The operational objective of the Swedes under Field Marshal Wrangel was to set out from Havelberg to cross the Elbe in order to gain the left bank of the river, to join forces with Hanoverian troops and advance on Magdeburg.
The town of Rathenow was also occupied by Swedish troops, because Wrangel wanted to launch a crossing of the River Elbe at Havelberg from Rathenow and join forces with Hanoverian troops.
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As a consequence of this setback, the Swedes had to abandon their plan to cross the Elbe at Havelberg in the vicinity of Rathenow, in order to attack the key Brandenburg fortress of Magdeburg.
In this post, he oversaw the foundations of new Premonstratensian communities in Havelberg, Jerichow, Quedlinburg and Pöhlde, serving in that post until 1154, when he was named the Bishop of Ratzeburg, the first since its destruction by the Wends in 1066.
The Holy Blood of Wilsnack was authenticated when Bishop Dietrich Man of Havelberg went to consecrate the hosts as a precaution, and the central one overflowed with blood, according to later accounts.
Once he returned to Brandenburg, Frederick William realized that the Swedish forces, occupying the swampy Havelland region between Havelberg and the town of Brandenburg, were dispersed and ordered Derrflinger to take the central town of Rathenow in order to split them roughly down the middle.
Owing to his pride as stated by the chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg (he allegedly once refused the marriage of one of his kinswoman to a Slav "dog"), in 983 the Slavic Lutici and Hevelli tribes sacked the lands of the eastern bishoprics of Havelberg and Brandenburg and reverted to paganism.
Significantly enlarged as a hall church in the late 13th century and repleted with a carved altar by Claus Berg, it was used as a cathedral by the Havelberg bishops.