soil and the terrain profile permitted, individual farmsteads and hamlets were restructured into villages with centrally located farmsteads, from which short distances to the newly surveyed (partial) arable land were possible (“ evaporation ”). Their re-measurement not only meant a better cut and location of the fields, but also enabled the three-field economy , which required good organization, and a more reliable assessment of the farm taxes for both sides (landlord and farmer), based on the unit of measurement " hooves ". The soon following replacement of the taxes in kind (“ tithe ”) by monetary payments had advantages for both sides. The Slavs were still obliged to "immeasurable service" to their rulers; But also for many newcomers from the Altreich this verifiable measurement as an upper limit represented an improvement. The restructuring also included the introduction of technological innovations such as the iron reversible plow , the team of horses with collars and horseshoes , the water mill and windmill and the long-handled scythe , if usually not already in the first settlement phase.
Because this structural change process of Europe-wide importance began in the old settlement areas, but naturally developed particularly well in the previously poorly developed and relatively sparsely populated areas east of the Elbe and Saale, in a multi-stage "learning process" because for them no examples can be found in the old realm of new, effective village forms (Anger and street villages) and corridor forms (hoofed corridors ). The form of the Slavic Rundling villages was also only created in the first phase of restructuring under German influence.
The system of this land development ( aedificatio terrae ) can best be deduced from the documents of Archbishop Wichmann of Magdeburg, e.g. B. from the town foundation charter of 1174 for the town of Jüterbog including the surrounding area ("ad edificandam provinciam Jutterbogk"). The archbishop of Magdeburg granted the market town ( villa fori ) Jüterbog rights and thereby elevated it to town ( civitas ); this should be exordium et caput (beginning and head of the land). At the same time he announced his intention to build more ville fori . He founded the Zinna Monastery as early as 1170 and soon after 1157 brought new settlers into the country, mainly from Flanders. The grain production of the dense rural settlement in the Land of Jüterbog provided the basis for the success of the planned market places , which serve as collection points for the harvest and ensure the supply of the farmers with handicraft products (tools, clothing, etc.).
This combined urban-rural settlement with the founding of cities, market towns and newly designed villages was supplemented by the construction of monasteries, dams and water mills, which not only served to grind the grain, but also provided energy for handicraft production through camshafts . The Flemings and the Cistercians, in particular, had great experience in setting up the associated water systems.
After Wiprecht von Groitzsch's first attempts to expand the country in the high Middle Ages with Franconian settlers east of the Saale (end of the 11th century), the described method of development developed more and more from the middle of the 12th century and became general knowledge for the ruling houses, which was also shared by the The aristocratic families of Wettin, Guelph, Obodriten and Griffin were used, but hardly as successfully and consequently as by the Ascanian Margraves of Brandenburg.
It is important to emphasize that the resident Slavs were involved in the development of the country, who were only killed or driven out in isolated cases. The Dutch, as just one of many immigrant groups, played a special role because of their special knowledge of irrigation and drainage systems. The development of the state was guided by interests through the establishment and / or expansion of state and land rule, which initiated and steered the process. The foundation of cities played a special role in the establishment and consolidation of rule. This was all the more important as the previous self-sufficiency in agriculture switched to market orientation and thus increased income.
Albrecht's rival contemporary Heinrich the Lion, supported by the power of the duchies of Saxony and Bavaria, gambled away his position as a king through excessive will to power; his overpowering rulership, including the settlement areas he developed in the Baltic Sea area around Lübeck, disintegrated into numerous small principalities after his removal from office. The work of Albrecht the Bear, created through energetic, but also prudent action, on the other hand, survived, even the time of turmoil after the Ascanians died out.
From a union state to an area state
The form of rule of the early Middle Ages was the union state ; it was based on the personal connection ( allegiance ) of powerful people and their families. (Partial) rule was only granted for (life) time in the form of fiefdom; an acquisition as own possession (allodial possession) of the family was excluded. If the mutual personal bond ended, so did the rule.
The increasing disputes about the succession of kings meant that (counter) kings, in order to be elected, assured the high-ranking princes that their fiefs would be inherited. This process also increasingly established itself in the lower ranks of the fief pyramid. The hereditary nature of the rule made it independent of the individual of the respective ruler; Dominions now preserved their continuity even if the successor was underage or other weaknesses.
This development to a territorial state , which began in the 12th century and was codified in the 13th century (e.g. through the statutum in favorem principum 1231), is exemplified in Brandenburg: The Ascani, who initially received the Nordmark as a royal fief, succeeded in obtaining the to convert lands connected to the Margrave's Office into allodial possession, whereby four circumstances came to their aid:
- They had been appointed as heirs by Pribislaw-Heinrich (they had been given to the horses);
- they had also acquired the Hevellerland “with their own sword”, ie under martial law (not under feudal law);
- the Margraviate of Brandenburg was not spatially identical to the Nordmark, whose fiefdom was still undisputed.
