Mecklenburg Castle was a medieval castle and a residential capital of the Nakonid and Nikloting dynasties of the Obotrites. It was located just south of the modern village Dorf Mecklenburg, seven [1] kilometres (4 miles) south of the Bay of Wismar in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The only remnants of the ruined castle are parts of an earthen wall. Some scholars have associated Mecklenburg with the medieval trading emporium Reric. [2]
The travelling merchant Ibrahim Ibn Jacub described Mecklenburg as “Nakon’s Castle” in 965. By 995 it was documented as Michelenburg [3] or Mikelenburg, meaning "large castle" in Old Saxon, the ancient version of Low German (mikil = large; Burg = castle). The original name of the castle was most likely "Veligrad" or "Wiligrad", which also means "large castle" [3] in the Slavic Polabian dialect which was previously spoken in the region. This led to another castle, located in Lübstorf on the shores of Lake Schwerin and built between 1896-1898 for Duke John Albert of Mecklenburg, being named Wiligrad Castle (de:Schloss Wiligrad). In Latin, it was known as Magnopolis. The later duchy and region of Mecklenburg derives its name from the castle.
Excavations indicate that the first castle of Mecklenburg was built in the 7th or 8th century in a lowland at the tip of a lakeland peninsula. [4] It was possibly the Obotrite residence of Reric, destroyed in 808. If associated with Reric, merchants were at the castle by the beginning of the 9th century. [1] Significant market traffic would have developed in the 10th century.; a number of silver artifacts have been found in the vicinity of the ruins. [1]
The castle of Mecklenburg became a seat of Obotrite princes by the 10th century at the latest. It lay on a route from Hamburg to Wolin, assuring the castle importance as an economic and political center. The powerful Obotrite prince resided in the castle by 965.
The castle flourished as the residence of the Christian prince Gottschalk (ruled 1043–1066) and the seat of the Irish bishop John of Mecklenburg; the castle contained churches and three monasteries by 1066. During a widespread pagan rebellion later that year, Gottschalk was killed and his family fled from Mecklenburg Castle. The head of Bishop John was displayed at the pagan center of Rethra. [5]
Henry, a younger son of Gottschalk, avenged his father's death by killing the pagan usurper Kruto in 1093. However, he chose as his residence Liubice, which was near the borders of the Wagrians, Polabians, and Obotrites, instead of Mecklenburg Castle, which was in the heart of the Obotrite territory. The castle also began to lose its prominence as the Kingdom of Germany began expanding eastward.
As part of Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony’s expansionary goals, the Archbishop of Bremen placed a bishop named Emmehard at Mecklenburg in 1149, as the bishopric had been vacant since 1066. [6] In 1160 King Valdemar the Great of Denmark and Henry the Lion campaigned against the Obotrite prince, Niklot, who burned his castles at Ilow, Mecklenburg, Schwerin, and Dobin in order to avoid being pinned down in sieges. Niklot was ultimately killed at Werle during the campaign, however, and the Obotrite territory was partitioned between Saxon ministeriales; Mecklenburg Castle passed to Count Heinrich von Schaten. [7] The Bishopric of Mecklenburg was replaced by the Bishopric of Schwerin in the same year.
Niklot's son Pribislav led a Slavic rebellion in 1163 against Henry the Lion and the German lords occupying Obotrite castles. Although Pribislav sacked Mecklenburg in 1164, the rebellion was eventually defeated at the Battle of Verchen later that year. In need of an ally against the Saxon nobility three years later, Henry allowed Pribislav to receive his father's Niklot's inheritance and became the Prince of Mecklenburg, Kessin, and Rostock.
Market traffic was documented at Mecklenburg in 1168, although most of the trade was passing to Schwerin. [1] In 1265, the castle was torn down to provide building material for the construction of a palace in the growing city of Wismar. Although the princes in Schwerin rebuilt the castle at Mecklenburg in 1277 for use as a staging point for raids, it was demolished 45 years later.
The modern village of Mecklenburg developed from a mid-14th century settlement near the castle. After the cursory removal of the ruins, the rampart was used for agriculture. Georg Christian Friedrich Lisch, active from 1839 to 1841, was the first to begin surveying the ruins. The wall was established as a memorial in 1854 by Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, while reforestation with oak trees began two years later. From 1967 to 1971, Prof. Dr. Donat of the Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR led extensive excavations into a 52 m (171 ft) section of the southern wall and an area of 1,175 m2 (12,650 sq ft) near the ruins. The diameter of the oval inner court reached 95 to 140 m (312 to 459 ft), while the ramparts rose 10 metres (33 ft). [8] The street, “Am Burgwall”, leads to the still visible remnants of the castle's rampart; the area has been used a cemetery since 1870.
The Obotrites or Obodrites, also spelled Abodrites, were a confederation of medieval West Slavic tribes within the territory of modern Mecklenburg and Holstein in northern Germany. For decades, they were allies of Charlemagne in his wars against the Germanic Saxons and the Slavic Veleti. The Obotrites under Prince Thrasco defeated the Saxons in the Battle of Bornhöved (798). The still-Pagan Saxons were dispersed by the emperor, and the part of their former land in Holstein north of Elbe was awarded to the Obotrites in 804, as a reward for their victory. This however was soon reverted through an invasion of the Danes. The Obotrite regnal style was abolished in 1167, when Pribislav was restored to power by Duke Henry the Lion, as Prince of Mecklenburg, thereby founding the Germanized House of Mecklenburg.
The Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was a duchy in northern Germany created in 1701, when Frederick William and Adolphus Frederick II divided the Duchy of Mecklenburg between Schwerin and Strelitz. Ruled by the successors of the Nikloting House of Mecklenburg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin remained a state of the Holy Roman Empire along the Baltic Sea littoral between Holstein-Glückstadt and the Duchy of Pomerania.
The Wendish Crusade was a military campaign in 1147, one of the Northern Crusades, led primarily by the Kingdom of Germany within the Holy Roman Empire and directed against the Polabian Slavs. The Wends were made up of the Slavic tribes of Abrotrites, Rani, Liutizians, Wagarians, and Pomeranians who lived east of the River Elbe in present-day northeast Germany and Poland.
Schwerin Castle is a schloss located in the city of Schwerin, the capital of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state, Germany. It is situated on an island in the city's main lake, Lake Schwerin.
Gottschalk, sometimes rendered as Godescalc, was a prince of the Obotrite confederacy from 1043 to 1066. He established a Polabian Slavic kingdom on the Elbe in the mid-11th century. His object in life seems to have been to collect the scattered tribes of the Slavs into one kingdom, and to make that kingdom Christian.
Polabian Slavs, also known as Elbe Slavs and more broadly as Wends, is a collective term applied to a number of Lechitic tribes who lived scattered along the Elbe river in what is today eastern Germany. The approximate territory stretched from the Baltic Sea in the north, the Saale and the Limes Saxoniae in the west, the Ore Mountains and the Western Sudetes in the south, and Poland in the east.
Wolkwitz is a family name, or surname, of German/Yiddish/Western-Slavic origins.
Berno, Bishop of Schwerin, also known as the Apostle of the Obotrites or Berno of Amelungsborn was a pre-eminent missionary to the Obotrites in the territory of Mecklenburg, Germany, and the first Bishop of Schwerin.
The Wagri, Wagiri, or Wagrians were a tribe of Polabian Slavs inhabiting Wagria, or eastern Holstein in northern Germany, from the ninth to twelfth centuries. They were a constituent tribe of the Obodrite confederacy.
Henry was an Obotrite prince or king (1093–1127) from the Nakonid dynasty; he was regarded by contemporaries as "King of the Slavs". The Obotrite realm reached its greatest area during Henry's rule, extending from the Elbe to the Oder and from the Havelland to the Baltic Sea.
Niklot or Nyklot was a chief or prince of the Slavic Obotrites and an ancestor of the House of Mecklenburg. He became chief of the Obotrite confederacy, including the Kissini and the Circipani, between the years 1130 and 1131. He remained in this position until his death in 1160. At the same time he was Lord of Schwerin, Quetzin and Malchow. For nearly 30 years he resisted Saxon princes, especially Henry the Lion during the Wendish Crusade.
The Nakonids were the leading noble family of the Slavic peoples of the Elbe River from ca. 960 until 1129. They were themselves of Obotrite origin and engineered the formation of a Slavic principality in the region. They became extinct in the male line in the early 12th century. Their capital was Mecklenburg Castle.
Dorf Mecklenburg is a municipality in the Nordwestmecklenburg district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is located 6 km south of Wismar. It is home to the castle "Mikilenburg", that gave its name to the whole region known as Mecklenburg.
The Battle of Verchen was a battle between Saxons and West Slavic Obotrites on 6 July 1164.
Pribislav was an Obotrite prince who ruled Wagria as "Lesser king" (regulus) and resided in Liubice, governing one half of the Obotrite lands, the other half being governed by Niklot.
Pribislav was an Obotrite prince and the first Prince of Mecklenburg (1167–1178).
Liubice, also known by the German name Alt-Lübeck, was a medieval West Slavic settlement near the site of modern Lübeck, Germany. Liubice was located at the confluence of the Schwartau with the Trave across from Teerhof Island, approximately four kilometres north of Lübeck's island old town. The residence of Henry, the Christian prince of the Obotrites, Liubice was destroyed after his death by the Rani pagans of Rugia.
The Lutici or Liutizi(known by various spelling variants) were a federation of West Slavic Polabian tribes, who between the 10th and 12th centuries lived in what is now northeastern Germany. Four tribes made up the core of the federation: the Redarians, Circipanians (Circipani), Kessinians and Tollensians (Tholenzi). At least in part, the Lutici were a continuation of the Veleti. In contrast to the former and the neighboring peoples, the Lutici were not led by a Christian monarch or duke, rather power was asserted through consensus formed in central assemblies of the social elites, and the Lutici worshipped nature and several deities. The political and religious center was Radgosc.
In the Slavic revolt of 983, Polabian Slavs, Wends, Lutici and Obotrite tribes, that lived east of the Elbe River in modern north-east Germany overthrew an assumed Ottonian rule over the Slavic lands and rejected Christianization under Emperor Otto I.
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