Quedlinburg Cathedral Treasure

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The Quedlinburg Cathedral Treasure is one of the most important treasures in Germany. These are the remains of the treasure of the Quedlinburg women's monastery , which are exhibited today in two adjoining rooms of the St. Servatius collegiate church in Quedlinburg . Most of the treasures were given to the women's monastery as gifts from the Ottonian ruling family .

Exhibition situation

The Quedlinburg Cathedral Treasure is located in the collegiate church at its historical location. The northern exhibition room , known as the zither , was built into the northern arm of the transept of the collegiate church around 1160, where it was used to keep the treasure until the later days of the monastery. The southern exhibition room was only set up as a treasury after the treasure stolen after the Second World War had returned, as the historical zither did not offer enough space for an audience-friendly presentation of the treasure. The fragments of the Quedlinburg knotted carpet belonging to the treasure are exhibited in the former convent building.

History of the cathedral treasure

origin

Large parts of the cathedral treasure were given to the Quedlinburg women's monastery by the Ottonians . In the early Middle Ages, a valuable reliquary was a sign of the size and power of a church institution. The women's monastery, which, among other things, held the memoria for the Ottonian family, had to be richly endowed due to its family and political importance. Even after the Ottonian period, the monastery received significant donations .

The odyssey of the cathedral treasure

American troops occupied Quedlinburg on April 19, 1945. As early as 1943, all parts of the cathedral treasury had been moved to a cave under the Altenburg. The guarding of the cave now took over, among others, the US Lieutenant Joe Tom Meador (born June 30, 1916, † February 1, 1980). This soldier, well versed in art history, recognized the importance of the treasure in his area of ​​responsibility. He succeeded in stealing twelve selected items (Samuhel Gospels, Wiperti Gospels, Henry's Shrine and nine smaller pieces such as reliquary crosses) and sent them to Whitewright , Texas by field mail . Meador later had to stand trial before a court martial. Meador died in 1980 and his heirs tried to sell the looted art on the international art market. However, it was never a matter of looted art in the true sense of the word, as the theft was the act of a single individual and was not carried out on the orders of the US occupation authorities. After a long legal struggle and ultimately a settlement, ten of the pieces returned to Germany in 1992, with three million dollars being paid for the repurchase as part of the settlement. The art researcher Willi Korte played a key role in this. They were first examined and exhibited in Munich and Berlin before being returned to the Romanesque collegiate church of St. Servatius in 1993 . Almost all of the famous cathedral treasure can be viewed there again since September 19, 1993. Two looted items (a rock crystal bottle and a reliquary cross) are still missing.

Cathedral treasures

The most important cathedral treasures are the precious Servatius reliquary, the Heinrichskamm, the Samuhelevangeliar, the Heinrichsreliquiar and the Wiperti-Evangelistar.

The Servatius reliquary consists of an ivory box, which is decorated with gold filigree work. The ivory box was most likely made at the court of Charles the Bald in the West Franconian Empire around the year 870 and shows Jesus in conversation with 11 of his apostles (Judas was left out). This scene takes place under arched arcades, above which the Babylonian (and now valid in Europe) signs of the zodiac are depicted in small niches . The gold mountings were attached around 1200, probably on behalf of the Quedlinburg abbess Agnes II of Meissen , who also commissioned the Quedlinburg knotted carpet. The front is decorated with an amethyst in the shape of the head of St. Dionysius .

The Heinrich comb is a decorative comb made of ivory (7th or 8th century, Syria or Egypt). Ornaments made of gold elements (9th – 10th centuries) depict two horse necks facing away from each other, the horse heads are no longer preserved.

The Wiperti evangelistar is a manuscript from 1513 written in black ink and decorated with gold. It is named after the place where it was stored in the former Wiperti monastery .

The Samuhel Gospel , named after its main scribe Samuhel, is a magnificent manuscript of Carolingian book art with gold ink consisting of 191 parchment pages. The splendid gold binding of 1225/1230 has bezels for precious stones and a total of nine cell enamel works. The cover shows the two patrons of the church Servatius and Dionysus in the center below the representation of Mary.

The abbess's staff and the stole are two Servatius relics, but probably not real ones, as the pieces are assigned to the 10th century, while Servatius died in 384.

The Otto Adelheid Gospel Book was presumably created for Easter in 1000 by Otto III. first used. The Latin script was provided with a gold binding, the center of which is adorned with four ivory carvings depicting scenes from the life of Jesus (birth, baptism, crucifixion, descent from the cross).

