Imperial County of Ortenburg
.svg){kind=small} Territory in the Holy Roman Empire |
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| Imperial County of Ortenburg | |
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| Territorial development of the imperial county of Ortenburg from 1350 to 1789 | |
| Alternative names | Ortenburg County, Ortenberg County, Artenberg County |
| Arose from | Duchy of Bavaria |
| Form of rule | monarchy |
| Ruler / government | Imperial Count |
| Today's region / s | DE-BY |
| Parliament | 1 curate vote in the Imperial Council as a member of the Wetterau Imperial Counts College |
| Reich register | 1521: 2 riders and 6 men on foot; 1681: 4 riders and 26 men on foot |
| Reichskreis | Bavarian |
| Capitals / residences | Ortenburg |
| Dynasties | Ortenburg House |
| Denomination / Religions | Catholic until 1563 , then Lutheran |
| Language / n |
German
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| Incorporated into |
Electoral Palatinate Bavaria by sale in 1805
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The imperial county of Ortenburg was a direct imperial county of the Counts of Ortenburg in the Holy Roman Empire . The headquarters was the Ortenburg Fortress above the Ortenburg market in Lower Bavaria (today: Passau district ). The imperial county existed from around 1120 to 1805 in the middle of the rulership of the Duchy of Bavaria .
In the High Middle Ages , the county comprised scattered areas in Old Bavaria , Upper Palatinate , Upper Austria , Lower Austria and Tyrol . In the middle of the 13th century, however, their power declined and their domain was reduced to only four square kilometers around Ortenburg. Nevertheless, the imperial county was able to maintain its influence in the empire and always maintain its independence until the exchange with the Bavarian elector in 1805.
After the fall of the Counts of Ortenburg, the Wittelsbachers took over the so-called Ortenburg panther in their hereditary coat of arms in order to clarify their claims to the areas of old Bavaria. Today this stands in the Bavarian state coat of arms for Upper and Lower Bavaria.
History of the imperial county
Ortenburg was originally called Ortenberg until 1530 . For this reason, the older name is used at the beginning of this article.
1120–1248: emergence and rise
The first proven Count von Ortenberg was Rapoto I from the Spanheim family . He is considered to be the ancestor of this branch of the Counts of Ortenburg . As the third son of Engelbert II of Carinthia , Rapoto received goods from the maternal inheritance to manage. The wife of Engelbert II was Utta, heir to the burgrave Ulrich von Vohburg - Passau , through whom Engelbert had acquired extensive additional property. After Engelbert's death, the four sons divided up the property between them. Engelbert III. , Margrave of Istria , received the County of Kraiburg and parts of the County of Sulzbach . Rapoto I. got the parts north of Kraiburg and settled in the Upper Bavarian area. He built Ortenberg Castle around 1120 and called himself Graf von Ortenberg from 1134 . Rapoto I soon appeared as Vogt of the St. Nikola Monastery in Passau . After the death of his brother Ulrich I of Carinthia , Rapoto finally inherited the region in Bavaria. His marriage to Elisabeth, Countess von Sulzbach , in 1163 brought him further possessions in the Bavarian region. When his brother Engelbert III. In 1173 he died childless, his Bavarian property with the county of Kraiburg as the center fell to Rapoto. At his death in 1186 Rapoto's possessions were already larger than Otto von Wittelsbach's when he took over the Duchy of Bavaria .
The county was then ruled by his two sons Rapoto II and Heinrich I. They shared the property among themselves. Rapoto II became Count of the County of Kraiburg and ruled over all possessions south of the Rott , including the Rottal and some possessions on the Danube . Heinrich received the county of Ortenberg and the possessions around Murach . At the beginning of the 13th century, the county of Ortenberg received imperial rights, but the exact time is unknown. In the following years, the power of the Ortenbergers continued to grow - and with it the potential for conflict. The Ortenberg possessions stretched from Kitzbühel in Tyrol in a wide arc across eastern Bavaria to the Upper Palatinate around Tirschenreuth . The first feuds soon broke out , with most of the villages in Eastern Bavaria being sacked by various warring factions. For years there were armed conflicts, especially with the neighbors, the Counts of Bogen . On April 20, 1192, Rapoto II and his brother Heinrich I were called to Laufen for the Prince's Day of Duke Ludwig des Kelheimers . There an attempt was made to settle the disputes in the duchy. Especially Count Albrecht III. von Bogen , the avowed opponent of Emperor Heinrich VI. was, and his quarrel with the Duke and the Ortenbergers were the topic of conversation. In 1191 Albrecht illegally appropriated the fiefs of the Counts of Sulzbach of the Bamberg diocese in the Danube region. Among them was the bailiwick of winegrowers . This already led to the first tensions with the Ortenberg family, as their mother Elisabeth was a native Countess of Sulzbach and the Ortenburgers saw themselves as legal heirs. Furthermore, the Ortenberg and Bogner counts fought over further territorial and hunting borders. Duke Ludwig, on the other hand, wanted Albrecht to return his illegally acquired goods. However, the Prince's Day ended without result.
In the middle of 1192 Albrecht III fought . von Bogen , together with the Ortenbergers, about the legacy of the Counts of Sulzbach. Both sexes said they were heirs to the extensive estates. You were in direct conflict with the Hohenstaufen, who tried to claim the rich inheritance for themselves. For a long time it was assumed that the Ortenberger and Bogener fought against each other. The Bavarian Duke Ludwig tried to enforce the claims of the Staufer and then sent an army to Lower Bavaria. The Bogner Count then asked his brother-in-law, Duke Ottokar I of Bohemia , who later became King of Bohemia , for help . Initially, Ottokar was unable to bring about any change in what was happening, and it was only through the betrayal of the ducal captain in the northern district , Gottfried von Stein, that the feud turned again. He made it possible for Duke Ottokar I and his men to penetrate the Bavarian duchy. They then devastated the areas in the Bavarian Forest and what is now Upper Palatinate. Nevertheless, none of the warring factions could achieve the decisive victory.
In October of the same year, the battle broadened when Duke Leopold of Austria and Duke Berthold IV of Andechs - Meranien intervened with a mighty army on the side of the Hohenstaufen. The Ortenbergers were unable to cope with this onslaught and had to withdraw. Ortenberg Castle was then besieged by Dukes Leopold V and Berthold IV. Soon it was captured and destroyed. The defending Count Heinrich I was captured by the attackers. When the ancestral castle was rebuilt is unknown. Until then, the count family resided at the Neu-Ortenberg Fortress , not far from the ancestral castle. In 1249 both castles were mentioned together in a document.
Duke Ludwig and his men were repulsed as far as Mühldorf am Inn . Even Pope Celestine III found out about the terrible atrocities, pillage and inhumane conditions of the feud . who then tried in a bull to bring the warring parties to a halt and had some prosecuted for their serious crimes. Only when the emperor intervened, on his orders, the fighting stopped and the leaders of both sides followed his orders to go to the Reichstag in Regensburg on January 6, 1193. There Albert III was. temporarily relegated from Bogen to Apulia . His brother-in-law, Ottokar I, was relieved of his duchy before he took over the royal office of Bohemia in 1198. The legacy of the Sulzbacher in the Danube region initially remained with the Hohenstaufen.
