page_title: Otto III, Margrave of Brandenburg
section_title: Otto's death
hierarchical_section_title: Otto III, Margrave of Brandenburg / Life / Otto's death
caption_attribution_description: English: Strausberg near Berlin seen from the opposite side of the Straussee. Deutsch: Strausberg bei Berlin vom gegenüberliegenden Ufer des Straussees aus aufgenommen.
context_page_description: Otto III, nicknamed the pious was Margrave of Brandenburg jointly with his elder brother John I until John died in 1266. Otto III then ruled alone, until his death, the following year.
  The reign of these two Ascanian margraves was characterized by an expansion of the margraviate, which annexed the remaining parts of Teltow and Barnim, the Uckermark, the Lordship of Stargard, the Lubusz Land and parts of the Neumark east of the Oder. They consolidated the position of Brandenburg within the Holy Roman Empire, which was reflected in the fact that in 1256, Otto III was a candidate to be elected King of the Germans. They founded several cities and developed the twin cities of Cölln and Berlin. They expanded the Ascanian castle in nearby Spandau and made it their preferred residence.
  Before their death, they divided the margraviate in a Johannine and an Ottonian part. The Ascanians were traditionally buried in the Lehnin Abbey in the Ottonian part of the country. In 1258, they founded a Cistercian monastery named Mariensee, where members of the Johannine line could be buried. In 1266, they changed their mind and founded a second monastery, named Chorin, 8 km southwest of Mariensee.
context_section_description: Otto III died on 9 October 1267 at his residence in Brandenburg an der Havel. Although the traditional Ascanian grave site at Lehnin Abbey was situated in his half of the Margraviate, he preferred to be buried in the church of the Dominican monastery in Strausberg he had founded in 1252. The Ascanians had neglected Lehnin Abbey with regards to gifts and donations since the regency of their mother, who was probably not very close to the Abbey on the Zauche plateau.
  The historian Otto Tschirch writes about Otto's death: [...] Otto III's preferred residence, apart from the castle on the cathedral island, appears to have been the margrave's court in the New Town (i.e. west of the river) in Brandenburg an der Havel, on the spot where later the St. Pauli Monastery was built. He met his death here, a few months after his older brother John, who died in the second half of 1266. After he had attended Sunday mass, he died in the presence of numerous Dominican friars. for whom he had a special fondness. This is why the court was later donated to the Dominican Order, who built a monastery on this spot. His wife, Beatrice of Bohemia, and his two older sons, John III and Otto V, brought his body to Strausberg, where he was buried in the choir of the Dominican church he had founded, according to his solemn last wishes
caption: The town where Otto III was buried: Strausberg, at the banks of lake Straussee
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