Siegfried of Merseburg

Siegfried's entry as Sigifrid in a group entry of the Ottonian royal family and their most important helpers from 929 in the Reichenau Fraternization Book , Zurich, Central Library, Rh. Hist. 27, p. 63.

Siegfried von Merseburg († July 10, 937 ) was a Saxon count who, due to his origins and his proximity to the royal family, was one of the most important greats in Saxony towards the end of King Henry I's reign . The education of the youngest king's son Heinrich was entrusted to him. As a legate he exercised the prestigious office of military commander in chief and represented Otto the Great during his absence in Saxony. Widukind von Corvey described him in his Saxon history as second behind the king and best among the Saxons.

Life

Siegfried was the eldest son of the East Westphalian Count Thietmar and Hildegard. He was related to the royal family through his mother. Her sister, the wife of Count Erwin von Merseburg , was the mother of Hatheburg , the first wife of King Heinrich I. Siegfried's sister Hidda was married to Count Christian , who is mentioned in 945 as a margrave in the Serimunt district . His younger brother Gero , as margrave, was for a long time one of the most powerful confidants of King Otto I. Karl Schmid came to the conclusion that Siegfried and Asic , the leaders of the Merseburg band who fell in the battle against Bohemia in 936 , are identical.

After Heinrich I was elected the first German king in 919, his long-time tutor and advisor Thietmar was able to arrange the marriage of his first-born Siegfried to Irminburg, either a half-sister or a daughter of the king. Siegfried thus became a member of the royal family, which considerably strengthened his position at a young age. Irminburg died early. No descendants are known from the connection.

From a second marriage, which was concluded before 924, with Guthia (Jutta), who presumably came from the house of the East Westphalian Brunones , had at least two children: Thietmar († October 3, 959) and another son who died in battle. The descent of the first Brandenburg bishop Dietmar (from 949; † August 7, 968) to Siegfried is questionable and was probably only constructed through the similarity of the name to Thietmar.

His father's family, Thietmar, was particularly wealthy in the Harzgau and Northern Thuringia. Since Erwin von Merseburg died without an heir, not inconsiderable parts of his property were added via Siegfried's mother Hildegard, the sister-in-law of the Merseburg man. With the death of Thietmar (February 1, 932), the entire inheritance passed into the hands of Siegfried and his brother Gero.

On June 25, 934 Heinrich I gave “Count Sigifrid, at the request of Count Heinrich, possessions in the Schwabengau in the county of the same Sigifrid: the farm Gröningen, Kroppenstedt, Amendorf and all the pertinence of Gröningen exchanged by Abbot Hadumar [von Fulda ]” (cf. . Regesta Imperii to 934). Siegfried and his wife Guthia (Jutta) used this substantial donation as early as 936 to found Gröningen Monastery, not only for the salvation of their own soul, but also for the salvation of King Heinrich, his wife Mathilde and their children. The king died that same year, and Siegfried died the following year. The necrology of the Church of St. Michael in Lüneburg reports the day of his death on July 10th. Since Widukind von Corvey puts Siegfried's death in the same season of the year as that of the Bavarian Duke Arnulf , whose death date is documented July 14, 937, the Lüneburg entry is more likely than the entry of a Siegfried in Merseburg, which is also discussed in this context Book of the Dead for December 3rd.

reception

The historiographers Andreas Angelus in his Annales Marchiae Brandenburgicae published in 1589 and Lorenz Peckenstein in Theatrum Saxonicum published in 1608 assign Siegfried to the gender association of Widukind's descendants and designate him as Count of Ringelheim and Oldenburg . The assignment is based on a confusion between Siegfried's father Thietmar and the Westphalian Count Thietmar of the same name , the father of Queen Mathilde . A connection to Ringelheim an der Innerste can also be established for his descendants . The Ringelheim monastery there was donated by Ymmat, a relative of Mathilde, according to a document from Otto I.

swell

Widukind von Corvey : The Saxon history of Widukind von Corvey. In: Sources for the history of the Saxon imperial era (= selected sources for the German history of the Middle Ages. Freiherr vom Stein memorial edition. Volume 8). Translated by Albert Bauer, Reinhold Rau. 5th edition expanded by a supplement compared to the 4th. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2002, ISBN 3-534-01416-2 , pp. 1–183.

literature

Ruth Schölkopf: The Saxon Counts 919-1024 (= studies and preparatory work for the Historical Atlas of Lower Saxony. Volume 22). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1957.
Georg Waitz : Yearbooks of the German Empire under King Heinrich I. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1863, also in 1963 in the reprint of the 1885 edition ( books.google.com ).
Reinhard Wenskus : Saxon tribal nobility and Frankish imperial nobility (= treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, 93). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Göttingen 1976.
Herbert Ludat : On the Elbe and the Oder around the year 1000. Sketches on the politics of the Ottonian Empire and the Slavic powers in Central Europe. 2nd Edition. Böhlau, Weimar et al. 1995, ISBN 3-412-11994-6 .

Web links

Certificate of June 25, 934 RI II, 1 n. 46. In: Regesta Imperii ( regesta-imperii.de Accessed on January 19, 2015).

