Konrad I. (Meissen)

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Konrad the Great (section of the Dresden prince procession )

Margrave Konrad ( Konrad von Meißen ), called the Great or the Pious (* around 1098 ; † February 5, 1157 in the monastery on the Lauterberg ) was Count von Wettin , from 1123 Margrave of Meißen and from 1136 the Mark Lausitz , from the noble family the Wettiner . He was born the son of Count Thimo von Wettin and his wife Ida von Northeim, daughter of Duke Otto von Northeim .

Life

Konrad was born as the son of Count Thimo von Wettin around 1098. His father died at an early age, leaving his family the area around Wettin Castle north of Halle . His mother Ida von Northeim gave her son an unshakable self-esteem combined with a pronounced sense of power and at the same time taught him deep faith.

Konrad's cousin Heinrich I , Margrave of Meißen and Lausitz, died in 1103. His wife, Gertrud von Braunschweig, gave birth to his heir, Heinrich II , only posthumously . The hope that Emperor Heinrich IV. , The imperial fiefs of Mark Meißen and the Mark Lausitz will transfer Konrad or his brother Dedo IV von Wettin, was thus dashed. However, after the childbirth, rumors spread that she had given birth to a girl and had exchanged her for a poor woman's boy. Konrad grew up knowing that he was the legal heir to both brands. Soon he was making a fool of Heinrich in the country with a pointed tongue. In 1121, Heinrich attacked Konrad in extreme indignation, took him prisoner and had him thrown into dungeon. Probably Konrad would not have survived the dungeon, but fate released him from his suffering. His tormentor Heinrich II died suddenly in 1123 at the age of 20, probably of poison. The regained freedom was the turning point in the life of Konrad von Wettin.

Now the young Konrad hoped that his dream of becoming a margrave would finally come true. The emperor, however, transferred the freed fiefs to his follower Wiprecht von Groitzsch . The next conflict was already programmed. Konrad allied himself with the powerful Saxon Duke and later King Lothar . Together with Albrecht the Bear, they first invaded the Meißen region, left it to Konrad, and immediately afterwards conquered the Lausitz. The old Count Wiprecht von Groitzsch had little to oppose. In November 1123, after a short battle, he succumbed to superior military strength. In the following year, 1125, Emperor Heinrich V died, and the year before Groitzscher, and Konrad from then on asserted himself in the margraviate.

In 1136, after the death of Margrave Heinrich von Groitzsch , he received the Mark Lausitz, and around 1143 from the emperor the rule of Rochlitz and the Milzenerland .

The first Meissen bracteates (hollow pennies) were minted around 1140 under Konrad I. For part of his coinage, the bracteates of the Margraviate of Meissen, Walther Haupt was able to assign a Bautzen coin .

He went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with Bishop Udo von Naumburg , where he made a donation to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in May 1145 .

The margrave succeeded in gradually expanding the territory. This was considered to be the beginning of the "Wettin rulership". Margrave Konrad combined his position of power, equal to that of the imperial prince, with expansion, colonization in the east and the spread of Christian doctrine across the Elbe to the Oder . He took part in the Wenden Crusade in 1147 . He tried to strengthen his own country, the Mark Meissen and Lausitz, economically through Flemish colonists . Konrad was the actual founder of the power of the Wettin dynasty. He was considered pious and distinguished himself as the governor of several monasteries. After the death of his brother, Konrad had the construction of the monastery on Lauterberg , today's Petersberg , completed and furnished it with valuable possessions. The Pope complied with Konrad's request to place the monastery under his protection and thus secured the Petersberg permanent existence.

Konrad was a skilled diplomat. In 1146 he resolved the tense relationship with the Kingdom of Poland after the war . He married his son Dietrich to the daughter of a Polish duke . This should not remain an isolated case. His successful marriage policy was also evident in the marriage of his son Otto and his daughter Adele to the children of Margrave Albrecht the Bear, who had belonged to the Margraviate of Brandenburg since 1150 . Through these marriages Konrad united the two aspiring dynasties of the Ascanians and Wettins.

Konrad understood the connection to the church as an important and necessary instrument of his rule. In order to maintain and expand his own position in what is now Central Germany , a good relationship with the influential Archbishops of Magdeburg was particularly important to him. He contributed to his nephew Wichmann being appointed Archbishop of Magdeburg. With this move Konrad had once again expanded his sphere of influence through a family bond.

At the end of 1156 Konrad took off his weapons and regalia in a symbolic act in the presence of the clergy there and his aristocratic followers in Meißen Cathedral and went to the Petersberg Monastery to enter his home monastery as a lay brother , by then he was already around 60 years old old. His five sons still alive, his comrade in arms, Albrecht the Bear , his ally, the Archbishop of Magdeburg were present when he renounced “power and the world” and put on his spiritual garb. In doing so, Konrad demonstrated deep piety, but also again the drive that led him to power. He was not the man who let death take his fate out of his hands. Nor did he wait for his five sons to quarrel over the inheritance. Konrad was wise enough to realize that he had to act himself if his life's work was to continue. As a matter of course he divided all his offices and rights of rule among his sons and naturally he inherited the Meissen imperial fief. Konrad established a self-image for the Wettins, who from then on appeared as legitimate rulers of the margraviate of Meissen.

The man, who is now considered the progenitor of the Saxon royal family and leads the prince procession of the Wettins at Dresden Castle , began as a poor count on the Saale his rise to the esteemed "sovereign". Until the end of his life, a firm belief in himself, but also a good portion of luck should be constant companions. Konrad died on February 5, 1157, only two months after joining the monastery on Lauterberg.

Marriage and children

Children from the marriage with Luitgard von Ravenstein (* around 1104, † June 19, 1146 in the Gerbstedt monastery , reburied for the Augustinian canons on the Lauterberg near Halle), possibly a cousin of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa and founder of the new Elchingen monastery at the current location, after the original monastery in the valley was destroyed by fire:

literature

Web links

Commons : Konrad I.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The assignment of a present copy is based on Walther Haupt : Sächsische Münzkunde (= work and research reports on the maintenance of Saxon archaeological monuments. Supplement 10, 1–2). License issue. Auction house Tietjen, Hamburg 1974, text volume p. 26, fig. 5 a, no. 13 and plate volume, pl. 11, no. 11.
  2. ^ Heinz Wießner: The Diocese of Naumburg 1 - The Diocese 2. In: Max Planck Institute for History (Ed.): Germania Sacra , NF 35.2, The Dioceses of the Church Province of Magdeburg. Berlin / New York 1998, pp. 762-769 (766).
  3. ↑ It is speculative that her mother Berta von Boll was from Staufer. In any case, Barbarossa did not become emperor until 1155, when Luitgard was long dead. See also Berta von Boll .
  4. ^ Anton Ulrich von Erath : Codex Diplomaticvs Qvedlinbvrgensis. Moeller, Frankfurt am Main 1764, p. 104 f.
predecessor Office successor
Hermann I. Margrave of Meissen
1123–1156 		Otto
Heinrich von Groitzsch Margrave of Lusatia
1136–1156 		Dietrich II.
personal data
SURNAME Konrad I.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Conrad the Great; Konrad the Pious
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Count of Wettin, Margrave of Meissen and Lusatia
DATE OF BIRTH around 1098
DATE OF DEATH February 5, 1157
Place of death Monastery on the Lauterberg