In 1195 Rapoto II and Heinrich I attacked the lands of Passau Bishop Wolfger von Erla , who had supported Duke Leopold V against the Ortenbergers in 1192. Wolfger, however, was on pilgrimage in the Holy Land at that time. However, when he unexpectedly returned in 1198 and saw the deeds of the counts, he rose up against them and, together with his allies, the Counts of Bogen and auxiliary troops of the Duke of Austria, moved against Ortenberg. The castle Graben am Inn was taken and razed. Despite the earlier alliance with Rapoto, Ludwig the Kelheimer also intervened on the side of the bishop, since the Ortenbergers had been guilty of breaching the peace . So Ludwig attacked the Kraiburg fortress and the associated market and destroyed the castle. The feud does not seem to have lasted long, because on July 10, 1199 Rapoto was back in the service of the Bavarian duke. The exact outcome, apart from the fact that the Ortenbergers were prevented from ever rebuilding Castle Graben, is unknown. Furthermore, Bishop Wolfger had the Obernberg fortress built to protect against the counts. The Ortenbergers themselves seemed to recover quickly from this and had the Kraiburg fortress and the associated place rebuilt.
On June 21, 1208, Count Palatine Otto VIII von Wittelsbach murdered King Philip of Swabia in Bamberg out of vengeance. Since the later Emperor Otto IV could not leave this unpunished, he called to a Reichstag in Frankfurt. There, on November 10, 1208, Otto VIII was imposed an imperial ban. His possessions fell to his cousin, Duke Ludwig I of Bavaria. The office and its dignity were removed from the Wittelsbach family and Rapoto II von Ortenberg was bestowed upon them, probably in order to create a counterpoint to the Wittelsbach family in the Duchy of Bavaria. However, since Rapoto was related by marriage to Ludwig I, there was no conflict with the ruling house of Bavaria at that time. For the Ortenberg counts this was a significant appreciation of the sex, since their possessions could compete with other sexes or were larger, but they were still in rank behind them.
In 1212 there was another feud between Rapotos and Heinrichs with the Passau bishop Manegold von Berg and the counts von Bogen. The trigger of this conflict and the course are completely unknown. The position of Ludwig des Kelheimer in this dispute is also unknown, only his efforts to restore peace, which he succeeded in July 1213. In 1226 there was another feud with the Counts of Bogen. However, no other sources are available for this dispute. All that is known is that Rapoto II destroyed the village of Liechtenwerde founded by Albrecht IV von Bogen . On March 12, 1231, Count Palatine Rapoto II died and a few months later his wife Udilhild.
Until the middle of the 13th century, the Ortenberg counts largely determined events in Lower Bavaria , parts of Upper Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate .
1248–1380: decline
After the death of Count Palatine Rapoto III. , Rapoto II's only son, in 1248 the Ortenbergers lost most of their power as well as the possessions around Kraiburg and Sulzbach, since Rapoto III. only had one daughter and she was the sole heiress. The possessions and the Palatine Office fell to the Wittelsbach family in 1259 .
From now on, the line of Henry I alone determined the events in Ortenberg. In 1241 his first son, Heinrich II , called "the donor", was his successor. He had fallen out with his three stepbrothers and stepmother and gave away most of his possessions to prevent his stepbrothers from taking possession of them. When Heinrich's death only a small part of the county remained, which in 1257, when it was taken over by Count Gebhard , was only about the size and extent of today's Ortenburg market .
After the death of his brothers Gebhard and Diepold , Rapoto IV became the sole heir to the Ortenberg estates. In 1291 Count Albrecht von Hals renounced Kamm Castle and its accessories and the possessions around Kamm, St. Philipp (today's Söldenau ), Holzkirchen and Isarhofen in favor of his granddaughter Kunigunde, wife of Rapotos IV .
Rapoto IV. And his son Heinrich III. participated in the " Ottonische Handfeste ", in which Duke Otto von Niederbayern , who was in financial distress due to a war for the Hungarian royal crown, shared the lower jurisdiction in Lower Bavarian territory in return for a tax with 70 noble families. The Ortenbergers were one of them. Affected areas were the Ortenberg fiefdoms, because the counts already had these rights on their allodial property .
In 1316, the Ortenberg market was given the right to hold annual markets by the emperor . However, this document was lost so that the counts had to ask the emperor to issue a new document. Friedrich III. complied with the request on April 14, 1479. He granted Ortenburg the ability to hold five annual fairs a year, which led to a considerable appreciation of the county. Since then, a market has been held several times a year in Ortenburg.
In 1346 the county went to Henry IV. He inflicted great losses on the county again through armed conflicts and donations. The county lost the town of Sandbach and with it direct access to the Danube . Ortenberg was now surrounded by Bavaria and the Passau monastery . This had a considerable impact on the Ortenburg trade and especially on the manufacture of barrels. These now had to be transported overland and customs cleared at the county border before they could be shipped on across the Danube.
The Ortenberger house was soon divided into several lines ( Alt-Ortenberg and Neu-Ortenberg and Dorfbach ). However, there was an unwritten law that only the eldest count in the family should rule. In the period that followed, there were repeated changes of government between the individual branches of the family. No ruling count ever had all the possessions, but he had the right to administer them and to assign the counts' fiefs.
1380–1490: Temporary abandonment of imperial rights and resurgence of the county
Under Heinrich's son Alram I , the Ortenbergers enlarged their estates again. In 1381 he married Barbara von Rottau, the rich widow of the knight Friedrich “des Rottauers” zu Rottau near Schärding . He had been a liege man from Count Heinrich IV and held his possessions around Dorfbach. Through the marriage and the waiver of Friedrich's closest relative in 1381 and 1385, Dorfbach came back into Ortenberger possession. Since then, Alram I. called himself "Graf zu Dorfbach" or "Graf zu Ortenberg, sat in Dorfbach". His third wife Anna, whose origin is unknown, also brought rich possessions into the marriage.
In 1391, Count Georg I and his brother Etzel signed a contract with Duke Friedrich von Bayern-Landshut , in which they granted the Bavarian dukes access to their castles " for the benefit of the community and the empire ". The reasons for this step are unknown, but this meant giving up one of the most important rights of imperial immediacy . In addition, Georg committed himself to support the Duke whenever this was necessary. The county remained an imperial fief, but the counts waived some house rights over their castles. This led to several conflicts in the period that followed, in which the Ortenbergers repeatedly had to sign identical contractual conditions.
In 1409, after years of conflict and after several imprisonments with the Bavarian dukes, Count Georg I toyed with the idea of selling the county, because after the concessions of the counts it threatened to decline to a vassal countship without imperial rights. Why George I did not turn to his supreme lieutenant, King Wenzel , is unclear. It can be assumed, however, that Georg was aware that Wenzel had not done anything for the empire so far and that he was voted out of office as an inactive king in 1400 for nothing. In spite of everything, Count Georg tried to compensate a little for the losses of his predecessors by acquiring new property, which was only minor, and to expand his domain again.