Remarks

^ Karl Schmid : New sources for understanding the nobility in the 10th century. In: Journal for the history of the Upper Rhine . Vol. 108, 1960, pp. 185-232, here p. 223., ( online ); Karl Schmid: Comments on the question of a prosopography of the early Middle Ages. In: Zeitschrift für Württembergische Landesgeschichte, Vol. 23, 1964 pp. 215–227, here pp. 218 f .; Herbert Ludat follows him : An Elbe and Oder around the year 1000. Sketches on the politics of the Ottonian empire and the Slavic powers in Central Europe. Cologne 1971, ISBN 3-412-07271-0 , p. 24, note 144 .; previously Walter Schlesinger : The emergence of sovereignty: Investigations mainly according to Central German sources. (= Saxon research on history, vol. 1) Baensch, Dresden 1941, p. 160, note 220.
↑ The name comes from a memorial entry in the Reichenau Fraternization Book and was first written by Karl August Eckhardt : Genealogical Findings for General History. Witzenhausen: German law. Instituts-Verl., Witzenhausen 1962, p. 18 identified as that of Siegfried's first wife. Following him Reinhard Wenskus : Saxon tribal nobility and Frankish imperial nobility (= treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, No. 93). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1976, ISBN 3-525-82368-1 , p. 391.
↑ Widukind II, 1 describes Siegfried as gener regis , whereby gener can mean both brother-in-law and son-in-law.
^ Gerd Althoff : Noble and royal families in the mirror of their memorial tradition. Studies on the commemoration of the dead of the Billunger and Ottonians (= Münster medieval writings. Volume 47). Fink, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-7705-2267-2 , p. 405. ( digitized version )
↑ Andreas Angelus : Annales Marchiae Brandenburgicae, that is a proper directory and description of the most noble and commemorative Märkische annual stories and histories, as happened from the 416th year before the birth of Christ to the 1596 year. Frankfurt ad Oder 1598, p. 53.
↑ Lorenz Peckenstein : Inside a proper description of the noblest kings / Chur / and princes / counts / lords / ... Bisthumb / foundations / fortresses / castles / empires / cities ... in the noble province of Upper Saxony / next to the noblest lords of contrafactur, also counts and noble families coats of arms / in three parts brought together / colligated with special diligence ex archivis, and against many valued monumentis revised, and illustrated with special previously unknown histories. Grosse, Leipzig 1608, p. 121.
↑ The descent of Siegfried von Thietmar was first proven by Karl Schmid : New sources for understanding the nobility in the 10th century. In: Journal for the history of the Upper Rhine . Vol. 108, 1960, pp. 185-232, here pp. 211 ff., ( Online ).
↑ Widukind I, 31.
^ DO I, 435; to Caspar Ehlers : The integration of Saxony into the Frankish empire. (751–1024) (= publications of the Max Planck Institute for History. Vol. 231). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-35887-0 , p. 448.

personal data
SURNAME	Siegfried of Merseburg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Graf in Schwabengau, Friesenfeld and Hassegau
DATE OF BIRTH	9th century
DATE OF DEATH	July 10, 937

[1] Karl Schmid : New sources for understanding the nobility in the 10th century. In: Journal for the history of the Upper Rhine . Vol. 108, 1960, pp. 185-232, here p. 223., ( online ); Karl Schmid: Comments on the question of a prosopography of the early Middle Ages. In: Zeitschrift für Württembergische Landesgeschichte, Vol. 23, 1964 pp. 215–227, here pp. 218 f .; Herbert Ludat follows him : An Elbe and Oder around the year 1000. Sketches on the politics of the Ottonian empire and the Slavic powers in Central Europe. Cologne 1971, ISBN 3-412-07271-0 , p. 24, note 144 .; previously Walter Schlesinger : The emergence of sovereignty: Investigations mainly according to Central German sources. (= Saxon research on history, vol. 1) Baensch, Dresden 1941, p. 160, note 220.

[2] The name comes from a memorial entry in the Reichenau Fraternization Book and was first written by Karl August Eckhardt : Genealogical Findings for General History. Witzenhausen: German law. Instituts-Verl., Witzenhausen 1962, p. 18 identified as that of Siegfried's first wife. Following him Reinhard Wenskus : Saxon tribal nobility and Frankish imperial nobility (= treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, No. 93). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1976, ISBN 3-525-82368-1 , p. 391.

[3] Widukind II, 1 describes Siegfried as gener regis , whereby gener can mean both brother-in-law and son-in-law.

[4] Gerd Althoff : Noble and royal families in the mirror of their memorial tradition. Studies on the commemoration of the dead of the Billunger and Ottonians (= Münster medieval writings. Volume 47). Fink, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-7705-2267-2 , p. 405. ( digitized version )

[5] Andreas Angelus : Annales Marchiae Brandenburgicae, that is a proper directory and description of the most noble and commemorative Märkische annual stories and histories, as happened from the 416th year before the birth of Christ to the 1596 year. Frankfurt ad Oder 1598, p. 53.

[6] Lorenz Peckenstein : Inside a proper description of the noblest kings / Chur / and princes / counts / lords / ... Bisthumb / foundations / fortresses / castles / empires / cities ... in the noble province of Upper Saxony / next to the noblest lords of contrafactur, also counts and noble families coats of arms / in three parts brought together / colligated with special diligence ex archivis, and against many valued monumentis revised, and illustrated with special previously unknown histories. Grosse, Leipzig 1608, p. 121.

[7] The descent of Siegfried von Thietmar was first proven by Karl Schmid : New sources for understanding the nobility in the 10th century. In: Journal for the history of the Upper Rhine . Vol. 108, 1960, pp. 185-232, here pp. 211 ff., ( Online ).

[8] Widukind I, 31.

[9] DO I, 435; to Caspar Ehlers : The integration of Saxony into the Frankish empire. (751–1024) (= publications of the Max Planck Institute for History. Vol. 231). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-35887-0 , p. 448.