Münsterschwarzach Abbey

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View of the monastery church over the roofs of the surrounding buildings
portal

The Münsterschwarzach Abbey lies at the mouth of Schwarzach in the Main , about 23 kilometers east of Wurzburg , in Schwarzach am Main , is one of the most important monasteries of the Benedictines in Germany .

The convent includes 115 Benedictines, of which around 80 work in Münsterschwarzach and 35 in dependent houses of the monastery or missionary work worldwide. The monastery belongs to the Benedictine Congregation of St. Ottilien .

history

Until the transition to Würzburg (until 993)

Carolingian key, probably from the women's monastery, bronze, excavated in 1939

Historical research associates two predecessor institutions with the Münsterschwarzach Abbey. On the one hand the women's monastery on the Schwarzach, which had the name Monasterium Suuarzaha or Suarizaha as a self-designation. On the other hand, the Megingaudshausen monastery in the Steigerwald , whose convent later moved into the abandoned buildings of the women's abbey on the Main, thereby creating geographical continuity.

Both monasteries have been closely associated with the Matton family . The members of this early “ imperial service nobility ” founded monastic settlements in order to support the second-born sons and daughters of their family economically. While the research for Megingaudshausen can identify the founder Megingaud and his wife Imma, the women's monastery is largely dependent on projections.

Frauenschwarzach probably came to the Carolingian ruling house towards the end of the 8th century through the connection between Charlemagne and Mattonin Fastrada . The lordly influence did not last long, however, because Theodrada, Karl's daughter, quickly handed over her monastery to the Würzburg bishop. The history of the women's monastery ended in 877 at the latest and the nuns moved to the Fraumünster in Zurich .

Parallel to these events, another Matton monastery was built in the Steigerwald, which was designed as a men's abbey. It was only mentioned once in a document in 816 . For Megingaudshausen, the connections to the ruler in Eastern Franconia are less evident. In any case, this monastic settlement also came under the influence of the Würzburg bishop in the 9th century. Arn von Würzburg , who is also assigned to the Mattonen, then ordered the monks to move into the orphaned buildings of the women's monastery on the Schwarzach.

This is where the actual history of Münsterschwarzach begins, which however refers to the two “founding monasteries” through multiple symbols . The young monastery was drawn into the conflict between the aspiring diocese of Würzburg and the still active Mattonen family. At first the Mattonen Dracholf managed to lead the abbey as Commendatar Abbot . After an economic decline, which took place without knowledge of the sources, Bishop Bernward von Würzburg had his sovereignty over Münsterschwarzach confirmed in 993.

Würzburg Media Monastery (until 1803)

Although conflicts over rule over the abbey continued to arise in the following years, Münsterschwarzach remained part of the rulership of the Würzburg (prince) bishops until its dissolution in 1803 . The close connection in the direction of Würzburg was also made clear by the fact that the bishops in the High Middle Ages repeatedly sent reform abbots from outside to Münsterschwarzach. Schwarzach developed into a center for art and culture under Abbot Wolfher, who was close to the reformers of Gorze .

Corner stone with two griffins from Paradise or from the cloister of the Romanesque monastery church, Spolie in the modern church

The abbey reached the height of its influence under Wolfher's successor Egbert, who, from Münsterschwarzach, renewed many monasteries in the later Holy Roman Empire. His influence extended to Bremen in the north and Lambach in what is now Austria in the south. Egbert's reform work, which has been beatified since the 20th century, would never have been so effective without the support of Würzburg Bishop Adalbero . The cooperation or conflicts between the overlords and their monastery shaped the following centuries.

"Klosterdörfer"
Vogteiorte 1803
Dimbach
Düllstadt
Gerlachshausen
Münsterschwarzach
Neuses on the mountain
Nordheim
Reupelsdorf
Sommerach
Stadelschwarzach
Untersambach

The decline of the monastery, which also played a certain role in imperial politics, began at the transition to the late Middle Ages . Now the Counts of Castell competed with the Würzburg diocesan for influence between the Main and Steigerwald. Again the bishops succeeded in asserting themselves. In the 14th century, the deeply divided convent of Münsterschwarzach could hardly develop any external impact. In a total of three schismatic abbot elections, the parties fought for supremacy within the monastery walls.

The bishops tried only cautiously to renew the frozen monastic life and failed several times. Only when the nobility principle was abolished, according to which only aristocratic men could enter the abbey, at the end of the 15th century the structures broke open. Münsterschwarzach joined the Bursfeld congregation in 1480 and thus gave up another part of its autonomy. The German Peasant War , in which the rear of the monastery openly opposed their masters, destroyed the connections to Bursfelde soon after, however, because aid payments for the ailing abbey did not materialize.

