Dietrich von Altenburg

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.

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.

Nevertheless, the relations with Poland improved upon the accession of King Casimir III the Great in 1333 and the election of well-disposed Pope Benedict XII the next year.

He began the reconstruction of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Marienburg, including the building of the main tower, and commissioned a mosaic figure of the Madonna.

Despite an intervention by the Emperor Louis IV, in 1339 the Roman Curia sentenced the Order to surrender all estates claimed by Poland, a judgement that however was not approved by the Pope.