Thietmar von Merseburg

Merseburg Cathedral , for which Thietmar laid the foundation stone in 1015.

Thietmar von Merseburg (also Dietmar or Dithmar ) (* July 25, 975 ; † December 1, 1018, presumably in Merseburg ) was bishop of the Merseburg diocese from 1009 to 1018 and one of the most important historians in the Ottonian era .

The Walbeck count's son Thietmar came from the Saxon nobility. His rise in the church institutions was favored by the regionally important secular offices of his family. Thietmar was already active in literature before he was raised to the rank of bishop. So he wrote a poem on the burial place of his ancestors in the collegiate church Walbeck in order to preserve an honorable memory of his own family. His tenure as Bishop of Merseburg was marked by the disputes over the territorial equipment of the diocese, which was dissolved in 981 and re-established 23 years later. As a bishop, apart from a few trips to southern Germany and the Rhine regions, his work remained in the vicinity of Magdeburgand Merseburg limited. In 1015 he laid the foundation stone for the Merseburg Cathedral .

His extensive chronicle is one of the most important historical sources of the Ottonian period. In it he bundled the imperial and diocesan historical perspective with memorial maintenance . What is striking is the author's pronounced awareness of sin. Heinrich II was highly venerated by Thietmar because of the re-establishment of the diocese of Merseburg. In the last years of his life, the conflict between Henry II and the Polish Duke and later King Bolesław Chrobry was at the center of his portrayal. With the first mention of Leipzig in 1015 and numerous other places, his chronicle provides insights into the early settlement in Central Germany around the year 1000. Thietmar's work was more widespread in the high and late Middle Ages than was long assumed. It has been well known to the scholarly world through printed editions since the 16th century. Modern research unanimously considers Thietmar to be one of the most important historiographers of the late Ottonian period.

Live and act

origin

Thietmar was head of the Walbeck monastery from 1002 to 1009. Of the entire complex, only a ruin of the collegiate church remains today. Photo from the southeast from 2018.

On his father's side, Thietmar came from the noble family of the Counts of Walbeck , one of the leading families in what was then East Saxony. They stood in opposition to the Saxon Liudolfingers and were enemies with the Polish Piasts , but because of Walbeck's proximity to the Elbe Slavic settlement areas , they had maintained close contacts with the Slavs living there for generations. They leaned closely on the Bavarian line of the Liudolfinger. The central German area between the Elbe, Saale and Oder was still one of the border areas of the empire around 1000. The Saxons slowly penetrated the region politically, ecclesiastically and culturally.

On his mother's side, Thietmar was descended from the Counts of Stade . With Liuthar von Walbeck and Liuthar von Stade, two of his great-grandfathers died in 929 in the battle of Lenzen on the Elbe in the fight against the Slavic Redarians . The paternal grandfather, Liuthar, was a supporter of Heinrich I 's younger son Heinrich . At Easter 941 in Quedlinburg he was involved in the failed plot of the king's brother Heinrich against Otto the Great . He narrowly escaped the death penalty. For Gerd Althoff, the process was part of a whole series of conflicts in the Ottonian era, in which high nobility were granted clementia (mildness). The Count of Walbeck not only got his entire property back, but he was also given rich gifts. After a year in exile, as an atonement, he founded the canons of Sankt Marien at the Walbeck family home. He died in 954. Of his sons, the older son Liuthar of Otto III. with the Saxon Nordmark . The younger son, Thietmar's father Siegfried , held the position in Walbeck. Siegfried married Kunigunde from the house of the Counts of Stade around 972/73. He took part in several campaigns against the Slavs until his death in 991.

The marriage with Kunigunde produced five sons. The two firstborn sons Heinrich and Friedrich were raised secularly. Heinrich succeeded his father as Count von Walbeck, Friedrich became Burgrave of Magdeburg . As the third son, Thietmar was born on July 25, 975 by his own account. In later chapters of his chronicle he puts his age two years lower. Researchers today suspect on the basis of the relevant passages in his chronicle that he was born in 976. His younger brothers Siegfried and Brun later ended up on the bishopric in Münster and Verden . With Willigis, an illegitimate son of his father, Thietmar had a half-brother.

Early years of life

As the third-born son, Thietmar was personally baptized and confirmed by Bishop Hildeward von Halberstadt . He grew up in Walbeck. His great-aunt Emnilde, who suffered from paralysis, gave his first lessons at the Quedlinburg canonical monastery. There he was likely to vote for Heinrich the quarrel as a king and in 986 the glamorous Easter court day of six-year-old King Otto III. and his mother Theophanu . In addition to the knowledge acquired at school, it was probably also shaped by the square font customary in Quedlinburg. He stayed in Quedlinburg until he was 12 years old. From 987 Thietmar was trained for three years in the Berge monastery , then in the Magdeburg Cathedral Foundation and on November 1, 990 a member of the local cathedral chapter. In Magdeburg, the canons maintained the liturgical memory of Emperor Otto I, who was buried there. At the cathedral school, he completed the remembrance of Otto III's political center. his training temporarily at the side of the later hagiographer Brun von Querfurt .

The Magdeburg period was formative for Thietmar through life in a spiritual community and a school education oriented towards classical authors. In addition to the noble origin, the count's son Thietmar became aware of being part of a spiritual community, which is reflected in his linguistic usage, as he referred to the clergy of the Magdeburg Cathedral with the term des confrater ("fellow brother"). The school of the Magdeburg Cathedral Foundation was highly regarded at that time. Thietmar received a thorough training in which he acquired knowledge of classical works, early Christian literature and the Holy Scriptures. According to Helmut Lippelt , Thietmar's training in classical and medieval authors turned out to be significantly more meager than older research assumed.

His school days were abruptly interrupted by an event in his family. In the summer of 994, Count Siegfried, his mother's brother, was captured during a Viking raid on the Lower Elbe near Stade . Siegfried did not have a son of his own. He therefore asked his sister to hold one of her sons hostage. The young Thietmar was then sent as a hostage to be exchanged for Siegfried so that he could raise the ransom. However, his uncle escaped before Thietmar reached the Vikings.

In 997, Thietmar's mother Kunigunde died. Through her death, Thietmar inherited considerable land, which he used several years later to acquire the provost through the Walbeck family monastery by donating land to his uncle Liuthar, who was entitled to dispose of it. Thietmar himself confessed in his chronicle that he had acquired the office through simony .

On May 7, 1002 he became provost of the Walbeck family monastery and from then on received the associated income. Helmut Lippelt suspects that the lack of opportunities for advancement in Magdeburg prompted Thietmar to take on the dignity of provost. By buying office, Thietmar violated the norms of canon law, which forbade any form of simony. His predecessor Dietrich had already acquired the same provost for ten Hufen ten years earlier . At that time, wealth was not based on cash, but on usable land and the power of disposal over dependent farmers and craftsmen.

Thietmar was already active in literature in his pre-episcopal times. His verses, written as provost between 1002 and 1009, were ignored for a long time. They have only survived in two modern prints from the 17th and 18th centuries. With the poems Thietmar wanted to secure an honorable memory and the intercession of posterity for his ancestors. It is the oldest surviving written source about the Walbeck collegiate church, which is one of the earliest noble family graves in Ottonian Saxony.

On December 21, 1004, Thietmar was ordained a priest by the new Archbishop of Magdeburg, Tagino . The ordination took place in the presence of King Heinrich II. Thietmar received a chasuble as a consecration gift from him . Under Tagino's leadership, Thietmar took part in an armed defense against an advance by Duke Bolesław I of Poland.

Merseburg bishop

State of the diocese when Thietmar took office

The diocese of Merseburg was founded in 968 as a Christian outpost in the largely pagan Slavic area. The victim of the church reorganization was the Halberstadt diocese , which had to cede parts of its diocese for both Magdeburg and Merseburg . In 981, Emperor Otto II consented to the abolition of the Merseburg diocese. This was justified in the synodal decree of the Roman synod of Pope Benedict VII of September 981 with the lack of consent from Halberstadt Bishop Hildeward for the foundation of Merseburg. The rights and possessions of the Merseburg diocese were divided between the neighboring dioceses of Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Zeitz and Meißen. Already under Otto's successor Otto III. began efforts to restore. Under Henry II the diocese was re-established and the chaplain Wigbert was appointed bishop. However, the entire property was not returned to the Sprengel. To the west of the Saale, the smaller part of the diocese stretched over partly more densely populated old settlements . The greater part of the diocese east of the Saale extended to the Mulde with only partially populated areas. There were 23 years between the cancellation and the reinstatement, so that there was a lack of clarity about the former boundaries. It turned out to be a disadvantage that Ottonian rulers' documents, which would have documented royal or imperial donations to Merseburg, no longer existed. Thietmar put the main blame for this on his former predecessor Giselher . The latter had burned royal or imperial documents that contained donations to Merseburg or illegally had recipients in the documents overwritten by the Magdeburg Church.

Bishopric

The Merseburg bishop Wigbert died on March 24, 1009. Even during his serious illness, Tagino had pointed out to the king in Pöhlde at Christmas 1008 that Thietmar was suitable for the successor. After Wigbert's death at the end of March 1009, Heinrich no longer wanted to entrust the diocese to Thietmar, but to Adalgar. Tagino persuaded the king to prefer his rival and had Thietmar brought in by the Provost Geso of Merseburg. Thietmar was staying at his farm in Rottmersleben at this time . He had to appear in Augsburg on Holy Saturday (April 16). Thietmar left Magdeburg on Palm Sunday and did not reach Augsburg until the Tuesday after Easter (April 19). The next day Tagino summoned him and, on the instructions of the king, asked him if he wanted to give part of his inheritance to the church. Thietmar then indicated his general willingness. On Saturday the farm traveled on to Neuburg an der Donau . On April 24th the consecration was carried out there by Archbishop Tagino and Bishop Hildeward von Zeitz with the participation of four other bishops. Thietmar received the investiture with the crosier from the king.

The process of the installation of bishops did not differ from other bishops' surveys of his time. When Thietmar was raised to bishop in 1009, the dominant role of the king in raising bishops was undisputed. Thietmar himself gave a reason for the involvement of the king in the appointment of the bishops, which is considered to be a key testimony to the view of the late Tonic period. The kings are allowed to appoint bishops because "after the example of the Lord, they rise above all mortals by the glory of consecration and crown". In the investiture controversy a few decades later, this personal sovereignty of the king was violently challenged by the church reformers in the bishops' surveys. The more recent research emphasizes, however, that the king had to achieve consensus on all important political decisions in consultations with the churches and noble families concerned. What is striking about Thietmar's elevation, however, is his distance from the king. Thietmar did not come from the spiritual environment of the king, i.e. the court orchestra, but was recommended to the king by the archbishop who was close to him. As a former Bavarian duke, Heinrich II tried, among other things, with the uprising of Thietmar, a nephew of Heinrich's Saxon partisan Liuthar von Walbeck, to expand his room for maneuver in Saxony through the support and involvement of the episcopate. For Henry's rule, the proportion of noble clerics in the appointments is also noticeable. Thietmar became bishop of the diocese of Merseburg, the smallest diocese in the Ottonian empire. Thietmar did not appear in Merseburg until four weeks later, where he was honored on May 21st. He gave a speech to the service staff of the church and was enthroned by Bishop Erich von Havelberg .

Royal service

Representation of Henry II in the Evangelistary from Seeon . Bamberg, State Library, Msc. Bibl. 95, fol. 7v

The king endowed the bishops with rights and property. For this he received the royal service , which included general advice, diplomatic tasks and economic services, especially in the accommodation of the court and military support, especially from the armored riders to be deployed by churches . Heinrich II, who came from Bavaria, had to travel through the empire and thereby gain validity and recognition for his rule. This was especially true in Saxony. This was the center of power of the three previous Ottonian rulers. In fact, Heinrich stayed in Merseburg most often. There 28 stays in the 22 year reign of Henry II are documented. Merseburg traditionally had close ties to the Bavarian branch of the Liudolfinger. In addition, because of its border position with the Slavic world, the place was of particular importance for Henry II. On July 25, 1002, he had his royal dignity confirmed in Merseburg by the Saxon greats . In 1012 Heinrich proclaimed a five-year country peace in Merseburg . Merseburg was also the starting point for the trains against the Polish ruler Bolesław I. Chrobry . Thietmar received Heinrich and his entourage no fewer than thirteen times during his nine-year tenure. As an important act of representing power at Thietmar, Heinrich celebrated high church festivals such as Easter in 1015, Pentecost in 1009, 1012 and 1013. A highlight was the court day at Whitsun 1013. Peace was concluded with Bolesław I. According to Thietmar, Merseburg was not only of great importance for Heinrich's rule, but there he also recovered from stress and illness.

