Grand master of the Teutonic Order (1291-1296) after the loss of the city Acre (mod. ‘Akko, Israel) to the Mamluks.
Konrad was born around 1230 into a Franconian ministerial family. His early career is unknown. In 1259 he was commander of the order’s Austrian bailiwick. Successively he held offices as the order’s treasurer in the Holy Land (dates uncertain), commander of Austria (after 1271), master of Prussia and Livonia (1279), commander of Franconia (1282), and German master (1284). He did not travel to the
Holy Land during the crisis occasioned by the Mamluk attack on Acre in 1291, but stayed in the empire instead.
Shortly after the fall of Acre, Konrad was elected grand master (probably autumn 1291). The order’s headquarters was moved to Venice under his mastership. Konrad showed no intentions of reviving the order’s activities in the Holy Land: his main concern was the order’s affairs in Germany, Prussia, and Livonia. By treating the “Holy Land faction” within the order with consideration, however, he avoided major conflicts. Konrad died between 2 and 5 July 1296 in Prague. He was buried in the Bohemian commandery of Drobowitz, but his bones were later transferred to the Cistercian nunnery at Trebnitz in Silesia.
-Axel Ehlers
Bibliography
Niefi, Ulrich, “Konrad von Feuchtwangen,” in Die
Hochmeister des Deutschen Ordens, 1190-1994, ed. Udo Arnold (Marburg: Elwert, 1998), pp. 41-45.
World History
