Anna Emerentia from Reventlow

Anna Emerentia Reventlow (1680-1753)

Anna Emerentia Countess of Reventlow (* 1680 on Gut Hemmelmark ; † February 4, 1753 in Uetersen ) was a German countess , benefactress and prioress of the Uetersen monastery .

The donated crucifix from 1716

Life

She was the daughter of the district administrator and bailiff in Flensburg Henning von Reventlow (1640–1705) and his wife Margrethe geb. von Rumohr (1638–1705), daughter of Count Heinrich von Rumohr (1600–1653) and his wife Ida nee. von Brockdorff (1600–1668).

Anna Emerentia von Reventlow was elected prioress of the noble monastery Uetersen on October 13, 1713 as the successor to Ida Hedwig von Brockdorff (1639–1713). She had given herself her own voice. She showed "an exceptionally masculine and sedate character" and held the office controversially until her death in 1753.

During her tenure, three proves acted as secular legal representatives of the women's monastery. (For the spelling with "b" see Provost , there "Damenstifte"). Her uncle, Friedrich von Reventlow (1649–1728), had already been appointed provost by the conventuals in 1696. He had numerous arguments with Anna Emerentia; after almost 30 years he resigned from office. Heinrich von Reventlow (1678–1723) followed him as the second provost. Like his predecessor, he was involved in disputes and trials with the prioress ; he resigned after seven years. Therefore, on February 23, 1732, the prioress and conventual women elected Benedikt von Ahlefeldt (1678–1757) as his successor. This third provost also had many difficulties with the prioress. But with his charm he managed with Anna Emerentia that his granddaughter Metta von Oberg (1737-1794) received a place in the monastery of Uetersen as an “outsider” “at the discretion of the convent” and after paying the matriculation money of 125 Reichstaler species on 26 March 1743 was registered.

Anna Emerentia from Reventlow was not only self-confident but also social. In 1735 she founded a poor house with 16 apartments and invested “poor capital” of 11,000 marks for the needy, which was later consumed by inflation and the currency reform . In 1716 she had the choir of the old monastery church renovated at her own expense and donated a baroque crucifix over two meters high. The body and the scroll are gold-plated, and angel heads are placed on the ends of the cross. Even the records of the old church mention a "large gilded crucifix". Today it hangs on the south wall of the gallery of the Uetersen monastery church . After the old monastery church was demolished, a new one was built in almost the same place in 1748/49. Against the will of Benedikt von Ahlefeld, she campaigned for the construction of a roofed connecting corridor between the church and the monastery including a staircase to the fräuleinchoir so that the conventual women could safely reach the choir protected from the weather. She herself bought a box in the new church and had it decorated with her coat of arms. This box continues to be a special focal point today.

She died on February 14, 1753 in Uetersen Monastery and was buried in the "Jungfernfriedhof". Her grave slab shows the Reventlow family crest. The longer inscription ends with the words: " The benevolent Frau Priörin has donated the poor house alhier zu Ütersen Ao 1735 as an everlasting remembrance of her charity against the poor and provided the same with considerable legacies which was most graciously confirmed by Her Mayestät King Friedrich the Fifth " .

Anna Emerentia von Reventlow is one of the few prioresses of the Uetersen Monastery whose work has left visible traces to this day.

literature

• Johann Friedrich Camerer : Mixed historical-political news in letters from some strange areas of the duchies Schleßwig and Hollstein, their natural history and other rare antiquities. Flensburg and Leipzig 1758–1762.
• Wilhelm Ehlers: History and folklore of the Pinneberg district. Publishing house JW Groth Elmshorn 1922.
• Hans Ferdinand Bubbe : Attempt of a chronicle of the city and the monastery Uetersen. Volume 1, Chapter I, pp. 39 and 56, CDC Heydorns Verlag Uetersen 1932.
• Erwin Freytag : List of the provosts and priories at the Cistercian nunnery and later Adlid monastery at Uetersen. Yearbook for the district of Pinneberg Beig Verlag, Pinneberg 1970.
• Doris Meyn: List of the provosts and priories of the Uetersen monastery up to the end of the 17th century ( ZSHG 1976, 101: 73-116)
• Elsa Plath-Langheinrich: The monastery at the Uetersten End CDC Heydorns Verlag 2008
• Elsa Plath-Langheinrich: Uetersen Monastery in Holstein Wachholtz Verlag 2009

Web links

• Monastery project of the University of Kiel