Wolter von Plettenberg was the Master (Landmeister) of the Livonian Order from 1494 to 1535, and one of the greatest leaders of the Teutonic knights. He was an important early Baltic German.

The House of Plettenberg is the name of the Westphalian noble family of the Uradel. It dates back at least to 1187, when Heidolphus de Plettenbrath was mentioned in a document by Philip I. Plettenberg-Wittem branch that ruled immediate Lodships of Meitingen and Sulmingen lost its sovereignty and became mediatised to Württemberg in 1806. This line of the family went extinct in 1813.