Georg's successor was his brother Etzel I in 1422. In 1416/17 he inherited large sums of money from Landgraves Johann and Georg zu Leuchtenberg and acquired large fiefs from the Niederaltaich monastery . These included the castles Engelsberg , Ranfels and Bärnstein as well as a few villages around Niederalteich and Grafenau . There was a long dispute with the Landgraves of Leuchtenberg about the two fortresses of Bärnstein and Ranfels , which was only officially ended by a treaty in 1442, although Etzel had even been awarded the castles by Pope Martin V in 1426 . Even a sale to the Bavarian dukes in 1438 did not resolve the dispute. Etzel's efforts to regain the lower jurisdiction in the area around St. Salvator, which Henry IV had sold, were unsuccessful.
Count Etzel also played an important role in the dissolution and division of the Duchy of Straubing-Holland . So he was in 1425 of the estates as the former administrator of the Straubinger Ländchen (1407-1408) and as a former councilor to the late Duke Johann III. elected to the inheritance committee. Etzel I now administered the duchy until 1429. So he represented it in 1426 at a court assembly in Vienna and at the imperial diets in Regensburg and Straubing . In 1429 he was a member of King Sigismund's partition commission and, with the other members, decided on April 26, 1429 the Pressburg arbitration award . The lands under Ludwig the Bearded of Bavaria-Ingolstadt , Heinrich the Rich from Bavaria-Landshut and Ernst and Wilhelm III. divided by Bayern-Munich .
Etzel I. handed over the county to Alram II in 1444, after he had been enfeoffed by King Sigismund with the county of Ortenberg, the castles and the associated blood jurisdiction in 1431 . This was in 1444 by King Friedrich III. affirmed and was an important step, which meant the rise of the house in the imperial class. Alram only marginally enlarged his possessions, especially with goods in and around the small village of Voglarn.
Due to the marriage of Count Heinrich V with Ursula Ecker zu Saldenburg , the Ortenbergers were involved in large inheritance disputes over Saldenburg, Söldenau and Rainding in 1426 , because Ursula's father had no male heirs. A first conciliatory saying by Duke Johann III. von Straubing-Holland , after which Heinrich was awarded a quarter of the inheritance, was unsuccessful. After a second arbitration in 1442 by Duke Heinrich XVI. from Bayern-Landshut , the Ortenbergers again received joint ownership of the fortress and the town of Saldenburg. Three years later, Heinrich succeeded in acquiring all of these properties through purchase. Between 1430 and 1446 he acquired other properties, but without any inheritance disputes, including Beutelsbach , Haarbach and Igelbach .
After the death of the ruling Count Alram II in 1460, Georg II followed. Georg was the eldest son of Henry V. His term of office was marked by sales and renewed quarrels about inheritance. In 1471, for example, Georg sold Engelsberg Castle to Heinrich Notthracht von Wernberg. The inheritance dispute lasted from Alram's death until 1468, when it was ended with a settlement. Another dispute was about the Hofmark Abtshofen with the Ebersberg monastery . The Ortenbergers claimed Abtshofen as an imperial fiefdom, but the monastery as an endowment. The first arbitration verdict of Louis IX. des Reichen , Duke of Bavaria-Landshut , in 1466 was unsuccessful. After an appointment procedure with Emperor Friedrich III. In 1468, Duke Albrecht the Wise of Bavaria-Munich and Duke Ludwig issued the arbitration award on an imperial decree in favor of the monastery.
After the death of George II in 1488, his stepbrother Sebastian I , “the fighter”, followed. He got his nickname because of his skills in fighting at tournaments, but also because of the determination with which he himself asserted his rights against the emperor. He succeeded in defeating the imperial troops who had occupied the fortress of Neuburg am Inn and the associated imperial counties , and in proving to claim the inheritance of his father-in-law for himself. The dispute with Emperor Friedrich III. was settled in 1473 through the mediation of Duke Ludwig, when Sebastian ceded the castle and the county of Neuburg am Inn to the emperor for 4,000 guilders.
Georg and Sebastian promoted trade and traffic. Emperor Friedrich III. granted the brothers the lost market rights in 1479 . Furthermore, the emperor emphasized the imperial immediacy of the county including the associated blood jurisdiction . For the Wittelsbach dukes this represented a defeat, as they had tried to convert the imperial fief into a state fief of the duchy.
The issuance of the imperial charter and other documents to both brothers suggests that they ruled together, but formally first Georg and then Sebastian was the ruling count. The issuance of this document, however, meant a great appreciation, as the county was again and clearly confirmed as an imperial fief by the emperor. The acquisitions of the two counts included the Moßheim Castle and the Hofmark and Haidenkofen Castle and the associated possessions of Rainting, Pening and Kreusching and Liechting.
1490–1551: Ortenburg before the Reformation
In 1490 there was the next change of government. Count Wolfgang I. received the county. The Landshut War of Succession between Duke Albrecht IV of Bavaria-Munich and Count Palatine Ruprecht of the Palatinate fell during his term of office . After the death of Duke George of Bavaria-Landshut , the estates established a regency of 16 members for the duchy, including Count Wolfgang. During the War of Succession Wolfgang stood on the side of Duke Albrecht IV of Bavaria-Munich and contractually promised him three years of support. In 1504 both the place and the ancestral castle Alt-Ortenburg were pillaged twice, which especially the population suffered greatly. However, Wolfgang not only supported the Bavarian dukes, but also as an imperial liege lord the emperor in several wars, including against Venice .
After Wolfgang's death, his brother Ulrich II came to power. Thanks to his wife, he acquired large estates, including the county of Hals , the castles and lordships of Moos , Söldenau and Saldenburg , but also large debts as an inheritance. However, he had to share this with two other heirs. So in 1511 there were major inheritance disputes with Johann von Degenberg , in which even Emperor Maximilian I had to intervene. After Ulrich had been awarded the Saldenburg and Söldenau festivals by Duke Ludwig X. of Bavaria , the parties to the dispute agreed on a settlement and sold the imperial county of Hals to the Dukes of Bavaria in 1517.
In 1521 the county was in the Reichsmatrikel added that Reichsunmittelbarkeit but was challenged by Bayern.
Ulrich's daughters and sons remarried with the nobility and forged important connections to other houses for the Ortenbergers. The counts, but also the place, had again become an important power in the empire despite the small amount of land they owned .
In 1524 Christoph became the acting count, another son of Sebastian I. Six years later, in 1530, Christoph took part in the Reichstag in Augsburg . There he met Count Gabriel , a Count of Ortenburg in Carinthia . Since the Count of Cilli died out in 1456 - they had inherited the Carinthian Ortenburgers in 1418 - the Ortenbergers had raised hereditary claims to this county . Since Christoph's objection to Emperor Karl V was unsuccessful, he renamed his family as Counts of Ortenburg of the older family and the place of Ortenberg as Ortenburg in protest. By marrying his heir, Anna von Hollup, Christoph received rich possessions in what is now Upper Austria around Mattighofen Castle and in the Bavarian region around Neudeck Castle . This connection with the Bohemian Hollup family is remarkable because the Ortenburgers became one of the richest houses in Lower Bavaria again. Count Christoph himself increased the county's possessions like hardly any of his predecessors. Between 1520 and 1548 he acquired properties in Birnbach , Aunkirchen, Mühlheim, Penning and Hiesbach, among others . In 1517 he also succeeded in buying the Mattighofen castle and market from the dukes Ludwig X and Wilhelm IV of Bavaria-Munich. In 1549 Wilhelm ceded other possessions to the Count around Neudeck Castle. Christoph's only son from his second marriage, Joachim , was to employ Ortenburg, but also the Duchy of Bavaria and the empire several times.
