Former Ursuline monastery in Düsseldorf

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The Ursuline convent in Düsseldorf was located on Ritterstraße in Düsseldorf , led by the convent of the Ursuline Sisters (Ordo Sanctae Ursulae), until recently a so-called school order and founder of the St. Ursula grammar school .

building

Facade of the convent building, Ritterstrasse 14 (2018)
Ritterstrasse 16 and 16a

The convent building and the simple but beautifully proportioned “Herz-Jesu-Kapelle” were built with interruptions between 1685 and 1700 and shaped the streetscape of Ritterstrasse until the Second World War , during which both buildings were badly damaged. The stepped alignment towards Ritterstraße, which is still visible today, is based on the protruding corner building of the former “Sacred Heart Chapel” of the Ursulines. This was unadorned and flat covered with a gallery running all around. The monastery and school building adjoined the chapel to the east as a three-story, eleven-axis building. The building was erected over a vaulted cellar, made of bricks and not plastered, like the Joseph Chapel of the Carmelites on Emilie-Schneider-Platz. Part of the facade of the convent building has been preserved to this day, plastered. Ursulinengasse was only opened after the foundation stone of the Ursuline monastery was laid.

According to the protocol from 1813 of the high school inspector Friedrich Hirsch, the first Bergisch state official for the school system, “on the lower floor there were two small rooms, a study, a dining room and teaching room, an address room, a kitchen, an oratory and a dining room for the conventuals. On the middle floor there are sick rooms for the conventuals and for the pensioners, seven cells for the clergy. On the upper floor four cells for clergy, novitiate, seven bedrooms for pensioners. "

The ruins of the chapel (destroyed by fire in 1943) were replaced by a new building of comparable dimensions, which today stands along Ursulinengasse. In 1958, a chapel, designed by the architect Wolfgang Pauen, was inaugurated on the floor above what is now the teacher's room. After the major renovation of the monastery wing in 1998/1999, the chapel had to give way to classrooms. The three-part stained glass window of this former monastery chapel, with stained glass from the legend of St. Ursula, was installed in the administration wing in 2017 as reverse glass lighting. The baroque church treasure with valuable vestments embroidered by the Ursulines and monstrances from the 17th and 18th centuries have found their place in the gallery of the Andreas Church and can be viewed since the end of 2015 as part of the monthly treasure chamber tours. The Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf has taken over four portraits of Düsseldorf citizens from the 18th century from the former Ursuline convent on permanent loan from the sisters.

The building complex on Ritterstrasse, including an extensive new building, still serves as a school for the Archbishop's St. Ursula High School.

history

Ursuline grave complex at the North Cemetery in Düsseldorf

The origins of the Ursuline Order go back to the "Society of St. Ursula" ("Compagnia di santa Orsola"), which was founded in 1535 by Angela Merici in Brescia ( northern Italy ). The school order of the Ursulines developed from this lay community.

In 1639 the first Ursuline women came to Cologne via Bordeaux and Liège and the “Society of St. Ursula” was converted into an order under papal law. In 1677 the Aachen Ursulines intended to found a daughter monastery in Düsseldorf. When difficulties arose three years later and three sisters had died, the foundation was transferred to the Ursuline Monastery in Cologne in 1681.

The first statement about the implementation of school instruction by the Ursulines in Düsseldorf is dated July 1679. The initiative had already originated from the sovereign Philipp Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg , who urged the level of education in his residence city to be raised. In 1658, two years before the reign of Johann Wilhelm ("Jan Wellem") , the religious order of the Ursulines settled in Düsseldorf. They first used existing town houses in the northern old town , but they quickly turned out to be too small. Empress Eleonore , Jan Wellems' eldest sister, voted in favor of the Ursulines for a new building, so that in 1684 they transferred part of the new building site in the area of ​​today's Ritterstrasse to the convent . The area behind the old town was newly laid out for the expansion of the city and was also called the New Plant after the new fortifications were built .

