Otto II (Brandenburg)

Monument in the former Siegesallee , Berlin 1898

Otto II, Margrave of Brandenburg (* after 1148; † July 4, 1205 ), known as "the generous" came from the Ascanians and was the third Margrave of Brandenburg from 1184 until his death .

Life

Otto II was the eldest son of Margrave Otto I and the Polish duke's daughter Judith . In 1184 he became the new margrave after the death of his father. He supported his brother Heinrich in 1189 in founding a collegiate foundation in Stendal. After his death in 1192 he took over his allodial property in the Altmark . That year and two years later, Otto Herzog supported Adolf von Holstein in the fight against the Danes.

In 1194 he captured his younger half-brother Albrecht , who started an uprising to enforce his claims, but soon released him and accepted him as co-regent in the march. In 1195 and 1196 both transferred their entire allodial property (Altmark, Schollene, Zauche) to the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and took it from them as a fief .

Around 1198 Otto made himself dependent on Slavic areas in western Pomerania around Tribsees and had this confirmed by the new King Philip of Swabia . In 1200 and 1203 he supported Philip in the dispute over rule in the empire against the opposing king Otto IV.

Otto II was mentioned only four times in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, in donations for the cathedral monastery between 1192 and 1204. He made numerous donations to monasteries and foundations, which is why he was later called the generous .

Otto was married to Ada von Holland . Since the two had no offspring, his half-brother Albrecht became the new Margrave of Brandenburg after his death.

Monument to Otto II in Berlin's Siegesallee

The depicted monument to Otto stood in the former Siegesallee in the Tiergarten in Berlin , the "splendid boulevard" commissioned by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1895 with monuments from the history of Brandenburg and Prussia. Between 1895 and 1901, under the direction of Reinhold Begas, 27 sculptors created 32 statues of the Brandenburg and Prussian rulers, each 2.75 m high. Each statue was flanked by two smaller busts depicting people who had played an important role in the life of the respective ruler or in the history of Brandenburg or Prussia.

Entire group of Otto II, left

In the case of monument group 3 , these were the busts of Johann Gans Edler zu Putlitz from Prignitz , who often accompanied Otto on military expeditions and who had tied his political fate closely to the Ascanians at the end of the 12th century. Johann Gans was also the founder of the Cistercian monastery Marienfließ . In the right hand the figure of the knight holds a model of the monastery, in the left the deed of foundation. The second bust showed the chronicler Heinrich von Antwerp (also: Heinrici de Antwerpe), who was canon of the Brandenburg cathedral chapter in Otto's time . From this first chronicler of the Mark Brandenburg, almost all the traditions come from this time of the German state expansion and also from the processes during the foundation of the Mark by Albrecht the Bear. ( Tractatus de captione urbis Brandenburg ). The sculptor of the monument group was Joseph Uphues .

Gustav Albrecht described Otto's monument in 1900: “The prince is depicted in chain mail and a balaclava. The margrave rests the chin of the thoughtful and serious face in his right hand, the elbow rests on the left hand, which is holding the sword. A coat adorned with the Brandenburg eagle envelops the strong figure. "

literature

• Johannes Schultze : The Mark Brandenburg. Berlin 1961. pp. 103-111.
• Gustav Albrecht: Margrave Otto II. In: Richard George (Hrsg.): Hie gut Brandenburg alleweg! Historical and cultural images from the past of the Markund from old Berlin up to the death of the Great Elector. Published by W. Pauli's Nachf., Berlin 1900.
• Stephan Warnatsch: History of the Lehnin Monastery 1180–1542 . Studies on the history, art and culture of the Cistercians, Volume 12.1. Lukas Verlag Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-931836-45-2 (also: Berlin, Free University, dissertation, 1999).

Web links

Commons : Otto II. (Brandenburg)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The background is unknown; in the event of childlessness, they may have wanted to prevent the Ascanian dukes of Saxony from inheriting the areas, cf. also Schultze, p. 106f.
2. ^ Gustav Albrecht: Margrave Otto II. In: Richard George (Ed.): Hie gut Brandenburg alleweg! Historical and cultural images from the past of the Markund from old Berlin up to the death of the Great Elector. Verlag von W. Pauli's Nachf., Berlin 1900, pp. 84f.

predecessor	Office	successor
Otto I.	Margrave of Brandenburg 1184–1205	Albrecht II.