Heisterbach Monastery

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Heisterbach Cistercian Abbey
Choir ruins of the Heisterbach Monastery
Choir ruins of the Heisterbach Monastery
location Germany
North Rhine-Westphalia
Lies in the diocese Cologne
Coordinates: 50 ° 41 '43 "  N , 7 ° 12' 50"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 41 '43 "  N , 7 ° 12' 50"  E
Serial number
according to Janauschek 		487
founding year 1189
Year of dissolution /
annulment 		1803
Mother monastery Himmerod Monastery

Daughter monasteries

Marienstatt Abbey (1212)

General view of the monastery complex
Heisterbach monastery ruins

The Heisterbach Abbey (lat. Abbatia Vallis Sancti Petri ) was a Cistercian - Abbey in the Seven Mountains (city Koenigswinter ). The Heisterbach monastery ruins are located between Oberdollendorf and Heisterbacherrott in the valley of the Heisterbach , an orographically left tributary of the Dollendorfer Bach (also called "Oberdollendorfer Mühlenbach").

history

middle Ages

The order of the Cistercians emerged in 1098 as a reform movement among the Benedictines . It experienced its heyday under Bernhard von Clairvaux .

At the instigation of Archbishop Philip I of Heinsberg from Cologne , the Himmerod Abbey in the Eifel sent twelve monks to found a daughter monastery in the Siebengebirge. On March 22, 1189, they first moved to the abandoned Augustinian order on the Petersberg (formerly Stromberg). The name of the first abbot was Hermann . In 1192 the Cistercians moved into the valley below the Petersberg and founded the Heisterbach monastery (" Heister " = young beech trunk), which was also called Sankt Peterstal.

In 1197 Abbot Gervadus undertook in a contract with Abbess Elisabeth von Vilich to deliver 15 Malter wheat instead of paying tithes to the Vilich monastery .

It took until 1202 until the move to Heisterbach in the valley of St. Peter , as they called it, was completed and the foundation stone for the new monastery could be laid. From 1211 the monastery was called "Maria im Peterstal in Heisterbach". Later it was only called Heisterbach Monastery. This name is also on a coat of arms above the entrance gate. The most famous monk of the abbey was Caesarius von Heisterbach (1180-1240).

In 1215 Heisterbach settled the Marienstatt Abbey in the Westerwald .

On October 18, 1237, the new abbey church was consecrated with a length of 88 meters and a width of 44 meters. It was only surpassed in size by Cologne Cathedral . The apse followed the ideal of the ambulatory choir with a chapel wreath , which was valid from the middle of the 12th century , as was the case with Altenberg Cathedral later . The usual double-shelled apse, which has already appeared several times in Cologne, is transformed here by the ambulatory in a unique way. The position of the pillars between the gallery and the choir is doubled and thus takes up the two-shell principle of the apse wall in an unusual form. Because here there is not a sequence of niches between columns under the upper shell of the apse on the ground floor, as in the Romanesque three-conch choirs of Cologne, so the wall does not go through in one area, but a whole gallery behind the lower columns around. Accordingly, there is no longer a smooth outer skin with the multi-storey decorative ribbons as in Speyer, Cologne or Bonn, but the ambulatory and the outer chapel wreath form an expansive ground floor in themselves.

In 1327 the entire monastery complex was completed. Parts of an altar that was completed before 1448 by the master of the Heisterbacher Altar of the Cologne School of Painting can now be found in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne and in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich .

Modern times

In 1650 the pontificals were acquired, here the episcopal symbols miter and staff . In 1750 the baroque gatehouse was built. From 1763 to 1767 the so-called Heisterbacher Hof was built on the banks of the Rhine in Königswinter as a guest house of the Heisterbach Abbey, whose abbots also lived there in the end.

Mausoleum of the Counts of Lippe-Biesterfeld

With the secularization , the Heisterbach Abbey was abolished in 1803. The Bergische Landesregierung offered the monastery for sale on October 18, 1804 in vain. The church was sold to a French entrepreneur for demolition in 1809. The stones were used to build the north canal between Venlo and Neuss . Later they were also used for the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress near Koblenz . The remaining buildings were bought by a Cologne consortium. It was not until 1818 that further explosions were stopped by an order of the Upper President of the Rhine Province, so that the choir ruins could be preserved. Count Wilhelm Ernst zur Lippe-Biesterfeld acquired the site in 1820 and had an English landscape garden laid out, including the ruins of the choir. In 1840 the count had a mausoleum built based on the model of a neo-Gothic forest chapel. The facade is based on the designs of the Cologne cathedral builder Ernst Friedrich Zwirner. Otherwise only a barn and the brewery remain from the old monastery.

