Otto I. (Munster)

Otto I. († March 6, 1218 at Caesarea Maritima ) was Bishop of Münster from 1204 to 1218. He came from the Oldenburg count's house and was a contemporary of his relative, Count Otto I. von Oldenburg . He should therefore not be called "Otto (I.) von Oldenburg" any more than the Archbishop of Bremen from 1344–1348.

His father was Heinrich I , the count of Wildeshausen-Bruchhausen.

Otto (I.) prevailed as a candidate of the Guelf party (in the German controversy for the throne , 1198–1208) in a double election of the cathedral chapter as bishop of Münster, after u. a. Abbot Heribert II. von Werden , who was commissioned to investigate the election , had chosen Otto. The usual political-episcopal activities then mark the term of office of the prelate, who u. a. tried to strengthen the monasteries and monasteries in his diocese. In 1217 Otto joined the Fifth Crusade to the Holy Land, where he was with the crusade army of King Andrew II of Hungary and Duke Leopold VI. got from Austria to Outremer . The bishop was in Acre by the beginning of November at the latest and is said to have died on March 6, 1218 near Caesarea .

After the Welfish-German throne dispute, after the general recognition of King Otto IV (1208) and his coronation as emperor (1209), there were again disputes for the throne in the German Empire in 1212, this time between the Staufer-Sicilian King Friedrich II , who was led by Pope Innocent III. was supported, and Emperor Otto IV. Friedrich immediately asserted himself in southern Germany, and Bishop Otto I of Münster also joined the Staufer, who undertook military operations in the Lower Rhine in 1214 and 1215. So Otto went to Koblenz on a court day of Friedrich's (mid to late March 1214), but followers of Emperor Otto took him prisoner in Cologne after his servants and the citizens of Munster fell away. The bishop was imprisoned in the Lower Rhine Palatinate Kaiserswerth , freed by Count Adolf III, who was on the Hohenstaufen side . von Berg after around four months of siege and finally handing over the castle on July 24, 1215. Pope Innocent III was still at the Fourth Lateran Council . The capture of Bishop Otto in November 1215 was one reason why the banished Emperor Otto IV was not reconciled. The capture of the bishop also had consequences for the citizens of Münster and the episcopal ministerials: they were excommunicated and the city of Münster was given an interdict .

literature

• Ribbeck:  Otto I., Bishop of Münster . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887, p. 706 f.
• Michael Buhlmann: The first siege of Kaiserswerth (1215). King Friedrich II. And Emperor Otto IV. In the battle for the Lower Rhine , Essen 2003
• Alois Schröer: The bishops of Munster. Biograms of the auxiliary bishops and vicars general (= The Diocese of Münster, vol. 1) , Münster 1993

predecessor	Office	successor
Hermann II von Katzenelnbogen	Bishop of Munster 1204–1218	Dietrich III. from Isenburg