Altenburg

The lords of Altenburg were a Thuringian ministerialis family holding the imperial burgraviate of Altenburg in the Pleissnerland, which Emperor Frederick II had pledged to the Wettin margraves of Meissen in 1243. Burgrave Dietrich II died in 1303 and was succeeded by his son Albrecht IV, who died without male heirs in 1329.

Another son, Dietrich von Altenburg, had entered the Teutonic Order in 1307. He became Grand Marshal in 1331, led the Order's war against Poland, and was elected Grand Master in 1335.

He rebuilt the order's castles and completed the Chapel of Saint Anne and the first permanent bridge over the Nogat at Marienburg. He died at Thorn in 1341 while negotiating with Poland and was the first grand master buried in the chapel, the last of his family line.