Ludolf König

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Ludolf König von Wattzau (sometimes spelled Weizau; 1280s – 1347 or 1348) was the 20th Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, serving from 1342 to 1345.

König was born sometime between 1280 and 1290. It is not known when he joined the Teutonic Order, but he is first mentioned in 1332 as the Grand Treasurer. In 1338, König became the Grand Komtur of Marienburg and intensively colonized the surrounding region. In 1342 the Order's capitulum named him Grand Master.

The most famous event during König's short reign was the signing of the Treaty of Kalisz with the Kingdom of Poland on July 8, 1343.

As many Grand Masters before him had done, König led wars against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. A retaliatory war by Lithuania in 1345 caused large scale damage in Prussia, causing König to develop a mental illness according to some chroniclers of the Order. He resigned as Grand Master in 1345 and took the post of Komtur of Engelsburg. According to chronicles, he regained his mental health but died in 1347 or 1348.

References

Friedrich Borchert: "Die Hochmeister des Deutschen Ordens in Preußen." In: Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung, 6 October 2001.

Grand Master of the Teutonic Order
Preceded by Dietrich von Altenburg	Hochmeister 1342–1345	Succeeded by Heinrich Dusemer

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Name	Konig, Ludolf
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