Günther II of Schwarzburg

Günther II von Schwarzburg (* 1382 ; † March 23, 1445 at Giebichenstein Castle ) was Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1403 to 1445.

Life

Born as the second son of the captain of the Alt and Mittelmark, Count Günther XXX. von Schwarzburg , and his wife Anna von Leuchtenberg, he was prepared for a clerical office at an early stage. As was customary in noble families of the time, the sons who were born later were usually promoted to spiritual offices. This is also the case with Günther, who became vicar at the Frauenkirche in Arnstadt at the age of 11 in 1393 . In 1397 he took over the office of canon in Cologne and in the same year became canon and later cathedral provost in Mainz .

Due to his father's relationships, he got the coadjutor position of Albrecht IV von Querfurt at the cathedral chapter of Magdeburg and after his death he was elected as his successor Archbishop of Magdeburg on June 25, 1403 . He received confirmation in this office from Pope Boniface IX without difficulty . , but became involved in the dispute between his father and his allies in 1404, against the Prince of Anhalt and Bishop Rudolf II of Halberstadt , who himself came from the House of Anhalt. With 2000 brushwood he besieged the Anhalt city of Köthen in 1406 and shelled the local St. Jakobskirche . Above all, because the Zerbst princes were assumed to be robber barons and they had spoken publicly against the archbishop, the disputes were inflamed. These military conflicts lasted until the peace agreement on May 29, 1407.

In order to increase the ownership of the archbishopric, he moved into the Dahme rule in 1405 after the death of the last male owner, and the town of Egeln in 1417 . He solved that to the Elector Rudolf III. of Saxony pledged fiefdom from Jüterbog and on December 1, 1408 concluded a peace alliance with the city of Quedlinburg , the dukes of Braunschweig , Johann III. von Hildesheim and Bishop Heinrich von Halberstadt . In 1409, during the heyday of robber baronships, he took action against Bishop Henning von Brandenburg , who was in contact with Dietrich von Quitzow and Wichard von Rochow , among others . However, he suffered a decisive defeat against them in November of that year in Glienicke .

Günther also took part in the reform of coinage in Magdeburg and in 1410 issued a letter of protection for the Jews in his archbishopric. During his tenure, however, he had a lot to do with robber barons who invaded the archbishopric and its dioceses. He also besieged the city in a dispute with the salt counts in Halle (Saale) . In 1421 he concluded a protective alliance against the Hussites with the archbishops and bishops of Mainz , Cologne , Trier and Speyer . With these moved to Eger, where, however, his position was given up due to a lack of support from the emperor. In 1422 he returned to his archbishopric, where there were disputes with the cities of Halle (Saale) and Magdeburg . Since Günther tried with all his might to curtail their privileges, war broke out with the cities, which wrested considerable areas from the archbishopric.

Despite an alliance with the Electors of Saxony , the Landgraves of Thuringia and Hesse , Günther could not gain superiority. Both parties became impoverished as a result of the military conflict, so that on May 4, 1435 they reached a peace treaty. To pay off the debt incurred, he sold in 1440, the city castle , the Peace Castle , the rule Friedeburg and the monastery Gerbstedt . In addition, he ceded various rights . Günther II, who was the longest of all the archbishops in Magdeburg, had turned more to worldly affairs as a spiritual representative and had a very lavish lifestyle. As a result, he accumulated large debts during his tenure. It was not until he was 34 that he read his first mass and left most of the spiritual duties to his auxiliary bishop.

Günther von Schwarzburg died on March 23, 1445 at Giebichenstein Castle . His body was buried in Magdeburg Cathedral .

literature

• Wilhelm Faust: Archbishop Günther II's dispute with the city of Magdeburg. 1429-1435. Ehrhardt Karras, Halle (Saale) 1900
• Ferdinand Albrecht Wolter: History of the city of Magdeburg from its origins to the present. 3rd edition, Faberische Buchdruckerei, Magdeburg 1901, p. 64
• Friedrich Wilhelm Ebelin: The German bishops until the end of the sixteenth century. Otto Wiegand, Leipzig, 1858, 2nd volume, pp. 65–70
• Gottfried Wentz: The dioceses of the church province of Magdeburg. The Archdiocese of Magdeburg. Vol. 1, part 1, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1972, p. 521
• Günther II. Ertz-Bischoff of Magdeburg. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 11, Leipzig 1735, column 1246 f.
• Karl Friedrich Pauli: General Prussian state history, the associated kingdom, electorate and all duchies, principalities, counts and lordships. Christoph Peter Francke, Halle (Saale) 1764, vol. 5, p. 456 GoogleBooks
• Lutz Partenheimer , André Stellmacher: The submission of the Quitzows and the beginning of the Hohenzollern rule over Brandenburg. Potsdam 2014. ISBN 978-3-88372-099-9 (paperback) / 978-3-88372-103-3 (hardcover). (Archbishop Günther II of Magdeburg took part in the campaign.)
• Gustav Hertel / Friedrich Hülße: History of the City of Magdeburg, Magdeburg 1885

predecessor	Office	successor
Albrecht IV of Querfurt	Archbishop of Magdeburg 1403–1445	Friedrich III. from Beichlingen