Hadwig (Swabia)

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Hadwig and Burchard III. von Swabia as the founder of the St. Georgen monastery on the Hohentwiel in 970, fresco around 1437

Hadwig , also Hedwig , (* 938/939/940/945; † August 28, 994 on the Hohentwiel ) was the wife of Duke Burchard III. Duchess of Swabia .

Live and act

Hadwig was a daughter of the later Bavarian Duke Heinrich I and his wife Judith and a niece of the East Franconian Emperor Otto I.

Originally a marriage with the Byzantine emperor Romanos II was planned, but this failed because of Hadwig's steadfast refusal.

Hadwig and her husband Burchard III. are inextricably linked with the history of Hohentwiel bei Singen , as they gave the “Twiel” its first bloom by expanding it into a ducal residence. After Burchard's death, the Twiel became the Duchess' widow's residence. The exact location at which this first structure is said to have been located remains questionable.

Around 970, the St. Georgen monastery was founded in the ducal residence . In the monastery Reichenau a convent list of the brothers was performed on the Twiel which is still preserved to this day.

Death of the Duke 973

The marriage had remained childless and the Emperor Otto II used the situation to appoint a new duke according to his ideas. According to old tradition it would have been the custom that the widow of the late Burchard III. would marry a new Swabian duke from local nobility. She was only 34 years old after Burchard's death in 973. The emperor, however, gave the duchy to the son of his half-brother Luidolf, Otto I of Swabia, who came from the noble family of Ottonians.

Hadwig, however, went her own way: In imperial documents she is still referred to as dux (duke), although she still experienced two legitimate Swabian dukes. She got actively involved in political events and also tried to recruit her teacher and confidante, the monk Ekkehard of St. Gallen , as an educator for the future King Otto III. to recommend.

Hadwig had official property and territories from her inheritance from Burchard's will and gifted monasteries in the area with property that had been controversial since the practice of Emperor Otto I.

According to an older regional tradition, “apart from various smaller donations [...] only the hereditary property of her husband was freely and undiminished for administration to the Duchess. The Reichenau monastery owned the villages and valleys of Schleitheim , Beggingen , Brunthofen, Thalen, Schlatt and Grimmelshofen , once a property of the Franconian crown, but with the condition that the Duchess Hadewig was entitled to use it for the rest of her life. "

According to tradition, which begins with a visit by Otto I "in August 972 from Italy", and the situation after the death of Burchard III. 973 describes, in a desolate state - "during the Huns migration and the subsequent time of need everything was left behind." It must have been the invasion of Hungary in 954. The Reichenau abbot Witigowo (985-996) had succeeded in bringing Hadwig to the realization that Reichenau was better able to manage the development of the valley and she then ceded “her claims to the monastery”.

Respect for the old duchess

The contribution also reflects the incipient upheaval among the Ottonians in the principle of the allocation of territorial property, of offices - using the example of Hadwig's resistance, who still traditionally sees herself as the heir of Alamannia: from "the ancient freedom of the tribes" to "omnipotence, with which the ideas of fiefdom advance ”. Since this development was still in its infancy at the end of the 10th century, the consideration of the rulers for the respected duchess is understandable:

Both the Emperor Otto II and the newly appointed Swabian Duke Otto I let them go.

In the following years she allied herself - like her sister Gerberga II. , Abbess of the Gandersheim Monastery - with her younger brother, Duke Heinrich II. Of Bavaria, who repeatedly claimed the title of Swabian duke because of Hadwig.

Duke Heinrich, also called the brawler, was defeated for the second time in 984 when the new Swabian Duke Konrad I was able to thwart an alliance with the French king in time. With the final defeat of her brother, Hadwig also lost her political influence.

Hohentwiel Fortress in 2000

When Hadwig died in 994, King Otto III took care of it. personally for the estate of the influential dowager duke and traveled to the Twiel, which he made in all likelihood an imperial estate , since he was there again in the year 1000 to underline his claim.

reception

Above all, the relationship between the Duchess Hadwig and the monk Ekkehard, whom she brought to her home on the Twiel, found its expression in literature during Romanticism. With his novel Ekkehard, Joseph Victor von Scheffel created one of the most widely read books of the 19th century.

From this model, Johann Joseph Abert created an opera in five acts by Ekkehard (October 11, 1878, Berlin, Court Opera ).

In 1999 Gerhard Zahner's play Hadwig, Duke of Swabia (directed by Peter Simon) was premiered in Singen .

Between 1989 and 1990 the story of the two historical characters was filmed in a six-part television series Ekkehard and broadcast on ARD (originally by Joseph Victor von Scheffel; co-author: Diethard Klante; director: Diethard Klante; production: 1989 André Libik, RB )

swell

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dr. Wanner (Schleitheim): The assignment of the Randental to the Reichenau Monastery , in: Ed .: Anton Pletscher (Friends of Local Lore ): Old and New from Randen , Second Edition, Buchdruckerei JG Stamm, Schleitheim 1911, pp. 30 to 54. In the "preliminary remark" is pointed out that this edition is a new edition of the "booklet 'Old and New from the Randen von Freunde der Heimatkunde' [which] was published in 1880 and is now accompanied by illustrations by artists. . "
  2. ↑ The six-part TV series "Ekkehard" on IMDB
personal data
SURNAME Hadwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Duchess Hadwig of Swabia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duchess of Swabia
DATE OF BIRTH around 939
DATE OF DEATH August 28, 994
Place of death Hohentwiel