He came from the Thuringian town of Altenburg in the Holy Roman Empire, where his father held the office of a burgrave of the immediate Pleissnerland, which however had long been pawned to the Saxon House of Wettin. Altenburg joined the Order in 1307 and served as Komtur of Ragnit (1320–24) and of Balga (1326–31). In 1331 he was appointed Grand Marshal of the Order, and resumed the Polish–Teutonic War smouldering since 1326. After the Battle of Płowce, the Order conquered the former Duchy of Kuyavia with Dobrzyń Land from the Kingdom of Poland under Władysław I the Elbow-high.