Now the denominational antagonism became noticeable, which has dominated every dispute in the empire since 1517. The number of new entrants to the monastery fell and only the school established in the monastery, whose reputation repeatedly attracted young novices, saved the convent from being dissolved. It was not until the second half of the 16th century that the Würzburg bishopric found an answer to the Reformation. Now, under Abbot John IV. Burckhardt, the Counter Reformation or Catholic Reform began in the monastery area.

The reforms started let the convent in Münsterschwarzach grow again. However, the Thirty Years' War suddenly interrupted the upward trend. Between 1631 and 1634 the monastery was largely abandoned, the abbot was in exile in Tyrol . In the meantime, Protestant administrators ran the monastic economy. The buildings remained largely intact during the long war, so that the reconstruction was quickly completed after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.

In the second half of the 17th and the entire 18th century, Münsterschwarzach experienced a new boom. The monastic economy was dependent on viticulture , which was able to produce several good vintages in these decades. With the proceeds from the wine cellars, the abbots now financed the baroque redesign of the monastery grounds, which culminated in the construction of the monastery church by Balthasar Neumann. Significant artists have been won over to furnish the mighty church.

The last section of the history of the old abbey can only be traced in outline in the sources because many documents were burned in 1945. While the abbots were mostly recruited from the academic world , no one attached any importance to the spiritual renewal of the convent. The secularization finally ended a flourishing monastery life on May 7th 1803, most of the buildings were sold. Neumann's monastery church, which had only been inaugurated 100 years earlier, was demolished in 1841 and the abbey grounds were converted into an estate .

Benedictine Missionary Monastery (until today)

Only in 1913 did monks move back into the former abbey. The Mission Benedictines of St. Ottilien had moved into a former health resort near Wipfeld in 1901 and expanded it into the Priory of St. Ludwig . Now larger, agricultural land was needed to feed the growing community. Initially, Münsterschwarzach was only bought as an economic yard for St. Ludwig. Plans quickly arose to restore the old monastery to its original purpose.

Entry of the Missionary Benedictines in April 1914

As early as April 1, 1914, Münsterschwarzach was raised to the status of an abbey again , even if it didn't look like a monastery. The election of the new abbot, Plazidus Vogel, took place in St. Ludwig, and it was not until September 1914 that the monks moved into the remaining buildings of the old abbey. The early period of repopulation was marked by rapid community growth. In Münsterschwarzach, monks in particular were trained for their work in global missions .

The rebuilt monastery experienced a high point in 1938 when the monastery church designed by the architect Albert Boßlet was inaugurated. At the same time, a difficult phase for the community began under the National Socialists . Since 1933 the rulers took action against the training facilities of the monastery. The conflict finally culminated in the so-called " monastery tower ". On May 9, 1941, Münsterschwarzach was closed and most of the buildings were converted into a military hospital .

The abbey was occupied by the Americans on April 10, 1945 . A few days later, the then Abbot Burkard Utz moved into the buildings. The reconstruction went ahead quickly and the community of the Missionary Benedictines grew rapidly after the war. The abbey excelled in particular in training its own offspring. In addition, there has been a secondary school on the monastery grounds since 1946 , which was later converted into the Egbert Gymnasium Münsterschwarzach.

With the Second Vatican Council , the community adopted reforms in the 1960s. In particular, the centuries-old unequal treatment of studied monks and artisan brothers was lifted. Today the abbey is one of the most important monasteries of the Benedictine order in Germany. Through several facilities, the monastery has an impact far beyond the borders of Lower Franconia and the diocese of Würzburg.

coat of arms

The coat of arms of the abbey

Blazon : split by a curved blue tip covered with two diagonally crossed golden crooks . In front a golden lion head looking forward in blue, holding a lowered golden rafter in its mouth, behind in blue three silver bars with a golden crowned eagle in confused colors.

The lower field with the two crossed abbot's rods (the small abbey coat of arms) indicates the two monasteries from which Münsterschwarzach arose: the Benedictine monastery built around 788 in Münsterschwarzach on the site of today's monastery and the 816 in Megingaudshausen / Oberlaimbach (Mfr .) founded Benedictine monastery, whose monks moved to the abandoned women's monastery after 877.

