Thietmar of Merseburg was bishop of the diocese of Merseburg from 1009 to 1018. Famous for his Chronicle, he was one of the most important historians of the Ottonian period.

Thietmar, son of the Count of Walbeck, came from the Saxon nobility. His grandfather, Count Lothar II of Walbeck, was involved in a conspiracy against Emperor Otto I in 941. As penance, Lothar had to establish a monastery in his principal castle. He built an impressive collegiate church consecrated in honour of Mary, St. Pancras and Anne. In 964, Lothar II was buried in the collegiate church. In 1933, Lothar’s funerary monument was discovered in front of the former altar of the collegiate church. The monument is one of the earliest surviving funerary monuments in central Germany. We know from Thietmar’s family history that the church was turned into the Walbeck’s dynastic funerary church. One of Thietmar’s earliest writings was a dynastic epitaph in 21 verses. Between 1002 and 1009, Thietmar was head of the family foundation.

Childhood

During the reign of Heinrich I, the family belonged to the inner circle of the Liudolfings. Thus, two of his great-grandfathers, Liuthar von Walbeck and Liuthar von Stade, were killed in the battle of Lenzen on the Elbe in 929 in the fight against the Slavic Redarians, turning his family into a venerated part of the inner circle surrounding the Ottonian dynasty. However, during the 930s, the Walbecks opposed the Saxon Liudolfings while closely aligning with the Bavarian or Heinrichian line of the same family. Thietmar’s father, Siegfried, held Walbeck while his brother Lothar was enfeoffed with the Nordmark. On his mother’s side, Thietmar was descended from the Hudonen, the former counts of Stade in the Nordmark. Siegfried married Kunigunde around 972/73. He died in 991, she in 997. His marriage to Kunigunde produced five sons. The two first-born sons, Henry and Frederick, were brought up in a secular fashion. Henry succeeded his father as Count of Walbeck, and Frederick became Burgrave of Magdeburg. Thietmar, the third-born son, was destined for a clerical career, as were his younger brothers. According to his biographical writings scattered in his Chronicle, he was baptised and confirmed personally by Bishop Hildeward of Halberstadt. His first lessons were given by his great-aunt Emnilde, canoness in Quedlinburg. There, he probably experienced the election of Henry the Quarrelsome as king and the splendid Easter court day of the six-year-old King Otto III and his mother, Theophanu, in 986. He stayed in Quedlinburg until he was twelve years old. From 987, Thietmar was educated for three years in the Berge monastery near Magdeburg, followed by a stay in the Magdeburg Cathedral Chapter, which he joined in 990. One of his friends was the later hagiographer, Brun von Querfurt.

In 994, his schooling was abruptly interrupted by an event in his family. In the summer of 994, Count Siegfried, his mother’s brother, was captured in a Viking raid on the Lower Elbe near Stade. Siegfried had no son of his own. He, therefore, asked his sister to give him one of her sons as a hostage. The young Thietmar was then sent as a hostage to exchange him for Siegfried so that he could raise the ransom. However, his uncle was able to escape before Thietmar reached the Vikings. It appears from Thietmar’s story that he expected to die as a hostage, having kept his clerical garb on beneath the secular.

On May 7 1002, he became provost of the Walbeck family monastery and received the associated income from then on. With the death of his mother Kunigunde in 997, Thietmar inherited considerable lands, which he used to acquire the provostship of the Walbeck family monastery by donating land to his uncle Lothar, who had the right to dispose of it. Thietmar later admitted in his Chronicle that he had acquired the office through simony, i.e. by purchasing offices. In doing so, Thietmar violated the norms of canon law, which prohibited any form of simony.

In 1004, Thietmar was ordained a priest by the new Archbishop of Magdeburg, Tagino. This ordination took place in the presence of King Henry II, from whom Thietmar received a chasuble as an ordination gift.

Bishop of Merseburg 1009-1018

The diocese of Merseburg was founded in 968 as a Christian outpost in the largely pagan Slavic region with land grants derived from Halberstadt and Magdeburg. However, as Halberstadt never accepted the new bishopric, Emperor Otto II agreed in 981 to its abolition. The rights and possessions of the Merseburg diocese were divided between the neighbouring dioceses of Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Zeitz and Meissen.

Efforts to restore them began under Otto II’s successor, Otto III. Under Heinrich II 1004-1024), the diocese was finally reestablished, and the chaplain Wigbert was appointed bishop. However, the properties of the diocese were not fully restored. Thietmar placed the main blame for this on his former predecessor Giselher, who had allegedly burned or the royal or imperial documents identifying gifts to Merseburg. Other documents were falsified by Giselher by renaming the recipients in the documents

The Merseburg bishop, Wigbert, died on March 24, 1009. Now followed intense negotiations, once again obliging Thietmar to “pay” for the investiture at the king’s instructions. On April 24, the consecration was carried out by Archbishop Tagino and Bishop Hildeward of Zeitz with the participation of four other bishops. Thietmar received the investiture and the bishop’s staff from the king.

