Johann von Quitzow

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Johann "Hans" von Quitzow (* 1370 , † 1437 ) was in the Berlin and Brandenburg area together with his brother Dietrich von Quitzow one of the feared and well-known robber barons of his time.

Life

It was the time after the death of Emperor Karl IV. His successors were initially not particularly interested in the Mark Brandenburg , anarchy ensued and the region was on the verge of collapse. This situation made it possible for various knights from the noble families residing in the Prignitz , especially the Quitzows , Putlitz , Bredows and others. a. to exploit the vacuum with their armies, which can be compared to private armies, and to increase their possessions by pillaging and plundering.

Johann von Quitzow, together with his brother, was one of the cruelest and most insidious fighters in this scene. At first he took part in the raids of his father Kuno von Quitzow († 1402), lord of Kletzke Castle , which from 1399 then mainly extended to the entire Mark Brandenburg. In 1400 Johann Burg Plaue was given ownership by his father-in-law Lippold von Bredow . After the death of their father, the two brothers became the epitome of horror. Like his older brother Dietrich von Quitzow, Johann did not shy away from entering into changing alliances to achieve his goals.

In 1402 he and his brother Dietrich allied themselves with the Dukes of Pomerania and with them invaded the Barnim region , part of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and with them conquered Bötzow , what would later become Oranienburg , Neumühl Castle and on 21 September 1402 the city of Strausberg .

But this alliance did not last long and Johann changed sides. At the request of the Berliners, he was appointed governor of the Mittelmark in 1404 and his brother Dietrich took over the leadership of the official troops. The former allies from Pomerania could now be driven out of the country, but the raids of the Quitzows against their own country continued anyway. So in 1408 Johann burned the place Trechwitz down and completely robbed it. In the subsequent attempt to take Grabow Castle , he lost sight of Altengrabow , which made him appear even more terrible from then on. But only when King Sigismund , who later became Emperor, after the death of Jobst of Moravia, the Burgrave of Nuremberg, then Friedrich VI. now when Friedrich I of Brandenburg had appointed the new margrave , the tide turned to the disadvantage of Johann.

From his new official residence in Berlin- Cölln , Friedrich I gathered allies around himself after initially losing a first battle against the Quitzows at Kremmener Damm , who in turn undertook raids in 1413 under the direction of Johann von Quitzow into the Magdeburg country. Friedrich I attacked the rebellious aristocratic families and their possessions again and so in the end Johann, who initially did not take the new ruler seriously and contemptuously called him the “ Nuremberg trinkets ”, had to give up some possessions and flee to his castle in Plaue. But Friedrich also pursued him there and was able to conquer the castle on February 25, 1414 with a new type of cannon, which was given the name " Faule Grete " due to its inertia and weight . Johann tried to flee together with his younger brother Henning and his servant Friedrich Schwalbe, but was arrested and initially put " in the stick " in the church in Plaue . Finally he was handed over to Archbishop Günther II of Magdeburg and imprisoned in Calbe Castle . His brother Dietrich, on the other hand, had managed to escape.

After only two years, Johann was largely ruefully released from prison, but nevertheless tried to temporarily support his brother, who was on the run, in his raids. Four years after Dietrich's death, in 1421, on behalf of the margrave, his lands were returned to him with the condition that he should now serve the country. So in 1422 he went to the field with 180 riders against the trading cities of Hamburg and Lübeck , but had to take a bitter loss here and flee to the Lauenburg castle of Duke Erich V of Saxony-Lauenburg . The latter handed him over to the armed forces of the trading cities, albeit with the condition of safe conduct. With a large ransom, Johann was ransomed here, but that didn't stop him from going on the raid. Once again he made a name for himself when he attacked and robbed the town of Grabow in Mecklenburg in 1433, before he finally died in 1437. His widow Agnes, née von Bredow, received part of the Kyritz levy as an annuity a year later from the margrave and now elector . Johann's marriage remained childless.

Much was written about him and his raids, in particular by the chronicler Engelbert Wusterwitz and later by Theodor Fontane , Karl May and other historians. In the Red City Hall of Berlin a frieze commemorates the feud against the Quitzows and in the Moabit district a street is named after him and his brother.

Literature and Sources

  • Clemens Bergstedt: The Quitzows. Legends and Reality . In: Messages from the Association for the History of Prignitz . Volume 6 (2006), pp. 5-12
  • Uwe Michas: With feud, pawn and sword - The “Quitzow time” in the Mark Brandenburg , Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-910134-03-3
  • Theodor Fontane: Walks through the Mark Brandenburg , Part 5: Five castles; Old and new from the Mark Brandenburg - Quitzöwel ; September 1889; Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, Munich 1971, Frankfurt / M., Berlin.
  • Karl Lohmeyer:  Quitzow . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 27, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, pp. 60-62. - (family item)
  • 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).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Quitzow, Johann von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Quitzow, Hans von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German robber barons
DATE OF BIRTH 1370
DATE OF DEATH 1437