At Christmas 1681 the papal cloister was set up for the community of Düsseldorf Ursuline Sisters and thus monastic life could begin in the autonomous monastery, in the union of the Federation of German-speaking Ursulines. By October 1686, the provisional reference date for the new building, the Ursulines erected a monastery building on the site, which also had to serve as a residential building, chapel and school. The actual monastery building was not completed until 1688. The architect was probably the Venetian Matteo Alberti , who, among other things, also designed the “Herz-Jesu-Kapelle”, the monastery church of the Ursulines, which is locally separated from the monastery building. In 1702 the Ursuline Church was built, according to Paul Clemen , "an unadorned, flat-roofed chapel with a gallery running all around and a white and gold altar in rococo shape ". The first heads of the monastery and school who were fully known by name were Superior "Mère Claire Magnée", founder of the Ursuline branch in Düren (until 1681), Superior "Mère Johanna Cordula Bonhomme", also known as Maria Johanna Cordula (until 1681), came from Cologne 1705) and "Mère Christine Weidenfeld" (as prefect until 1702). Abigail, the goddaughter of Anna Maria Luisa de 'Medici , Jan Wellem's second wife, took the religious name "Mère Anna Maria Luisa" in adoration of her godmother and was superior of the Düsseldorf Sisters from 1741 to 1751.

Following the example of their founder, the Ursulines had always stood up for people in need and dedicated themselves especially to the education and training of young people, even when there were hardly any educational opportunities for girls. The Ursulines maintained two schools from the start. At that time it was an “external school”, also known as the German school, which primarily cared about the children of the city population and provided a kind of elementary education. Here, apart from the contributions to the winter heating and occasional donations, the lessons were free of charge. And a so-called “internal” or “French school”, which at times also involved boarding school, with annual costs. The latter school was attended exclusively by daughters of civil servants and court staff.

Initially, classes were held in rented rooms. With the construction of the monastery building, a separate classroom was available for the first time. The first independent school buildings were on Ursulinengasse, between Ritterstrasse and Reuterkaserne . Presumably, these simple buildings were erected at the same time as the “Sacred Heart Chapel” of the Ursulines. In 1707, a “newe austernige schul” was built, a half-timbered building with slate. In 1724 this had to be expanded.

From the middle of the 18th century, the monastery and school of the Düsseldorf Ursulines began to decline due to the poor financial situation. The city insisted from the beginning that only the money that novices brought to the monastery and income from the schools should be used for maintenance. In 1756, after the town was bombarded on June 29th, the convent dissolved for some time because the sisters had to escape to various places on the Rhine. The sisters financed the new school building, which became necessary in 1779, through collections, which were then erected in 1781. In 1792, numerous French emigrants, clergymen, but also 35 children lived in the monastery. The sisters and pensioners experienced the bombing and city fire in October 1794 while fleeing to Derendorf. The Ursulines paid for the occupation and initial looting of the city by losing their church silver.

The greatest threat to the existence of the Ursuline schools, however, came from the state school policy, which was part of a nationwide financial and reorganization policy, and from the secularization efforts that began as so-called “pre-secularizations” in the 18th century. But unlike the Coelestinerinnen in Ratinger Straße and the Carmelites in the Old City , the Ursulines did not provide a contemplative religious. They were dedicated from the beginning of the girls education, therefore escaped about 1802 and the abolition of their Düsseldorf branch by the secularization and could their practical and continue to do effective work to the outside world.

In the 19th century its existence was threatened again by the culture war between Prussia and the Catholic Church. Due to new Prussian laws that were only valid for a short time in the context of this culture war for orders and congregations, activities for Catholic orders and religious schools in Prussia from May 31, 1875 to October 1, 1875 were severely restricted. This also applied to the Order of the Ursulines and their school. The members of the order were expelled from Düsseldorf and Prussia. The Ursulines left the city on October 1st, 1875. The monastery building and the closed school were acquired by a forward-looking group of Düsseldorf citizens who held the property until the order returned. In 1888 the order returned and the school of the "Higher Girls School" was resumed.

Large parts of the school buildings, the monastery and the monastery church were destroyed during the Second World War. After the schools were allowed to resume their work in autumn 1945, St. Ursula began with 45 pupils. Only then was French replaced by English as the first foreign language.