1551–1600: Introduction of the Reformation and struggle for imperial immediacy
After the resignation of Count Sebastian II , who was frail at the age of 72 , Count Joachim , Count Christoph's only surviving son, initially came to power temporarily at the age of 21. Only after Sebastian's death and the renunciation of Johann III, who was actually entitled to inherit. in 1559 Joachim became the oldest of the family and was the rightful regent. Through his marriage to Ursula Countess von Fugger , the Ortenburgers received a considerable dowry. Joachim was one of the most educated and respected men of the 16th century, as his appointments as adjutant to Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria and as imperial councilor to Ferdinand I show.
As early as 1553, Joachim campaigned in Bavaria for complaints about church abuses . At the Diet of Augsburg in 1555 he campaigned for the Protestant side . A year later he again campaigned in the Munich state parliament to ensure that the rural estates with him at the helm were given permission to have the Lord's Supper donated in both forms (bread and wine). However, this failed and outraged the Bavarian bishops. In 1563, at the Ingolstadt state parliament , the equality of the two forms of communion was discussed again. Duke Albrecht was not prepared to tolerate any other faith in his territory than the previous one, and so Joachim and several other imperial and state estates incurred his anger. The Duke did not want to make such a decision without a papal council .
After the coronation of the future Emperor Maximilian II and his return to Ortenburg, Joachim introduced the Reformation in his imperial county on October 17, 1563, based on the Peace of Augsburg . He had recognized that neither the Bavarian state estates dared nor Duke Albrecht was ready to completely introduce the Augsburg denomination. This was the trigger for the " Ortenburg aristocratic conspiracy ". From then on, the Ortenburgers had a dispute with Duke Albrecht V and his successors, Duke Wilhelm V and Duke Maximilian I.
Even if the imperial county with just 2000 inhabitants and an area of one and a half square miles was not particularly large, the introduction of Protestantism was a daring step, because the Ortenburgers were the most respected and influential Bavarian imperial class . The central location of the county in the center of the Catholic powers in southern Germany shows the importance, but also the potential for controversy, which this decision could bring with it. The new faith soon drew many people from the surrounding area of Bavaria to Ortenburg to follow the Lutheran teachings .
The Bavarian dukes challenged the imperial immediacy of Ortenburg several times and tried before the Imperial Court of Justice that Ortenburg would become Bavarian in order to be able to reverse the Reformation. This judicial process had been smoldering since 1549, but it was only with the religious conflict that it assumed a special significance.
On December 17, 1563 Albrecht occupied the county, referring to the opening obligation of Count Etzel and Georg from 1391. But Joachim saw no reason to stop the Protestant services. On February 20, 1564, Albrecht had the priests and all Bavarian worshipers arrested, but not even the right to open the church authorized him to do so. Count Joachim filed a complaint with the Imperial Court of Justice and with Emperor Ferdinand I and King Maximilian II. So there was a second trial before the Reich Chamber of Commerce. In order to prevent the further spread of the new faith, Duke Albrecht blocked the entrances to the county with his soldiers in 1564. Since the Ortenburg Count Duke Albrecht still did not obey, he confiscated all the Ortenburg fiefdoms in the Duchy of Bavaria, whereby the Ortenburgers lost most of their sources of income. The Protestant princes from Saxony , Württemberg and Neuburg supported the Ortenburgers, however, because they wanted to solve the as yet unanswered questions of Protestantism with reference to the Ortenburg matter at the next Reichstag.
After the death of Emperor Ferdinand, Emperor Maximilian tried to mediate between the parties. These negotiations threatened to fail several times. Although in 1565 the emperor obliged Duke Albrecht to return their possessions to the Ortenburgers, he refused. Even after several attempts, no agreement was reached. Although the emperor wanted to give up the role of mediator, he had no choice, because the Protestant princes would bring this up at the next Reichstag. In 1566, at the Reichstag in Augsburg, things got so far that the imperial princes campaigned for the Ortenburg cause. Maximilian's goal of working out a solution before the Reichstag had failed. But Albrecht V became restless, too, because he feared that he could be punished by a resolution of the Reichstag if he had committed a violation of the peace of faith. So he asked Elector August of Saxony to take on the role of mediator. Both sides accepted this and renewed negotiations took place. In May 1566 there was a contract between the Duchy of Bavaria and the County of Ortenburg, in which the dispute was temporarily settled and the Ortenburgers regained their possessions. The Ortenburgers were allowed to remain Protestant, but Protestant services were only allowed to be held in the palace chapel. All further questions were postponed until the outcome of the two trials before the Reich Chamber of Commerce. Furthermore, the process of the alleged Ortenburg aristocratic conspiracy was discontinued with a declaration by all those involved.
In October 1566 Joachim and the eldest of the Söldenau line, Count Ulrich III. and Count Johann III., the already applicable senior succession in the count family. Up until then, this was an unwritten family law. Emperor Maximilian II confirmed this a year later. In this way, the Ortenburg counts secured their claims to rule over the county even in the event of a line becoming extinct.
Between 1562 and 1575, despite the financial burden of the dispute with the Bavarian dukes, Joachim had the Alt-Ortenburg fortress rebuilt as a castle above the market square. It should again become the family seat of his family, because he resided in Mattighofen during his reign.
In order to improve the economic situation and the prosperity of the county, Joachim promoted the cultivation of hops and in 1568 built the so-called “brewing and care office” on the market square. Beer was brewed in the count's brewery until 1917. Ulrich III, Joachim's cousin, followed his example in 1577 and set up a small brewery in his castle. This ceased operations only in 1991. Count Joachim also had another mill built on the Wolfach; however, since it didn't pay off, he soon sold it. But he also promoted education in Ortenburg, so he had a school built between the market square and the market church and largely took over the costs of the school.
The Reich Chamber of Commerce announced its judgments on March 4, 1573 in favor of the Ortenburgers. It confirmed that Ortenburg was not part of the Bavarian duchy, but an imperial fiefdom with the associated rights. The opening rights from 1391 were also declared invalid, as Ortenburg was an imperial fiefdom and not a state fiefdom. Furthermore, the dukes were ordered to “keep quiet” in this matter, which meant that the county retained its imperial rights and that they could no longer be challenged.
In the same year Count Anton von Ortenburg , Joachim's only son, died. Now it was foreseeable that Joachim would probably remain without direct heirs, but the law introduced by him in 1566 secured his succession through the other Ortenburg lines. After his judicial defeat by Emperor Maximilian, Duke Albrecht tried to get the county to fall to Bavaria as a settled imperial fief after Joachim's death. He only approximated this in 1574. The county was to fall to the Dukes of Bavaria when the entire Ortenburg family died out. Since this was never the case, the county always remained in Ortenburg's hands.