The lion is reminiscent of the Frankish noble family of Mattonen , who founded the women's monastery in Münsterschwarzach and, under Count Megingaud, the men's monastery in Megingaudshausen.

The eagle directs the gaze to the Würzburg bishop Adalbero von Lambach-Wels / Upper Austria (1045-1090), who together with Abbot Egbert from Gorze in Lorraine (1047-1077) led Münsterschwarzach to high bloom.

Abbey church

The monastery church of the Münsterschwarzach Abbey is an important work of the architect Albert Boßlet. It was built between 1935 and 1938 on the site of the three previous churches.

mission

The missionary work of the abbey as a missionary benedictine is structured as follows:

Mission in Africa

The Missionary Benedictines of Münsterschwarzach in Tanzania focus on missionary service. There are several abbeys in cooperation with Münsterschwarzach. Other countries with the participation of the Missionary Benedictines are South Africa , Kenya , Uganda , Zambia and Togo .

Mission in Asia

In Asia there are Benedictine monks from Münsterschwarzach in South Korea and the Philippines . The abbey also supports the monasteries in India and Kazakhstan.

Mission to the American continent

On the North American continent, Benedictine monks can be found in the United States alone . There the Münsterschwarzach Abbey maintains its own priory in Nebraska ( Christ the King Priory ). Other Benedictines can be found in Latin and South America in Venezuela , Colombia and Cuba .

Mission in Europe

There are Missionary Benedictines on the European continent. Mainly in the German-speaking area, especially in Germany, but also in Switzerland and Austria. There are also monks in Spain.

Library

The abbey library has more than 300,000 volumes. It is particularly well equipped in the area of ​​spiritual literature. The library can be visited and books can be borrowed by prior arrangement. Since 2006, the holdings, which until then had only been cataloged on paper, have been increasingly registered in an electronic catalog.

Current situation

The Benedictine hospitality is open to everyone who is looking for peace and quiet. In their guest house, the monks offer retreats, accompaniment and courses on life orientation and deepening your faith.

Until the end of 2016, the Damme monastery with seminar and conference center belonged to the abbey . The priory was closed on December 31, 2016 and the monks returned to the abbey in Münsterschwarzach.

In the Abbey acts among other Anselm Grün , who until October 15, 2013 Cellerar was the abbey. Grün is the author of numerous books, course instructor, speaker and spiritual guide.

The Münsterschwarzacher small fonts appear at regular intervals in the monastery’s own Vier-Türme-Verlag . Another well-known theologian and author is Wunibald Müller , who was director of the Recollectio-Haus in Münsterschwarzach from 1991 to 2016, as well as the Zen master and mystic Father Willigis Jäger , who died in 2020, but who lived exclaustrated .

In his Rule of Benedict, the founder of the order stipulates that everything that is necessary for a living should be carried out within the monastery walls. The abbey therefore maintains a number of workshops and businesses in which the monks and employees manufacture monastery products and train apprentices: goldsmiths, metal workshops, electrical workshops, painters workshops, Benedict Press printing works, four-tower publishers, booksellers and art dealerships, bakeries, butchers, Carpentry, schnapps distillery, fair trade with products from all over the world and farms with around 300 hectares of cultivation area for grain, corn, potatoes and sugar beet.

A special feature is the monastery’s own fire brigade, which, as part of the Schwarzach district fire brigades, is responsible for an area of ​​21.11 square kilometers and a population of around 3600 people as well as a section of the federal motorway 3.

Young people between the ages of 18 and 27 have the opportunity to do a Voluntary Social Year (FSJ) or a Voluntary Ecological Year (FÖJ) in the Münsterschwarzach Abbey.

The abbey also runs a state-approved high school, the Egbert-Gymnasium Münsterschwarzach , where some monks also work as teachers and supervisors. It was nominated for the German School Prize in 2010 .

The Münsterschwarzach Abbey has been CO 2 -neutral since 2009 thanks to its energy project and has been awarded the German Solar Prize 2008 in the category “Local or regional associations and communities as promoters of projects for renewable energies” . On the site of the monastery there is a biomass heating plant , biogas plant, photovoltaics, solar thermal and a hydropower plant.

Monastery study

The monastery took part in the German-Austrian monastery study of the Austrian Academy of Sciences . According to the results, nuns and women of the general population live almost equally long, closely followed by monks , who have an average life expectancy of one to two years shorter than both groups of women. Well behind are men of the general population who live an average of six years shorter than nuns and women of the general population and up to four and a half years shorter than monks.