Despite the importance of Merseburg to Heinrich, Thietmar was not a pillar of his rule. In diplomatic and military terms, Thietmar did not stand out in the service of the ruler. Although he had dutifully taken part in all the campaigns in Poland with the armed contingent of his church, he said he had left the army prematurely. Apart from a few trips to southern Germany and the Rhine regions, his area of ​​activity was limited to the area around Magdeburg and Merseburg. On Otto III's Italian trains . and Heinrich II he did not take part. In February 1004 Thietmar traveled to Augsburg, from where Heinrich set out on his Italian expedition. But Thietmar returned to Saxony. According to Helmut Lippelt's conclusion, "his strength [...] lay in observation, not in committed participation".

Restoration of the diocese

Every bishop was obliged to see to it that his diocese, with which he saw himself indissolubly connected, was not harmed. Thietmar tried during his term of office to restore the diocese to its old extent. Thietmar's predecessor hadn't been able to change the situation in his five years in office. According to Helmut Lippelt, Thietmar took on the open territorial questions of his diocese "with an energy heightened to passion". He also resorted to the means of forging documents. According to Lippelt, it was about the "right order". He was always "subjectively completely convinced of his rights".

Thietmar personally entered the goods and rights of use he had acquired in a martyrology for his successor to document . The Merseburg bishop's chronicle in 1136/37 referred to individual donations from this now lost codex.

Claims against Magdeburg and Meißen

After the death of Magdeburg Archbishop Tagino on June 9, 1012, Thietmar supported the election of his successor Walthard in order to have the opportunity to move the candidate back to the Merseburg Church in the event of a successful election. When a new bishop was raised or there was a vacancy for the bishop's chair, there were good prospects of obtaining concessions for Merseburg. During the election, Thietmar leaned forward and asked him - "by God and true brotherly love" - ​​for the restitution of all rights and goods due to the Merseburg diocese. Walthard promised this in the presence of everyone. However, Archbishop Walthard, who was only enthroned on June 21, died on August 12, 1012. Heinrich did not accept the election of the Magdeburg canons in August 1012 in Thietmar's presence and appointed his previous court chaplain Gero as the new archbishop. Thietmar met Heinrich on the way to Magdeburg on September 21, 1012 in Seehausen . According to Thietmar's statements in his chronicle, he had asked the king to promise before everyone present that he should demand his consent for all Merseburg possessions and rights before the investiture of the new archbishop. However, Heinrich promised to clarify this at a later date.

After 1012, Thietmar no longer negotiated the claims of Merseburg through the king, but directly with Archbishop Gero. Thietmar reported in his chronicle that Archbishop Gero finally agreed in October 1015 to return the Burgwarde Schkeuditz , Taucha , Püchau and Wurzen to the Merseburg diocese. Thietmar also received the village of Rassnitz. For the five Burgwarde Eilenburg, Pouch, Düben, Löbnitz and Zöckeritz, which were also requested, he declared that he wanted to return them at a later date. According to research, the five Burgwarde did not belong to Merseburg.

With the Meißen Bishop Eid , who died in 1015 , Thietmar conducted in vain negotiations on the return of possessions and rights in the Mulde area, which had come to the Meißen Church after 981. Probably because of the lack of agreement, Thietmar's obituary in his chronicle of the oath was particularly critical. On a court day in Magdeburg in February 1017, Heinrich II tried to settle the dispute between Thietmar and the Meißen bishop Eilward . Thietmar and Eilward agreed on the Mulde as the border between the two dioceses. Thietmar was asked by Heinrich to give up the diocesan rights east of the river in the Burgwarden Püchau and Wurzen to Meißen. In return Thietmar received a parish west of the Mulde, which he did not want. The agreement was confirmed by the exchange of the bishop's staff. In his chronicle, Thietmar was extremely dissatisfied with this result. The Meissen side probably had the extended content of an original Otto III diploma. submitted, in which the allocation of the castles Püchau and Wurzen for the Meissen diocese was recorded in writing. The dispute over the ownership of three villages, also fought in Magdeburg in 1017, was not decided in Thietmar's favor. His efforts to win back the areas of his district that had been lost to Halberstadt and Meißen remained in vain throughout his term of office. The diocese of Merseburg could no longer reach its original size.

In contrast to Magdeburg and Meißen, Thietmar made no claims against Bishop Hildeward von Zeitz or his diocese. Perhaps Zeitz had returned enough to Merseburg in 1004 or it was because Hildeward stayed in office much longer than Thietmar and no successor negotiations were possible.

Donations from Heinrich II.

On July 28, 1010 gave King Henry II. In a document issued in Merseburg certificate Thietmar of all royal courts in Thuringia and Saxony, two -hearing families, including their children. Thietmar was involved in the oral proceedings. The certificate drawn up by a court chaplain would not be legally binding without a seal. In October 1012 Heinrich issued a diploma during a long stay in Merseburg. In it, Heinrich confirmed to the Merseburg bishop all donations from his Ottonian predecessors to Merseburg, for which no more documents existed. More than 20 place names are listed in the certificate.

Heinrich at Forst Zwenkau had decided in favor of Merseburg. In a document dated August 30, 974, Emperor Otto II donated Zwenkau Castle with all its accessories to the Merseburg diocese. According to Thietmar's description, the forest lay between the rivers Saale and Mulde and the Gauen Siusili (around Eilenburg ) and Plisni (around Altenburg ). After the dissolution of the diocese, the Archdiocese of Magdeburg received the Zwenkau forest. After the re-establishment of the Merseburg diocese, Heinrich restored not only Zwenkau Castle in 1005, but also the associated forest. The Margraves Hermann I and Ekkehard II did not agree and wanted to exchange the forest for 60 Hufen, which Thietmar refused. Then they tried to enforce their claim to the forest at the imperial court with the help of documents. They submitted imperial documents about their claim to the Burgwarde Rochlitz (east of Altenburg) and Teitzig, on the assumption that the older Merseburg claim had now expired. Thietmar submitted an Ottonian document that documented the donation of the forest to the Merseburg church. Heinrich then decided at a meeting on February 22, 1017 in Magdeburg that Merseburg's claim had priority. Thietmar had forged a certificate for this dispute. In the forgery, he expanded the extent of the forest considerably and noted this in two places in his chronicle. The document, which is regarded as genuine, helped the Merseburg bishops to expand their territorial rule further east in the 13th century. The controversial forest remained permanently in Merseburg's possession. The Meissen margraves did not simply accept the defeat, but destroyed a court belonging to the Merseburg bishop.

According to Thietmar's report, Heinrich II gave him three churches in Leipzig , Ölschwitz and Geusa in 1017 . The donation of the church in Geusa is evidenced by a copied imperial certificate in the archive of the cathedral monastery in Merseburg. The other two donations are only known from Thietmar's chronicle.

Laying of the foundation stone for the new cathedral

The foundation stone for the new cathedral was laid during Thietmar's tenure. According to Wolfgang Giese, building was "one of the official duties of a high medieval bishop". The bishops of the Ottonian era expanded their cathedral cities in a representative manner by building new bishops' churches or by founding numerous new monastery and collegiate churches. In this way the bishops secured their memory. The construction or new construction of a cathedral church "was the most distinguished act of a bishop, always recorded by Thietmar in his obituaries".

In the presence of the new Magdeburg bishop Gero and without an imperial presence, Thietmar laid the foundation stones himself on May 18, 1015 in the form of a cross. This news of the laying of the foundation stone is one of the few recorded processes of its kind in the early Middle Ages. At that time, the laying of the foundation stone was not yet a liturgically binding rite of founding a church. Thietmar himself left it out when writing his chronicle and then added it himself in the margin. Heinrich II ensured that the new cathedral was adequately furnished. For the spring of 1017, Thietmar reported an order from the emperor to “make a golden altar to adorn our church”, to which the bishop “contributed six pounds of gold from the proceeds of our old altar”. Thietmar himself did not live to see the completion of the cathedral. He died in December 1018. The new cathedral was solemnly consecrated on October 1, 1021.

Chronicler

Facsimile of a page from Thietmar's chronicle of Merseburg. SLUB Dresden , Msc. R 147, sheet 178 b

Between the end of 1012 and 1018, Thietmar wrote a chronicle of Saxon history from 908 to 1018. In addition to Thietmar, eight other scribes of the Merseburg cathedral script were involved in the writing, whose work he supplemented and corrected. With the Chronicon , which he named so, he intended to depict “the history of the city of Merseburg” (Merseburgensis series civitatis) and the “lives and deeds of the pious kings of Saxony” (Saxonie regum vitam moresque piorum) . Both topics were closely linked. Heinrich I laid the foundations for the city of Merseburg and surrounded it with a wall. Otto I founded the diocese, his son Otto II repealed it. Otto III. had made the first attempts to set it up again, which were then successful under Henry II. The two core themes of the chronicle are provided with numerous autobiographical set pieces, so that far more is known about the person and personality of Bishop Thietmar than about many of his colleagues in the High Middle Ages. Johannes Fried regarded him as the first “I to write” among medieval historians. In his chronicle he commented on martyrs and the cult of saints, penance and sin, death and intercession, questions of morality and pastoral care, the work of the devil and his demons, God's faith and God's judgments, freak births, apparitions, heavenly and miraculous signs. He recorded countless deaths and wrote obituaries. He dedicated the work to his brother Siegfried, the abbot of Berge Monastery and later Bishop of Munster. Thietmar's pronounced family awareness also made him report more than any other chronicler about his own relatives, which is why his chronicle is also referred to as the "family chronicle".

History was used as an argumentation aid in Ottonian times. The context of the creation of the work and the intention to depict it were related to one another. With his chronicle, Thietmar wanted to inform his successors about the history of the diocese of Merseburg, with the intention that they would be prepared for the eventuality when the existence of the diocese is again contested or their possessions are endangered. The reason for writing the chronicle was possibly a failure by Thietmar when in 1012 the Merseburger Sprengel was not expanded at the expense of the Magdeburg diocese. In his chronicle he reported on much that, in his opinion, would belong to the Merseburg diocese and should therefore be repaid. He recorded royal and imperial donations in his chronicle.

His chronicle did not just begin with the establishment of the diocese of Merseburg in 968, but with the story of King Heinrich I. Thietmar did not write about a very distant past like many other historiographers before him, but his chronicle started exactly 100 years earlier with Heinrich I. one. First he mentioned the myth of the Roman origins of the city (or castle) Merseburg, related the Slavic settlement of the area and that Bishop Arn von Würzburg was attacked by Slavic enemies on his return from a Bohemian campaign and suffered martyrdom . In contrast to Carolingian chronicles and annals, Thietmar deviates from the usual annual schemes according to years of incarnation and is structured according to chapters. The chronological structure of his eight books is based on the reign of the Saxon rulers. The first four books cover 86 years and another four books cover the last 16 years. Book V deals until the reestablishment of the Merseburg diocese in 1004. Book VI deals with Heinrich's coronation as Emperor, Book VII covers the period marked by armed conflicts until 1017. Book VIII concentrates on the events of the year 1018. For the time of Otto III. and Heinrich II in particular, the chronicle almost acquired the "character of a leading tradition". According to Franz-Josef Schmale, the chronicle is both a history of the past and the present. After the analysis by Kerstin Schulmeyer-Ahl, Thietmar chose two “ modes of presentation” for his chronicle: historical exegesis for the time from Heinrich I to the death of Otto III, contemporary chronicle from around 1002/4. Thietmar aligned the first four books of his chronicle in terms of salvation history with the accession to the throne of Henry II and the re-establishment of the diocese of Merseburg. The second part, which is related to the present, depicts the reign of Henry II. It is structured by the places where the rulers stayed and the solemn festivals and saints that coincide with them. The aim of Thietmar's study of history is always "the knowledge of God who reveals himself in the world". In the place of exegetical interpretation of history, the “ liturgical evocation of God in certain places at certain times” occurs through the arrival of the ruler and the celebration of mass .

