The
Archbishopric of Magdeburg was a
Roman Catholic archdiocese within the
Holy Roman Empire. Its capital was
Magdeburg and it was located along the
Elbe River.
Planned since 955 and established in 968, the archbishopric began to be ruled by administrators, some of whom were
Lutheran, in 1545. The archbishopric was inherited by
Brandenburg-Prussia in 1680 and, after being
secularized, replaced with the
Duchy of Magdeburg.
The
Roman Catholic Diocese of Magdeburg is the modern diocese in
Germany.
History
After the wars of the years 940 and 954, when the
Polabian Slavs, as far as the
Oder, the
Magyars had come far into Germany, that
Augsburg was in danger. At the
Battle of Lechfeld in 955 they were defeated and repelled. Immediately in 955
Otto the Great set to work to establish an archbishopric in Magdeburg, for the stabilisation through Christianisation of the eastern territories. He wished to transfer the capital of the diocese from
Halberstadt to Magdeburg, and make it an archdiocese. But this was strenuously opposed by the
Archbishop of Mainz, who was the metropolitan of Halberstadt. When, in 962,
Pope John XII sanctioned the establishment of an archbishopric, Otto seemed to have abandoned his plan of a transfer. The estates belonging to the convents mentioned above (founded in 937) were converted into a mensa for the new archbishopric, and the monks transferred to the Berge Convent. The archiepiscopal church made
St. Maurice its patron, and in addition received new donations and grants from Otto.
Its
ecclesiastical province included the existing dioceses of
Brandenburg and
Havelberg and the newly founded dioceses of
Merseburg,
Zeitz, and
Meißen.
Lebus was added in 1424. The new archdiocese was close to the unsecured border regions of the
Holy Roman Empire and
Slavic tribes, and was meant to promote Christianity among the many Slavs and others. Then, on
20 April,
967, the archbishopric was solemnly established at the
Synod of Ravenna in the presence of the pope and the emperor. The first archbishop was Adelbert, a former monk of St. Maximin's at
Trier, afterwards missionary bishop to the
Russians, and Abbot of
Weissenburg in
Alsace. He was elected in the autumn of 968, received the pallium at Rome, and at the end of the year was solemnly enthroned in Magdeburg.
The Diocese of Magdeburg itself was small; it comprised the Slavonic districts of
Serimunt,
Nudizi,
Neletici,
Nizizi, and half of northern
Thuringia, which Halberstadt resigned. The cathedral school especially gained in importance under Adalbert's efficient administration. The scholastic Othrich was considered the most learned man of his times. Many eminent men were educated at Magdeburg.
Othrich was chosen archbishop after Adalbert's death (981).
Gisiler of Merseburg by bribery and fraud obtained possession of the
See of Magdeburg, and also succeeded temporarily in grasping the
Bishopric of Merseburg (until 1004). Among successors worthy of mention are the zealous Gero (1012–23); Werner (1063–78), who was killed in battle with
Henry IV;
St. Norbert, prominent in the 12th century (1126–34), the founder of the
Premonstratensian order.
Archbishop
Wichmann (1152–92) was more important as a sovereign and prince of the
Holy Roman Empire than as a bishop; Albrecht II (1205–32) quarrelled with
Otto II, Margrave of Brandenburg (1198–1215), because he had pronounced the pope's ban against the latter and this war greatly damaged the archbishopric. In 1208 he began to build the present
Cathedral of Magdeburg, which was only consecrated in 1263, and never entirely finished; Günther I (1277–79) hardly escaped a serious war with the Margrave
Otto IV, who was incensed because his brother
Eric of Brandenburg had not been elected archbishop. The Brandenburgers succeeded in forcing Günther and Bernhard (1279–1281) to resign and in making Eric archbishop (1283–1295).
Cardinal
Albert of Brandenburg (1513–45), on account of his insecure position, as well as being crippled by a perpetual lack of funds, gave some occasion for the spread of
Lutheranism in his diocese, although himself opposing the
Protestant Reformation. It is not true that he became a Lutheran and wished to retain his see as a secular principality, and just as untrue that in the Kalbe Parliament in 1541 he consented to the introduction of the Reformation in order to have his debts paid. His successors were the zealous Catholics
John Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1545–1550), who however could accomplish very little, and
Frederick IV of Brandenburg, who died in 1552.
Administrators who were secular princes now took the place of the archbishop, and they, as well as the majority of the cathedral chapter and the inhabitants of the diocese, were usually Protestant. They belonged to the
House of Brandenburg.
Christian William was taken prisoner in 1631, and went over to the Catholic Church in
Vienna. At the time of the
Peace of Prague (1635), the Archbishopric of Magdeburg fell to
August, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels. In the
Treaty of Westphalia (1648), the expectancy to the archbishopric was promised to
Brandenburg-Prussia upon the death of August. When the Saxon prince died in 1680, the archbishopric was secularized by Brandenburg and replaced with the
Duchy of Magdeburg.
The remaining Catholic parishes and abbeys in the area of the former archdiocese were put under supervision of the
Archdiocese of Cologne in 1648. In 1821, the area was transferred to the
Diocese of Paderborn. In 1994, the
Diocese of Magdeburg was founded in the area.
Archbishops of Magdeburg, 968–1545
- Werner von Steutzlingen 1064–1078
- Hartwig von Spanheim 1079–1102
- Heinrich I von Assel 1102–1107
- Adalgod von Osterberg 1107–1119
- Rudigar von Baltheim 1119–1125
- Konrad I von Querfurt 1134–1142
- Friedrich von Wettin 1142–1152
- Ludolf von Koppenstedt 1192–1205
- Burkhard I von Woldenberg 1232–1235
- Wilbrand von Kasernberg 1235–1254
- Rudolf von Dinselstadt 1254–1260
- Rupprecht von Mansfeld 1260–1266
- Konrad II von Sternberg 1266–1277
- Günther I von Schwarzenberg 1277–1279
- Bernhard von Wolpe 1279–1282
- Eric of Brandenburg 1282–1295
- Burkhard II von Blankenburg 1295–1305
- Heinrich II of Anhalt 1305–1307
- Burkhard III von Mansfeld-Schrapglau 1307–1325
- Heideke von Erssa 1326–1327
- Dietrich Kagelwit 1361–1367
- Albrecht II von Sternberg 1367–1372
- Friedrich II von Hoym 1382
- Albrecht III von Querfurt 1382–1403
- Günther II von Schwarzburg 1403–1445
- Friedrich III von Beichlingen 1445–1464
- Johann II of Palatinate-Simmern 1464–1475
- Ernst of Saxony 1475–1513
Administrators of Magdeburg, 1545–1680
- Johann Albrecht of Brandenburg 1545–1551
- Friedrich IV of Brandenburg 1551–1552
- Sigismund of Brandenburg 1553–1566
- Christian Wilhelm of Brandenburg 1598–1631
