The
Bishopric of Brandenburg was a
Roman Catholic diocese established by
Otto the Great in 948, including the territory between the
Elbe on the west, the
Oder on the east, and the
Schwarze Elster on the south, and taking in the
Uckermark to the north. Its seat was
Brandenburg. It was a state of the
Holy Roman Empire for some time, but never managed to gain control over a significant territory, being overshadowed by the
Margraviate of Brandenburg, which was originally seated in the same city.
Brandenburg Cathedral, nineteenth century
History
The diocese was originally under the archiepiscopal jurisdiction of
Mainz, but in 968 was transferred to that of
Magdeburg. The disturbances of 983 practically annihilated it; bishops continued to be named, but they were merely titular, until the downfall of the
Wends in the twelfth century and the German settlement of that region revived the bishopric. Bishop
Wigers (1138–60) was the first of a series of bishops of the
Premonstratensian Order, which chose the occupants of the see until 1447; in that year a bull of
Nicholas V gave the right of nomination to the
elector of Brandenburg, with whom the bishops stood in a close feudal relation. The last actual bishop was
Matthias von Jagow (d. 1544), who took the side of the
Reformation, married, and in every way furthered the undertakings of Elector
Joachim II. There were two more nominal bishops, but on the petition of the latter of these, the electoral prince
John George, the secularization of the bishopric was undertaken and finally accomplished, in spite of legal proceedings to have the bishopric declared immediately dependent on the
Empire and so to preserve it, which dragged on into the seventeenth century.
Bishops of Brandenburg
- Ludolf von Schanebeck (1221-1222) - claimant, but not enthroned
- Wichmann von Arnstein (1221-1222) - counter-claimant, also not enthroned
- Rutger von Ammendorf (1241-1251)
- Otto von Mehringen (1251-1261)
- Heinrich I von Osthenen (or Ostheeren) (1261-1278)
- Richard (1290-1291) - did not accept the appointment
- Dietrich (1291-1296) - not enthroned
- Vollrad von Krempa (1296-1302)
- Johann I von Tuchen (1316-1324)
- Heinrich II Count of Barby (1324-1327) - not enthroned
- Ludwig Schenk von Reindorf (or Neuendorf) (1327-1347)
- Dietrich II Kothe (1347-1365)
- Dietrich III von der Schulenburg (1366-1393)
- Heinrich III von Bodendiek (or Bodendleck) (1393-1406)
- Henning von Bredow (1406-1414)
- Friedrich von Grafeneck, again (1420)
- Dietrich IV von Stechow (1459-1472)
- Joachim I von Bredow (1485-1507)
- Dietrich V von Hardenberg (1520-1526), Protestant
- Matthias von Jagow (1526-1544), Protestant
Sede vacante (1544-1546)
- Joachim II, Duke of Ziębice (Münsterberg) and Oels (1546-1560)