For his chronicle he evaluated the first two books of Widukind's history of Saxony for the years up to 973 . Before completing the third book, he received knowledge of the Quedlinburg Annals in a version that extended to 998. In addition, necrologies from Magdeburg, Lüneburg and above all from Merseburg as well as documents from his region were available. In addition, he had access to written documents that were lost today, such as the Halberstadt bishop's chronicle. Much of the information he received was due to verbal communication. In his chronicle there are borrowings from Virgil , Horace , Ovid , Persius , Lukan , Terenz , Martial , Juvenal , Macrobius as well as from Gregory the Great , Isidore of Seville and Aurelius Augustine . Of the classical authors, he is most familiar with Virgil. In addition to the Bible , Thietmar only quoted the works of Gregory the Great in detail. His family had ramifications and was able to provide him with news for his chronicle. A marriage alliance between Thietmar's ancestors and a close relative of the Babenbergs , which had existed since the middle of the 10th century, provided him with information from the southeast of the empire.

Judgments of the rulers

Thietmar based his work on the sequence of rulers. The first four books are each dedicated to a king (Heinrich I., Otto I., Otto II., And Otto III.), The last four offer the story under Heinrich II. Up to Thietmar's death year 1018. The ruler had to follow To behave virtuously Thietmar's ideas. From the kings he mainly demanded sapientia (wisdom), clementia (mildness) and benignitas (goodness), but also peacefulness and human maturity. The abolition and re-establishment of the diocese of Merseburg were a particularly important perspective for Thietmar, under which he judged historical events and achievements of the rulers.

Heinrich I.

Together with Helmut Lippelt, Thietmars von Merseburg's report on Heinrich I, who was distant in time, is to be seen “as a collecting basin for various traditions”, “as a place of passage and fixation of memories on the way of being transformed into legend and legend”. For Thietmar, Heinrich was a "problematic figure". Heinrich is praised by him as the actual founder of Merseburg and the Ottonian dynasty and as the victor over pagan enemies. Heinrich, however, had impregnated his wife Mathilde in the night before Good Friday in an alcohol frenzy against all church commands. The conceived Heinrich brought strife into the Otton family for several generations. Contemporaries like Thietmar used such stories to deal with the conflicts and misfortunes in the ruling family. The Good Friday procreation of Heinrich of Bavaria, Heinrich's divorce from Hatheburg and the rejection of the anointing of the ruler met with criticism from Thietmar.

Otto I.

For Thietmar, Otto I was the epitome of an important epoch ("Like the Lord, so were his princes"). Otto the Great had made Merseburg a bishopric. Thietmar praised Otto I as the greatest bearer of scepters since Charlemagne , during his reign "the golden age illuminated the world", and with his death it already went out. Nevertheless, Thietmar also expresses criticism when he comments on the deposition of Pope Benedict V and his banishment to Hamburg with the words: "He [Otto] would not have done it".

Thietmar lets the highly praised Otto die suddenly in his chronicle. In this way, when Otto the Great died, he suddenly deviated from his original Widukind von Corvey, who provided a “carefully composed death report”. According to contemporary ideas, sudden deaths were understood as God's punishment for previous misconduct. With the problematic ordination of a twelve-year-old Otto, Thietmar declared the death of a ruler a few days later. Kerstin Schulmeyer-Ahl sees in this "triviality" a reaction by Thietmar to a report of the Gesta episcoporum Halberstadensium , dated between 992 and 996 , which interpreted Otto's death as a punishment for the establishment of the Magdeburg Archdiocese and the establishment of the Diocese of Merseburg at the expense of the Diocese of Halberstadt . Thietmar replaced a reason for sudden death that he recognized as wrong with a new interpretation model.

Otto II.

A time of crisis and transformation began in the empire with Otto II. Otto gave the young diocese the “entire city enclosed by a wall, including Jews, merchants and coins”. The diocese was generously endowed by him. The abolition of the diocese of Merseburg cast a dark shadow over the reign of Otto II. Helmut Lippelt was able to show, however, that Thietmar was keen to give Otto a differentiated appreciation and was particularly responsible for the abolition of the diocese of Bishop Giselher , who had been transferred to Magdeburg, and Bishop Dietrich of Metz blamed. Thietmar keeps the king out of the actual process of the abolition of the diocese of Merseburg, even though the negotiations were conducted at his court in Italy. In the last chapter of his book, Thietmar sought objectivity from Otto II. After the death of his father, he ruled as protector of kingdom and empire, a terror to all enemies and an unshakable wall to the herds entrusted to him. Thietmar had previously granted Otto absolution . Thietmar is also able to do this because he knows about the fate of his diocese from the time his chronicle was written. The defeat of the Saracens at Cap Colonne (982) and the Slavs' uprising (983) were not accused of the ruler as a result of the abolition of the diocese, but were interpreted by Thietmar as "the sins of all of us".

Otto III.

The book on the reign of Otto III. there is no prologue in front of it. This could possibly be related to the abolition of the diocese of Merseburg. From 997 the first steps towards the re-establishment of the diocese of Merseburg can be proven. As a result, Otto earned services from Thietmar. According to Helmut Lippelt, Thietmar judged Otto's Rome policy and the establishment of the Archdiocese of Gniezno “very skeptical”, and for Wolfgang Eggert Thietmar also viewed Otto's policy “very skeptically and with deep resentment”. He was the only ruler in the chronicle who is not listed as a noster rex (or imperator ). Rather, he dubbed the Emperor's opponents as nostri . With this, the chronicler establishes “a direct identification with the emperor's opponents”.

Knut Görich , on the other hand, was able to show that Thietmar's skepticism was not directed against Otto's Rome policy or his long presence in the city, "but against the Romans, who were notoriously unreliable, and their ingratitude with which they repaid the emperor's special benevolence". Thietmar saw the politics of Rome in the continuity of his father and grandfather. One could not speak of a “deep resentment”.

Critical saw Thietmar Otto's decision Bolesław Chrobry by a tributary (tributarius) to a gentleman (dominus) to make. Questions of rank were of eminently political importance in the medieval aristocratic society, since the rank of a great person demonstrated his claim to a certain position within the previous balance of power. It was outrageous for Thietmar that the traditional subordination of the Polish rulers to the Saxon nobility no longer existed.

Henry II

After Thietmar's introductory words, Heinrich brought peace and justice back to the homeland. The establishment of the two dioceses of Bamberg and Bobbio as well as the re-establishment of the diocese of Merseburg were an expression of a pious life's work for Thietmar. The imperial coronation was also associated with Heinrich's services for the diocese of Merseburg. According to Kerstin Schulmeyer-Ahl, Thietmar based his chronicle on a “Heinrician legitimation model”. The time of the Saxon emperors presented itself as a competition between the royal line of the three Ottonians and the ducal line of the Bavarian Heinriche. Otto I had ruled alone since 936. His brother Heinrich had no share in the royal dignity, but only received the Duchy of Bavaria. This branch line of the Ottonians, whose representatives all bore the name Heinrich, first tried against Otto II and later against Otto III. to revolt and dispute their royal dignity. In Henry II's rise to kingship, the Heinrich line found its salvation-historical perfection.

Thietmar used the terms simpnista (official colleague) and coepiscopus (fellow bishop) to describe the very special relationship of trust between Heinrich and the bishops. After Stefan Weinfurter , no other medieval ruler had this intensity . Despite this close relationship with the bishops, Thietmar expressed criticism of Heinrich, especially when the king overlooked the vote of the cathedral chapter when appointing bishops.

In the conflicts between Heinrich II. And Bolesław I. Chrobry, Thietmar took sides against the Polish ruler. The aspect of subordination and thus the view of the king was the focus of his story. Bolesław was described in 1014/15 as the "Duke experienced in 1000 schemes". He repeatedly attributed the support of individual Saxons for the Poles to bribery. According to Knut Görich , this partisan party of the Saxons for Bolesław can be explained by long-standing family and friendship ties between Saxon nobles and the Piasts.

Thietmar died six years before Heinrich II. As a result, he could not summarize his judgment on Heinrich in a memoria like the other rulers.

Imagination

Beliefs

According to Helmut Lippelt, “strange stories” such as strange natural and heavenly phenomena, encounters with the dead and visions were “constitutive for his (Thietmar's) understanding of the world”. According to Klaus Krüger, the numerous ghost stories had a pastoral function. They should convince readers and listeners of the immortality of the soul . Thietmar saw a connection between the occurrence of such extraordinary, supernatural events and the lack of faith in the inhabitants of the German-Slavic settlement areas.

Thietmar associated celestial phenomena with accidents or deaths. In his chronicle, he addressed the return of the dead and linked this with reproaches or with messages to the living. His dead Magdeburg confrere Richer appeared to him in a dream and reproached him for not having visited the dying man at the bedside or participated in the wake. According to his own account, Thietmar stayed away from the terminally ill patient “because I couldn't stand the night watch”.

Thietmar used dreams, appearances and visions to argue in the interests of Merseburg or to draw attention to delicate issues. In a dream handed down by Thietmar, St. Laurentius appeared to Empress Theophanu on the night with a mutilated right arm and had blamed her deceased husband, under whose rule the Merseburg diocese was dissolved. Theophanu understood this message and her son Otto III. sworn to restore the diocese for the salvation of his father's soul.

Dreams and visions could also have a direct influence on decisions when filling vacant bishop's seats. The Halberstadt Bishop Siegmund had already "seen during his long illness [...] in a dream how the [chaplain] Bernhard walking behind him picked up the shepherd's staff that had fallen from his hands and carried it openly on". He therefore suggested to Bernhard to try to transfer the office of bishop to King Heinrich I. After Siegmund's death, Bernhard received everything as predicted by royal award.

Thietmar revealed a lot about his religiosity in his chronicle. “The Holy Scriptures,” he wrote, “forbid us to believe that there is a fate or an accident”. Everything is done by God's will. Especially at night the devil brings the believers into distress through illusions and evil spirits. Heinrich I was driven by the devil at the sinful conception of Heinrich von Baiern on the night of Good Friday. Thietmar was convinced of God's active presence in political-military events. Thietmar explained the conspiracies in the first decades of the Ottonian period with the direct influence of the devil. King Otto won the battle of Lechfeld in 955, by God's will . But the saints could also appear as plaintiffs and cause the death of the living. Ekkehard the Red, headmaster at Berge monastery, caused the high altar to collapse through a carelessness. Thietmar then commented soberly: “I do not want to reproach him, but I know for sure: Whoever met St. Mauritius offends, must know about the danger of imminent harm ”.

Slavs

The Slavic populated areas around the year 1000.

Thietmar wrote his chronicle in a predominantly Slavic diocese. According to Helmut Lippelt, Thietmar had "only a superficial and approximate knowledge of Slavic". Karlheinz Hengst regards this assumption as outdated. Thietmar had knowledge of the Slavic language. He derived Slavic names etymologically . According to Franz Josef Schröder, Thietmar had "unusually good and extensive information" about the situation in Eastern Europe.

Thietmar experienced the Slav uprising of 983 as a child in his native Walbeck or in the Abbey of Quedlinburg with his great aunt. The Elbe Slavs had revolted against Saxon rule and had returned to paganism. Against this background, the pagan Slavs were for him "greedy dogs" ("avari canes") or he spoke in general terms of the "cruel Slavs" ("Sclavus crudelis"). According to the result of Lorenz Weinrich, Thietmar refrains from describing the Slav uprising decades later in his chronicle "any expression of national identification". He did not complain "about the loss of German rule, but about the breaking out of the Slavs on the Elbe and Havel from the Christian community". For the thinking of the Merseburg chronicler, Christianitas (Christianity) was one of the central concepts of order. Thietmar was more open to the Slavs than Widukind von Corvey. Unlike the latter, Thietmar did not equate the pagan Elbe Slavs with the barbarians. He also knew how to differentiate between the pagan Elbe Slavs and the Christian Poles, Moravians and Bohemians. Mieszko I of Poland and Wenceslaus of Bohemia are described accordingly positively . He accused the pagan Elbe Slavs, on the other hand, of cunning and infidelitas (disbelief).