The reliquary box of Henry I was created at the same time as the magnificent binding of the Samuhel Gospel, around the year 1230. The lid and the sides are decorated with ivory carvings from the 10th century, during which the twelve seated apostles were made from walrus teeth on the front and back ( 11th century).

The Katharinenschrein from 1230/1240, whose complete gold decoration represents a high level of artistic skill, can do without decorative details such as precious stones or ivory .

The oldest piece is the Kana jug from the 1st century. The jug made of alabaster came to Quedlinburg as a relic by Otto I and recalls the biblical story of the wedding at Cana . Otto I. carried several comparable pieces with him, which he distributed to the towns of Magdeburg, Hildesheim and Cologne. One of these jugs has been preserved in St. Ursula in Cologne.

The Quedlinburg Cathedral Treasure also includes the coat of arms (around 1210), reliquary shrines (including the corona shrine ), Agnus Dei capsules, rock crystal bottles , reliquary crosses , two corporeal boxes , a Madonna crown, a sculpture of St. Lawrence , a reliquary tablet and other items.

Quedlinburger Itala

The cathedral treasure also shows a side of the Quedlinburg Itala fragments that remained in Quedlinburg . The Quedlinburg Itala was an illustrated Bible manuscript that was sorted out in the 17th century and dismantled by a bookbinder and used as binding material. Five parchment leaves of this manuscript from the 5th century, the oldest known illustrated Bible texts, were found between 1865 and 1889 in the bindings of various writings from the 17th century in Quedlinburg. The other four sheets are in the Berlin State Library (Sig. Ms. theol. Latin fol. 485).

The cathedral treasure in the media

The ZDF produced for the series of lost treasure hunters and under the title of the Century robbery of Quedlinburg a documentary about Willi Korte and the time of the first references to the Samuhel Gospels to the opening of the vaults in the First National Bank and the related certainty to have found a large part of the pieces from Quedlinburg. The role of the various auction houses is also examined. The 45-minute documentary was first broadcast on August 12, 2007.

literature

  • Johann, Michael Fritz: Returned from Texas: the late Gothic book cover from the Quedlinburg treasure . In: Monument Studies and Monument Preservation . 1995, p. 275-282 .
  • Friedemann Goßlau : Lost, found, brought home. The reunification of the Quedlinburg cathedral treasure . Quedlinburg 1996.
  • Friedemann Goßlau , Rosemarie Radecke: The collegiate church of Quedlinburg. A guided tour through the Romanesque church building and the cathedral treasure . Quedlinburg 1999, ISBN 3-9806120-7-4 .
  • Reinhard Heydenreuter: Art theft. The history of the Quedlinburg monastery treasure . Munich 1993, ISBN 3-7628-0512-1 .
  • William H. Honan: Treasure Hunt. A New York Times Reporter Tracks the Quedlinburg Hoard . New York 1997, ISBN 0-88064-174-6 .
  • Dietrich Kötzsche (ed.): The Quedlinburg treasure . Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-9803217-0-3 .
  • Siegfried Kogelfranz, Willi A. Korte: Quedlinburg - Texas and back. Black trade in stolen art . Munich 1994, ISBN 3-426-77234-5 .
  • Emily Sano, David Kusin (Eds.): The Quedlinburg Treasury . Dallas Museum of Art 1991, ISBN 0-936227-10-9 .
  • Hermann Lorenz: The fate of the Quedlinburg cathedral treasure . In: Saxony and Anhalt 6 . 1930, p. 227-250 .
  • Klaus, Voigtländer: The collegiate church of St. Servatii in Quedlinburg. History of its restoration and furnishing, with a contribution by Helmut Berger . Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-05-000580-7 .
  • Thomas Labusiak : More precious than gold: the cathedral treasure in the collegiate church of St. Servatii in Quedlinburg . Wettin 2015, ISBN 3-89923-347-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The robbery of the Quedlinburg cathedral treasure -. In: mdr.de. September 19, 2018, accessed August 7, 2020 .
  2. ^ The Samuhel Gospels from the Quedlinburg Cathedral (= exhibition catalogs of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Vol. 53, catalog for the exhibition in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich from January 17 to February 27, 1991). Prestel, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-7913-1127-1 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 47 ′ 8.7 "  N , 11 ° 8 ′ 13.2"  E