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Otto von
Brandenburg, Bracteat (silver coin replica) c. 1170 AD.
OBV: BR AND EBV RG, OTTO, view of a town with stone
walls and a gate and probably an ecclesiastical building.
From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia:
Historically, Brandenburg
was a quasi-independent country and the core of the unified German
state. It contained the future German capital Berlin
and since 1618
both Brandenburg and Prussia,
then Brandenburg-Prussia, were ruled by Hohenzollern
dukes and later kings of Prussia.
The Frankish Nuremberg,
Ansbach and southern German Hohenzollern
and the eastern European connections of Berlin and the prince-elector
together were instrumental in the rise of that state.
Brandenburg is situated
entirely in territory of Germania recorded by Tacitus
in 98 AD. By 600
first groups of Slavic people arrived. In 948
Emperor Otto
I the Great established German control over the now largely Slavic
inhabitants of the area and founded the dioceses
of Havelberg
and Brandenburg; he died in 983.
In the great uprising in 983
the Slavs
wiped out German control from the territory of present day Brandenburg.
The monasteries were buried, priests and Germans officials killed or
expelled. The Slavic
tribes living east of Elbe
remained independent and pagan for the next 150 years.
In the beginning of the 12th
century the Saxon
German kings and emperors conquered the Slavic-inhabited lands of
present-day Brandenburg. Many Slavic inhabitants survived the conquests
and live there still today - Sorbs,
Lusatians.
The church brought bishoprics, which with their walled towns, afforded
protection for the townspeople from attack. With the monks and bishops,
the history of the town of Brandenburg,
which in time became the state of Brandenburg, began. In 1134,
in the wake of a German crusade against the Wends,
the German magnate Albert
the Bear was granted the Northern
March by the Holy
Roman Emperor Lothar
II. For some time up until the 15th
century, some part of the area that would become Brandenburg was
inhabited by the Slavic Wends,
who still make up a part of the area's modern population.
Albert's control of the
region was nominal for several decades, but he engaged in a variety of
campaigns against the Wends, as well as more diplomatic efforts which
saw his control become more real by the middle of the century. In 1150,
he formally inherited Brandenburg from its last Wendish ruler, Pribislav.
Albert, and his descendants the Ascanians,
then made considerable progress in Christianizing and cultivating the
lands. There was never any distinction made by any of the German rulers
and the Slavic and German tribes intermarried.
In 1320
the Brandenburg Ascanian line came to an end, and from 1323
until 1373
Brandenburg was under the control of the Wittelsbach
family, better known as rulers of Bavaria.
After a period of rule by the Imperial Luxembourg
dynasty, however, the margravate was granted 1415
by the Emperor Sigismund
to the house of Hohenzollern,
which would rule until the end of World
War I. From 1356
until the Empire's end in 1806,
the Margrave
of Brandenburg was also one of the electors of the Holy Roman
Empire.
Brandenburg was one of
the German states to switch 1539
to Protestantism
in the wake of the Reformation,
and generally did quite well in the century following, as the dynasty
expanded its lands to include the Duchy
of Prussia in 1618
and along the lower Rhine Duchy
of Cleves (1614)
and elsewhere. The result was a sprawling, disconnected country that was
in poor shape to defend itself during the Thirty
Years' War.
Towards the end of that
devastating conflict and after, however, Brandenburg (and its successor
states) enjoyed a string of talented rulers who gradually maneuvered
their country towards the heights of power in Europe. The first of these
was Frederick
William I, the so-called "Great Elector", who worked
tirelessly to rebuild and consolidate the nation. He moved the capital
from the town of Brandenburg to Potsdam.
When Frederick William
died in 1688,
he was followed by his son Frederick,
third of that name in Brandenburg. As the lands that had been acquired
in Prussia were outside the formal boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire,
Frederick assumed (as Frederick I) the title of "King in
Prussia" (1701),
basing this promotion from margrave on his title to what were, in
actuality, vast but less agriculturally valuable stretches of sandy
ground. Brandenburg was still the most important portion of the kingdom
(and the state was often referred to informally as Brandenburg-Prussia)
but for the purposes of accuracy, the continuation of this history can
be found at Prussia. |