In 1885 the residential area Heisterbach in the municipality of Oberdollendorf had 10 residents. In 1918, according to the rule of St. Augustine removed the area from the Counts to Lippe and brought back monastic life. The previous residents of the places Hattenrott, Altenrott and Heisterbach were expelled and resettled up on the plain in today's Heisterbacherrott (formerly Roda). In 2008 the provincial leadership of the Cellitinnen applied for the closure of the 13-member convent in Heisterbach.

House Heisterbach

In 1984 the Heisterbach Abbey Foundation was established with the aim of maintaining and researching the cultural heritage . In 1993 the association Baussteine ​​für das Leben eV leased a former old people's home on the monastery grounds and converted it into a help and information center for pregnant women and single women in need. Haus Heisterbach started its activity in 1995.

In 1994, a symposium was the occasion to take a closer look at the landscape around Heisterbach Abbey. In 2001, research results on the historical, archaeological, scenic and economic development of the former monastery area were published under the working title of the Heisterbacher Tal monastery landscape. The project of the same name was a focus of the Regionale 2010 of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with the aim of sustainable development of this small-scale cultural landscape. All measures were aimed at making the different historical layers of time in the monastery landscape tangible. From the founding of the medieval monastery to the baroque extensions and the landscaping after the secularization to the new building measures of the Cellitinnen in the 20th century, important historical traces should be made tangible for the visitors. The focus was on restoring the historical spatial structure.

  • Choir ruins, 1840

  • Choir ruins in winter, mid-19th century.

  • Choir ruins, around 1900

  • Heisterbach Abbey Church (steel engraving from 1844)

  • Baroque entrance building to the abbey built in 1750 under Abbot Augustin Mengelberg (1748–1763).

Abbots of the Heisterbach monastery

Abbots Surname Term of office Remarks
1. Hermann I. March 17, 1189–1195 / 96 † March 31, 1225, like Abbot Heinrich, he had been Canon of St. Cassius in Bonn , before joining the order he was Dean of St. Apostles in Cologne, before Heisterbach he was Abbot in Himmerod , later Abbot of Marienstatt
2. Gevard 1195 / 96-15. February 1208 previously canon of St. Maria ad Gradus in Cologne
3. Heinrich I. 1208-1244
4th Gerhard 1244-1261
5. Christian I. 25./31. March 1261-15. February 1266
6th Heinrich II of Willich 1267-1269
7th Alexander 1272
8th. Ekbert I. July 2, 1273-23. April 1278
9. Dietrich I. 1291
10. Ekbert II. 1294
11. Nicholas I. 1299
12. Konrad 1301
13. Nicholas II 1303
14th John I. July 28, 1305-4. April 1316
15th Peter 1318-1320
16. John II 1321-1323
17th Dietrich II. 1324-1331
18th Anselm 1332-1357
19th John III 1357-1364
20th Wilhelm I. 1364–1366 (?)
21st Henry III. 1366– before September 1375
22nd Jacob 1375-1377
23. Hermann II. 1377
24. Rutger Kase 1377-1411 from Plittersdorf
25th Christian II 1412-1448 from Siegburg
26th Dietrich III. 1448-1457 from Neuss
27. Henry IV. 1459-1475 from Cologne
28. Wilhelm II of Reichenstein 1475-1511
29 NN
30th Peter Heidermann from Drolshagen 1511-1535 † July 28, 1535
31. Johann von der Leyen 1535–1558? / 1560? † July 11, 1560
32. Johann Krechen 1560? –1566? † July 25, 1575, from Honnef
33. John of St. Vith (Johann Vitensis) 1566-1597 † Aug. 24, 1597, elected abbot in 1566
34. Johann Buschmann (Johann Bosmann) 1597-1628 † May 4, 1628, from Düren, was abbot for 31 years
35. Franz Schaeffer (Scheffer) 1628-1661 † Dec 4, 1666, Heisterbach, el. On the day Heilig Kreuz 1628, res. September 2, 1661
36. Gottfried Broichhausen 1661-1688 from Grevenbroich, September 2, 1661, res. July 29, 1688
37. Robert Küpper (Cüpper) 1688-1692 from Bonn, el. July 29, 1688, elected canon in 1692 and resigned as abbot on August 25, 1692
38. Nivard Wirotte 1692-1704 from Cologne, † August 29, 1704, on August 25, 1692, abbot until death
39. Ferdinand Hartmann 1704-1728 from flour, monastery reform, economic upswing and renewal of religious discipline
40. Adam Pangh 1728 From Aachen
41. Engelbert Schmitz 1728-1747 from Oberdrees, † December 27, 1747. April 1728, abbot until his death, since 1731 also vicar general of Saxony, Westphalia and Rhineland
42. Augustine Mengelberg 1748-1763 from Linz, born November 10, 1710, Prof. 1730, Primiz 1734, on January 8, 1748
43. Hermann Kneusgen 1763-1767
44. Andreas Kruchen 1768-1796
45. Edmund Verhoven 1796-1803

