Slavic uprising of 983

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The Slavs revolt of 983 was a survey of the Lutizenbund federated elbslawischen tribes against the tribute reign of Margrave Dietrich of Haldensleben . The Lutizen first destroyed the bishopric in Havelberg on June 29, 983 and three days later conquered the margrave's seat with the Brandenburg . This interrupted the Saxon tributary rule and the establishment of a Christian church organization east of the Elbe for decades.

prehistory

Despite the military campaigns of Henry I and Otto I , efforts to Christianize the Elbe and Baltic Sea Slavs, if any, had only moderate success. Most recently Otto I defeated an anti-Saxon coalition of Tollensans and Zirzipans in the Battle of the Raxa on October 16, 955 , which led to the submission of the Slavic tribes in the form of a tribute obligation, but not to the conquest of their territory. Christianization was not intended with the campaign. In order to advance the Christian mission, Otto I first founded the dioceses of Havelberg and Brandenburg in 948 , which, together with the dioceses of Zeitz , Merseburg and Meißen , were subordinated to the newly created Archdiocese of Magdeburg in 968 . A permanent integration of the Slavic areas into the Reich and Church Association was intended. In the area of ​​the Abodrite Empire, the Schleswig Bishop Marco had already successfully started the Slavic mission on the instructions of the Hamburg - Bremen Archbishop Adaldag . For this reason, the diocese of Oldenburg was established between 968 and 972 as the Hamburg-Bremen suffragan diocese for the Abodrite area.

Course of the uprising

While there was a dispute in the empire about the successor to Archbishop Adalbert of Magdeburg and Emperor Otto II , Slavic associations under the leadership of the Liutizen rose in the summer of 983 and expelled the ecclesiastical and political representatives of the empire. The uprising is said to have been planned and prepared in the main Liutician shrine of Rethra . On June 29th, Liutizian armies suddenly attacked Havelberg and destroyed the bishopric there. Three days later they took Brandenburg , the residence of Margrave Dietrich von Haldensleben and the seat of a bishopric. Dietrich initially seems to have defended the castle before he fled with the castle crew and Bishop Volkmar. While they escaped, the clergy were captured and the church treasury looted. As a result, the attackers devastated all villages up to Tangier . Even Magdeburg was evidently threatened immediately. A hastily drawn up Saxon contingent, led by Archbishop Giselher von Magdeburg , Bishop Hildeward von Halberstadt and Dietrich von Haldensleben, could only push the Slavs back behind the Elbe in a clash in late July or early August in Balsamerland .

The Lausitz and the Sorbian brands had not taken part in the uprising. Whether the Abodrites fought on the side of the Liutizen under their velvet ruler Mistivoy in 983 is disputed in research. According to an older reading of the sources, they are said to have attacked Hamburg during the uprising and plundered a Laurentius monastery, which (also not undisputed) is located in Kalbe an der Milde. However, the dating of these events is uncertain. In the decades that followed, the Abodrites joined the rebellion movement and also turned away from Christianity. However, the attack on Hamburg may not have happened until after the turn of the millennium. According to the more recent opinion, it is more likely to be in the years 1012/1018.

consequences

From 985 the imperial princes, together with the Polish princes Mieszko I and later Bolesław I , undertook annual military campaigns to subdue the Lutizen area. The campaigns proved ineffective.

King Heinrich II decided to change politics: In 1003 he concluded an alliance with the pagan Liutizen and from 1004 instead waged wars against the previously allied Christian duchy of Poland under Bolesław I. The Slavic-pagan rule of the Liutizen was able to develop hold until the 12th century.

The immediate consequence of the Slav uprising was a stop of Christianization for the next 200 years. The bishops of Brandenburg and the bishops of Havelberg from then on lived as titular bishops outside their dioceses, mostly at the royal court. It was not until the 12th century that after a renewed conquest and this time with the partial involvement of Slavic princes with the German settlement in the east, Christianization became effective across the Elbe.

In contemporary sources, the Slav uprising found little evidence, outside of Saxony none. For the Saxons affected it was probably one of a number of many border conflicts with the Slavs, about which an entry can be found in the annals and chronicles of the late 10th century almost every year. The Slav uprising only becomes a “catastrophe” when the uprising of the Lutizen is interpreted as the targeted destruction of a “reconstruction” of the Ottonians aimed at Christianizing and Germanizing the Elbe Slavic areas . Whether such an interpretation is justified is increasingly being questioned.

literature

  • Wolfgang H. Fritze : The Slavic uprising of 983 - a turning point in the history of Central Europe. In: Eckart Henning , Werner Vogel (Hrsg.): Commemorative publication of the regional historical association for the Mark Brandenburg on its centenary. Berlin 1984, pp. 9-55.
  • 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. Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 1971, ISBN 3-412-07271-0 .
  • Christian Lübke : Slavic Uprising (from 983) . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 7, LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7608-8907-7 , Sp. 2003 f.
  • Lutz Partenheimer : The emergence of the Mark Brandenburg. With a Latin-German source attachment. Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2007 (with sources on the Slavs uprising pp. 98-103), ISBN 3-412-17106-9 .

Remarks

  1. ^ Widukind von Corvey : Rerum gestarum Saxonicarum libri tres. In: Paul Hirsch et al. (Ed.): MGH SS rer. Germ. 60, Hannover 1935, p. 132 ff.
  2. ^ Gerd Althoff : Saxony and the Elbe Slavs in the Tenth Century. In: The New Cambridge Medieval History . Volume 3: Timothy Reuter (Ed.): C. 900 - c.1024 Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1999, ISBN 0-521-36447-7 , pp. 267-292, here p. 282.
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Brüske: Investigations on the history of the Lutizenbund . Böhlau, Münster / Cologne 1955, pp. 22 and 36–38.
  4. ^ Roderich Schmidt: Rethra. The Lutizen sanctuary as a heathen metropolis. In: The historical Pomerania. Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2007, ISBN 978-3-412-27805-2 , p. 75.
  5. ^ Andrea Stieldorf : Brands and Margraves. Studies on border security by the Frankish-German rulers. Hahn, Hannover 2012 ISBN 978-3-7752-5764-0 , p. 510.
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Petke : Saxony and Slavs around the year 1000. In: Michael Brandt, Arne Eggebrecht (Hrsg.): Bernward von Hildesheim and the age of the Ottonians. Hildesheim 1993, pp. 217-214, here p. 218.
  7. ↑ Wolfgang Brüske: Investigations on the history of the Lutizenbund. Böhlau, Münster u. a. 1955, pp. 39-45.
  8. ↑ Fundamental Gerard Labuda : On the structure of the Slavic tribes in the Mark Brandenburg (10th – 12th centuries) In: Yearbook for the history of Central and East Germany Vol. 42 (1994) pp. 103-140, here pp. 133f.
  9. ↑ Fred Ruchhöft: From the Slavic tribal area to the German bailiwick. The development of the territories in Ostholstein, Lauenburg, Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania in the Middle Ages (= archeology and history in the Baltic Sea area. Vol. 4). Leidorf, Rahden (Westphalia) 2008, ISBN 978-3-89646-464-4 , pp. 124-128.
  10. ^ Basically Gerd Althoff : Saxony and the Elbe Slavs in the Tenth Century. In: The New Cambridge Medieval History . Volume 3: Timothy Reuter (Ed.): C. 900 - c.1024 Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1999, ISBN 0-521-36447-7 , pp. 267-292, especially pp. 278-288.