Anna III to Stolberg

Anna III., Princess Abbess of Quedlinburg

Countess Anna zu Stolberg (born April 3, 1565 , † May 12, 1601 in Quedlinburg ) was Anna III. Abbess of the empire direct and free worldly monastery Quedlinburg .

Life

Anna was a daughter of Count Heinrich zu Stolberg (1509–1572) and his wife Elisabeth von Gleichen († 1578).

On September 24, 1584 Anna's election as Abbess of Quedlinburg was confirmed by Emperor Rudolf II . In the run-up to the inauguration of Anna, her relatives present, Count Albrecht Georg zu Stolberg and Count Wolf Ernst zu Stolberg, were secretly kidnapped from Quedlinburg Castle on behalf of the Elector of Saxony and imprisoned for several weeks at Hohnstein Castle (Saxon Switzerland) .

In disputes with the magistrate of the city and the patron of the monastery, the Elector of Saxony, Anna turned to the emperor, who informed her that “the patron had nothing to order the magistrate and the abbess was the sole ruler of the monastery and the monastery City sey. ”Because of further disputes with the magistrate, the abbess felt compelled to add 12 assessors to this.

After the death of Elector August , his son Christian became the new patron of the monastery. However, this was under the tutelage of Duke Friedrich Wilhelm von Weimar. Friedrich Wilhelm refused to approve the 1593 election of Anna Margarethe von Braunschweig (1567–1643) as coadjutor . After the death of Anna III. he was able to get his own sister through as the new abbess.

Anna suddenly died at the age of 36 after a walk in the Brühl from the "Schlagfluss". The grave of Anna III. is located in the collegiate church of St. Servatius . A staircase leads from the crypt into the so-called princely crypt, the room climate of which helps to mummify corpses. In addition to the coffin Aurora von Königsmarcks, there are also the coffins of the abbesses Anna II zu Stolberg and Marie Elisabeth von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf .

literature

• H. Lorenz: History of the Abbey and City of Quedlinburg ; Quedlinburg 1922

Web links

• Johann H. Fritsch: History of the former Reichsstift Quedlinburg . P. 21 ff.
• Gottfried C. Voigt: History of the Quedlinburg Abbey . P. 295 ff.

predecessor	Office	Successor
Elisabeth II of Regenstein-Blankenburg	Abbess of Quedlinburg 1584–1601	Maria of Saxe-Weimar