Since Joachim tried again after the verdict to spread Protestantism, Albrecht again cordoned off the county. He also prohibited all Bavarian traders from trading with Ortenburg. Joachim felt compelled to go to the Reich Chamber of Commerce in Speyer one more time. In 1575 and 1576 this decided again for the Ortenburg cause. However, Albrecht only reacted to the court decisions in 1577 and thus caused great financial damage to the Ortenburg county. Joachim successfully lodged a complaint in this regard with the Reich Chamber Court, but for unknown reasons there were no consequences for the Duke.
In the course of time there were again religious disputes between Joachim and the Bavarian dukes, who had again occupied the Ortenburg lands. After Albrecht's death, Duke Wilhelm V succeeded him . Joachim turned to him in 1579 and asked for his lands to be returned. Furthermore, Joachim suggested that Bavaria should buy the county from him and give him and his family another county on the border. Wilhelm refused, however. Joachim tried again to get his rights through the Reich Chamber Court and the Reichstag.
After several years of dispute, the electors of Saxony , Brandenburg , Mainz and Trier tried to mediate in 1584. Negotiations took place in Donauwörth in the autumn of that year . Even Emperor Rudolf took part. But even these failed because of the hardened negotiating fronts on both sides. The Bavarian duke even turned down a new offer for sale by Joachim.
On the mediation of Count Hans Fugger , negotiations took place again in 1589 and 1590, but this time with the aim of selling the county to the dukes. But here too there was no conclusion. Another attempt by the Count von Fugger also failed in 1590.
In 1594, at the Reichstag in Regensburg, Joachim again turned to the imperial estates, which in turn campaigned for the Ortenburg cause and asked Emperor Rudolf to accept it again. In fact, the Kaiser and Joachim wrote a letter to Duke Maximilian, who gradually took over the business from Wilhelm from 1594 onwards. But there was no answer, so Joachim tried to finally find a solution with an arbitration tribunal. Duke Maximilian refused and tried to delay it. The Ortenburger sued the Reich Chamber of Commerce in this regard , but Joachim did not live to see the outcome of the trial. He died in 1600 while staying in the imperial city of Nuremberg .
The Ortenburg house was weakened by the decades of religious conflict and the dispute about imperial immediacy and lost most of its possessions. Apart from the imperial counties, there were almost no other possessions. Furthermore, the counts were heavily indebted due to the legal dispute and the many legal costs. In addition, Joachim bequeathed the county to his second wife, Lucia, so that the Ortenburgers had to release it again. The change of faith had caused immeasurable damage to the county and the ancestry. But Joachim's commitment was an indescribable success for the Protestant faith in southern Germany. Another success, despite all the costs, was the confirmation of imperial immediacy in March 1573. Due to the ruling of the imperial chamber court, the county was finally an imperial fief and therefore not Bavarian. In this way, the Bavarian dukes were able to incorporate into the duchy all the small imperial immediate areas in their area in the next few centuries, except for the small imperial county of Ortenburg.
1600–1702: Pledging of the county and redemption
As already mentioned, Joachim bequeathed the county to his wife so that it would not remain without possession. From then on, the Ortenburgers were officially incumbent counts of the village, but they did not own part of the property. They were left with their private estates and the holdings of their lines. The ancestral palace and the imperial counts' possessions, including the possessions of Joachim's line, were pledged, however. Many counts in the following years should try to redeem the county. Neither Heinrich VII. , Georg IV. Nor Friedrich Casimir achieved this. Georg and Heinrich were reconciled with the Bavarian dukes in 1602 when Georg converted to the Catholic faith, among other things. In return, they received the Bavarian fiefs back on April 12, 1602, with the exception of the rich possessions around the Mattighofen estate, which they had to sell to Bavaria. Otherwise, the dukes feared that this would make the Ortenburgers too powerful again. From now on some members of the count's house changed to the Catholic faith in order to get a better position in relation to the ducal house. However, the population of the county remained, based on the Augsburg Religious Peace, Evangelical-Lutheran, as no count changed the faith of the population by decree .
After the death of Henry VII in 1603, George IV followed. Not much is known about their reign, which probably had to do with the fact that they held the dignity of counts, but the main property of the county was not under their administration. Joachim's widow Lucia had tried with all her might to bequeath the Ortenburg County to her family and for this reason lived in a very tense relationship with the population. The count family lived in the non-pledged areas outside the county, in Dorfbach and Söldenau. In 1615, Lucia von Limpurg commissioned the creation of church records in the county.
Georg IV died in 1627, whereupon Friedrich Casimir succeeded him as acting count. This lived very lavishly and went into debt all his life, after which he had to sell a lot of goods. Furthermore, he felt more drawn to art and research, which is why he depicted the county in watercolors, which are very popular with historians today.
With the outbreak of the Thirty Years War in 1618, difficult times began for the Ortenburgers. In October 1624, Emperor Ferdinand II expelled all Protestants from his Austrian hereditary lands. One of the closest places of refuge for religious refugees was the Bavarian county. Many moved on to the imperial cities of Regensburg and Nuremberg , but some, mainly farmers, stayed in Ortenburg. Count Friedrich Casimir , an avowed Calvinist , gave them property from his private fortune so that they could settle in the county. This is how the two districts of Vorder- and Hinterhainberg came into being in 1626. Refugees also settled in Ortenburg themselves, from which today's district of Gänsewinkel emerged. The Austrians also brought fruit trees and with them the production of cider from their home regions, so that Ortenburg has had a great cider tradition ever since. Many apple and pear trees in the area in and around Ortenburg bear witness to this tradition since then.
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In 1628 Count Friedrich Casimir tried to redeem the pledged county again. Due to his lavish lifestyle, however, he was unable to raise the required sum of 25,000 guilders. So he could only trigger the ancestral castle Alt-Ortenburg. He designed a splendid Renaissance wooden ceiling for a dining room and had it installed in the palace in 1628. Today the hall is used as a Protestant chapel.
Lucia's heirs, the Counts of Sinzendorf , cleverly exploited the difficult conditions of the war and Friedrich Casimir's waste to secure the county and the market more and more by buying off Count Friedrich Casimir's debt certificates .
The war also brought hardship, suffering and hunger. Even the Black Death, the plague , did not stop at the small county. In 1634 275 people died of the plague. In 1648 another 189 people died. A year later it took away another 206 people. Whole families died out. Affected farms could only be purchased for one loaf of bread, but for fear of the plague houses, there was usually no buyer.
After Count Friedrich Casimir's death in 1658, Georg Reinhard became the incumbent Count von Ortenburg. Together with his brother Christian he ruled the county. In order to avoid a religious conflict with the Bavarian dukes, both changed their faith in 1624, but the county remained Protestant even under their reign. In 1662, Georg Reinhard succeeded in releasing the imperial counties from Count Johann Joachim von Sinzendorf , so that it was now back in Ortenburg's possession. Georg Reinhard died in 1666, however. He was followed by his brother Christian, who ruled until 1684. In 1685 Georg Philipp was enfeoffed with the county. He was the first Protestant ruler since George IV. His reign lasted until 1702.
