Albert I of Käfernburg

[1] He was the son of Count Gunther II of Käfernburg (d. about 1197), a member of the Thuringian nobility and relative of the comital House of Schwarzburg, who held large estates in the area around Arnstadt.

At an early age he was made a prebendary of Magdeburg Cathedral, and in 1200 was appointed Provost[1] of the collegiate church of St Mary in Mainz by Pope Innocent III.

Albert played a prominent part in the great struggle for the Imperial crown, which marked the close of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth centuries.

Even before his consecration, he had inclined to the side of the Hohenstaufen candidate Philip of Swabia, who sought the crown in spite of his minor nephew Frederick II, the son and heir of late Emperor Henry VI.

One of his first cares was to repair the damage wrought by fire, and in 1208 he laid the cornerstone of the present cathedral, an early example of the Gothic architecture in Germany which, though completed 156 years later, serves as his most fitting memorial.

Otto, a younger son of Henry the Lion, had been set up as anti-king to Philip of Swabia by a party headed by Archbishop Adolphus of Cologne and crowned King of the Romans at Aachen Cathedral.