Otto von Lutterberg

Who was Otto von Lutterberg?

Otto von Lutterberg was the Ordensmeister of the Livonian Order of the Teutonic Knights from 1266 to 1270, and was in command of the Livonian Order in 1268 when the Knights were heavily defeated by a Russian army at the Battle of Rakvere.

It was von Lutterberg who separated the heavy wedge formation of the knights into two at the Battle of Rakvere in order to prevent encirclement by the far more numerous Russians, leaving one of the two wedges in an ambush formation in a wood. The plan misfired, the men of the second wedge misjudging the course of the battle and bursting from the wood to plunder the Russian camp, only to find the Russians unbeaten. Von Lutterberg survived the ensuing encirclement, rout and pursuit of the Livonian Order's forces, only to be killed in 1270 at the Battle of Karuse against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.