Ahnaberg Monastery
The Ahnaberg Monastery was a Premonstratensian choir monastery in the area of today's city of Kassel . It was a foundation of Landgravine Hedwig von Thuringia and her second-born son, Count Heinrich Raspe II von Gudensberg , founded between 1140 and 1148. The monastery , probably completed in 1148, was located on Ahnaberg, which is no longer recognizable as such today , between the old course of the Ahna and the Fulda , at the so-called cat's jump in what is now the “Wesertor” district. Next to the monastery there was later the city gate in the direction of the Weser , which gave its name to the street that began there and the current district. Today there is a school on the site.
founding
Hedwig (* around 1098; † 1148) was the only child and heir of Count Giso IV of Gudensberg and Oberlahn (former counties of Maden and Oberlahn in Northern Hesse) and the wife of Count Ludwig I of Thuringia, who was born in 1131 by King Lothar III. (von Supplingenburg) was raised to Landgrave of Thuringia. Her son Ludwig II. Inherited the father as Landgrave, while her second son Heinrich Raspe II. As Count of Gudensberg inherited the maternal inheritance of the Gisonen and Bilsteiner , d. H. administered the Hessian property of the Ludowingers in Lower and Upper Hesse.
The foundation of the monastery marked the beginning of increased activity of the Ludowingers in the Kassel area and was also connected with the intensifying competition between the Landgraves of Thuringia and the Archdiocese of Mainz for territorial supremacy in Northern Hesse. With the acquisition of the Augustinian canons of Weißenstein on the eastern slope of the nearby Hohen Habichtswald (1137 at the latest), Mainz had reached within a few kilometers of the royal court "Chassela", which was lent to the landgraves. The Ahnaberg Foundation was thus also a defense measure by the Ludowingers, who are closely associated with the Hohenstaufen , against further expansion of Mainz in northern Hesse. It also offered the Ludowingers the opportunity to build up their own domain from their own property and royal fiefdoms in the Kassel area. Some of the possessions transferred to the monastery by Heinrich Raspe II, such as the Möncheberg and the later Fasanenhof, were royal fiefs of the Ludowingers. In 1154, King Friedrich Barbarossa confirmed these donations to the monastery at the Count's request.
The establishment of the "Stift Ahnaberg" or "Ahnaberger Klosters", as it is called in Kassel, is closely related to the establishment of the Premonstratensian Canons' Abbey in Spieskappel (near Frielendorf ). There is evidence of a male monastery (Unterkappel) between 1143 and 1525 and a female monastery (Oberkappel) between 1250 and 1497; the collegiate church of St. Johannis Baptistae is still there today. Presumably the Premonstratensians came via Spieskappel to Ahnaberg and to the Germerode Monastery, which was founded in 1143 . It is unclear when the first Premonstratensian women were admitted to the Ahnaberg Abbey.
Founding of subsidiaries
In 1219 a subsidiary was founded on the Eppenberg near Gensungen . On March 3, 1219, Archbishop Siegfried II of Mainz confirmed the founding of the Eppenberg Monastery and took it under his protection. The number of choir women in Ahnaberg was set at 40 and the surplus choir women went to Eppenberg, where they founded the new monastery as a branch of the Ahnaberg monastery. A monastery chronicle mentions the stay of Premonstratensian women there from 1219 to 1440, that it was a branch of the Ahnaberg and that both were under the patronage of the Spieskappel Abbey. It is also mentioned that in 1269 the foundation of the Premonstratensian convent in Homberg / Efze (St. Georg Church) came from Eppenberg.
The relationship between the motherhouse Ahnaberg and the nuns in Eppenberg was obviously not without problems. In 1223 the provost and the convent of Ahnaberg emphasized their rights in Eppenberg. On February 17, 1224 Archbishop Siegfried once again confirmed the privileges of the Ahnaberg Monastery. But in 1250 the Prioress of Eppenberg openly refused the privileges of the Ahnaberg Monastery, for reasons no longer known today, and Eppenberg became an independent monastery.
Kick-off for the development of Kassel
With the establishment of the monastery, the small settlement, which was built south of the Ahnaberges and near the former Franconian, later Saxon noble court "Chasalla" (from Latin "Castellum" = castle) on the Fulda, received a significant upgrade. It was soon walled up and raised to a "civitas". In 1189 the place received city rights, around 1200 its own jurisdiction. In 1277 Landgrave Heinrich I moved the residence of the newly created Landgraviate of Hesse to Kassel. The monastery church served among other things Landgrave Johann I († 1311) and the Hessian Princess Adelheid (* 1323/24; † 1371), wife of the Polish King Casimir III. , as a burial place.
The old town of Kassel was right next to the Ahnaberg monastery and was originally taken care of from there. Differences with the Carmelites of the landgrave's residence led to tensions and the establishment of privileges.
secularization
In 1526 Landgrave Philip I introduced the Reformation in Hesse at the Synod in Homberg . On October 15, 1527, the Hessian state parliament met in Kassel and decided, among other things, the secularization of the monasteries and monasteries, the majority of which were used for the court and state administration. The nuns of the Kassel monasteries Ahnaberg and Weißenstein went to other monasteries or returned to worldly life with a settlement.
barracks
The monastery building, only rebuilt in 1512, became the property of the landgraves in 1527 and was used as a horse stable and fruit store until 1763. Together with the armory it was part of the Kassel fortifications. In 1763 the facility was converted into the first barracks for the Garde du Corps and the artillery. The Hessen-Kasselsche Garde du Corps was first mentioned in 1619, at the time of Landgrave Moritz the Scholar , with 50 cuirassiers . The guards only stayed in the monastery barracks until 1797. The place of today's Oskar von Miller School served as a riding arena.
The independent Hessen-Kassel artillery, already mentioned in 1741, was housed on the site until 1918. The armory already served the fortress artillery as a store and after the fortress was razed in 1763 it became part of the monastery barracks. At that time there were other buildings on the other side of Weserstraße, such as B. Equipment for the production of saltpeter, stables and the landgrave's foundry, in which cannons were cast. The company Henschel & Sohn was founded there in 1810 . The monastery barracks soon no longer met the requirements, and a new building was planned from 1829. Although the building of the monastery barracks existed until after 1878, it was prematurely replaced by another building in the city map of Koppen in 1830 due to the new planning. In 1832 the old monastery barracks were only part of the new artillery barracks. From this barracks, which last served the 1st Kurhessischer Feldartillerie-Regiment No. 11, not only all later Hessian artillery units emerged, but also the Train Battalion No. 11 (Train barracks at the Weserspitze in Kassel) and the pioneer Battalion No. 11 (Hann. Münden).
literature
- Herbert Buck: Kassel and Ahnaberg: Studies on the history of the city and monastery in the Middle Ages . Dissertation, Frankfurt am Main 1968.
- Josef Leinweber (†) and Johannes Burkardt: Weimar (Ahnatal) . In: Friedhelm Jürgensmeier et al.: The Benedictine monastery and nunnery in Hessen (Germania Benedictina 7 Hessen), Eos, St. Ottilien 2004, pp. 1008-1010. ISBN 3-8306-7199-7 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 19 ′ 4.1 " N , 9 ° 30 ′ 23.8" E