Hofmann, Otto R. Riade

Die Suche nach dem Ort der Ungarn-Schlacht von König Heinrich I. im Jahr 933. Ein Bericht aus der Gründungszeit des deutschen Reichs vor 1100 Jahren

The first chapter of this booklet of narrated history about Riade describes the numerous attempts by scholars and local historians over the past centuries to locate the forgotten site of the Riade battlefield. They searched for it south of Merseburg and along the Unstrut River. The conclusions drawn from these studies point to the Merseburg area, where the memory of the Hungarian Wars remained alive for centuries. The former mayor of Merseburg, Brotuff, played a significant role in this search. At the end of the 19th century, Otto Küstermann placed Riade south of Merseburg, Ernst A. Fabarius near Halle, and the local historians Meyer and Größler near Ritteburg on the Unstrut. Around 1933, this discussion reignited with the participation of scholars, a commission of historians, and chroniclers of the Unstrut region. In 2009, Günter Mühlpfordt argued for a reed bed on the southeastern edge of Halle. The second chapter discusses the objective criteria of warfare. The Elster Valley wetlands, almost impassable in the early Middle Ages, occupied a key position for the Battle of Riade, for the eastward expansion of the emerging German Empire, and for the history of Merseburg. Important criteria for locating the battlefield of the Battle of Riade in 933 include the route taken by the Hungarian cavalry, where and why they split into two armies, what kind of political and military preparation enabled King Henry I to win, and what terrain conditions were necessary to prevail against a fast-moving cavalry army. These questions are answered in the volumes "Riade - The Battle" and "Riade: The Search for the Battlefield." From all this, it follows that the battlefield of "Riade" was located on the Reide River near Osendorf, and the "castle of the Thuringian Wido," mentioned in the 10th-century Wiedukind Chronicle, is to be sought in the area of ??Ammendorf-Schkeuditz-Landsberg/Reideburg.