Heinrich von Plötzke

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Heinrich von Plötzke , also Heinrich von Plötzkau († 1320 ), was a knight of the Teutonic Order . From 1307 to 1309 he was the last Landmeister of Prussia , 1309-1312 Grand Commander and thereafter Order Marshal until his death .

Religious career

Heinrich, born in a ministerial family of the Ascanian Dukes of Anhalt , who had their seat at Plötzkau Castle , entered the order and is notarized as Commander in Altenburg (Thuringia) in 1286 and as Commander in Halle (Saale) in 1287 . Afterwards he was ordered to the Teutonic Order in Prussia, where he took over the important Coming Balga in 1304 . From 1307 he was Landmeister of Prussia, based in Elbing .

Taking possession of Danzig and Pomeranian

In August – November 1308, Landmeister Heinrich von Plötzke commanded the contingent of the order, which besieged the city of Danzig in association with troops of the Polish Duke and later King Władysław I. Ellenlang and this after the Polish troops in a dispute over the order for his help The required 10,000 silver marks had been deducted, stormed on November 13th. Heinrich kept the city occupied, and since Władysław did not pay the promised compensation, the Order incorporated the city into its possession (see: Takeover of Danzig by the Teutonic Order ). In 1309 Heinrich von Plötzke conquered the city of Tczew (Dirschau), the capital of the Duchy of Pomerania, after a three-month siege . The residents were evicted and the town remained uninhabited until 1364. In order to legally secure the possession of Pomeranels and Danzig, the Order bought all of its property titles in Pomerania from the Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg on September 13, 1309 in the contract of Soldin for 10,000 silver marks. Danzig and Pommerellen then remained part of the Teutonic Order until 1466.

Battle of Wopławki

Shield for the memorial stone for the battle of 1311

In 1311 the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytenis invaded with 4,000 horsemen on a campaign of devastation from Natangen in the Warmia to the area of Braunsberg and Barten . His people are said to have captured 1400 women and led them away. Heinrich von Plötzke succeeded in conquering and defeating the Lithuanians at Wopławki (German: Woplauken). The Lithuanians lost around 3,000 dead, but Vytenis himself was able to escape despite serious wounds. The Lithuanians' hostages and booty fell into the hands of the religious. To the north of Wopławki there is a memorial stone to this battle in a small wood in the middle of a field.

death

Heinrich von Plötzke fell during an army campaign to Lithuania in 1320 with 29 other knights of the order.

literature

  • Karl H. Lampe: Heinrich von Plötzke, Landmeister, Grand Commander and Marshal of the Teutonic Order (fallen 1320) , in: Communications of the Association for the History of East and West Prussia (Mitt VGOW) 18, 1943/44, pp. 10-21 .
  • Grisha Vercamer: Political Power Structures in the Order of Prussia at the beginning of the 14th century using the example of Supreme Marshal Heinrich von Plotzke , in: Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropaforschung 56/1, 2007, pp. 91-104.
  • Ruslan B. Gagua: The Knight of Teutonic Order Heinrich von Plotzke . - Crusader, 2016, Vol. 4, Is. (2), pp. 88-94.
  • Ruslan B. Gagua: The Battle of Woplawki: the Fall of Anticrusaders Campaigns of Grand Duke of Lituania Vitenes . - Crusader, 2015, Vol. (1), Is. 1, pp. 23-38.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The office of Landmeister of Prussia was abolished in September 1309 and merged with that of Grand Master when the Grand Master moved his residence from Venice to the Marienburg .
  2. ↑ Dieter Zimmerling: The German Order , p. 213.
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Sonthofen: The German Order , Part 2: The Order in Prussia, chapter Lithuania ; P. 117.
  4. ^ Theodor Hirsch , Max Toeppen , Ernst Strehlke: Scriptores rerum Prussicarum . The historical sources of Prussian prehistoric times up to the fall of the order ; Volume 3, p. 65.
predecessor Office successor
Swiss chard from Sternberg Landmeister of Prussia
1307–1309 		Meinhard von Querfurt
Johan of Westphalia Grand Commander of the Teutonic Order
1309–1312 		Heinrich von Gera
Konrad von Thierberg the Younger Marshal of the Teutonic Order
1312-1320 		Dietrich von Altenburg
personal data
SURNAME Heinrich von Plötzke
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heinrich von Plotzk
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Landmeister of Prussia, Grand Commander and Order Marshal of the Teutonic Order
DATE OF BIRTH 13th Century
DATE OF DEATH 1320