Likely, his investiture derived from his dynastic relations with a kingroup which had supported the Heinrichian cause during the repeated feuds in the 10th century between the Saxonian Liudolfings, the Ottonians. A month later, he was enthroned by Bishop Erich von Havelberg.

Royal service

The king endowed the bishops with rights and property to use their fortified cathedral complexes as watering holes or lounging spots on his constant travels. It appears that Heinrich often stayed in Merseburg. 28 stays there were documented during his 22-year reign, and Thietmar received Heinrich and his entourage no less than thirteen times. Among these stays, Heinrich spent Easter there in 1015 and Pentecost in 1009, 1012 and 1013. A high point was the court day at Pentecost 1013, at which peace was concluded with Bolesław I of Poland.

Restoring the Diocese

Despite the royal favour, Merseburg remained the smallest diocese in the realm, and repeatedly, it was under siege from its neighbours, Magdeburg, Meissen, and Halberstadt. In his fight to preserve and restore his diocese to its former territorial rule and glory, Thietmar even resorted to document forgery.

Unfortunately, the codex documenting this effort has been lost. Inklings of all the claims and controversies, though, are scattered throughout his Chronicle.

The laying of the foundation stone 1015 of the new cathedral took place during Thietmar’s term of office and in the presence of the new Magdeburg bishop Gero but without the imperial presence. Thietmar personally laid the foundation stones in the shape of a cross on May 18 1015. Heinrich II ensured that the new cathedral was appropriately furnished, commissioning Thietmar to make a golden altar to decorate the church. To this, the bishop contributed six pounds of gold from the proceeds of the old altar”. Thietmar did not live to see the completion of his cathedral, as the new cathedral was first solemnly consecrated on October 1, 1021, three years after Thietmar’s death.

Chronicle

Between the end of 1012 and 1018, Thietmar wrote a chronicle of Saxon history from 908 to 1018. In addition to Thietmar, eight other scribes from the Merseburg cathedral scriptorium were involved in the writing, and he supplemented and corrected their work. He named his work the Chronicon, which he intended to describe “the history of the city of Merseburg” and the “life and deeds of the pious kings of Saxony”. We find numerous autobiographical elements within these two strands in the Chronicle. Hence, more is known about the person and personality of Bishop Thietmar than about many of his colleagues in the High Middle Ages. He is recognised as the first truly autobiographical writer from the European Middle Ages.

In his Chronicle, he comments on martyrs and the cult of saints, penance and sin, death and intercession, questions of morality and pastoral care, the work of the devil and his demons, belief in God and God’s punishments, deformities, ghostly apparitions, celestial and miraculous signs. He noted countless deaths and wrote obituaries. Thietmar’s strong sense of family also led him to report more about his relatives than any other chronicler, which is why his work is also called a “family chronicle”.

History was used as an aid to argumentation in the Ottonian period. The context in which the work was created and the intention of its presentation were related to one another. Thietmar wanted to use his Chronicle to inform his successors about the history of the Diocese of Merseburg and prepare them for the event that the existence of the diocese was again contested or its possessions were threatened.

However, his Chronicle did not begin with the establishment of the diocese of Merseburg in 968 but with the history of King Heinrich I (876-936). The chronological structure of his eight books is based on the reign of the following Saxon rulers. The first four books cover 86 years, and a further four books cover the last 16 years. Book V deals with the re-establishment of the Merseburg diocese in 1004. Book VI deals with Henry’s coronation as emperor, Book VII covers the period of military conflicts up to 1017. Book VIII focuses on the events of the year 1018.

For his Chronicle, Thietmar of Merseburg evaluated the first two books of Widukind’s Saxon History for the years up to 973. Before completing the third book, he became aware of the Quedlinburg Annals in a version extending up to 998. In addition, he had access to obituaries from Magdeburg, Lüneburg and especially from Merseburg, as well as documents from his region. He also had access to written documents that are unfortunately now lost, such as the Halberstadt Bishop’s Chronicle. He owes much of his information to oral communications. His Chronicle contains borrowings from Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Persius, Lucan, Terence, Martial, Juvenal, and Macrobius, as well as from Gregory the Great, Isidore of Seville and Aurelius Augustine. Virgil is the one he is most familiar with of the classical authors. Besides the Bible, Thietmar only quoted the works of Gregory the Great in detail.

History of mentality and beliefs

As a common motif in the chronicles and annals of that day, strange natural and celestial phenomena frequently popped up, as did encounters with the dead. Visions constituted Thietmar’s understanding of the world, and the numerous ghost stories had a pastoral function. Thietmar saw a connection between the occurrence of such extraordinary, supernatural events and the lack of faith among the inhabitants of the German-Slavic settlement areas.
In his Chronicle, he spoke of the return of the dead and linked this with reproaches or messages to the living.