The Ursulines gave up their monastery in Düsseldorf's old town in 1981. The school was handed over to episcopal sponsorship and the monastery building was completely renovated in 1998/1999. The last Ursulines of Ritterstrasse spent their twilight years in the senior citizen's monastery in Cologne. The convent of today's "Ursuline Congregation Düsseldorf" is in Kaarst.

education

The Ursuline sisters live their lives according to the three vows for the sake of the kingdom of God: celibacy, poverty and obedience. The first years of the Ursulines up to the final admission through the vows for life serve the community and the individual sister for mutual testing. These years are divided into postulate, novitiate and juniorate. In the postulate, vocational training can be started or continued. During the novitiate, internships and studies can also be carried out outside the home. And women who are ready to shape their lives in the spirit of the founder Angela Merici can join the community as aggregates.

St. Ursula Association

One of the oldest charitable associations in the city of Düsseldorf, the St. Ursula Association, was committed to the care of maternal women. From 1841 the ladies of the association distributed soups to sick and needy women and especially to women who had recently given birth. From the 1860s onwards, distributing baby laundry was one of his areas of responsibility. In 1924 he stopped working. During this period, its members had distributed an average of 150 servings of soup a day in a few years.

literature

  • Gisela Patt; Klaus Bahners: 300 years of the Ursulines in Düsseldorf 1681–1981. Self-published Ursulinenkongregation Düsseldorf e. V., Düsseldorf, 1981.
  • Bernhard Gustav Bayerle: The Catholic churches of Düsseldorf from their origins to the most recent times: a contribution to the history of the city. Düsseldorf, 1844.
  • Hans Ulrich Krumme: The Ursulines in Düsseldorf 1677–1709. Archbishop's Cathedral Library, Cologne, 2013, ISBN 978-3-939160-42-7 .
  • Heinrich Ferber : Historical walk through the old city of Düsseldorf. Part I, C. Kraus Verlag.
  • Community devotional exercises for the Ursuline monastery in Düsseldorf . Wolf, Düsseldorf 1841 ( urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-85867 ).
  • Annual report of the Ursuline Higher Girls School in Düsseldorf, Ritterstrasse 14th school year 1910 ( urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-119344 ).
  • Annual report of the Ursula Lyceum in Düsseldorf, Ritterstraße 14th school year 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914 ( urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-119368 ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ursuline Church . In: Paul Clemen (ed.): The art monuments of the city and the district of Düsseldorf . Düsseldorf L. Schwann, 1894, p. 54 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  2. ^ Photo of the Ursuline Monastery, Ritterstrasse, from September 14, 1942 , in 1681 (annual entry for Düsseldorf timeline), on duesseldorf.de, accessed on March 17, 2018
  3. ↑ The last nuns of the Düsseldorf order present their baroque treasures to the Dominicans in St. Andrew's Church. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung . November 1, 2015 ( wz.de ).
  4. ^ Edmund Spohr: Düsseldorf, city and fortress. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1979, p. 128.
  5. ↑ On September 29, 1956, the 275th anniversary celebration took place.
  6. ↑ H. Ferber; In: Historical walk through the old city of Düsseldorf. Verlag C. Kraus, 1889, part I.
  7. ↑ Both superiors were Walloon women from the Habsburg Netherlands, in the general history of the Ursulines in Germany.
  8. ^ Historical Archive Cologne: On the importance of this family in Cologne. vd Ketten Volume VIII, p. 281 f.
  9. ↑ Higher girls' school in the Ursuline convent of the Ursuline cooperative. In: Düsseldorfer Volksblatt. No. 91, of April 4, 1888 ( uni-duesseldorf.de ).
  10. ^ Hermann Lohausen: The highest civil courts in the Grand Duchy of Berg and in the Generalgouvernement of Berg 1812 to 1819. 1994, ISBN 3-412-05795-9 , p. 76.
  11. ↑ StA Düsseldorf III 1255, p. 19, twenty-fifth annual report on the effectiveness of the St. Ursula Society under the protectorate of Her Royal Highness the Princess Josephine zu Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen: To prepare and distribute soups to sick women and poor women who had recently given birth during 1866.