From 1671 to 1702 two processes of the citizenship against their counts shaped the county, but at the same time showed the increasing courage of the population. The first, the so-called Great Weber Trial , lasted over eight years. In it the local weavers fought for their own weaver guild order. Count Christian interfered in it in 1671 and protected a weaver who had broken the law. Due to the protests and the complaint of the weavers before the Reichshofrat , the county's trade with Bavaria was confiscated and the trade was blocked. Only after a settlement and the weavers' written apology in 1679 was the dispute ended. The trade ban, however, lasted for some time until Count Christian lifted it. The second trial was triggered because of the rising imperial taxes for the county. In addition to taxes and duties for the Bavarian Empire , Count Georg Philipp also had to pay taxes for the Bavarian army against the Turks. So it happened that in August 1698 he introduced more taxes and changed the administration. The population feared a further overload and complained again to the Reichshofrat. As a result, there were many arrests in Ortenburg. Trade with the Electorate of Bavaria was also blocked again. Many citizens then fled the county to Dorfbach and Rainding in Bavaria. On January 12, 1699, the imperial commission arrived to investigate the grievances. All five counts of the count against the citizenry were rejected. The citizenry brought eleven counts alone. Some of them were accepted, including the compensation for the clearing of the community wood in the Zell and the return to the old tax collection. The settlement was then sent back to Vienna. This was presented to the citizens on October 13, 1700. The citizens signed it, but Count Georg Philipp refused because he considered it unusual to conclude a contract between the sovereign and subjects. Only after his death on May 5, 1702 and due to the guardianship of Countess Amalia Regina, the settlement was accepted by the Count's House and the conflict officially ended.
1702–1805: end of the county
After the death of Georg Philip, Johann Georg became acting count. Since he was still a minor, his mother, Countess Amalia Regina von Zinzendorf , took over the guardianship and administration of the county. It is thanks to her that a great deal of value was placed on school education in Ortenburg. In 1703, she introduced compulsory schooling, 99 years earlier than in Bavaria, and three years later with confirmation. In the same year, Amalia handed the management over to her son, who was now of age.
Johann Georg was not the only underage count in the 18th century. After him were his only son, Count Karl III. as well as Count Joseph Carl not yet of legal age when they took over the government.
After Johann Georg died in 1725 at the age of 39, the 10-year-old Karl III. acting count. Until he came of age in 1739, his mother, Countess Maria Albertine von Nassau-Saarbrücken , took over his guardianship. Charles' enfeoffment took place officially on October 24, 1741. His term of office was marked by the Austrian War of Succession from 1740 to 1748. Since he and thus the county remained neutral, he granted the warring parties the right to pass through Ortenburg. Various troops were stationed in Ortenburg, including French cavalry regiments. The Ortenburg population suffered greatly from the large number of troops. Karl's number of children is remarkable. Together with his wife Louise Sophia, Karl fathered 14 children, a number that only Sebastian I with 13 children could even come close to in the Ortenburg family.
Charles III died in 1776. in Ortenburg. His successor was his eldest son, Count Karl Albrecht. However, he only took over the government for eleven years, since he died in 1787 as a guest of Prince-Bishop Joseph Franz Anton von Auersperg at Neuburg am Inn Castle .
Joseph Carl , who was just seven years old, was nominally Count, his mother Christiane Louise and his uncle Ludwig Emanuel were his guardians. Christiane Louise was considered very lavish, loved the pomp and was very unpopular with the population due to her expensive lifestyle. Furthermore, she imposed Bavarian citizenship on her subjects, which made the population feel deprived of their freedom. Nevertheless, it is thanks to her that Ortenburg was recognized as neutral during the Napoleonic Wars in 1801, through personal intercession with the princes and Napoléon . This meant that the Ortenburg possessions were not included in the secularization and mediatization .
When Joseph Carl took over the reign himself in 1801, the county was heavily in debt. He expelled his unpopular mother Christiane Louise into exile in nearby Passau and only guaranteed her a small pension in order to cope with the expenses in his county. By saving on his mother's pompous household, he initially managed to save the county from further major expenses. It was obvious, however, that despite the large counts 'forest, the income from the counts' businesses (breweries, brick kilns), tax revenues and trade revenues, it was impossible to pay off the high debts. These had piled up to around 270,000 guilders by 1804 , which was offset by only 13,000 guilders annual income. Despite a rigorous austerity course, the count was only able to reduce the debt burden slightly. So in 1805 Joseph Carl approached the Bavarian dukes and offered them the county for sale. On August 14, 1805, the imperial county of Ortenburg was exchanged for the former monastery office Tambach , which came from secularization funds, which became the newly created county of Tambach . Ortenburg became a Bavarian market town.
At the time of the exchange, Ortenburg comprised three quarters of a square mile, six villages and two castles, as well as the dominions of Söldenau , Oberdorf and Unterdorfbach , Hirschbach and Buch on the Bavarian side .
Development after 1805
On January 20, 1806, the count family moved to the newly created County of Tambach, near Coburg , on the border of the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Duchy of Saxony-Coburg . In addition to the castle, the new county comprised 18 villages. This empire-free county only existed for a few months, as Tambach was mediated as early as October 1806 by the Rhine Federation Act from July of the same year. Thus, the imperial county was downgraded to a state rule with some special rights. The count family lives at Tambach Castle to this day.
The Ortenburg market was officially handed over to the Kingdom of Bavaria on February 12, 1806. The place was then subordinate to the Bavarian district court Griesbach. The locals were granted unrestricted freedom of conscience and religion , so that they were allowed to remain Protestant. The departure of the counts brought about a social change in the population, as many of the former count's officials, court employees and craftsmen lost their jobs. With the establishment of the municipality of Ortenburg in 1810, the locals lost the last of the county's special privileges. The community still exists today and was enlarged in 1972. Today it is one of the largest in the Passau district .
In order not to leave the castle above the village unused, the rent office was relocated from Griesbach to Ortenburg in October 1806. A castle fire in Griesbach favored this process. After it was rebuilt, the office was moved back to Griesbach in 1818. The Bavarian Kingdom then considered demolishing or selling the castle. Concerned that the castle could be demolished, many citizens wrote to the former counts by letter. In it they asked the count to take care of the preservation of the landmark of the place and not to let it deteriorate. He then reported to the government of the Lower Danube District on April 17, 1822 with his interest in buying. After lengthy negotiations, on April 30, 1827, Ortenburg Castle, the ancestral seat of the counts, returned to their ownership. It was handed over to the count family as compensation for the loss of sovereign rights over the County of Tambach and was valued at 10,000 guilders. The castle remained in the possession of the count family until 1971, before Alram Graf zu Ortenburg sold it to the Orttenburger family. This family is named after their place of origin Ortenburg in the old spelling from the 19th century, but not related to the counts. The castle was sold again in 2013 and is still privately owned. Today parts of it can be visited as a local museum and there is a restaurant in the vaults.