Thietmar used dreams, apparitions, and visions to argue about Merseburg’s interests or draw attention to delicate issues. On several counts, they were used to argue his opinions or decisions, for instance, regarding filling vacant bishoprics.

Part of this “augury” was based on his theological position concerning “fate”. “The Holy Scripture,” he wrote, “forbids us to believe that there is such a thing as fate or coincidence.” Everything happens through God’s providence, and the devil brings trouble to believers, especially at night, through illusions and evil spirits, believed Thietmar. Hence, Thietmar was convinced of God’s active presence, especially in political and military events.

Central to the theological position of Thietmar was his obsession with sins and sinning. The density and intensity of Thietmar’s awareness of being a sinner played a remarkable role in his reflections on his identity.

In the last chapter of the fourth book, he provided a self-portrait. According to this, he looked indecent and sinful. He described himself as a small man with a badly healed broken nose. In addition to his external flaws, he listed his vices: he was very quick-tempered and uncontrollable to do good. He was prone to tardiness and culpable as a simonist, having obtained the office of provost in Walbeck through a land donation. He also confessed to desecration of graves for the sake of his relatives. He regarded illness as a punishment for his sinful behaviour. Given this, he also reflected on the sins of the ruler, particularly Heinrich II. Barren and perhaps somewhat lame, Thietma applauded the king for his will to undertake pious works to compensate for the many sins coupled with the complicated business of ruling.

Worldview and geography

Thietmar’s geographical narrative radius extended to the Danish religious centre, Lejre in the North, and his condemnations of the Danish Kings. This critical stance was also given voice in connection with the rulers in Poland the the Rus in Kyiv. Through the royal campaigns in Italy, his horizon extended to the south of the Italian peninsula.

Death and burial

Thietmar died in 1018 in his mid-forties. He was buried in the choir of his church St. Johannis, where his predecessors Boso and Wigbert were already resting. After Bishop Bruno had inaugurated the new cathedral in 1021 in the presence of Henry II, Thietmar’s bones were transferred there with those of his predecessors. Thietmar was probably given a single grave with an inscription in the 13th century at the time of the cathedral reconstruction. The cover plate is still preserved today.

The manuscripts

Thietmar’s Chronicle has been handed down in two complete manuscripts. The original manuscript (the Dresden autograph) was written under Thietmar’s instruction and contains his auto-corrections in the margins. Hearing errors demonstrate that the text was written down from dictation. This copy is one of the oldest autographs in Europe. In 1091, it was donated by the Merseburg Bishop Werner to the Merseburg Benedictine monastery of St. Peter, which he had founded. The original manuscript was severely damaged by water used to extinguish fires after the bombing of Dresden on February 14 1945, so only a few pages (especially folios 1r–6v) are legible today. Luckily, though, a facsimile has existed since 1905.

The second manuscript is a revised version and may have been written in the first quarter of the 12th century. This Corvey manuscript is now kept in the Royal Library in Brussels under the signature Bruxell. 7503-18 is not just a copy of the Dresden manuscript but is based on a revision by the author himself and only received a few additions in Corvey. This manuscript is known as Thietmar’s “second version”.

Further insights into the transmission history have been provided by two manuscript finds that have allowed a further understanding of the distribution of copies of the Chronicle. In 1971, the American collector Marvin Colker published a single sheet that had been used as a book cover in the 17th century. Recently, the Diocese in Merseburg acquired this page at an auction at Christie’s.

In the earlier historiography, the Chronicle was mined for its insights into politics and church history. In recent decades, however, various studies have examined Thietmar’s political ideas, his perception of the North, cultural contacts between Germans and Slavs, his understanding of rituals, his statements on sin and penance, death and intercession, as well as morality and pastoral care. Thietmar’s Chronicon is a singular and central source for scholars engaged in the cultural and anthropological explorations of life in the 10th century.

PHOTO:

Thietmar’s name. From the Merseburger Sakramentar. © Merseburg Donmstiftsbibliotehek, Cod 1, 129, fol 38 r.

VISIT:

The church and monastery in Walbeck survived the Reformation, while the castle was destroyed in the 13th century. The ruins are open. Access to the modern church with the funeral monument must be organised upfront. Walbeck lies near the Green Mile – the former border between DDR and West Germany – and is sourrounded by lush nature.

Merseburg

EXHIBITIONS:

In 2015, a special exhibition was organised to mark the 1000th anniversary of laying the foundation stone of Merseburg Cathedral. Three years later, Thietmar’s 1000th death anniversary was the occasion for a large special exhibition and several publications.

SOURCES:

Die Chronik des Bischofs Thietmar von Merseburg und ihre Korveier Überarbeitung. 
Ed. by R. Holtzmann,
MGH SS rer. Germ. N. S., 9, 1935, pp 3-533 (dMGH)
Hannover 1935

Ottonian Germany. The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg
Edited and translated by David Warner
Manchester University Press 2001

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