Otto von Harras

Otto von Harras (* around 1440 ; † 1506 ) was provost in Nordhausen and canon in Meißen and was the second son of Hermann von Harras.

The von Harras aristocratic family, who lived in Lichtenwalde , endeavored to consolidate their influence on the church by filling priesthoods with family members, which is why Otto was given the spiritual status. Dietrich von Harras , brother of Otto von Harras, used his position as a servant at the court of Emperor Friedrich III. in order to mediate his brother, and so it came about that in 1466 the emperor of Wiener Neustadt commissioned the Saxon elector Ernst to transfer the post of provost of the cathedral in the imperial monastery to Otto von Harras as soon as it became vacant. Otto, however, had to be patient for a few more years and thus initially became a deacon at the Merseburg Monastery (1471), and from 1475 also pastor of the Ebersdorf Monastery .

He gave up the latter position after 1484 in order to be able to work in Nordhausen, where he can be traced back to 1480 as provost of the Holy Cross Foundation. In this high position he got into the feud between the imperial city of Nordhausen and the count Heinrich von Schwarzburg († 1488), who had blocked the access roads to the city and thus contributed to the fact that the cathedral monastery was involved in the feud between the imperial city of Nordhausen and the countless things through no fault of his own The collection of his income was prevented.

In 1477 Otto sent his brother Dietrich to the elector to have the possessions belonging to the Ebersdorf parish in Schönfeld (near Rochlitz) confirmed again. The importance of Ebersdorf as a place of pilgrimage , which went far beyond that of an ordinary village church, was not due to Otto von Harras, but to his predecessor there, a Naumburg and Meißner canon named Nikolaus von Rotenfels .

Otto von Harras died in 1506 after he had also achieved the dignity of canon in Meißen .

literature

• Gert Petersen: Dietrich von Harras - around 1430 to 1499, life and deeds of a nobleman in the service of Saxony and the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Chemnitz 2006, 36 pp., 12 figs., 1 family tree
• C. Schöttgen and GC Kreysig : Diplomataria et scriptores historiae Germanicae medii aevi, Vol. 1, Chronicon Schwarzburgicum. Altenburg 1755