Otto I, Margrave of Brandenburg
| Otto I | |
|---|---|
Margrave of Brandenburg | |
| Reign | 1170–1184 |
| Predecessor | Albert the Bear |
| Successor | Otto II |
| Born | c. 1128 |
| Died | July 8, 1184 |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | Judith of Poland Ada of Holland |
| Issue | Otto II, Margrave of Brandenburg Henry, Count of Tangermünde and Gardelegen Albert II, Margrave of Brandenburg |
| House | House of Ascania |
| Father | Albert the Bear |
| Mother | Sophie of Winzenburg |
Otto I (c. 1128 – July 8, 1184) was the second
Life
Otto I was born into the
Otto's year of birth is traditionally recorded as 1128, but recent historians have cast some doubts on the date.
In 1148, Otto married
Otto had the following children:
- Otto II became his successor as Margrave of Brandenburg at Otto I's death in 1184[1]
- Heinrich became Count of Gardelegen[1]
- Albert II became Margrave of Brandenburg after the death of his brother Otto II in 1205[1]
Otto was buried in the Lehnin Abbey, which he had helped build.
Margrave of Brandenburg
Alongside his father (to 1170)
Otto governed from 1144 alongside his father Albert. He did not officially take the title Margrave of Brandenburg until his father's death in 1170, but as early as 1144 he is mentioned by that title along with Albert in a royal document, although Albert himself did not claim it until 1157. The father and son together shaped the House of Ascania's policy over several decades, together participating in meetings and decisions, and are both frequently mentioned in documents of the period. The pair were accompanied and supported in many cases by Otto's brothers, in particular the second-eldest, Hermann. Otto outlived his father, who lived to the then very old age of 70, by only 14 years.
Sole ruler (1170–1184)
The Margraviate of Brandenburg, which Otto finally took over from his father in 1170, did not at the time correspond to the later territory of
Lehnin Abbey
Founding by Otto I
In 1180, Otto founded the Lehnin Abbey in Zauche as the Margraviate's first
The monastery quickly developed into a wealthy abbey and strengthened the position of the Ascanians both by its great economic means and by the missionary work of its monks to the Slavs. By the time the monastery was secularized in 1542, it owned among other things 39 villages and the city of Werder.
Founding legend
The abbey's founding legend is as follows. Otto fell asleep after an arduous hunt under an oak tree. In his dream, deer appeared which threatened to gore him with their antlers, and which he could not repel with his spear. In desperation Otto called
Monument to Otto I in Berlin
A monument to Otto was built by the sculptor
References
Sources
- Antwerpe, Heinrici de (1888). "Can. Brandenburg., Tractatus de urbe Brandenburg" (in German). Online edition by Tilo Köhn. Archived from the original on 2013-02-21.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - George, Richard (1900). Hie gut Brandenburg alleweg! Geschichts- und Kulturbilder aus der Vergangenheit der Mark und aus Alt-Berlin bis zum Tode des Großen Kurfürsten (in German). Berlin: Verlag von W. Pauli's Nachf.
- Otto von Heinemann (1887), "Otto I. (Markgraf von Brandenburg)", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 24, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 658–659
- Lyon, Jonathan R. (2013). Princely Brothers and Sisters: The Sibling Bond in German Politics, 1100–1250. Cornell University Press.
- Partenheimer, Lutz (2003). Albrecht der Bär (in German). Cologne: Böhlau Verlag. ISBN 3-412-16302-3.
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