List of the ruling counts
| Surname | Reign (s) | ancestry |
| Rapoto I. | 1134–1186 Count of Ortenberg, 1163–1186 Count of Murach, 1173–1186 Count of Kraiburg | Son of Engelbert II. |
| Rapoto II. | 1186–1231 Count of Kraiburg, 1209–1231 Count Palatine of Bavaria | Son of Rapotos I. |
| Heinrich I. | 1186–1241 Count of Ortenberg, 1186–1238 Count of Murach | Son of Rapotos I. |
| Rapoto III. | 1231–1248 Count of Kraiburg, 1231–1248 Count Palatine of Bavaria | Son of Rapotos II |
| Heinrich II. The giver | 1241–1257 Count of Ortenberg | Son of Heinrich I. |
| Gebhard | 1238–1272 Count of Murach, 1257–1275 Imperial Count of Ortenberg | Son of Heinrich I. |
| Rapoto IV. | 1238–1272 Count of Murach, 1275–1296 Imperial Count of Ortenberg | Son of Heinrich I. |
| Henry III. | 1297 (underage), 1321–1345 Count of Ortenberg | Son of Rapotos IV. |
| Henry IV. | 1346–1395 Imperial Count of Ortenberg | Son of Henry III. |
| George I. | 1395–1422 Count of Ortenberg, 1395–1422 Count of Neu-Ortenberg | Son of Henry IV. |
| Etzel I. | 1395–1444 Count of Alt-Ortenberg, 1422–1444 Imperial Count of Ortenberg | Son of Henry IV. |
| Alram II | 1431 with the title of imperial count, 1444–1460 imperial count of Ortenberg, 1444–1460 count of Dorfbach | Son of Alram I. |
| George II | 1449–1488 Count of Neu-Ortenberg, 1449–1488 Count of Saldenburg, 1461–1488 Imperial Count of Ortenberg | Son of Henry V |
| Sebastian I. the fighter | 1449–1490 Count of Alt-Ortenberg, 1488–1490 Imperial Count of Ortenberg | Son of Henry V |
| wolfgang | 1490–1519 Count of Ortenberg | Son of George II |
| Ulrich II. | 1491–1524 Count of Dorfbach, 1511–1524 Count of Söldenau, 1519–1524 Count of Ortenberg | Son of Sebastian I. |
| Christoph I. | 1517–1551 Lord of Mattighofen and Neudeck, 1524–1551 Imperial Count of Ortenberg, after renaming the family in 1530, Imperial Count of Ortenburg | Son of Sebastian I. |
| Joachim | 1551–1600 Lord of Mattighofen and Neudeck, 1551–1600 Imperial Count of Ortenburg | Son of Christopher I. |
| Henry VII | 1600–1603 Count of Ortenburg | Son of Johann III. |
| George IV | 1603–1627 Count of Ortenburg | Son of Ulrich III. |
| Friedrich Casimir the painter count | 1627–1658 Count of Ortenburg | Son of Henry VII. |
| Georg Reinhard | 1658–1666 Count of Ortenburg | Son of George IV |
| Christian | 1666–1684 Count of Ortenburg | Son of George IV |
| Georg Philipp | 1684–1702 Count of Ortenburg | Son of Georg Reinhard |
| Johann Georg | 1702 (underage), 1706–1725 Count of Ortenburg | Son of George Philip. |
| Charles III | 1725 (underage), 1739–1776 Count of Ortenburg | Son of Johann Georg |
| Karl Albrecht | 1776–1787 Count of Ortenburg | Son of Charles III. |
| Joseph Carl | 1787 (underage), 1801–1805 Imperial Count of Ortenburg, 1805–1831 Count of Ortenburg-Tambach | Son of Karl Albrechts |
Remarks
- ↑ a b Eberhard Graf zu Ortenburg-Tambach: History of the imperial, ducal and counts' entire house of Ortenburg - Part 1: The ducal house in Carinthia. Vilshofen 1931.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Friedrich Hausmann : The Counts of Ortenburg and their male ancestors, the Spanheimers in Carinthia, Saxony and Bavaria, as well as their subsidiary lines , published in: East Bavarian border stamps - Passau Yearbook for History, Art and Folklore , No. 36, Passau 1994.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Eberhard Graf zu Ortenburg-Tambach: History of the imperial, ducal and counts 'entire house of Ortenburg - Part 2: The counts' house in Bavaria. Vilshofen 1932.
- ↑ Distribution of property between the aristocratic families in Bavaria around the year 1200 ( memento of the original from August 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Walter Fuchs: Ortenburg Castle, Ortenburg Architectural Monuments and the History of the Imperial County of Ortenburg , Ortenburg 2000.
- ↑ Fehdengrund Vogtei winemaker
- ↑ Rapoto II. Was married to Udilhild von Dillingen, a relative of the Bavarian duke, cf. Friedrich Hausmann: The Counts of Ortenburg and their male ancestors, the Spanheimers in Carinthia, Saxony and Bavaria, and their subsidiary lines , p. 21f
- ↑ RB IV, 480
- ↑ Markus Lorenz: Sebastian I. von Ortenburg and the Swan Knight Order , published in: Ortenburger Geschichtsblätter - Contributions to the local history of Ortenburg and its surrounding area , Issue 1, Bad Griesbach 1997 (pp. 4-14).
- ↑ Martha Schad : The women of the Fugger house (15th – 17th centuries). Augsburg, Ortenburg, Trento. Mohr, Tübingen 1989, (also Augsburg, Univ., Diss., 1987/88) ISBN 3-16-545478-7 , p. 71 .
- ↑ a b c d e Hans Schellnhuber : The Reformation in the imperial county of Ortenburg. In: 400 years of Evang.-Luth. Kirchengemeinde Ortenburg 1563–1963, Ortenburg 1963 (pp. 6–42).
- ↑ a b c d Information from Heinz Pellender: Tambach - from the Langheim monastery office to the Ortenburg'schen Grafschaft - history of the Count's House of Ortenburg, the monastery office and Tambach Castle , 2nd edition, Coburg 1990
- ↑ Christian Wieland: The Bavarian aristocratic conspiracy of 1563. Event and self-interpretations. In: zeitenblicke 4, (2005), no. 2, [28. June 2005] ( online )
- ↑ a b c Stefan Wild: The most important events after Count Joachim's death up to the year 1787. In: Ortenburg - Reichsgrafschaft and 450 years Reformation (1563–2013), Ortenburg 2013 (pp. 202–207).
- ↑ a b c Heinz Hans Konrad Schuster: Ortenburg after the death of Count Joachim. In: 400 years of Evang.-Luth. Kirchengemeinde Ortenburg 1563–1963, Ortenburg 1963 (pp. 43–48).
- ^ Friedrich Hausmann: Protestants as refugees in the county of Ortenburg, especially in the early 17th century. In: Helmut Maurer, Hans Patze (ed.): Festschrift for Berent Schwineköper on his 70th birthday, Sigmaringen 1982 (pp. 537–552).
