March of Merseburg

The March of Merseburg (German: Mark Merseburg) is a historiographical term, devised by early modern scholars, who were assuming that a distinctive march (frontier province), encompassing the territory of the Bishopric of Merseburg and centered at the Saxon city of Merseburg (Upper Sorbian: Mjezybor), was created sometime around 968 by German king and emperor Otto I (936-973). Newer scholarly analyses have shown that primary sources do not mention a distinctive march under such name at that time, also noting that copies of some charters that contain data on those regions should be considered as interpolated or even forged, thus leading modern researchers to question or reject traditional views regarding the nature and territorial scope of a distinctive march centered on Merseburg, as described in older historiography.

During the 10th and 11th centuries, Merseburg was one of the most important German cities in frontier regions towards the Polabian Slavs, with a fortified castle and a Königspfalz (royal residence). Since the city belonged to the region Hassegau in Eastphalia, within the Duchy of Saxony, that territory was previously governed by local counts, such as Siegfried (d. 937), who was also the royal governor of the entire Duchy of Saxony during the last years of reign of king Henry I (919-936), and also at the beginning of the reign of king Otto I (936-973). At that time, Merseburg was a frontier city on the very border towards the neighboring Slavs, and thus in traditional historiography Siegfried is sometimes also mentioned as the margrave of Merseburg, but that title is not attributed to him in primary sources, such as contemporary royal charters, and thus is used in literature conditionally, in order to emphasize the frontier character of Siegfried's post.