Georg von Blumenthal

Georg von Blumenthal (1490 – 25 September 1550) was a German Prince-Bishop of Ratzeburg and Bishop of Lebus. He also served as a Privy Councillor of the Margraviate of Brandenburg and Chancellor of the University of Frankfurt (Oder), commonly called the Viadrina.

Georg von Blumenthal

The Episcopal Palace of Georg von Blumenthal at Fürstenwalde, from a photo taken in the 1880s. Georg escaped through one of the windows

Biography

Bishop von Blumenthal was born at Horst, administratively now part of Heiligengrabe. He negotiated the second marriage of Joachim II, Elector of Brandenburg, to the Catholic Hedwig of Poland. Known in his lifetime as the "Pillar of Catholicism", he used his position as Chancellor of the Viadrina to combat the Reformation. He acquired the respect of his opponents, including the Margrave Joachim II himself, for his principled stand against reforms which he believed to be wrong and opposed by every legal means possible. For this, Luther said he should be "generally hated".

However, some of his opponents were not so respectful. He was twice besieged in his palaces by Protestant brigands; once at Fürstenwalde by the robber-baron Nickel von Minkwitz, an event which drew Martin Luther into the controversy, and once at Ratzeburg. At Fürstenwalde the Bishop escaped through a window in disguise, while his brother Matthias held the place. As Prince-Bishop of Ratzeburg he was the last Catholic sovereign ruler in northern Germany, and as Bishop of Lebus the only Bishop in Brandenburg during the Protestant Reformation to die a Catholic. He died in Lebus, and was buried in St Mary's Cathedral, Fürstenwalde upon Spree.