Pictures of the monastery complex

See also

literature

  • Franziskus Büll (Ed.): Magna Gratulatio. 1200 years of Benedictine monastic community from Münsterschwarzach 816–2016 . Vier-Türme-Verlag, Münsterschwarzach 2016, ISBN 978-3-89680-899-8 .
  • Johannes Mahr : Black but beautiful - The Münsterschwarzach Abbey in the 20th Century , Volume 1, Prehistory (1887–1913), Vier-Türme-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-89680-857-8 .
  • Johannes Mahr: Black but beautiful - The Münsterschwarzach Abbey in the 20th Century , Volume 2, Founding of the abbey in a traditional manor (1913–1929), Vier-Türme-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-89680-858-5 .
  • Johannes Mahr: Black but beautiful - The Münsterschwarzach Abbey in the 20th Century , Volume 3, Planning and Construction of the Abbey Church (1929–1938), Vier-Türme-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-89680-859-2 .
  • Johannes Mahr: Black but beautiful - The Münsterschwarzach Abbey in the 20th Century , Volume 4.1, Injustice and Grace of Repeal - Years of Destruction (1938-1942), Vier-Türme-Verlag 2016, ISBN 978-3-89680-860-8 .
  • Johannes Mahr: Black but beautiful - The Münsterschwarzach Abbey in the 20th Century , Volume 4.2, Injustice and Grace of Repeal - Years of Awakening (1943–1945).
  • Johannes Mahr: Black but beautiful - The Münsterschwarzach Abbey in the 20th Century , Volume 5, Everything back on track - new start in the middle of the century (1945–1959).
  • Johannes Mahr: Black but beautiful - The Münsterschwarzach Abbey in the 20th Century , Volume 6, Orientation in a Changed World (1959–1982).
  • Luigi Monzo: Building churches in the Third Reich. The inversion of the church's renewal dynamics using the example of the St. Canisius Church in Augsburg designed by Fritz Kempf. In: Das Münster - magazine for Christian art and art history, 68. 2015/1 (April), pp. 74–82.
  • Alfred Wendehorst: The Diocese of Würzburg 1803–1957 . Würzburg 1965, pp. 85-88.

Web links

Commons : Münsterschwarzach Abbey  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Franziskus Büll: Das Monasterium Suuarzaha. P. 287.
  2. ↑ Cf. Franziskus Büll: Das Monasterium Suuarzaha. P. 138.
  3. ^ Eleutherius Stellwag: The end of the old Münsterschwarzach. P. 37.
  4. ^ Johannes Mahr: Münsterschwarzach. 1200 years of a Franconian abbey. P. 63 f.
  5. ↑ Jonathan Düring: We only give way to violence. P. 319.
  6. ^ Johannes Mahr: Münsterschwarzach. 1200 years of a Franconian abbey. P. 79 f.
  7. ^ The Münsterschwarzach Abbey
  8. ↑ a b c d Missionary Benedictines around the world
  9. ↑ bit-online.de ( Memento from August 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ^ Website of the Damme Priory
  11. ↑ abtei-muensterschwarzach.de: Change of cellar in the Münsterschwarzach Abbey
  12. ↑ http://www.betriebe.abtei-muensterschwarzach.de/landwirtschaft/
  13. ↑ http://www.betriebe.abtei-muensterschwarzach.de/werkfeuerwehr/
  14. ↑ Voluntary social year in the Münsterschwarzach Abbey
  15. ↑ Article: 2008 Solar Prize for Münsterschwarzach Abbey of October 23, 2008 on medals, accessed online on {{{5}}}
  16. ↑ Marc Luy : Why women live longer . Findings from a comparison of the monastery and general population. In: Materials on Population Science . No.  106 . Federal Institute for Population Research , 2002, ISSN  0178-918X , DNB  965668789 ( online PDF , 1.5 MiB [accessed on December 6, 2015] plus thesis 1998). online PDF ( Memento of the original dated December 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bib-demografie.de
  17. ↑ Marc Luy in: Hella Ehlers, Heike Kahlert , Gabriele Linke, Dorit Raffel, Beate Rudlof, Heike Trappe (eds.): Gender difference - and no end? Social sciences and humanities contributions to gender research . 1st edition. tape 8 . LIT Verlag, Berlin / Münster 2009, ISBN 978-3-8258-1647-6 , 10 years monastery study - knowledge gained and open questions about the causes of the different life expectancy of women and men, p. 251–273 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Coordinates: 49 ° 48 ′ 19 ″  N , 10 ° 13 ′ 54 ″  E