Otto the contactor

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Otto II of Hesse , known as Otto the Schütz (* before 1322; † December 1366 at Spangenberg Castle ) was the only son of Landgrave Heinrich II of Hesse and his wife Elisabeth, daughter of Margrave Friedrich von Meißen .

Life

Otto married Elisabeth († 1382) in 1338, daughter of Dietrich VII. Von Kleve . The marriage remained childless. From 1339/40 he was co-regent of his father and imperial governor in Mühlhausen . Otto participated, among other things, in two victorious feuds of his father (1356 and 1361) against the abbot Heinrich VII of Fulda . In 1356 he devastated the village of Hausen and the local castle Hausen , and in 1361 Otto and Margrave Friedrich III conquered and plundered . from Meissen in 1361 the city of Hünfeld in Fulda .

Otto resided at Spangenberg Castle in Spangenberg , where he died in 1366. His unexpectedly sudden death gave rise to the assumption that he had fallen victim to a poison attack initiated by Abbot Heinrich VII of Fulda. After Otto's death, Heinrich II appointed his nephew Hermann (1341–1413) as co-regent and heir in 1367.

The legend of Otto the Sagittarius

According to a legend that has been told since the 16th century, Otto left his homeland because his older brother Heinrich (who in truth did not exist) was the heir and he himself was destined to be a clergyman, and lived unrecognized as an archer at the count's court in Kleve . There he fell in love with Count Dietrich's daughter Elisabeth (Elsbeth). Otto's brother Heinrich died young, however, and since Otto was thought missing, Hesse threatened to fall to Duke Otto of Braunschweig, who was married to a daughter of Heinrich II . Otto was then recognized by a Hessian knight traveling through and greeted with great respect, and Count Dietrich now agreed to his daughter's marriage to Otto. Otto returned with his bride to his father's court.

The material was often worked poetically and musically, in dramas, operas, a novel, short stories and lyrical-epic poems. The most famous arrangement is that of Gottfried Kinkel , Otto der Schütz. A Rhenish story in twelve adventures, from 1846.

A large fountain statue was erected for Otto in Kleve , which first stood at the fish market and later at the end of the prince's court. In the old auditorium of the University of Marburg there is a cycle of wall paintings "Otto der Schütz". The Kinkel monument in Oberkassel , inaugurated in 1906, shows a scene from Kinkel's epic “Otto der Schütz” on one of its four relief panels.

literature

  • Eckhart G. Franz : The House of Hesse. Kohlhammer Urban, Stuttgart, 2005, ISBN 978-3-17-018919-5 , pp. 24-25.
  • Heinz Scholten: Otto the contactor. In: Around the Swan Tower, magazine of the Klevischer Verein für Kultur und Geschichte. Volume 24, Kleve 2005, pp. 31–34.
  • Margret Lemberg: Otto the contactor. Literature, art and politics. A cycle of pictures in the old auditorium of the Philipps University of Marburg. (= Writings of the University Library , Volume 82.) Philipps University of Marburg, Marburg, 1997, ISBN 3-8185-0241-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Otto der Schütz, based on Ludwig Bechstein, Deutsches Sagenbuch, Leipzig, 1853
  2. ↑ Gottfried Kinkel: Otto the contactor. A Rhenish story in twelve adventures, Cotta, Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1846 and Internet Archive 1894
personal data
SURNAME Otto the contactor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Otto II of Hesse
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Landgrave of Hesse
DATE OF BIRTH around 1322
DATE OF DEATH December 1366
Place of death Spangenberg Castle