Conrad Letzkau

Conrad Letzkau (after 1350 – 1411) was a councilman and later Mayor of Danzig who, together with Arnold Hecht, was assassinated by the Teutonic Knights.

Origins While his exact place of birth is unknown, Conrad's family came from the area of the Żuławy Gdańskie, from the village of Letzkau (then Leszkowy, hence his surname). In 1387, Letzkau came to Danzig and soon received the city's citizenship and corresponding privileges. He engaged himself in the city's commerce, amassed substantial wealth, and, in 1393, was made a councilman of the city, although official documents list him as such only later. Because of his diplomatic skills and his judicial independence, he was elected the mayor of Danzig in 1405. between the Prussian Confederation and Kingdom of Poland against the Teutonic Knights. The conclusion of the war with the Second Peace of Thorn made Danzig, along with Royal Prussia part of the Polish kingdom, forty three years after Conrad Letzkau first swore an oath of loyalty to the Polish king.

Commemoration Currently, a tablet in the St. Mary's Church in Gdańsk, in front of the chapel of St. Jadwiga of Poland, commemorates Letzkau's and Hecht's death with an inscription in Latin which reads:

"Here rest the honorable men Konrad Letzkau and Arnold Hecht, proconsuls of the city of Gdańsk, who departed this world the Monday after Palm Sunday in the year of our Lord 1411"