Other monks of the Heisterbach monastery

Grave of Aloys Olzem in Koenigswinter

Heisterbach in Romanticism

The poet Wolfgang Müller (1816–1873), born in Königswinter , who called himself “von Königswinter” due to the similarity of his name with a painter, linked a widespread legend with Heisterbach and created a well-known poem.

The biblical passage mentioned in the poem is: "But one thing, dear brothers, you must not overlook: that with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day." ( 2 Pet 3 : 8  EU ); This passage refers to "For a thousand years are to you like the day that passed yesterday, like a watch in the night." ( Psalm 90 : 4  EU )

The monk of Heisterbach

by Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter

A young monk from the Heisterbach monastery
strolls in the most distant place of the garden.
He
contemplates eternity quietly and deeply, and searches God's holy word.

He reads what Peter the Apostle said:
A day is like a
thousand years to the Lord and a thousand years are like one day to him.
But as he muses, it never becomes clear to him.

And he lost himself doubtfully in the forest.
He neither hears nor sees what is going on around him.
Only
when the pious Vespers bell rings , does it remind him of the serious duty of the monastery.

On the run he can quickly reach the garden;
A stranger opens the gate for him.
He hesitates - but look, the church is already light
and from there the brothers can hear a loud choir.

He comes in, hurrying to his chair.
But wonderful, someone else is sitting there,
he looks over the long lines of the monks: he
only finds strangers at the place.

The astonished is amazed all around,
one asks for name, asks about the desire,
he says it, then one mumbles through the sanctuary:
Three hundred years nobody was called that anymore.

The last of that name, it sounds aloud,
He was a doubter and disappeared into the forest;
Nobody has trusted the name anymore,
he hears the word, he gets cold.

He names the abbot and names the year.
One takes the old monastery book to hand.
A great miracle of God becomes clear:
It is he who disappeared three centuries.

The horror paralyzes him, suddenly his hair turns gray.
He sinks, this suffering kills him.
And dying he admonishes his brethren:
God is exalted above time and place.

What it veils only a miracle reveals.
So don't brood, think about my fate.
I know a day is like a
thousand years to him , and a thousand years are like a day to him.