According to Helmut Lippelt's research, Thietmar was hardly active in the mission of the Slavs, even though there were many unbaptized Slavs in his area. Missionary work, however, was a life-threatening task. His school friend Brun von Querfurt was captured and beheaded in pagan Prussia . Thietmar was more concerned with the "salvation of the Christian soul and not with gaining more souls". Unlike his predecessor Boso, Thietmar did not preach through his diocese. In October 1018 Thietmar went to Rochlitz for the first time . The real reason for the trip was not to give confirmation , but to demonstrate ownership. In the previous nine years, however, Thietmar had never visited the eastern areas of his diocese.

Thietmar's picture of Poland and Slavs, Karlheinz Hengst, rated positively. Accordingly, Liutizen were depicted by Thietmar seven times from 1003 in a peaceful relationship or even in military cooperation with the Reich. Thietmar, however, strictly refused to accept pagan Liutizen into the imperial army. For him the alliance with the pagan Liutizen was an abomination: “Avoid their community and their cult, dear reader! Rather, hear and obey the commandments of St. Font!"

Worry about the memoria

T initial with a prayer request entered by Thietmar, Merseburg, Cathedral Abbey Library, Cod. I, 129.

According to the research of Helmut Lippelt, concern for the memoria was the “main motive” (causa scribendi) of the Merseburg bishop when writing his chronicle. Lippelt was able to show that the self-accusations scattered throughout the work should be viewed in the context of the memoria. In the intensive research into the medieval memoria, Thietmar's concern for an appropriate commemoration of prayer has been confirmed as the main motive for writing. Thietmar has repeatedly asked his readers for intercession, prayers and remembrance of the dead. According to Ernst Schubert , Thietmar was “not concerned with a history report, but also with his own 'memoria', the memory of the dead”. Thietmar's concern for the memoria of the persons to whom he was obliged corresponded to his concern for his own, for in caring for the memoria of the deceased he was fulfilling an obligation and could hope that others would also fulfill their corresponding obligation to him. The memorial note can range from a mere mention of the deceased to a necrology .

To what extent Thietmar's commitment to commemorate the deceased was reflected, Gerd Althoff was able to show by comparing the chronicle with the Merseburg necrology . Althoff found a "relatively large correspondence" between the entries in the Merseburg necrology and the death reports in Thietmar's chronicle. Striking parallels between the chronicle and the Merseburg necrology existed in the appreciation of the bishop's relatives, his Magdeburg confratres and his episcopal colleagues. According to Althoff, the memoria is limited to “people with whom he had a special personal relationship. He dedicated a memorandum to them, the intention of which was undoubtedly not the earthly fame, but the performance of prayer obligations. "

According to Gerd Althoff and Joachim Wollasch , two different layers can be distinguished in the entries in the Merseburg necrology. The first layer of names, dating to 1017, includes Thietmar's circle of relatives and friends. During Thietmar's tenure as Merseburg bishop, the Liudolfing family memorial was transferred from Quedlinburg to Merseburg. The Quedlinburg annals were very critical of Heinrich II. Heinrich therefore created a new focus in Merseburg to commemorate his ancestors. Thietmar, who grew up in Quedlinburg, felt obliged to the Quedlinburg memoria. When comparing the names of the Quedlinburg Annals with the Merseburg Book of the Dead, a high level of correspondence was found. This second supplementary layer, registered around 1017/18, represents the memorial tradition of the Ottonian ruling family and their Bavarian subsidiary branch. With Thietmar's death in 1018, these entries in the Merseburg necrology ended almost completely.

The only advertised document in Thietmar's history deals with the so-called Dortmund Prayer League. On July 7, 1005, the ruling couple Heinrich II and Kunigunde merged with Duke Bernhard I of Saxony as well as with 15 archbishops and bishops to form the Dortmund Totenbund . As the only Liudolfingian ruler, he entered into a prayer fraternity with bishops at a synod . Helmut Lippelt pointed out the current importance of the process for Thietmar. The form of fraternization between the king and his episcopate served Thietmar as a model for his own environment. The Merseburg bishop felt bound by the memorial of deceased members. In the Merseburg necrology none of the participants of the Dortmund Totenbund was missing, who died while Thietmar was still alive.

Thietmar made an entry with his own hand in the Merseburg Sacramentary, a prayer book of the Merseburg Cathedral with the bishop's personal notes. For the ornamental letter T of the Te igitur , he brought his request to the user of the Codex: “Priest of God, remember your sinful and unworthy confrere Thietmar” (Sacerdos dei, reminiscere Thietmari confratis tui peccatoris et indigni). Thietmar made the addition not only by hand, but also skillfully on a page that no celebrant could overlook at a mass. With this warning to his successors he tried to secure his liturgical memoria.

Confession of sins

For Thietmar, confessing his sins was very important. Thietmar's awareness of being a sinner is remarkable in its density and intensity even for Christian-medieval conditions. Sometimes Thietmar did not pay the imposed penance for his sins. The chronicle was not only intended to inform Thietmar's successor about the state of the diocese of Merseburg, but is also an appeal to pray for the salvation of the sinful author's soul. By showing humility one hoped for an exaltation in the hereafter. In the last chapter of the fourth book he provided a self-portrait. So he looked indecent and was sinful. He portrayed himself as a little man with a badly healed broken nose. In addition to the external flaws, he listed his vices: He was "very irascible and unruly for good". He repeatedly came too late, such as the death of Archbishop Tagino or his own bishopric. He accused himself of simony because he had acquired the office of provost in Walbeck through a donation of land. He had never rightly repented for this. He reproached himself for not having made confession to Provost Reding of Magdeburg before his death, although he had asked him to. He pleaded guilty to the desecration of the grave for the sake of his own family. He removed Willigis' grave for his sister-in-law's funeral. He perceived a later illness as a punishment for his sinful behavior. Thietmar then wanted to go on a penitential pilgrimage to Cologne. In a dream the late Willigis appeared to him and blamed him for his now restless wandering.

For Thietmar, even the ruler could not avoid committing numerous sins in view of the multitude of tasks. These could only be offset by pious works. A ruler therefore had to use the time to exercise his rulership in accordance with the Christian ideal of rulers.

Local knowledge

Chronicle of Bishop Thietmar von Merseburg, fol. 52r (section above) and fol. 152 v (section below) with the first mention of Leipzig, facsimile 1905 (SLUB Dresden).

With the restoration of the Merseburg diocese in 1004, the tradition for the Merseburg area changed suddenly. Numerous places were given again to the Merseburg diocese. In his chronicle, Thietmar conscientiously noted the acquisitions and claims of the diocese since 1012. Thietmar mentions around 300 places in his chronicle, hundreds of them for the first time. In a document dated October 17, 1012, in which Heinrich II of the Merseburg Church confirmed the ownership of 23 places, a total of 25 places are named. Of the place names mentioned, 18 can be reliably identified in spite of the major changes in the name forms.

In connection with the death of Bishop Eids von Meißen, Leipzig is mentioned for the first time in 1015 as Burgward ("urbs Lipzi"). Only Thietmar handed down the place of death of the Meißen bishop. Other first mentions in his chronicle include Bautzen , Biesnitz , Eulau , Jüterbog , Kronach , Krossen , Meseritz , Schwerin , Sorau and Tangermünde .

Thietmar's geographical narrative radius extends in the north to the Danish capital Lejre . In connection with the proselytizing of Poland and Russia , Kiev came into focus in the east. Thietmar probably learned about the western point of London through his family connections that extended to the North Sea. Through the royal Italian trains , his horizon extended to the south of the Italian peninsula. Thietmar tried very hard to pinpoint the respective events. He got his scribes to leave a space in the line where he didn't know the place immediately.

Death and burial

Sandstone tomb for Bishop Thietmar in the bishop's chapel of Merseburg Cathedral

Thietmar died in 1018 and, at 43, reached the average age of a medieval person. He was buried in the choir of his church St. Johannis, where his predecessors Boso and Wigbert rested. After the inauguration of the new cathedral on October 1, 1021 by Bishop Bruno in the presence of Heinrich II. Thietmar's bones were transferred there together with those of his predecessors Boso and Wigbert. Probably in the 13th century at the time of the cathedral renovation, Thietmar received an individual grave with an inscription. The cover plate is still preserved today.

reception

middle age

Thietmar's hopes of giving later Merseburg officials help with his chronicle and at the same time saving his own memoria were fulfilled. Werner von Merseburg's handwritten notes in the chronicle show an actual reading of the text. The older research ( Werner Trillmich and Werner Goez ) assumed that the chronicle was not widely used in the Middle Ages. According to Klaus Naß, Thietmar's chronicle can be regarded as “the most frequently used source for the Ottonian period in Saxon historiography”, “especially in the dioceses of Halberstadt and Magdeburg”. Thietmar's Chronicle was used in at least 17 works from the 11th to the early 16th centuries. The chronicle was processed early in the Merseburg bishop's chronicle. For the Annalista Saxo , Thietmar's chronicle became the leading tradition. The anonymous Saxon annalist relied on the Merseburg chronicler for 374 of the 430 chapters. The chronicle was also used directly in a Braunschweig compilation from 1194/95. In addition, the Gesta archiepiscoporum Magdeburgensium , the Magdeburg annals , the lost Nienburg annals and a world chronicle from the Benedictine monastery of St. Michael in Hildesheim, handed down only in excerpts by Dietrich Engelhus , made reference to Thietmar's chronicle in the 12th century . Heinrich von Lammesspringe used the chronicle between 1360 and 1372 for his Low German Schöppen chronicle . In the Berge monastery near Magdeburg it was used around 1495 for the drafting of Gesta abbatum Bergensium .

Modern

Tradition and edition

Thietmar's Chronicle has come down to us in two complete manuscripts. The original manuscript (Dresden autograph), which has been kept in Dresden under the signature Mscr.Dresd.R.147 to this day , was created under Thietmar's guidance and with his own contribution. Until the early 18th century, historical researchers for Thietmar's Chronicle were only aware of this text. Hearing defects show that the text was written down after dictation. It is one of the oldest autographs in Europe and at the same time the oldest manuscript with a proven Merseburg writing origin. As a gift from Merseburg Bishop Werner , the manuscript came to the Merseburg Benedictine Monastery of St. Peter, which he founded in 1091. The manuscript came to the Merseburg Cathedral Abbey Library for a short time as part of the Reformation . The manuscript came to the electoral archives via Georg Fabricius and was handed over to the Royal Library of Dresden from there in 1832 . The original manuscript was badly damaged by fire water after the bombing raid on Dresden on February 14, 1945, so that only a few pages (especially fol. 1r – 6v) are legible today. But a facsimile has existed since 1905 .

The second manuscript is a revised edition and possibly originated in the first quarter of the 12th century. This Corveyer manuscript, today under the signature Bruxell. 7503-18, kept in the Royal Library in Brussels , is not just a copy of the Dresden manuscript, but is based on a revision by the author himself and received only individual additions in Corvey. As Hartmut Hoffmann has shown, it is Thietmar's “second version”. Two manuscript finds made it possible to further differentiate the copied distribution of his chronicle. In 1971, the American collector Marvin Colker published a single sheet that had been used as a book cover in the 17th century. This single sheet, preserved today in Charlottesville , contains the text of Thietmar's Chronicle VII 71-75. Two trimmed parchment sheets in the Gotha Research and State Library were made known to the public in 1994. According to the codicological and palaeographic comparison by Klaus Naß, the Gothaer sheets and the single sheet come from the same scribal hand from a manuscript that was created in the last third of the 12th century.

