Bishopric of Havelberg


The Bishopric of Havelberg was a Roman Catholic diocese founded by King Otto I of Germany in 946, from 968 a suffragan to the Archbishops of Magedeburg. A Prince-bishopric from 1151, Havelberg as a result of the Protestant Reformation was secularised and finally annexed by the margraves of Brandenburg in 1598.

Geography

The episcopal seat was in Havelberg near the confluence of the Elbe and Havel rivers. The bishopric roughly covered the western Prignitz region, between the Altmark in the west and the Brandenburgian core territory in the east. While the episcopal territory was supervised by nine Archdeacons, the bishop's—considerably smaller—secular estates were subdivided into four Ämter:
King Henry the Fowler in 929 marched against the Polabian Slavs settling east of the Elbe River and defeated them in a battle near Lenzen. Occupying the eastern riverbank, Henry had a fortification built on a hill above the Havel tributary, near its mouth into the Elbe. His son Otto I continued the expeditions and in 936/37 established the Saxon Eastern March on the conquered territories. In 948 he founded the dioceses of Havelberg and Brandenburg, initially suffragans to the Archbishops of Mainz, from 968 to the newly established Archdiocese of Magdeburg. Part of the Northern March from 968, Havelberg diocese was occupied by revolting Lutici tribes in the Great Slav Rising of 983 and merely remained a titular see.
of Havelberg Cathedral
Not until 150 years later, King Lothair III of Germany re-occupied Havelberg in 1130; the eastern Elbe bank was finally reconquered by the Ascanian margrave Albert the Bear in 1136/37. Its first and most famous Prince-Bishop was the Premonstratensian canon Anselm of Havelberg, who had been anointed already in 1129 by the Magedeburg archbishop Norbert of Xanten. Anselm first took his seat at Jerichow in 1144. Upon the Wendish Crusade in 1147, he was able to found a cathedral chapter at Havelberg and to begin the building of Havelberg Cathedral, which was consecrated in 1170.
The diocesan and secular territory were already separated in 1151. However, the bishops held no secular rights in the town of Havelberg itself, which was enfeoffed to the Brandenburg margraves. A charter issued by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to declare the residence an episcopal city was never carried out, and in the following centuries, the Havelberg bishops gradually moved their residence to their Amt Wittstock about to the northeast. In 1383 the Holy Blood of Wilsnack became a famous pilgrimage site, while Dietrich Man was bishop. From the 14th century onwards, the Havelberg bishops also used Plattenburg Castle as a summer residence.
After long-lasting quarrels with the mighty Brandenburg prince-electors, the Premonstratensian chapter finally gave in to transform Havelberg into a collegiate church. From 1514 onwards the deans of the cathedral were appointed by the Margraves of Brandenburg. In the course of the Protestant Reformation, the Bishopric of Havelberg turned Lutheran and from 1554 was administrated by Joachim Frederick of Hohenzollern, son of Elector John George of Brandenburg. The Bishopric was finally secularised and incorporated into Brandenburg in 1571. Its annexation was complete, when Joachim Frederick succeeded his father as Brandenburg elector in 1598.

Bishops

NameFromTo
Udo946983
Sede vacante983991
Hilderich9911008
Erich10081024 ?
Gottschalk1024 ?1085
Wichmann10851089
Hezilobefore 10961110 ?
Bernhard1110 ?1118
Haimo11181120
Gumbert11201125
Anselm11261155
Walo11551176
Hugibert/Hubert11761191
Helmbert11911206
Sibodo of Stendal12061219
Wilhelm12191244
Heinrich I von der Schulenburg or perhaps von Kerkow12441270
Heinrich II von Sternberg12701290
Hermann of Brandenburg, son of Margrave John I12901291
John I of Brandenburg, son of Margrave John II12911292
John II12921304
Arnold 13041312
Rainer von Dequede13121319
Heinrich III13191324
Dietrich I Kothe13251341
Burkhard I von Bardeleben13411348
Burkhard II, Count of Lindow-Ruppin13481370
Dietrich Man13701385
Johann III Wöplitz13851401
14011427
Friedrich I Krüger14271427
Johann IV von Beust14271427
Konrad von Lintorf14271460
Witticho Gans zu Putlitz14611487
Busso I of Alvensleben14871493
Otto II von Königsmarck14931501
Johann von Schlabrendorf15011520
Georg von Blumenthal15201521
Hieronymus Schulz, formerly Bishop of Brandenburg15201522
Busso II of Alvensleben15221548
Frederick II of Brandenburg, son of Elector Joachim II Hector15481552
Sede vacante15521554
Joachim Frederick of Brandenburg 15541598