Emma from Lesum

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Emma from Lesum

Countess Emma von Lesum , also Imma von Stiepel (* around 975/980 ; † December 3, 1038 in Lesum ), daughter of Adela von Hamaland , was a benevolent landowner who was venerated as a saint after her death . She is the first Bremen woman who can be identified by name .

Life

Special stamp 1000 years of Stiepeler village church

Emma, ​​the name means "the sublime" in Old High German , comes from the Saxon noble family of Immedingen , according to prevailing opinion . Since Adam of Bremen shows that she was a sister of Bishop Meinwerk of Paderborn , Count Immed from the diocese of Utrecht is assumed to be her father . Paul Derks pointed out in 1998 that the original version of Adam around 1070 did not contain the reference to the relationship to Bishop Meinwerk, but that it is an insert from the 13th century. He therefore believes that Emma's origin can no longer be explained.

She married Liudger, a son of the Saxon margrave Hermann Billung and brother of Duke Bernhard I of Saxony , the count in the Westfalengau and most likely also enfeoffed with the 700 Hufen imperial fief of Lesum . King Otto III. In 1001 Liudger gave the fortified Stipenlo farmyard, today's Stiepel . The deed of donation has not been handed down. The only copy from a Bremen copybook from the 13th century burned in 1943 in a bomb attack on Hanover. The assumption that Emma had today's Stiepeler village church built in honor of St. Mary in 1008 is considered refuted . Because the certificate from 1008 issued about it is a forgery.

It is sometimes assumed that Bishop Imad von Paderborn was a son of Emma and Count Liudger. Apart from the fact that this assumption is based only on the sibling in question between Emma and Bishop Meinwerk, Bishop Imad was more of a son of Bishop Meinwerk's sister Glismod.

Adam von Bremen reports on Emma's daughter, who was not named, who could not be enfeoffed with Lesum because of allegedly unknown misconduct, so that the fief reverted to the Reich. While Derks considers this daughter to be a contemporary invention of Adam, according to other considerations she could be equated with a canon Rikquur, who in 1059 left her inheritance in Stade and Dithmarschen to the Archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen.

Possible tipping of the rikquur

After the early death of her husband in 1011, Emma retired to Gut Lesum, generously supported the Bremen Cathedral with her fortune , whose Archbishop Unwan was also one of her relatives, and donated her property, including the church in Stiepel , to the cathedral chapter . She has been portrayed as a great benefactress of the Church, but her concern was particularly with the poor. Emma was later venerated as a saint, but there is no historical record of whether she was ever beatified or canonized. Her grave is said to have been in Bremen Cathedral in the 16th century, but could not be found during archaeological excavations between 1973 and 1976.

In the Catholic Church of St. Johann in the Schnoor district of Bremen , Emma is shown on a glass window in the choir . In the St. Marien Church in Stiepel Monastery there is also an Imma window that shows Archbishop Heribert giving Emma permission to build a church.

Count seat

It is likely that Emma's residence in St. Magnus was on the steep bank of the Lesum , where Villa Lesmona now stands. A larger basement room in the villa has a floor made of large stone tiles that are considered to be medieval. The so-called “Meyerhof”, which later became the Weilen estate, was located between the alleged Burgberg or Villa Lesmona and today's Meierhofstrasse . It should have been the farmyard belonging to the Count's Castle, which around 860 belonged to Count Hermann, perhaps Hermann Billung's grandfather. The Meierhofstraße , formerly known as Hafenstraße , led, according to a map from 1860, to a natural port of the Lesum, the eastern foothills of which reached up to the castle hill.

Emma was probably enfeoffed by the king as a widow's fief with the castle of the counts, who until then had been entrusted with the defense of the Weser against the Vikings. At least in part, they are likely to have been descendants of Count Wichmann, who was announced in 811, like Emma’s husband Count Liudger, younger sons of the Billungers and their ancestors. The name of the Wigmodi district could possibly be derived from this: "Gau der Wic-mann".