Reiner Reineccius got the first edition of the chronicle in 1580. This printed Latin edition inspired Heinrich Meibom to conduct further research on the Walbeck monastery. The first German translation followed in 1606. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, positivist- oriented research endeavored to reconstruct events, and questions relating to the history of politics and events were accordingly predominant. During this time, two critical editions were created as part of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica with the editors Johann Martin Lappenberg and Friedrich Kurz . The edition of the chronicle and its Corveyer revision from the twelfth century, which is still relevant today, was presented by Robert Holtzmann in 1935 . Thietmar's Chronicle has also been translated from Latin into German, English, French, Italian, Polish and Czech.

Research history

Historical images and research perspectives

The period between 850 and 1100 is considered to be a research gap in historical studies with regard to the bishops in the East Franconian-German Empire, even though so many sources from the 10th and 11th centuries have survived for no other social group. In German-speaking medieval studies , the predominant interest in the history of the empire and in the prehistory of the "German nation". In addition to the fixation on royalty, the “dualistic model” of a conflict between royalty and nobility was a predominant pattern of interpretation in German history in the early Middle Ages. The bishop was understood either as an instrument of royal rule or as an exponent of a noble family.

The long-standing thesis of an Ottonian-Salian imperial church system , represented by Leo Santifaller , led to the fact that after the Second World War the bishop was primarily perceived as an imperial bishop from the 9th to 11th centuries. Timothy Reuter fundamentally questioned this system, which had long been accepted in research, in 1982. In the period that followed, a more intensive occupation with the Ottonian-Salic imperial episcopate began. Above all, the royal influence in bishopric surveys or the founding of dioceses was examined. The work of the bishops beyond the royal court was still not taken into account in the research. In recent research, aspects of symbolic communication in the premodern era come to the fore. For this purpose, case studies on the election, enthronement, entry or burial of a bishop or his official insignia are published in recent ritual research.

Assessment of Thietmar

In the 19th century, history of events and politics dominated. From Thietmar, research around 1900 had the image of the "honest" and the "real German" chronicler. The numerous reports of visions and miracles were not taken into account during this time or were dismissed because of their “pathological trait”. Thietmar is an important informant for the yearbooks of German history in the 19th century. In the twenties and thirties of the 20th century Robert Holtzmann published important further studies on the origin of the text, but also on questions of interpretation.

After the Second World War, Annerose Schneider examined Thietmar's religious ideas in her unpublished dissertation in 1954. She refrained from asking "how his attitude came from". Instead, she wanted to be content with “reading this attitude from Thietmar's chronicle and analyzing it”. She characterized him in a later essay "as an independently thinking, feeling and judging contemporary". In 1973, Helmut Lippelt dealt with Thietmar's spiritual and political worldview as Reich Bishop in his dissertation. Lippelt wanted to relate Thietmar's “chronic representation” and “individual expressions” to the powers that form him spiritually: aristocratic origins, clerical office and royalty ”. The Reich Bishop was at the center of his investigation. He came to numerous new discoveries. Lippelt worked out the “memorial structure” of Thietmar's work. His remarks on school education, his spiritual career and his efforts to restore the diocese continue to be used in research. Meanwhile, Lippelt's statements on the aristocratic church rule and the "Germanic" own church system , the "Ottonian imperial church system" and the "Ottonian house tradition" are controversial . After Lippelt's work, despite intensive research and controversy about the Ottonians, no monographic treatise on Thietmar appeared for decades.

In the last few decades, various studies examined Thietmar's political imagination, his perception of the north, his understanding of rituals, his remarks on sin and penance, marriage law, cultural contacts between Germans and Slavs, death and intercession as well as morality and pastoral care or even individuals Sources from Thietmar.

In David A. Warner's studies on Thietmar in the 1990s, the Reich Bishop continued to be the main interpretation parameter. In 2001, Ludger Körntgen examined concepts of the king in central works of Ottonian and Early Sali historiography. For him, Thietmar was a "representative of a politico-religious world in which royal and aristocratic claims to rule are just as mutually exclusive as divine election and human sinfulness of the ruler".

In 2009, Kerstin Schulmeyer-Ahl presented a comprehensive analysis of Thietmar's historiography with her Frankfurt dissertation based on Lippelt's work from 1973. She is concerned with the systematic connection between “periodizations as a basic condition of historical knowledge, salvation history as a paradigm of medieval historiography and forms of cognition as the fundamental patterns of understanding of the time” and “their respective influence on the constitutional conditions of historiographic news”.

Public honors

Bronze statue of Bishop Thietmar von Merseburg, Thietmar-Brunnen in the courtyard of the cloister of the Merseburg Cathedral.

Modern depiction of Bishop Thietmar von Merseburg on the city fountain in Tangermünde.

On the choir screen of the bishop's chapel, a picture probably from 1505 shows Thietmar. There is a Thietmar fountain in the inner courtyard of the cloister of Merseburg Cathedral. The bronze monument of Thietmar shows the bishop standing in full episcopal regalia with the chronicle open.

In Tangermünde, a fountain in the form of a market fountain was built on the forecourt of St. Stephen's Church . The reliefs on the sides of the fountain tell eight episodes from Tangermünde's history. The Tangermünder city coat of arms and a relief of Bishop Thietmar von Merseburg are at the beginning.

In 2015, a special exhibition was opened on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of Merseburg Cathedral. Three years later, the Merseburg Cathedral and the Curia Nova organized a large special exhibition (Thietmar's World - a Merseburg bishop writes history) on the 1000th anniversary of his death , which was attended by 19,000 visitors.

Work editions

• Thietmar von Merseburg, Chronicon (= MGH SS rer. Germ. Nova Series. Vol. 9). Edited by Robert Holtzmann. Berlin 1935.
• Thietmar von Merseburg, chronicle . Retransmitted and explained by Werner Trillmich . With an addendum by Steffen Patzold . (= Freiherr vom Stein memorial edition. Vol. 9). 9th, bibliographically updated edition. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2011, ISBN 978-3-534-24669-4 .
• The Dresden manuscript of the chronicle of Bishop T. von Merseburg, with the support of the Royal Saxon Collections for Art and Science, the König-Johann-Stiftung and the Central Directorate of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica in facsimile. Published by Ludwig Schmidt, Dresden 1905 ( online ).

literature

Overview works

• Gerd Althoff : The Ottonians. Royal rule without a state. 3rd, revised edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-17-022443-8 .
• Gerd Althoff, Hagen Keller : The time of the late Carolingians and Ottonians. Crises and consolidations 888-1024 (= Gebhardt. Handbook of German History. Vol. 3). 10th, completely revised edition. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-608-60003-2 .
• Helmut Beumann : The Ottonians. 5th edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 2000, ISBN 3-17-016473-2 .
• Johannes Fried : The way into history. The origins of Germany up to 1024. Propylaea, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-548-26517-0 .
• Hagen Keller: The Ottonians. Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-44746-5 .
• Ludger Körntgen : Ottonen and Salier. 3rd revised and bibliographically updated edition. Scientific book society. Darmstadt 2010, ISBN 978-3-534-23776-0 .
• Timothy Reuter (Ed.): The New Cambridge Medieval History 3. c. 900-1024. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1999, ISBN 0-521-36447-7 .

Monographs

• Helmut Lippelt : Thietmar von Merseburg - Reich Bishop and Chronicler (= Central German Research. Vol. 72). Böhlau, Cologne 1973, ISBN 3-412-83673-7 .
• Kerstin Schulmeyer-Ahl: The beginning of the end of the Ottonians. Constitutional conditions of historiographic news in the Chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg (= Millennium Studies. Volume 26). De Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-11-019100-4 .

Lexicon article

• Gerd Althoff : Thietmar von Merseburg . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 8, LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-89659-908-9 , Sp. 694-696.
• Helmut Beumann : Thietmar von Merseburg. In: Author's Lexicon Volume 9., Stuttgart 1995, Sp. 795-801.
• Martina Giese :  Thietmar von Merseburg. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 26, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-428-11207-5 , p. 143 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Bruno Jahn: German Literature Lexicon. The middle age. Authors and works according to topics and genres, 3: travel reports and historical poetry. De Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2012, ISBN 3-598-24992-6 , pp. 58-65.
• Peter Johanek : Thietmar von Merseburg (975-1018). Chronica. In: Volker Reinhardt (Ed.): Main works of historiography. Kröner, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-520-43501-2 , pp. 632-636.
• David A. Warner : Thietmar of Merseburg. In: Raymond Graeme Dunphy (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle. Volume 2, Brill, Leiden / Boston 2010, ISBN 90-04-18464-3 , pp. 1424-1425.

Web links

Commons : Thietmar von Merseburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Thietmar von Merseburg in the catalog of the German National Library
• Ulrike Siewert: Thietmar (Dietmar, Dithmar) von Walbeck . In: Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (Ed.): Saxon Biography .
• Thietmar von Merseburg in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"
• Walter Liedtke: July 25th, 0975 - Birthday of Thietmar von Merseburg WDR ZeitZeichen on July 25th, 2020 (Podcast)