literature

  • Caesarius von Heisterbach: Dialogus Miraculorum - Dialogue about the miracles . Ed .: Nikolaus Nösges and Horst Schneider. Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2009, ISBN 978-2-503-52940-0 (5 volumes in Latin and German).
  • Friedrich Everhard von Mering : History of the castles, manors, abbeys and monasteries in the Rhineland and the provinces of Jülich, Cleve, Berg and Westphalen , Volume VI. Eisen, Cologne 1842, pp. 144–149 (with a list of the Heisterbach abbots from the Alfter collection ) ( Google Books )
  • Ferdinand Schmitz: The abolition of the Heisterbach abbey according to the files of the Kgl. State Archives in Düsseldorf. Bergisch Gladbach 1900.
  • Ferdinand Schmitz: Document book of the Heisterbach Abbey , Bonn 1908. ( digitized in the Internet Archive)
  • Ferdinand Schmitz: Heisterbach then and now. Bergisch Gladbach around 1920.
  • Jean Assenmacher: Heisterbach - the legacy of St. Peterstal. Königswinter 1970.
  • City of Königswinter and Rhineland Regional Association (ed.): Cistercians and Heisterbach. Bonn 1980, ISBN 3-7927-0600-8 .
  • Heimatverein Oberdollendorf and Römlinghoven e. V. and Kreis der Heimatfreunde Niederdollendorf eV (ed.): That's how it was once in Oberdollendorf, Niederdollendorf, Heisterbach and Römlinghoven . Königswinter 1983.
  • Margitta Maria Eva Buchert: The former monastery church Heisterbach. Contributions to the reconstruction and interpretation of a Lower Rhine Cistercian church from d. 1st half of the 13th century. Bonn 1986 (university, dissertation).
  • Markus Hoitz: The abolition of Heisterbach Abbey . In: Königswinter in the past and present . Issue 3. Königswinter 1987.
  • Swen Holger Brunsch: The Cistercian monastery Heisterbach from its foundation to the beginning of the 16th century (=  Bonn historical research . Volume 58 ). Schmitt, Siegburg 1998, ISBN 3-87710-205-0 .
  • Peter Burggraaff, Eberhard Fischer, Klaus-Dieter Kleefeld: Heisterbacher Tal monastery landscape . In: Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz (Hrsg.): Rhenish landscapes . Issue 49, 2001, ISBN 3-88094-887-9 .
  • Kurt Roessler: The monk of Heisterbach in time and eternity (=  writings of the Heisterbach Abbey Foundation ). Heisterbach Abbey Foundation, Königswinter 2003.
  • Jeanne-Nora Andrikopoulou-Strack, Christoph Keller: From the change of a cultural landscape . In: Archeology in Germany . No. 6/2006 . Konrad Theiss-Verlag, Stuttgart 2006.
  • Heisterbach Abbey Foundation (ed.): Caesarius von Heisterbach: The life of Saint Elisabeth, Countess of Thuringia . Königswinter 2007.
  • Albert Hardt: Document book of the Sayn rule, the sayn-saynic line. Wiesbaden 2011.
  • Karl Schumacher: The mills in the Heisterbacher Tal - how they rattled from the Middle Ages to the modern age - water management, historical development, mill technology, legends and poems . Ed .: Heimatverein Oberdollendorf and Römlinghoven e. V. 2nd, revised edition. Königswinter 2011.
  • Rita Hombach: Landscape gardens in the Rhineland. The recording of the historical inventory and studies of the garden culture of the "long" 19th century (=  contributions to the architectural and art monuments in the Rhineland . Volume 37 ). Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2010, ISBN 978-3-88462-298-8 , p. 143-153 .
  • Heisterbach Abbey Foundation (ed.): Caesarius von Heisterbach: Life, Sorrows and Miracles of St. Archbishop Engelbert of Cologne. Königswinter 2012.
  • Christoph Keller: Heisterbach Abbey in Königswinter. Kunststättenheft 554, Cologne 2015.
  • Karl Schumacher (Hrsg.): Traditional and experienced from the Siebengebirge. About ice age hunters, monks, vagrants, robber gangs and stonemasons . Collected and edited by Karl Schumacher, Königswinter 2018. 128 pages.
  • Georg Kalckert: The Cistercian Abbey "Vallis S. Petri". Heisterbach in the Siebengebirge . In: Cistercienser Chronik 126 (2019), pp. 100–112. [Overview of the entire history; grown out of a lecture]

Web links

Commons : Kloster Heisterbach  - Collection of images
Wikisource: Heisterbach in the Topographia Westphaliae (Matthäus Merian)  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Site plan based on the general map from 1820
  2. ↑ Angelika Schyma : City of Königswinter. (= Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany , monuments in the Rhineland , volume 23.5.) Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-7927-1200-8 , p. 239.
  3. ^ Community encyclopedia for the Kingdom of Prussia . Volume XII. Rhineland Province. Publishing house of the Royal Statistical Bureau, Berlin 1888, p. 118 ( digital copy [PDF; 1.5 MB ; accessed on July 15, 2017]).
  4. ↑ List of Abbots in the Cistercian Abbey of Heisterbach, In: biocist.de
  5. ^ Ferdinand Schmitz: Document book of the Heisterbach Abbey , Bonn 1908, p. 28.
  6. ^ A b Johannes Schumacher: German monasteries. With special consideration of the Benedictine and Cistercian orders , Verlag der Buchgemeinde Bonn, Bonn 1928, p. 157.
  7. ^ Historical archive of the city of Cologne (holdings 1001 Alfter collection).