- ↑ Ulrich Pietrusky: On the population geography of the historical isolate of the former Protestant imperial county of Ortenburg in Lower Bavaria , p. 84
- ↑ Wilfried Hartleb: The Evangelical Lutheran School System in the Reichsgrafschaft Ortenburg from the introduction of the Reformation in 1563 to the takeover of the county by Bavaria in 1805 , (Writings of the University of Passau. Series Geisteswissenschaften, Volume 9) Passau 1987.
- ↑ a b c d e Markus Lorenz: The transition of the county of Ortenburg to Bavaria in 1805 , (= Ortenburg history sheets - contributions to the local history of Ortenburg and its surrounding area, issue 2) Bad Griesbach 1997.
literature
- Förderkreis Schloss Ortenburg (ed.): Ortenburg - Reichsgrafschaft and 450 years Reformation (1563-2013) . Ortenburg 2013.
- Johann Schachtl: Faith and ways of life - The confessionalization in Eastern Bavaria in the 16th and early 17th centuries, shown using the example of the imperial county of Ortenburg and its Bavarian fiefdoms (= Salzburg Theological Studies 35). Salzburg 2009. ISBN 978-3-7022-2980-1
- Walter Fuchs: Ortenburg Castle, Ortenburg monuments and the history of the imperial county of Ortenburg . Ortenburg 2000.
- Richard Loibl : The domain of the Counts of Vornbach and their successors. Studies on the history of rulership in Eastern Bavaria in the High Middle Ages , Historical Atlas of Bavaria , Part Altbayern Series II, Issue 5, Munich 1997.
- Markus Lorenz: The transition of the county of Ortenburg to Bavaria in 1805 . (= Ortenburger Geschichtsblätter - contributions to the local history of Ortenburg and its surrounding area, issue 2) Bad Griesbach 1997.
- Markus Lorenz: Sebastian I. von Ortenburg and the Swan Knight Order . In: Ortenburger Geschichtsblätter - Contributions to the local history of Ortenburg and its surrounding area , Issue 1, Bad Griesbach 1997 (pp. 4-14).
- Friedrich Hausmann : The Counts of Ortenburg and their male ancestors, the Spanheimers in Carinthia, Saxony and Bavaria, as well as their branch lines . In: East Bavarian border marks. Passauer Jahrbuch für Geschichte, Kunst und Volkskunde . No. 36, Passau 1994 (pp. 9-62).
- Working group for local history of Ortenburg (ed.): Steinkirchen - The grave monuments in the evangelical burial church of the former imperial county of Ortenburg / Lower Bavaria (= Ortenburg local history - contributions to the history of Ortenburg, issue 1), Vilshofen 1991.
- Heinz Pellender: Tambach. From the Langheim monastery to the Ortenburg county. History of the Count's House of Ortenburg, the monastery office and Tambach Castle. 2nd edition revised and expanded in terms of title, text, illustration and design. Graflich Ortenburg headquarters - Tambach Castle, Weitramsdorf-Tambach 1990.
- Wilfried Hartleb: The Evangelical Lutheran school system in the imperial county of Ortenburg from the introduction of the Reformation in 1563 to the takeover of the county by Bavaria in 1805 , (Writings of the University of Passau. Series Geisteswissenschaften, Volume 9) Passau 1987.
- Ina-Ulrike Paul: Ortenburg, Count of. In: Karl Bosl (ed.): Bosls Bavarian biography. Pustet, Regensburg 1983, ISBN 3-7917-0792-2 , p. 563 ( digitized version ).
- Friedrich Hausmann: Archives of the Counts of Ortenburg. Documents of the family and the county of Ortenburg. Volume 1: 1142-1400 . Neustadt an der Aisch 1984.
- Friedrich Hausmann: Protestants as refugees in the county of Ortenburg, especially in the early 17th century. In: Helmut Maurer, Hans Patze (ed.): Festschrift for Berent Schwineköper on his 70th birthday, Sigmaringen 1982 (pp. 537–552).
- Hans Bleibrunner: Lower Bavaria. Cultural history of the Bavarian lowlands . 2 volumes, 2nd edition, Landshut 1982.
- Ulrich Pietrusky: On the population geography of the historical isolate of the former Protestant imperial county of Ortenburg in Lower Bavaria . In: Mitteilungen der Geographische Gesellschaft in München , Volume 64. Munich 1979 (pp. 77-99).
- Hans Schellnhuber , Heinz Hans Konrad Schuster, Friedrich Zimmermann: 400 years of Evang.-Luth. Kirchengemeinde Ortenburg 1563–1963 , Ortenburg 1963.
- Hans Schellnhuber: Of war and strife in the old days - Ortenburg's war events. In: From Ortenburg's Past , Issue 1, Ortenburg 1959 (pp. 3–11).
- Eberhard Graf zu Ortenburg-Tambach: History of the imperial, ducal and counts' entire house of Ortenburg. Volume 2: The Count's House in Bavaria. Rückert, Vilshofen 1932.
- Eberhard Graf zu Ortenburg-Tambach: History of the imperial, ducal and counts' entire house of Ortenburg. Part 1: The ducal house in Carinthia . Vilshofen 1931.
- Leonhard Theobald : Joachim von Ortenburg and the implementation of the Reformation in his county . (Individual works from the church history of Bavaria, Volume 6), Munich 1927.
- Leonhard Theobald: The so-called Bavarian nobility conspiracy of 1563 , in: Contributions to Bavarian Church History, Volume 20, Erlangen 1914 (pp. 28–73).
- Leonhard Theobald: The introduction of the Reformation in the county of Ortenburg , Leipzig 1914.
- Walter Goetz , Leonhard Theobald: Contributions to the history of Duke Albrecht V and the so-called aristocratic conspiracy of 1563 . (Letters and files on the history of the sixteenth century, Volume 6), Munich 1913.
- Carl Mehrmann: History of the Evangelical Lutheran community of Ortenburg in Lower Bavaria. Memorandum for the anniversary celebration of the 300th anniversary of the introduction of the Reformation there on October 17 and 18, 1863 , Landshut 1863 ( full text version in the Google book search).
- Johann Ferdinand Huschberg : History of the ducal and count's general house in Ortenburg edited from the sources , Sulzbach 1828 ( full text version in the Google book search).
Web links
- Ortenburg market
- Homepage of the Count's Ortenburg family
- Map of Bavaria in 1450
- Map of Bavaria in 1789
Spiritual bank: Archbishopric Salzburg | Passau Abbey | Hochstift Freising | Hochstift Regensburg | Prince Provost Berchtesgaden | Prince Abbey of Sankt Emmeram (Regensburg) | Imperial Abbey of Niedermünster (Regensburg) | Imperial Abbey Obermünster (Regensburg)
Secular bank: Duchy of Bavaria (later Electorate ) | Duchy of Palatinate-Neuburg | Duchy of Palatinate-Sulzbach | Fürstete Landgraviate Leuchtenberg | Princely county of Störnstein | County of Hague | Ortenburg county | Reign of Ehrenfels | Reign of Sulzbürg-Pyrbaum | County of Hohenwaldeck | Imperial County Breitenegg | Imperial city of Regensburg