Remarks

1. ↑ On Thietmar's noble origins from the Counts of Walbeck, cf. Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, pp. 46-58.
2. ^ Knut Görich: A turning point in the east: Heinrich II. And Boleslaw Chrobry. In: Bernd Schneidmüller, Stefan Weinfurter (Eds.): Otto III. and Heinrich II. - a turning point? Sigmaringen 1997, pp. 95-167, here: pp. 129 f. ( Digitized version ). Knut Görich: Otto III. Romanus Saxonicus et Italicus. Imperial Rome politics and Saxon historiography. Sigmaringen 1993, pp. 154-157.
3. ↑ Thietmar II, 21. Cf. Karl Leyser: Dominion and Conflict: King and Adel in Ottonian Saxony. Göttingen 1984, pp. 57-74.
4. ^ Gerd Althoff: Otto III. and Henry II in conflicts. In: Bernd Schneidmüller, Stefan Weinfurter (Eds.): Otto III. - Heinrich II. A turning point? Sigmaringen 1997, pp. 77-94, here: p. 82.
5. ↑ Thietmar III, 6.
6. ↑ Thietmar VIII, 15.
7. ↑ Carsten Hess: The year of birth Thietmar von Merseburg. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 57–63, here: p. 58.
8. ↑ Thietmar IV, 18.
9. ↑ Thietmar IV, 16.
10. ↑ Knut Görich: Otto III. Romanus Saxonicus et Italicus. Imperial Rome politics and Saxon historiography. Sigmaringen 1995, p. 62.
11. ↑ Katrinette Bodarwé: sanctimoniales litteratae. Written form and education in the Ottonian women's communities Gandersheim, Essen and Quedlinburg. Münster 2004, p. 182 f.
12. ↑ Knut Görich: Otto III. Romanus Saxonicus et Italicus. Imperial Rome politics and Saxon historiography. Sigmaringen 1995, p. 62 f.
13. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 65.
14. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 121.
15. ↑ Thietmar IV, 23-24.
16. ↑ Thietmar IV, 43-44.
17. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 88.
18. ↑ Rudolf Schieffer: Thietmar's World. A Merseburg bishop makes history. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 15–23, here: p. 16.
19. ↑ See Christian Schuffels: Re-discovered Verse Thietmar von Merseburg. In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages 72 (2016), pp. 71–93 ( online ).
20. ^ Christian Schuffels: Rediscovered verses by Thietmar von Merseburg. In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages 72, 2016, pp. 71–93, here: p. 86 ( online )
21. ↑ Thietmar VI, 46.
22. ↑ Ernst-Dieter Hehl: The stubborn bishop. Episcopal approval and episcopal protest in the Ottonian imperial church. In: Gerd Althoff, Ernst Schubert (Hrsg.): Representation of power in Ottonian Saxony. Sigmaringen 1998, pp. 295-344, here: p. 300 ( online ).
23. ^ Enno Bünz: Thietmar von Merseburg and the private church system. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 231–243, here: p. 231.
24. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 101 f.
25. ↑ Thietmar III, 16.
26. ↑ Thietmar III, 16. Cf. Wolfgang Huschner: Real, forged or lost? The listing of documents in Thietmar's Chronicle. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 131–147, here: p. 131.
27. ↑ Thietmar I, 26.
28. ↑ Hagen Keller: "The King asked and ordered." About the appointment of bishops in the Ottonian-Early Salian Empire. In: Christoph Stiegemann, Martin Kroker (Hrsg.): For royalty and the kingdom of heaven: 1000 years of Bishop Meinwerk of Paderborn. Catalog for the anniversary exhibition in the Museum in der Kaiserpfalz and in the Archbishop's Diocesan Museum Paderborn 2009/2010. Regensburg 2009, pp. 40–57, here: pp. 52 f.
29. ^ Knut Görich: A turning point in the east: Heinrich II. And Boleslaw Chrobry. In: Bernd Schneidmüller, Stefan Weinfurter (Eds.): Otto III. - Heinrich II. A turning point? Sigmaringen 1997, pp. 95-167, here: p. 128 ( digitized version ).
30. ↑ Gerd Althoff, Hagen Keller: Late Antiquity to the End of the Middle Ages. The time of the late Carolingians and Ottonians. Crises and Consolidations 888–1024. Stuttgart 2008, p. 335.
31. ↑ Thietmar VI, 42.
32. ↑ See the current list of stays in Merseburg by Sarah Jacob, Markus Cottin: King stays in the Palatinate Merseburg. In: 1000 years of the Merseburg Imperial Cathedral. Merseburg, 10 August 2015 to 9 November 2015, Merseburg Cathedral and the Merseburg Castle Museum of Cultural History. Exhibition catalog. Commissioned by the United Cathedral Founders of Merseburg and Naumburg and the Zeitz Collegiate Foundation. Edited by Markus Cottin, Václav Vok Filip and Holger Kunde. Petersberg 2015, p. 112 f.
33. ^ Knut Görich: A turning point in the east: Heinrich II. And Boleslaw Chrobry. In: Bernd Schneidmüller, Stefan Weinfurter (Eds.): Otto III. and Heinrich II. - a turning point? Sigmaringen 1997, pp. 95–167, here: p. 119 ( digitized version ).
34. ↑ Rudolf Schieffer: Thietmar's World. A Merseburg bishop makes history. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 15–23, here: p. 18.
35. ^ Thietmar VI, 91.
36. ↑ Peter Ramm: "... iussu imperatoris edificatum - the story of Bishop Thietmar's imperial cathedral". In: Andreas Ranft, Wolfgang Schenkluhn (Hrsg.): Dominion landscape in transition. 1000 years of Merseburg Cathedral. Regensburg 2017, pp. 167–200, here: p. 173.
37. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 116.
38. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 117.
39. ↑ Thietmar VI, 57; Thietmar VII, 16 and 57.
40. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 117 f.
41. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 109.
42. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 114.
43. ^ Martina Giese: Thietmars Chronik: templates, handwritten tradition and medieval reception. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 73–88, here: p. 74.
44. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 110 f.
45. ↑ Thietmar VI, 62.
46. ↑ Thietmar VI, 81.
47. ↑ Wolfgang Huschner: Real, Fake or Lost? The listing of documents in Thietmar's Chronicle. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 131–147, here: p. 143.
48. ^ Thietmar VII, 24. Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 112.
49. ^ Helmut Beumann, Walter Schlesinger: Document studies on German Ostpolitik under Otto III. In: Archiv für Diplomatik 1, 1955, pp. 132–250, here: p. 162.
50. ^ Wolfgang Huschner: The church-organizational assignments of the place Leipzig. Foundation, dissolution and re-establishment of the diocese of Merseburg (962-1024). In: Enno Bünz (ed.): History of the city of Leipzig. Volume 1: From the beginnings to the Reformation. Leipzig 2015, pp. 90–109, here: p. 106.
51. ^ Markus Cottin: Hochstift and Diocese of Merseburg up to the Reformation. In: The Merseburg Cathedral and its treasures. Testimony to a thousand years of history. Published by the United Cathedral Founders of Merseburg and Naumburg and the Zeitz Collegiate Foundation. Editing and reaction. Markus Cottin, Uwe John, Holger Kunde. Petersberg 2008, pp. 13–32, here: p. 15.
52. ↑ Thietmar VII, 52.
53. ↑ Wolfgang Huschner: Real, Fake or Lost? The listing of documents in Thietmar's Chronicle. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 131–147, here: p. 133.
54. ↑ Enno Bünz: "I myself laid the foundations on May 18th ...". Bishop Thietmar and the Merseburg Cathedral 1000 years ago. In: Andreas Ranft, Wolfgang Schenkluhn (Hrsg.): Dominion landscape in transition. 1000 years of Merseburg Cathedral. Regensburg 2017, pp. 113–138, here: p. 117; Hans-Werner Goez: The chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg as an ego-document. A bishop with a divided self-image. In: Richard Corradini, Matthew Gillis, Rosamond McKitterick, Irene van Renswoude (Eds.): Ego trouble. Authors and Their Identities in the Early Middle Ages. Vienna 2010, pp. 259–270, here: p. 263.
55. ↑ Wolfgang Huschner: Real, Fake or Lost? The listing of documents in Thietmar's Chronicle. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 131–147, here: p. 139.
56. ↑ MGH D H. II. 221
57. ↑ Wolfgang Huschner: Real, Fake or Lost? The listing of documents in Thietmar's Chronicle. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 131–147, here: p. 141; Markus Cottin, Václav Vok Filip and Holger Kunde (eds.): 1000 years of the Merseburg Imperial Cathedral. Merseburg, 10 August 2015 to 9 November 2015, Merseburg Cathedral and the Merseburg Castle Museum of Cultural History. Exhibition catalog. In: Markus Cottin: King Heinrich II. Gives families from all royal courts in Saxony and Thuringia to the Merseburg bishop Thietmar. Petersberg 2015, pp. 229-230.
58. ↑ MGH DD H II. No. 250 .
59. ↑ Wolfgang Huschner: Real, Fake or Lost? The listing of documents in Thietmar's Chronicle. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 131–147, here: p. 142.
60. ^ MGH D O. II, 90.
61. ^ Markus Cottin: City and Church. Leipzig and Merseburg. In: History of the City of Leipzig. From the beginning to the present. Volume 1: From the beginnings to the Reformation. Leipzig 2015, pp. 435–453, here: p. 436.
62. ↑ MGH D H. II. 64.
63. ↑ Gabriele Rupp: The Ekkehardiner, Margraves of Meißen, and their relationships with the empire and the Piasts. Frankfurt am Main et al. 1996, p. 116 f. Thietmar VIII, 20.
64. ^ MGH D O. II 90.
65. ↑ Wolfgang Huschner: Real, Fake or Lost? The listing of documents in Thietmar's Chronicle. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 131–147, here: p. 134.
66. ↑ Markus Cottin: Forged document about the donation of a forest by Emperor Otto II. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 354–355, here: p. 355.
67. ↑ Thietmar VIII, 19 and 21.
68. ↑ Thietmar VII, 66.
69. ↑ Enno Bünz: "I myself laid the foundations on May 18th ...". Bishop Thietmar and the Merseburg Cathedral 1000 years ago. In: Andreas Ranft, Wolfgang Schenkluhn (Hrsg.): Dominion landscape in transition. 1000 years of Merseburg Cathedral. Regensburg 2017, pp. 113–138, here: p. 119.
70. ↑ Wolfgang Giese: On the building activity of bishops and abbots of the 10th to 12th centuries. In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages 38 (1982) pp. 388–438 ( online )
71. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 122.
72. ↑ Peter Rammm: The Merseburg Cathedral. Its building history according to the sources. 2nd, unchanged edition. Weimar 1978, p. 43 ff.
73. ↑ Enno Bünz: "I myself laid the foundations on May 18th ...". Bishop Thietmar and the Merseburg Cathedral 1000 years ago. In: Andreas Ranft, Wolfgang Schenkluhn (Hrsg.): Dominion landscape in transition. 1000 years of Merseburg Cathedral. Regensburg 2017, pp. 113–138, here: p. 126.
74. ↑ Thietmar VII, 66.
75. ^ Martina Giese: Thietmars Chronik: templates, handwritten tradition and medieval reception. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 73–88, here: p. 77.
76. ↑ Thietmar I, 1, p. 5.
77. ↑ Thietmar I, prol., P. 3.
78. ↑ Johannes Fried: Ritual and Reason - Dream and Pendulum of Thietmar von Merseburg. In: Lothar Gall (ed.): The millennium in the mirror of the turn of the century. Berlin 1999, pp. 15–63, here: p. 17.
79. ↑ Werner Goez: Thietmar von Merseburg, historian (born 975, died 1018). In: Ders .: Shaping the High Middle Ages. Personal history essays in a general historical context. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 70–83, here: p. 75 counts more than seventy references by Thietmar to his diverse connections to the most distinguished families in Saxony.
80. ↑ Gerd Althoff, Hagen Keller: Late Antiquity to the End of the Middle Ages. The time of the late Carolingians and Ottonians. Crises and Consolidations 888–1024. Stuttgart 2008, p. 384 f.
81. ↑ Wolfgang Huschner: Real, Fake or Lost? The listing of documents in Thietmar's Chronicle. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 131–147, here: p. 145.
82. ↑ Wolfgang Huschner: Real, Fake or Lost? The listing of documents in Thietmar's Chronicle. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 131–147, here: p. 131. Cf. for example Thietmar VII, 24.
83. ^ Hans-Werner Goetz: Thietmar von Merseburg - views and intentions of a contemporary chronicler. In: Andreas Ranft, Wolfgang Schenkluhn (Hrsg.): Dominion landscape in transition. 1000 years of Merseburg Cathedral. Regensburg 2017, pp. 139–166, here: p. 141.
84. ^ Gerd Althoff: Thietmar von Merseburg. In: Lexikon des Mittelalters Vol. 8 (1997), Col. 694 ff., Here: Col. 695.
85. ^ Franz-Josef Schmale: Function and forms of medieval historiography. An introduction. Darmstadt 1985, p. 24 ff.
86. ↑ In summary: Kerstin Schulmeyer-Ahl: The beginning of the end of the Ottonians. Constitutional conditions of historiographic news in the Chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg. Berlin 2009, pp. 211-215; Citations p. 210; P. 214.
