Burgscheidungen is a village and a former municipality in the

Burgenlandkreis Burgenlandkreis is a district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Its area is . History The district was established as Landkreis Burgenland by the merger of the former Burgenlandkreis and Landkreis Weißenfels as part of the reform of 2007. On 16 ...

district, in

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...

, Germany. Since 1 July 2009, it is part of the town

Laucha an der Unstrut Laucha an der Unstrut is a town in the Burgenlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the river Unstrut, northwest of Naumburg. It is part of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Unstruttal. On 1 July 2009 ...

. Burgscheidungen was the site of the Saxon

Hadugato Hadugato or Hathagat was an early Saxon leader, considered a founding father of Saxony by the tenth century. In 531, he led the Saxons to victory over the Thuringians at the battle of Burgscheidungen, "a legendary victory, and one so great that a ...

's defeat of the

Thuringians The Thuringii, Toringi or Teuriochaimai, were an early Germanic people that appeared during the late Migration Period in the Harz Mountains of central Germania, a region still known today as Thuringia. It became a kingdom, which came into confl ...

under King

Irminfrid Hermanfrid (also Hermanifrid or Hermanafrid; , died 532) was the last independent king of the Thuringii in present-day Germany. He was one of three sons of King Bisinus and the Lombard Menia. His siblings were Baderic; Raicunda, married to the L ...

in 531. This defeat spelled the end of an independent Thuringian kingdom. It is variously attributed to the

Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...

under King

Theuderic I __NOTOC__ Theuderic I (c. 485 – 533/34) was the Merovingian king of Metz, Rheims, or Austrasia—as it is variously called—from 511 to 533 or 534. He was the son of Clovis I and one of his earlier wives or concubines (possibly a Franc ...

or to their allies, the

Saxons The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

under Duke

Hathagat Hadugato or Hathagat was an early Saxon leader, considered a founding father of Saxony by the tenth century. In 531, he led the Saxons to victory over the Thuringians at the battle of Burgscheidungen, "a legendary victory, and one so great that a ...

. It was one of the founding myths of the Saxons by the ninth century.

Karl Hauck Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austrian ...

, "The Literature of House and Kindred Associated with Medieval Noble Families, Illustrated from Eleventh and Twelfth-century Satires on the Nobility", in

Timothy Reuter Timothy Alan Reuter (25 January 1947 – 14 October 2002), grandson of the former mayor of Berlin Ernst Reuter, was a German-British historian who specialized in the study of medieval Germany, particularly the social, military and ecclesiastical ...

, ed., ''The Medieval Nobility: Studies on the Ruling Classes of France and Germany from the Sixth to the Twelfth Century'' (Amsterdam, 1979), pp. 61–85.

Notes

Former municipalities in Saxony-Anhalt Burgenlandkreis {{Burgenlandkreis-geo-stub