Wolter von Plettenberg

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Painting by Wolter von Plettenberg around 1700

Wolter von Plettenberg (* around 1450 at Meyerich Castle, Westphalia, today Welver-Meyerich ; † February 28, 1535 in Wenden , Latvian Cēsis , Livonia ) was the most important landmaster in Livonia of the Teutonic Order .

Life

Wolter von Plettenberg grants Riga religious freedom (stained glass window in Riga Cathedral)
Gold thaler from Landmeister Wolter von Plettenberg

He came from the extensive Westphalian noble family of the Lords of Plettenberg . A few decades before his birth, his family had been enfeoffed by the Archbishop of Cologne or Duke of Westphalia with Meyerich Castle near Soest , where he was born in 1450. At the age of about 14, like eight other family members, he joined the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order. In Riga he held the post of chief financial officer of the order in Livonia from 1481. Landmeister Johann Freitag von Loringhoven (1485–1494) appointed him in 1489 as Livonian land marshal . In this position he won the Battle of Neuermühlen (Latvian: Ādaži ) on March 30, 1491 over the troops of the Archbishop of Riga and the city ​​of Riga . With this, Plettenberg laid the decisive foundation for the unification of Altlivland.

After Landmeister Loringhoven's death, he was elected his successor on July 7, 1494. As land master, he won the battle of the Seriza on August 27, 1501 with an army consisting of knights of the order, mercenaries and Latvian and Estonian peasants over the numerically far superior army of the Muscovite Grand Duke Ivan III. However, due to the dysentery that subsequently spread in Plettenberg's army , this success could not be used. Finally, a united army of the old Livonian estates, under the command of Plettenberg, triumphed over the Muscovite Grand Duke a second time in a vehement cavalry attack in the Battle of Lake Smolina on September 13, 1502.

After the peace agreement with Ivan III, Wolter von Plettenberg continued with the utmost ingenuity. from 1503 continued the prudent policy of his predecessor Freytag von Loringhofen. His decision to allow the Livonian churches to carry out religious services based on the Lutheran model enabled the introduction of the Reformation in Livonia to Germans, Estonians and Latvians from 1522 onwards . However, Plettenberg himself remained Catholic throughout his life. In 1529 Wolter von Plettenberg, in his function as Landmeister of Livonia, was raised to the rank of imperial prince .

Wolter von Plettenberg's work was due to Livonia for almost sixty years of peace, which led to favorable economic and demographic development in what is now Estonia and Latvia . It was not until 1558, 23 years after Plettenberg's death, that Ivan IV of Moscow opened the Livonian War , which was to lead to the fall of Old Livonia in 1561.

swell

  • Files and recesses of the Livonian Estates Days . 3rd volume (1494-1535), arr. by Leonid Arbusow, Riga 1910.
  • Balthasar Rüssow ´s Livonian Chronicle , translated from Low German and provided with short notes by Eduard Pabst. Reval 1848.
  • Carl Schirren (Hrsg.): Eynne Schonne hysthorie van vunderlyken gescheffthen der heren tho lyfflanth myth den Russ unde Tatars . In: Archives for the History of Liv, Estonia and Courland VIII . (1861), pp. 113-226.
  • Johann Renner : Livonian Histories , ed. by Richard Hausmann and Konstantin Höhlbaum, Göttingen 1876.
  • Liv-, Est-, and Kurländisches Urkundenbuch , Second Section, Volumes 1–2. Riga / Moscow 1905.

literature

  • Norbert Angermann : Wolter von Plettenberg . In: Westphalia and the Baltic States 1200 to 2000 . Emschertal Museum, Herne, 2007, 90, lk. 59-61. ISBN 978-3-922987-97-0
  • Norbert Angermann (Ed.): Wolter von Plettenberg. The greatest master of the order of Livonia, Lüneburg 1985. ISBN 3-922296-29-7
  • Norbert Angermann, Ilgvars Misāns (Ed.): Wolter von Plettenberg and medieval Livonia . Lüneburg 2001 (= writings of the Baltic Historical Commission 7).
  • Leonid Arbusow : Outline of the history of Liv, Estonia and Courland . Riga 1908.
  • Leonid Arbusow: “Wolter v. Plettenberg and the Fall of the Teutonic Order in Prussia ”. In: Writings of the Association for Reformation History . No. 131, Leipzig 1919.
  • Mia Munier-Wroblewska : A turning point: A Teutonic Order novel . Eugen Salzer-Verlag, Heilbronn 1940.
  • Klaus Neitmann :  Plettenberg von, Wolter. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 535 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • O. Pohrt: “The Reformation History of Livonia”. In: Writings of the Association for Reformation History . 46th year, 2nd edition, Leipzig 1928
  • Theodor Schiemann :  Plettenberg, Wolter von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 26, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, pp. 282-288.
  • Carl Schirren : "Wolter von Plettenberg". In: From Baltic intellectual work: speeches and essays . Jonck and Poliewski Publishing House, Riga 1908–1925

Fiction

Web links

Commons : Wolter von Plettenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
predecessor Office successor
Johann Friday from Loringhoven Landmaster in Livonia of the Teutonic Order
1494 - 1535 		Hermann von Bruggenei
personal data
SURNAME Plettenberg, Wolter from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Plettenberg, Walther von; Plettenberg, Walter von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Livonian order master of the Teutonic Order
DATE OF BIRTH around 1450
PLACE OF BIRTH Welver-Meyerich
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 1535
Place of death Turn