87. ↑ Kerstin Schulmeyer-Ahl: The beginning of the end of the Ottonians. Constitutional conditions of historiographic news in the Chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg. Berlin 2009, p. 237.
88. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, pp. 72-87.
89. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, pp. 74 and 81.
90. ↑ Andreas Bihrer: Saints and Heroes in the Chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg. In: Meta Niederkorn-Bruck (Ed.): Koloman 1014–2014. A thousand years of Koloman worship in Melk. Vienna 2014, pp. 105–128, here: p. 109.
91. ↑ Steffen Patzold: Addendum. In: Thietmar von Merseburg, Chronicle. Retransmitted and explained by Werner Trillmich. With an addendum by Steffen Patzold. 9th, bibliographically updated edition. Darmstadt 2011, pp. XXXII-XLVIII, here: p. XLII; Annerose Schneider: Thietmar von Merseburg on ecclesiastical, political and class issues of his time. In: Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 44, 1962, pp. 34–71, here: pp. 47–60.
92. ↑ Ludger Körntgen: Kingdom and God's grace. On the context and function of sacred ideas in historiography and pictorial evidence of the Ottonian-Early Salian period. Berlin 2001, p. 131.
93. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 148; Wolfgang Giese: Heinrich I. founder of the Ottonian rule. Darmstadt 2008, p. 20.
94. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 149.
95. ↑ Bernd Schneidmüller: Otto III. - Heinrich II. Turn of the royal rule or turn of mediaevistics? In: Bernd Schneidmüller, Stefan Weinfurter (Eds.): Otto III. - Heinrich II. A turning point? Sigmaringen 1997, pp. 9-46, here: p. 30.
96. ^ Thietmar II, 45. Lothar Bornscheuer: Miseriae Regum. Investigations into thoughts of crisis and death in the theological ideas of the Ottonian-Salic period. Berlin 1968, p. 116.
97. ^ Thietmar II, 13. Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 150.
98. ↑ Thietmar II, 28.
99. ↑ Kerstin Schulmeyer-Ahl: The beginning of the end of the Ottonians. Constitutional conditions of historiographic news in the Chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg. Berlin 2009, p. 227.
100. ↑ Thietmar II, 42.
101. ↑ Kerstin Schulmeyer-Ahl: The beginning of the end of the Ottonians. Constitutional conditions of historiographic news in the Chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg. Berlin 2009, p. 234.
102. ↑ Kerstin Schulmeyer-Ahl: The beginning of the end of the Ottonians. Constitutional conditions of historiographic news in the Chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg. Berlin 2009, p. 245.
103. ↑ Thietmar II, 45.
104. ↑ Thietmar III, 1.
105. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, pp. 156-162. Wolfgang Eggert follows him: We-Feeling and Regnum Saxonum in early medieval historians. Vienna 1984, p. 106; Ludger Körntgen: Kingdom and God's grace. On the context and function of sacred ideas in historiography and pictorial evidence of the Ottonian-Early Salian period. Berlin 2001, p. 129 f; Sverre Bagge: Kings, Politics and the Right Order of the World in German Historiography, c. 950-1150. Leiden et al. 2002, p. 178 f.
106. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 159.
107. ↑ Thietmar III, 26.
108. ↑ Kerstin Schulmeyer-Ahl: The beginning of the end of the Ottonians. Constitutional conditions of historiographic news in the Chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg. Berlin 2009, p. 265 f .; 306-308.
109. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 159.
110. ^ Ernst-Dieter Hehl: Merseburg - foundation of a diocese with reservations. In: Frühmittelalterliche Studien 31 (1997), pp. 96–119, here: p. 115; Gerd Althoff: Magdeburg – Halberstadt – Merseburg. Episcopal representation and advocacy in Ottonian Saxony. In: Gerd Althoff, Ernst Schubert (Hrsg.): Representation of power in Ottonian Saxony. Sigmaringen 1998, pp. 267-293, here: p. 285 ( online ).
111. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 165.
112. ↑ Wolfgang Eggert: We-Feeling and Regnum Saxonum among early medieval historians. Vienna 1984, p. 106.
113. ↑ Knut Görich: Otto III. Romanus Saxonicus et Italicus. Imperial Rome politics and Saxon historiography. Sigmaringen 1995, p. 77.
114. ↑ Knut Görich: Otto III. Romanus Saxonicus et Italicus. Imperial Rome politics and Saxon historiography. Sigmaringen 1995, p. 82.
115. ↑ Thietmar V, 10.
116. ^ Knut Görich: A turning point in the east: Heinrich II. And Boleslaw Chrobry. In: Bernd Schneidmüller, Stefan Weinfurter (Eds.): Otto III. - Heinrich II. A turning point? Sigmaringen 1997, pp. 95-167, here: p. 98 ( digitized version ).
117. ^ Knut Görich: A turning point in the east: Heinrich II. And Boleslaw Chrobry. In: Bernd Schneidmüller, Stefan Weinfurter (Eds.): Otto III. - Heinrich II. A turning point? Sigmaringen 1997, pp. 95-167, here: p. 114 ( digitized version ).
118. ↑ Thietmar V, prol.
119. ↑ Thietmar VII, 2.
120. ↑ Ludger Körntgen: Kingdom and God's grace. On the context and function of sacred ideas in historiography and pictorial evidence of the Ottonian-Early Salian period. Berlin 2001, p. 129.
121. ↑ Kerstin Schulmeyer-Ahl: The beginning of the end of the Ottonians. Constitutional conditions of historiographic news in the Chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg. Berlin 2009, p. 36 f.
122. ^ Stefan Weinfurter: Heinrich II. (1002-1024). Rulers at the end of time. Regensburg 1999, p. 127 and 145.
123. ↑ Ludger Körntgen: Kingdom and God's grace. On the context and function of sacred ideas in historiography and pictorial evidence of the Ottonian-Early Salian period. Berlin 2001, p. 126.
124. ^ Knut Görich: A turning point in the east: Heinrich II. And Boleslaw Chrobry. In: Bernd Schneidmüller, Stefan Weinfurter (Eds.): Otto III. - Heinrich II. A turning point? Sigmaringen 1997, pp. 95-167, here: p. 158 ( digitized version ).
125. ↑ Thietmar VII, 10.
126. ^ Knut Görich: A turning point in the east: Heinrich II. And Boleslaw Chrobry. In: Bernd Schneidmüller, Stefan Weinfurter (Eds.): Otto III. - Heinrich II. A turning point? Sigmaringen 1997, pp. 95-167, here: p. 136 ( digitized version ).
127. ^ Knut Görich: A turning point in the east: Heinrich II. And Boleslaw Chrobry. In: Bernd Schneidmüller, Stefan Weinfurter (Eds.): Otto III. - Heinrich II. A turning point? Sigmaringen 1997, pp. 95-167, here: p. 141 ( digitized version ).
128. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 173.
129. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 1.
130. ↑ Klaus Krüger: Thietmar, Tod und Teufel. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 245–263, here: p. 257.
131. ^ Sébastien Rossignol: The spooky stories of Thietmar of Merseburg. Reflections on the world of ideas and the working method of an 11th century chronicler. In: Concilium medii aevi 9, 2006, pp. 47-76, here: p. 55 ( online ).
132. ↑ Klaus Krüger: Thietmar, Tod und Teufel. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 245–263, here: p. 248.
133. ↑ Thietmar VII, 33.
134. ↑ Gerd Althoff: The argumentative memory. Accusation and strategies of justification in the historiography of the 10th and 11th centuries. In: Ders .: Staged rule. Historiography and Political Action in the Middle Ages. Darmstadt 2003, pp. 126–149, here: pp. 138 f.
135. ↑ Thietmar IV, 10.
136. ^ Thietmar I, 22. Klaus Krüger: Thietmar, Tod und Teufel. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 245-263, here: p. 249; Kerstin Schulmeyer-Ahl: The beginning of the end of the Ottonians. Constitutional conditions of historiographic news in the Chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg. Berlin 2009, p. 282 f.
137. ↑ Thietmar VII, 41.
138. ↑ Rudolf Schieffer: Thietmar's World. A Merseburg bishop makes history. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 15–23, here: p. 19.
139. ↑ Thietmar I, 24.
140. ↑ Klaus Krüger: Thietmar, Tod und Teufel. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 245–263, here: p. 254.
141. ↑ Thietmar II, 10.
142. ^ Thietmar IV, 66. Klaus Krüger: Thietmar, Tod und Teufel. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 245–263, here: p. 251.
143. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 86 f.
144. ^ Karlheinz Hengst: Thietmar and the Slavs. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 287–305, here: p. 289.
145. ↑ Ernst Eichler: Again on Thietmar's handling of Slavic names in his chronicle. In: Albrecht Greule, Matthias Springer (Ed.): Names of the early Middle Ages as linguistic evidence and as historical sources. Berlin 2009, pp. 189–192.
146. ↑ David Fraesdorff: The barbaric north. Ideas and categories of foreignness with Rimbert, Thietmar von Merseburg, Adam von Bremen and Helmold von Bosau. Berlin 2005, p. 139.
147. ^ Franz Josef Schröder: Peoples and rulers of Eastern Europe in the world view of Widukind von Korvei and Thietmars von Merseburg. Münster 1977, p. 42.
148. ↑ Thietmar III, 17.
149. ↑ Eduard Mühle: The Slavs in the Middle Ages between idea and reality. Vienna 2020, p. 365.
150. ↑ Lorenz Weinrich: The Slav uprising of 983 in the representation of Bishop Thietmar von Merseburg. In: Dieter Berg, Hans-Werner Goetz (Ed.): Historiographia medievalis. Festschrift for Franz-Josef Schmale. Darmstadt 1988, pp. 77-87, here: p. 81.
151. ^ Franz Josef Schröder: Peoples and rulers of Eastern Europe in the world view of Widukind von Korvei and Thietmars von Merseburg. Münster 1977, pp. 90-94.
152. ^ Franz Josef Schröder: Peoples and rulers of Eastern Europe in the world view of Widukind von Korvei and Thietmars von Merseburg. Münster 1977, p. 35.
153. ^ Franz Josef Schröder: Peoples and rulers of Eastern Europe in the world view of Widukind von Korvei and Thietmars von Merseburg. Münster 1977, pp. 69 and 81.
154. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 121.
155. ^ Enno Bünz: Thietmar von Merseburg and the private church system. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 231–243, here: p. 231.
156. ^ Karlheinz Hengst: Thietmar and the Slavs. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 287–305, here: p. 299.
157. ↑ Thietmar VI, 25.
158. ↑ Hans-Werner Goez: The chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg as an ego document. A bishop with a divided self-image. In: Richard Corradini, Matthew Gillis, Rosamond McKitterick, Irene van Renswoude (Eds.): Ego trouble. Authors and Their Identities in the Early Middle Ages. Vienna 2010, pp. 259–270, here: p. 265.
159. ^ Ernst Schubert: The Chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg. In: Michael Brandt, Arne Eggebrecht (ed.): Bernward von Hildesheim and the age of the Ottonians. Catalog of the exhibition Hildesheim 1993, Hildesheim-Mainz am Rhein, vol. 2, p. 239–243, here: p. 239.
160. ^ Gerd Althoff: Noble and royal families in the mirror of their memorial tradition. Studies on the commemoration of the dead of Billunger and Ottonen , Munich 1984, pp. 228-236 ( online ).
161. ^ Gerd Althoff: Noble and royal families in the mirror of their memorial tradition. Studies on the commemoration of the dead of Billunger and Ottonen , Munich 1984, p. 234 ( online ).
162. ^ 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. Munich 1984, p. 229 ( online ).
163. ^ Gerd Althoff, Joachim Wollasch: The books of the dead of Merseburg, Magdeburg and Lüneburg Hanover 1983.
164. ^ 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. Munich 1984, pp. 154 and 195 ( online ).
165. ↑ Thietmar VI, 18. Cf. on this Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 66.
166. ↑ Wolfram Drews: The Dortmund Totenbund Heinrichs II. And the reform of the futuwwa by the Baghdad caliph al-Nāṣir. Reflections on a Comparative History of Medieval Institutions. In: Early Medieval Studies. 50, 2016, pp. 163–230, here: p. 166.
167. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 66.
168. ↑ Wolfram Drews: The Dortmund Totenbund Heinrichs II. And the reform of the futuwwa by the Baghdad caliph al-Nāṣir. Reflections on a Comparative History of Medieval Institutions. In: Early Medieval Studies. 50, 2016, pp. 163–230, here: p. 171.
169. ↑ Hans Jakob Schuffels, Christian Schuffels: Thietmars Autograph. Regarding the authorship of the entry in the sacramentary of the Merseburg cathedral. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 101–113, here: pp. 110 f.
