Otto von Kerpen

Grand Master's coat of arms Otto von Kerpen

Otto von Kerpen († 1209 ) was the second Grand Master of the Teutonic Order . The only thing known about him with certainty is that he was in office in September 1208 and died the following year.

Life

Otto came from the Lords of Kerpen , a noble Rhenish ministerial family based in Kerpen Castle in the Eifel. He is named as one of the 40 knights who founded the Teutonic Order. In older sources it was assumed that he came from Bremen . He was no later than 1197 with the crusade of Henry VI. got to Outremer .

After the death of Grand Master Heinrich Walpot sometime before 1208 Otto was elected Grand Master. While recent researchers assume that nothing is known about his work, it was believed in the first half of the 19th century that he made efforts during his tenure to give the order more independence and the same privileges as the older ones military orders, namely the Templars and Hospitallers .

He died in 1209 and was buried in Acre .

According to an outdated theory, published in 1853, with his death the old lineage of those von Kerpen became extinct in the male line. The castle and rule of Kerpen fell to his sister Hildegard and her husband Winnemar, Herr von Manderscheid . Both great-great-grandson Richard later founded a new line of those von Kerpen after the inheritance was divided.

Web links

Commons : Otto von Kerpen - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Kurt Forstreuter: Heinrich Walpot. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 377 ( digitized version ). “Nothing certain is known about the length of his [Heinrich Walpot's] term of office. His successor Otto von Kerpen officiated in September 1208 († 7.2.1209). Nothing else is known about this. Home (Rhineland?) And Otto's gender are not known. "
↑ ^a ^b Johannes Voigt : History of Prussia, from the oldest times to the fall of the rule of the Teutonic Order , volume 2: The time from the arrival of the order to peace in 1249. Gebr. Bornträger, Königsberg 1827, p. 55 ff.
↑ Cf. Anton Joseph Weidenbach: Rheinischer antiquarius. RFHergt, Koblenz 1853, p. 380 f. .

personal data
SURNAME	Otto von Kerpen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Grand Master of the Teutonic Order
DATE OF BIRTH	12th Century
DATE OF DEATH	1209

[NDB-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Kurt Forstreuter: Heinrich Walpot. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 377 ( digitized version ). “Nothing certain is known about the length of his [Heinrich Walpot's] term of office. His successor Otto von Kerpen officiated in September 1208 († 7.2.1209). Nothing else is known about this. Home (Rhineland?) And Otto's gender are not known. "

[Voigt-2] Johannes Voigt : History of Prussia, from the oldest times to the fall of the rule of the Teutonic Order , volume 2: The time from the arrival of the order to peace in 1249. Gebr. Bornträger, Königsberg 1827, p. 55 ff.

[3] Cf. Anton Joseph Weidenbach: Rheinischer antiquarius. RFHergt, Koblenz 1853, p. 380 f. .