According to an order from Charlemagne , the estuaries were to be secured by guard posts, fortifications and watch boats. From the Franconian castle complex in Altenwalde on the highest point of the Geestrücke Hohe Lieth , a chain of so-called Jeduten Mountains stretched inland on the right bank of the Weser , presumably to the Grafenburg in Lesum. According to legend, they served to ward off Viking attacks: when the arrival of the dragon boats into the Weser was reported by alarm fire on the Jeduten Mountains , the Count in Lesum had enough time to man his boats and drive towards the enemy on the Weser. In fact, the function of the Jeduten Mountains is unclear, they probably didn't even exist at the time of Countess Emma. There was a similar home fleet in Stade under the command of the Udonen, which suffered a crushing defeat in 994 against the Vikings advancing on the Elbe.

Legend

One of the legends of Bremen's history is about the foundation of a willow in 1032 . The countess was approached by a delegation from the Bremen citizenship about the lack of pastureland. So she wanted to give the citizens a meadow the size a man could walk around in an hour. The accompanying brother-in-law and heir, Duke Bernhard I of Saxony , was concerned about his inheritance and asked mockingly: "Why an hour, why not a day?" When the countess agreed, Benno asked to be allowed to choose the man and chose cunningly a legless man whom society had passed before. The “cripple”, however, developed unimagined strength and in one day walked around an area larger than today's Bürgerweide .

The folk tale has been traceable since the beginning of the 18th century and has been formulated in various forms, but the donation of the Bürgerweide is not documented. The “cripple” at the feet of the Bremen Roland probably has a completely different meaning. After all, her brother-in-law, Duke Bernhard I, could not have accompanied her in 1032 because he, like her husband, had died in 1011. Historically, only his son, Duke Bernhard II, would be considered.

Commemoration

Countess Emma and Duke Benno

literature

  • Paul Derks : Liudger and Emma, ​​"Counts von Stiepel" - The sources and the historical tradition . In: Der Märker , regional history journal for the area of ​​the former Grafschaft Mark and the märkischen Kreis 47 (1998), pp. 12-20.
  • Dieter Riemer : Count Huno on the trail , cap. The Rikquur deed of 1059 . In: The early Oldenburg counts . Support group Palais Rastede e. V. (ed.). Isensee Verlag, Oldenburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-89995-534-7 , pp. 7-45 [p. 19-28].
  • Dieter Riemer: The canon Rikquur - a Billungerin? . In: Jahrbuch der Männer vom Morgenstern , 96, 2016, pp. 13–40.
  • Gerhard Schmolze: Countess Emma or Frau Imma, the wife of Count Liudger, Bremen's benefactress in the Middle Ages in history and legend, saga and art . Johann Heinrich Döll-Verlag, Bremen 1988.
  • Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . Edition Temmen, 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .
  • Herbert Schwarzwälder: "Countess" Emma von Lesum and the "Bremer Krüppel", historical truth and legend poetry . In: Yearbook of Wittheit zu Bremen , 18, Bremen 1974, pp. 387-406.
  • Ekkart Sauser :  EMMA (Imma) from Lesum. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 16, Bautz, Herzberg 1999, ISBN 3-88309-079-4 , Sp. 453-454.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ DO III, 401 .
  2. ↑ Stefan Pätzold: The Stiepel Foundation Letter of 1008 - a forgery? In: Evangelische Kirchengemeinde Stiepel (Hrsg.): 1000 years of the Bochum-Stiepel village church. Bochum 2008, pp. 29-54.
  3. ^ Villa Lesmona
  4. ↑ Katasterplan Good meantime sankt-magnus.de ( Memento of 18 May 2008 at the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Map from 1860 ( online ( Memento from May 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ))
  6. ↑ The streets Emmaberg as well as Upper and Lower Emmatal in Lesum are wrongly assigned to her, but refer to Emma Lohse. Arend et al. Gerhard Schmolze: An der Lesum , Verlag Döll, Bremen 1985, p. 34.
  7. ↑ Rudolf Matzner : A monument in honor of Countess Emma von Lesum. In: Heimat-Rundblick. History, culture, nature . No. 90, 3/2009 ( autumn 2009 ). Verlag M. Simmering , ISSN  2191-4257 , p. 7.
personal data
SURNAME Emma from Lesum
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Imma von Stiepel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Benevolent landowner and the first verifiable woman from Bremen
DATE OF BIRTH at 975 or at 980
DATE OF DEATH December 3, 1038
Place of death Lesum