- It was convenient for them that they could use the time of the interregnum in the empire (1250–1273) with a lack of royal power for the expansion of their territory, a time that could not be more favorable.
See also
literature
- During the Slav period
- Robert Bartlett: The Birth of Europe from the Spirit of Violence. Conquest, colonization and cultural change from 950 to 1350. 1993 (German paperback edition 1998: Knaur 77321).
- Helmut Beumann (Hrsg.): Heidenmission and crusade thought in the German Ostpolitik of the Middle Ages. 1973 (= Paths of Research Volume VII).
- Sebastian Brather: Archeology of the Western Slavs: Settlement, Economy and Society in the Early and High Medieval East Central Europe (= supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 30), de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001.
- Marek Dulinicz: Early Slavs in the area between the lower Vistula and Elbe. An archaeological study. 2006.
- Joachim Herrmann (Ed.): The Slavs in Germany. History and culture of the Slavic tribes west of the Oder and Neisse rivers from the 6th to 12th centuries. A manual. Revised edition (collective of authors), 1985.
- Michael Lindner: Jacza von Köpenick: A Slav prince of the 12th century between the empire and Poland. Stories from a time when Berlin didn't exist yet. Basket 2012.
- During the Ascan times
- Helmut Assing: Brandenburg, Anhalt and Thuringia in the Middle Ages. Ascanians and Ludovingians building princely territorial rule. Collected essays, ed. v. Lutz Partenheimer u. a., Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 1997.
- Lothar Dralle: The Germans in East Central and Eastern Europe. A millennium of European history. Darmstadt 1991.
- Ingo Materna, Wolfgang Ribbe (ed.): Brandenburg history. 1995, therein: Assing, Helmut: Die Landesherrschaft der Askanier, Wittelsbacher and Luxemburger (middle of the 12th to the beginning of the 15th century), pp. 85–168.
- Lutz Partenheimer : The emergence of the Mark Brandenburg. With a Latin-German source appendix, Cologne 2007.
- Johannes Schultze : The Mark Brandenburg. Vol. 1–5, Berlin 1961–1969, 2nd rev. Edition in one volume 1989. (Still a valuable standard work, but mainly from an event-historical, not a structural-historical perspective.)
Web links
- Tractatus de captione urbis Brandenburg ( Memento from February 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). New ed. and explained by Georg Sello . in: 22nd annual report of the Altmark Association for Patriotic History and Industry in Salzwedel. Issue 1. Magdeburg 1888, pp. 3–35. (Internet publication by Tilo Köhn with transcriptions and translations; Latin-German reprint now also with Lutz Partenheimer: The emergence of the Mark Brandenburg. With a Latin-German source appendix. 1st and 2nd ed. Cologne / Weimar / Vienna, p. 121– 129, 136-143, 146-151)
- Lutz Partenheimer: Mark Brandenburg (origin) . In: Historical Lexicon of Brandenburg . 1st December 2017.
Individual evidence
- ↑ s. Bartlett in the reading list.
- ↑ Michael Lindner: Jacza von Köpenick: A Slav prince of the 12th century between the empire and Poland is exemplary for the indispensable overall view of the Brandenburg environment. Stories from a time when Berlin didn't exist yet. Basket 2012.
- ^ Matthias Hardt: Lines and seams, zones and spaces on the eastern border of the empire in the early and high Middle Ages. In: Limit and Difference in the Early Middle Ages, ed. v. Walter Pohl and Helmut Reimitz (= research on the history of the Middle Ages 1), Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2000, pp. 39–57.
- ↑ Lit. Partenheimer p. 28. Also in Poland in the year 1000 the simultaneous establishment of the archbishopric (Gnesen) and suffragan dioceses can be observed.
- ↑ The main army moved to Palestine, a second retook Lisbon from the Muslims.
- ^ Ref. Assing
- ↑ Partenheimer p. 73 sets Jaxas coup against the source text in the spring of 1157, as a preventive strike against an imminent campaign of Frederick Barbarossa against Poland. Conversely, this Polish infidelity could also have contributed to the reasons for the campaign.
- ↑ During his controversial election as archbishop he was Bishop of Brandenburg from 1173–1180.
- ↑ Wolfgang Fritze: The early settlement of the Bäketal and the history of Berlin. In: Yearbook for Brandenburg State History, 36, Berlin 1985, pp. 7–41.
- ^ Wolfgang Ribbe: On the politics of the order of the Ascanians. Cistercians and sovereignty in the Elbe-Oder region. In: Zisterzienser -Studien I, Berlin 1975, pp. 77–96.
- ↑ The state of Jüterbog had only belonged to Brandenburg since 1815, but the sources here are best thanks to the documents that have been preserved.