Background
He was the son of Thimo, Count of Brehna, of the House of Wettin and Ida, daughter of Otto of Nordheim.
emperor Archbishops of Magdeburg
He was the son of Thimo, Count of Brehna, of the House of Wettin and Ida, daughter of Otto of Nordheim.
He was also Count of Wettin, Brehna, and Camburg from before 1116. In 1123, he became Count of Eilenburg. That same year, Lothair of Supplinburg, Duke of Saxony, appointed him Margrave of Meissen in opposition to Wiprecht von Groitzsch, the appointee of the Emperor Henry V. Lothair also named Albert the Bear Margrave of Lusatia, while Henry named Wiprecht to that march also.
Wiprecht was unable to hold his own against his two opponents and in 1124 Conrad was securely in power in Meissen.
In 1136, Lothair, then emperor, appointed him to Lusatia as well. Thereafter, Upper Lusatia remained a part of Meissen and the march of Lusatia was reduced to Lower Lusatia alone.
In 1143, Conrad became Count of Groitzsch and Rochlitz and Vogt of Chemnitz and Naumburg. In 1147, while Conrad III of Germany was away on the Second Crusade, Conrad the Great joined Henry the Lion, Adalbert of Salzwedel, Albert the Bear, and the Archbishops of Magdeburg and Bremen to organise a Crusade against the Obodrites and Wagri.
In August, Conrad and Albert, with the bishops of Magdeburg, Havelburg, and Brandenburg, massed their forces at Magdeburg.
The Obodrite prince Niklot and his fortresses of Dubin and Dimin were besieged. In the following years, he founded the monastery of Street Peter auf dem Lauterberg (Petersberg), to which he retired on 30 November 1156.
