German order coming from Ober-Flörsheim
The Kommende Ober-Flörsheim was the southernmost branch of the Ballei Hessen of the Teutonic Order and was located in the village of Ober-Flörsheim in what is now Rhineland-Palatinate .
history
In 1237, the Hugshofen monastery in Alsace sold its remote property in the town of Ober-Flörsheim, northwest of Worms , to the Deutschordensballei Hessen, zu Marburg . At first it was a parsonage with a church set and a Fronhof with lands, which changed hands for 850 silver marks. In the same year the order also acquired other property and the bailiwick of the place from Count Eberhard IV von Eberstein . A commander of the Teutonic Order, separated by gates and walls, a monastery with an administrative seat and an agricultural estate quickly emerged from the new acquisition. In 1302 local Templar properties were also bought. From 1280 to 1506 the Teutonic Order community exercised rule and jurisdiction over the whole place. From 1506 until the end of the feudal period, those ownership rights passed to the Electoral Palatinate , but the settlement continued to exist independently. Located in a wine-growing region, it was of great economic importance for the Teutonic Order in this respect. At their head was the Commander , supported by several knights, priests and lay brothers.
In the Thirty Years' War the branch suffered considerable damage several times, as well as in the Palatinate War of Succession ; In 1631 it was pillaged by Swedish troops.
With the church rate, the order also had the task of maintaining the nearby parish church of St. Peter and Paul, the rectory and the remuneration of the pastor and bell ringer. Even after the Reformation was introduced by the Electoral Palatinate, these duties remained with the Catholic Teutonic Order. From 1564 the parish church was reformed, from 1698 simultaneously , and in the Palatinate church division of 1705 it was again assigned to the Reformed. The Teutonic Order protested against this and was successful after a long litigation. During this time, however, the church became dilapidated. The order therefore had it rebuilt from 1776 to 1783. It is the Catholic parish church of St. Peter and Paul, which still exists today, but was only given the current bell tower in 1930. According to Johann Goswin Widder , in his description of the Electoral Palatinate, three Teutonic order priests were active as pastors in Ober-Flörsheim. At the time when Catholics were not allowed to use the parish church, the services were held in the coming chapel, on the ground floor of the conductors' shop.
1700–1701, the later Speyer prince-bishop and cardinal Damian Hugo Philipp von Schönborn-Buchheim briefly held the command of Ober-Flörsheim. At the end of the 18th century, the Kommende owned 1482 acres of land, half of the agricultural area in the local area, with other properties in the vicinity.
From 1770 until the French revolutionary troops occupied the region in 1797, Heinrich Wilhelm Julius Alefeld was the last representative of the Teutonic Order in Ober-Flörsheim. Despite his Lutheran confession, he officiated as the administrator of the Coming and lived in the now castle-like, baroque commandery building. He was the son of the philosopher Johann Ludwig Alefeld from Grünstadt and a brother of the physician Georg Ludwig Alefeld . With the administrator lived u. a. his widowed mother-in-law Amalia Charlotte Philippina von Avemann geb. Clotz (1716–1793) and her unmarried, blind sister Sophia Christina Marianna Clotz (1718–1789). Both died in Ober-Flörsheim and were buried in the local cemetery. Their damaged tombstones are now restored in the outer area of the Protestant parish church. A son of the Ober-Flörsheimer administrator and his wife was born there and later General Georg Ludwig Nikolaus Alefeld (1789-1856). 1775–1779 General Maximilian Wilhelm Siegmund von Stetten held the dignity of the local commander, 1779–1794 his successor Heinrich Moritz von Berlepsch . The latter was the last Landkomtur of the Deutschordensballei Thuringia from 1795 to 1809 and a nephew of the Electorate Prime Minister Heinrich Graf von Brühl .
In the First Coalition War against France, Ober-Flörsheim was part of the combat zone. From January 16 to May 10, 1794, the future field marshal and then Colonel Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher lived in the commandery building as the commander of his "Red Hussars", as a plaque reminds us of.
After the areas on the left bank of the Rhine fell permanently to France from 1797, the new government confiscated the entire property of the German Order Coming Ober-Flörsheim, and the properties were sold to private owners in 1806.
Because of the resident German rulers, the village was known under the name "Herren-Flörsheim" until the 19th century.
Building stock
The site of the former Kommende is located in the southeast corner of the current municipality of Ober-Flörsheim and borders the main street with the commandery and the former conductors ' workshop. Both of the town's churches are also on the main road to the west of it. The Catholic parish church was looked after by the commander and also rebuilt in its current structure.
The representative, castle-like commandery building now serves as a town house and local history museum. It was built in the middle of the 18th century as a two-story plastered building with a mansard roof and features corner pilaster strips and drilled door and window frames made of sandstone. The shop opposite has been changed several times, but its core dates back to the 16th century. The three-story, unadorned house has a hipped roof . On the ground floor of the commandery building, where there is now a garage entrance, the chapel of the order was previously set up.
Between the Commandery and the Schaffnerei there was a (no longer existing) archway as the north entrance to the coming district on the village side. From there, today's “Commenturei” road led south through the order's office. At the southern end of the village there was a defensive wall with a striking medieval gate tower. Both this tower and parts of the wall have been preserved. The passage of the tower is barrel vaulted, the gates are slightly pointed arch. The wall shows loopholes in the eastern area.
The buildings of the Teutonic Order have remained in Ober-Flörsheim to this day.
gallery
Commandery building from the north-west
Catholic parish church Ober-Flörsheim, built by the Teutonic Order
Defensive wall of the Komtur district, southeast corner
Gravestone of Amalia Charlotte Philippina von Avemann, Protestant Church
Gravestone of Sophia Christina Marianna Clotz, Protestant Church
Blücher memorial plaque on the commandery building
literature
- Marian Tumler : The Teutonic Order in becoming, growing and working until 1400 with an outline of the history of the order from 1400 to the most recent times. 1955, p. 143; (Detail scan)
- Johann Goswin Widder : Attempt to provide a complete geographic-historical description of the Electoral Palatinate on the Rheine , Volume 3, 1787, pp. 149–151; (Digital view)
Web links
- Website on the history of the village and the Coming Ober-Flörsheim
- Historical website for the Kommende Oberflörsheim with a list of the commander
- Website for the gravestones of the ladies Avemann and Clotz, relatives of the last commander in charge
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ober-Flörsheim in the regional history web portal
- ↑ Alefeld, Heinrich Wilhelm Julius. Hessian biography. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
- ↑ JGL Anderson: history of the Teutonic Order-Commende Griefstedt , Erfurt, 1867, page 324, ( digitized )
- ↑ Henning Kaufmann: Rheinhessen place names: the cities, villages, deserts, waters and mountains of the former province of Rheinhessen and the linguistic interpretation of their names , 1976, p. 255; (Detail scan)
Coordinates: 49 ° 41 ′ 5 " N , 8 ° 9 ′ 41.7" E