Early history In the aftermath of the
Saxon Wars, Emperor
Charlemagne in 804 established a missionary diocese at
Osterwieck (then called
Seligenstadt) in
Eastphalia, in the course of the Christianisation of the pagan
Saxons and
Polabian Slavs. Under its (supposed) first bishop
Hildegrim of Châlons the capital was moved to Halberstadt, confirmed by Charles' son
Louis the Pious in an 814 deed. The bishopric's boundaries originally reached the
Elbe and
Saale rivers in the east, nevertheless, when
Emperor Otto I founded the
Archbishopric of Magdeburg in 968, Halberstadt lost the eastern half of its district to it. Halberstadt diocese was a
suffragan of the
Archdiocese of Mainz. The Halberstadt bishops rivalled with Magdeburg to gain political influence in the days of the
Ottonian and
Salian dynasty. Under the rule of Emperor
Henry III they were vested with further territorial rights and in 1062 Bishop
Burchard II was sent to
Rome as an Imperial mediator in the conflict between
Pope Alexander II and
Antipope Honorius II. However the former favourite of Dowager Empress
Agnes of Poitou and her son
Henry IV in 1073 allied with
Pope Gregory VII in the
Investiture Controversy and became one of the leading figures of the
Great Saxon Revolt. The history of the diocese down to 1208 is found in the
Gesta episcoporum Halberstadensium.
Prince-bishopric After the deposition of the
Saxon duke
Henry the Lion the episcopal and
capitular temporalities forming the
Stift of Halberstadt evolved to an
Imperial State, the prince-bishopric. The political entity of the prince-bishopric only comprised parts of the ecclesiastical entity of the diocese, which also included neighbouring political entities of other rulers. On the death of
Henry VI in 1197, the prince-bishopric supported the unsuccessful claim of
Philip of Swabia against
Otto of Brunswick to be
Holy Roman Emperor. When
Pope Innocent III disagreed, Prince-Bishop Conrad of Halberstadt (Conrad of Krosigk before his elevation) was excommunicated. To evade the penalties of excommunication, Conrad joined the catastrophic
Fourth Crusade. Taking full part in the diversion of the Crusade from its mission and the atrocious subsequent
sack of Constantinople, Conrad enriched the Prince-Bishopric with many relics and other booty personally looted from the churches, convents, and monasteries of the
Roman Imperial capital. In 1315 the prince-bishop acquired the former
Principality of Aschersleben for the prince-bishopric.
Sede vacante In 1479 the
Saxon prince-elector
Ernest of Wettin pushed the election of his 13-year-old son Ernest II, Archbishop of Magdeburg since 1476, as administrator in place of the resigned
Prince-Bishop Gebhard von Hoym. In 1513
Albert of Hohenzollern, younger brother of Elector
Joachim I Nestor of Brandenburg, succeeded him and the Magdeburg archbishops from the
House of Hohenzollern remained administrators, while in 1540 the Halberstadt territories became
Lutheran during the
Reformation. In 1566 two-year-old
Henry Julius of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel became the first
Lutheran administrator, after which Halberstadt's see was held by sons of the
Princes of Wolfenbüttel, a line of the
Welf Brunswick and Lunenburg ducal family, until in 1623 Henry Julius' son
Christian, the "Mad Halberstadter", resigned during the
Thirty Years' War. He was succeeded by
Christian William of Brandenburg, son of Elector
Joachim III Frederick of Brandenburg. In political respect the prince-bishopric was
secularised as the
Principality of Halberstadt by the
Peace of Westphalia of 1648, and finally given to the Hohenzollern rulers of
Brandenburg-Prussia. After the 1815
Congress of Vienna, its territory was incorporated into the Prussian
Province of Saxony. In ecclesiastic respect the diocese,
sede vacante since 1480, since represented by administrators only, who were even Protestants between 1552 and 1628, became defunct in 1648 too. So in 1669 the tiny remaining Catholic diaspora in the diocesan area of Halberstadt was put under the new jurisdiction of the
Vicariate Apostolic of the Northern Missions. Between 1709 and 1780 the area of the former diocese of Halberstadt formed part of the
Vicariate Apostolic of Upper and Lower Saxony, but afterwards returning to the Northern Missions. In 1821 the area of the former diocese of Halberstadt was merged into the
Diocese of Paderborn, and forms part of the modern
Diocese of Magdeburg since 1994. == Geography ==