170. ↑ Hans-Werner Goez: The chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg as an ego document. A bishop with a divided self-image. In: Richard Corradini, Matthew Gillis, Rosamond McKitterick, Irene van Renswoude (Eds.): Ego trouble. Authors and Their Identities in the Early Middle Ages. Vienna 2010, pp. 259–270, here: p. 268.
171. ^ Rob Meens: Church penance and conflict resolution. Thietmar von Merseburg takes a closer look. In: Frühmittelalterliche Studien 41, 2007, pp. 317–330, here: p. 323.
172. ↑ Thietmar IV, 75.
173. ↑ Thietmar VI, 62.
174. ↑ Thietmar VI, 40.
175. ↑ Thietmar VII, 34.
176. ↑ Thietmar VI, 45.
177. ↑ Thietmar II, 45.
178. ↑ Ludger Körntgen: Kingdom and God's grace. On the context and function of sacred ideas in historiography and pictorial evidence of the Ottonian-Early Salian period. Berlin 2001, p. 229.
179. ^ Markus Cottin: place names in the chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg. Notes on the card. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 325–331, here: p. 325.
180. ↑ MGH DD H II. No. 250 .
181. ^ Armin Rudolph, Markus Cottin: The Merseburger Land 1000 years ago. In: 1000 years of the Merseburg Imperial Cathedral. Merseburg, 10 August 2015 to 9 November 2015, Merseburg Cathedral and the Merseburg Castle Museum of Cultural History. Exhibition catalog. Commissioned by the United Cathedral Founders of Merseburg and Naumburg and the Zeitz Collegiate Foundation. Edited by Markus Cottin, Václav Vok Filip and Holger Kunde. Petersberg 2015, pp. 123–137, here: p. 124.
182. ^ Enno Bünz: The chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg and the first mention of 1015. In: Enno Bünz (Hrsg.): History of the city of Leipzig. Volume 1: From the beginnings to the Reformation. Leipzig 2015, pp. 86–89, here: pp. 86 f.
183. ^ Markus Cottin: place names in the chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg. Notes on the card. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 325–331, here: p. 330.
184. ^ Markus Cottin: place names in the chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg. Notes on the card. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 325–331, here: p. 325.
185. ↑ Felix Biermann: Thietmar's world in the mirror of archeology. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 170–193, here: p. 181.
186. ^ Hans-Werner Goetz: Thietmar von Merseburg - views and intentions of a contemporary chronicler. In: Andreas Ranft, Wolfgang Schenkluhn (Hrsg.): Dominion landscape in transition. 1000 years of Merseburg Cathedral. Regensburg 2017, pp. 139–166, here: p. 141.
187. ^ Klaus Krüger: Grave slab of Bishop Thietmar. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, p. 364.
188. ^ Martina Giese: Thietmars Chronik: templates, handwritten tradition and medieval reception. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 73–88, here: p. 73.
189. ↑ Werner Trillmich: Introduction. In: Thietmar von Merseburg, Chronicle . Retransmitted and explained by Werner Trillmich. With an addendum by Steffen Patzold. 9th, bibliographically updated edition. Darmstadt 2011, pp. XXXII – XLVIII, here: p. XXXIX. Werner Goez: Shaping the High Middle Ages. Personal history essays in a general historical context. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 70–83, here: p. 83.
190. ↑ Klaus Naß: The Imperial Chronicle of the Annalista Saxo and the Saxon historiography in the 12th century. Hanover 1996, p. 177 f.
191. ↑ Klaus Naß: The Imperial Chronicle of the Annalista Saxo and the Saxon historiography in the 12th century. Hanover 1996, p. 174.
192. ^ Martina Giese: Thietmars Chronik: templates, handwritten tradition and medieval reception. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 73-88, here: p. 82; Klaus Naß: The imperial chronicle of the Annalista Saxo and the Saxon historiography in the 12th century. Hanover 1996, p. 143.
193. ↑ Klaus Naß: The Imperial Chronicle of the Annalista Saxo and the Saxon historiography in the 12th century. Hanover 1996, p. 176.
194. ^ Martina Giese: Thietmars Chronik: templates, handwritten tradition and medieval reception. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 73-88, here: p. 83; Klaus Naß: The imperial chronicle of the Annalista Saxo and the Saxon historiography in the 12th century. Hanover 1996, p. 177.
195. ^ Martina Giese: Thietmars Chronik: templates, handwritten tradition and medieval reception. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 73–88, here: p. 77.
196. ↑ Jana Kocourek: The fate of the Thietmar manuscript. In: Markus Cottin, Lisa Merkel (ed.): Thietmars Welt. A Merseburg bishop makes history. Merseburg, July 15 to November 4, 2018, Merseburg Cathedral and Curia Nova (Willi-Sitte-Galerie). Exhibition catalog. Petersberg 2018, pp. 149–159, here: p. 152 ff.
197. ^ The Dresden manuscript of the chronicle of Bishop Thietmar von Merseburg [facsimile], 3 vols., Edited by Ludwig Schmidt (1905).
198. ↑ Hartmut Hoffmann: Monk King and "rex idiota". Studies on the ecclesiastical policy of Heinrich II. And Konrad II. Hanover 1993, pp. 151–176.
199. ^ Marvin Leonard Colker: The Earliest Manuscript Representing the Korvei Revision of Thietmar's Chronicle, Scriptorium. In: Revue internationale des études relatives aux manuscrits 25, 1971, 62–67.
200. ↑ Cornelia Hopf: The Occidental Manuscripts of the Research and State Library Gotha. Inventory. Vol. 1: Large-format parchment manuscripts. Gotha 1994, p. 84.
201. ↑ Klaus Naß: The Imperial Chronicle of the Annalista Saxo and the Saxon historiography in the 12th century. Hannover 1996, pp. 429–432, with an edition of the Gothaer Fragment.
202. ^ Robert Holtzmann: The Chronicle of Bishop Thietmar von Merseburg and their Korveier revision (MGH SS rer. Germ. NS 9). Berlin 1935.
203. ^ Thietmar von Merseburg, Chronicle . Retransmitted and explained by Werner Trillmich. With an addendum by Steffen Patzold. 9th, bibliographically updated edition. Darmstadt 2011
204. ^ David A. Warner: Ottonian Germany. The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg. Manchester 2001.
205. ↑ Benoît-Michel Tock : Rois, reines et évêques. L'Allemagne aux Xe et XIe siècles. Recueil de textes traduits. Turnhout 2009, pp. 113–170 only books III and IV.
206. ^ Matteo Taddei: Thietmar di Merseburg: Cronaca. Pisa 2018.
207. ↑ Marian Z. Jedlicki: Kronika Thietmara. Poznań 1953.
208. ↑ Bořek Neškudla, Jakub Žytek: Dětmar z Merseburku: Kronika. Prague 2008.
209. ↑ Andreas Bihrer: From 'Reichsbischof' to 'Diocesan Bishop' The research of bishops in Ottonian-Salian times. In: Andreas Bihrer, Stefan Bruhn (ed.): Jenseits des Königshofs. Bishops and their dioceses in the post-Carolingian East Frankish-German Empire (850–1100). Berlin / Boston 2019, pp. 21–53, here: p. 23 f.
210. ↑ Andreas Bihrer: From 'Reichsbischof' to 'Diocesan Bishop' The research of bishops in Ottonian-Salian times. In: Andreas Bihrer, Stefan Bruhn (ed.): Jenseits des Königshofs. Bishops and their dioceses in the post-Carolingian East Frankish-German Empire (850–1100). Berlin / Boston 2019, pp. 21–53, here: p. 25.
211. ↑ Leo Santifaller: The Ottonian-Salic imperial church system. Vienna 1952.
212. ↑ Timothy Reuter: The 'Imperial Church System' of the Ottonian and Salian Rulers: a Reconsideration. In: Journal of Ecclastiastical History 33, 1982, pp. 347-374.
213. ↑ See Philippe Depreux: Symbols and Rituals - The Investiture as a Formal Act. In: Christoph Stiegemann, Matthias Wemhoff (Ed.): Canossa 1077 - Shaking the World. History, art and culture at the rise of the Romanesque. Vol. 1: Essays, Munich (Hirmer) 2006, pp. 159-167; Andreas Schmidt: "You are bishop and prince". The elevation of spiritual imperial princes in the late Middle Ages. Trier, Bamberg, Augsburg. Heidelberg 2015; Timothy Reuter: Bishops, rites of passage, and the symbolism of state in pre-gregorian Europe. In Sean Gilsdorf (ed.): The Bishop: Power and Piety at the First Millennium. Münster 2004, pp. 23–36.
214. ^ Wilhelm Gundlach: Hero songs of the German imperial era. Innsbruck 1894, p. 114.
215. ↑ Robert Holtzmann: About the chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg. In: New Archive of the Society for Older German History 5, 1935, pp. 159–209; Robert Holtzmann: The abolition and restoration of the diocese of Merseburg. A contribution to Thietmar's criticism. In: Saxony and Anhalt 2, 1926, pp. 35–75.
216. ^ Annerose Schneider: Studies on Thietmar von Merseburg. Diss. Phil. (maschr.) Halle 1955, p. 1 f.
217. ^ Annerose Schneider: Thietmar von Merseburg on ecclesiastical, political and class issues of his time. In: Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 44, 1962, pp. 34–71, here: p. 71.
218. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, p. 4.
219. ^ Helmut Lippelt: Thietmar von Merseburg. Reich bishop and chronicler. Cologne 1973, pp. 129–137 and 193–202.
220. ^ With all other references Steffen Patzold: Addendum. In: Thietmar von Merseburg, Chronik, edited by Werner Trillmich. Darmstadt 2003, pp. 517-533, here: p. 519.
221. ↑ David Fraesdorff: The barbaric north. Ideas and categories of foreignness with Rimbert, Thietmar von Merseburg, Adam von Bremen and Helmold von Bosau. Berlin 2005.
222. ^ David A. Warner: Thietmar of Merseburg on Rituals of Kingship. In: Viator 26 (1995) pp. 53-76
223. ^ Rob Meens: Church penance and conflict resolution. Thietmar von Merseburg takes a closer look. In: Frühmittelalterliche Studien 41 (2007), pp. 317-330.
224. ↑ Dieter von der Nahmer: Sin: To the chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg and to some works by Bernwards von Hildesheim. In: Studi Medievali, ser. 3, 54 (2013), 541-628.
225. ↑ Patrick Corbet: Le Marriage en Germanie Ottonienne d'apres Thietmar de Mersebourg. In: Michel Rouche, Jean Heuclin (ed.): La femme au moyen âge. Maubeuge 1990, pp. 187-212.
226. ^ Klaus Guth: Cultural contacts between Germans and Slavs according to Thietmar von Merseburg. In: Dieter Berg, Hans-Werner Goetz (Hrsg.): Historiographia Mediaevalis: Studies on historiography and source studies of the Middle Ages. Festschrift for Franz-Josef Schmale on his 65th birthday. Darmstadt 1988, 88-102.
227. ↑ Eduard Hlawitschka : 'Don't you notice that you are missing the fourth wheel on the car?' On Ekkehard's candidacy for the throne of Meißen (1002) according to Thietmar, Chronicon IV c. 52. In: Karl Hauck, Hubert Mordek (Ed.): Historiography and intellectual life in the Middle Ages. Festschrift for Heinz Löwe on his 65th birthday. Cologne et al. 1978, pp. 281-311; Gerd Althoff: The King's Bed in Magdeburg. To Thietmar II, 28. In: Helmut Maurer, Hans Patze (ed.): Festschrift Berent Schwineköper. For his seventieth birthday. Sigmaringen 1982, pp. 141-153 ( online ); Stephan Waldhoff: The Kaiser in crisis? To understand Thietmar IV, 48. In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages 54 (1998), pp. 23–54 ( online ).
228. ^ David A. Warner: Thietmar of Merseburg on Rituals of Kingship. In: Viator. Medieval and Renaissance Studies 26 (1995), pp. 53-76. For the history of research cf. Kerstin Schulmeyer-Ahl: The beginning of the end of the Ottonians. Constitutional conditions of historiographic news in the Chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg. Berlin 2009, p. 6 ff.
229. ↑ Ludger Körntgen: Kingdom and God's grace. On the context and function of sacred ideas in historiography and pictorial evidence of the Ottonian-Early Salian period. Berlin 2001, p. 136.
230. ↑ See the reviews by Klaus Naß in: Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 66, 2010, pp. 716–717 ( online ); Robert Gramsch in: H-Soz-Kult , November 9, 2011, ( online ); Amalie Fößel in: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft 60, 2012, pp. 1048-1049; Benoît-Michel Tock in: Francia Recensio 2012/2 ( online ); Ulrike Siewert in: New Archive for Saxon History 84, 2013, pp. 322–324.
231. ↑ Kerstin Schulmeyer-Ahl: The beginning of the end of the Ottonians. Constitutional conditions of historiographic news in the Chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg. Berlin 2009, p. 27.
232. ↑ Holger Kunde: Fountain figure of Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg. In: The Merseburg Cathedral and its treasures. Testimony to a thousand years of history. Published by the United Cathedral Founders of Merseburg and Naumburg and the Zeitz Collegiate Foundation. Petersberg 2008, p. 221 f.
233. ↑ United Cathedral Donors : End of the exhibition “Thietmar's World” , accessed on September 25, 2020.

predecessor	Office	successor
Wigbert	Bishop of Merseburg 1009-1018	Bruno of Merseburg