Engelbert von Syrgenstein

Engelbert von Syrgenstein , also von Sürgenstein (* May 14, 1694 in Horn , † May 25, 1760 in Kempten ), born as Johann Roman von und zu Syrgenstein, was prince abbot of the prince monastery Kempten from 1747 to 1760 .

Origin and life

Grave of Engelbert von Syrgenstein in the crypt of St. Lorenz (4th coffin from the left)

Engelbert von Syrgenstein comes from the family of the Sürgen , who were ministerials of the St. Gallen monastery in Allgäu and who had their ancestral seat at Syrgenstein Castle . His father Johann Fidel von und zu Syrgenstein was Obervogt zu Gaienhofen ; his mother's name was Maria Salome Roth von Schreckenstein .

In 1710 he made his profession in the Benedictine Abbey of Kempten , was ordained a subdeacon in 1715 , was novice master from 1724 and vice dean five years later. When Prince Abbot Anselm Reichlin von Meldegg traveled to Frankfurt in 1742 for the coronation of Empress Maria Amalia , he appointed Syrgenstein as governor for the duration of his absence . On June 26, 1747 he was elected coadjutor , led the affairs of government provisionally until Reichlin von Meldegg's death and was his successor that same year.

Syrgenstein died on May 25, 1760 and was lavishly buried. His grave is with his predecessors in the crypt of the collegiate church St. Lorenz in Kempten.

Act

After 1748 by the Benedictine monks belonging to Cardinal Angelo Maria Quirini had been consecrated for this purpose, dedicated Syrgenstein on behalf of Pope Benedict XIV. On May 12, 1748, the St. Lawrence Church in Kempten. In addition to candlesticks and goblets, he also gave the church of St. Lorenz the choir grille decorated with the Syrgenstein coat of arms .

Under Engelbert von Syrgenstein, the prince monastery made the last significant land acquisitions in 1749, including the rule of Ronsberg and thus the village of Bayersried with the associated hamlets of Sonderhof , Reichartsried , Lausbihl (Lausbühl) and Binkenhofen, including the right of patronage and court of Willofs, and in 1757 the rule of Apfeltrang from the rule of Stein .

Promotion of the education system

Syrgenstein was considered a friend of the sciences and tried to promote education in the prince monastery. He increased the monastery library and in 1752 transferred the Latin school of the monastery to the Fathers of the Piarist Order in order to improve the quality of school instruction.

After Oliver Legipont , Benedictine monk and librarian at St. Martin's Abbey in Cologne, had tried in vain for years to realize his idea of ​​setting up a Benedictine academy, he finally found a protector for his Benedictine academy in Cardinal Angelo Maria Quirini . Quirini, in turn, succeeded in winning Engelbert von Syrgenstein as President of the Academy in 1752, so that Legipont was able to implement his plan in the Prince Abbey of Kempten, at least for a short time. The academic work should focus on editorial tasks and historical research. With the publication of the four-volume “Historia Rei Litterariae Ordinis Sancti Benedicti” by the late Magnoald Ziegelbauer in 1754, the Academy's first and only work was published. However, a long-term scientific collaboration failed shortly afterwards due to internal tensions in the convent and also within the partnership, as well as due to a falling out between Legipont and Syrgenstein, so that the academy dissolved just two years after it was founded.

Construction activity

Syrgenstein had the burnt down paper mill in Hegge and the Untere Hofmühle in Kempten rebuilt and in 1751 built a hospital for the poor and sick in Härtnagel . In 1750/60 he had the dilapidated St. Anna church in Schwabelsberg replaced with a new chapel. As his coat of arms on the altar of the St. Sebastian chapel in Oberdorf near Immenstadt, built in 1564 as the "plague chapel", suggests, he had it redecorated. He also arranged for a manor in Günzach, which had already been built under Prince Abbot Anselm Reichlin von Meldegg , to be transformed into a hunting lodge . During his reign, the expansion of the state rooms, the guest rooms and the dining room of the abbot's residence began, which was only completed under Prince Abbot Honorius Roth von Schreckenstein . In the princely hall of his residence, Syrgenstein had the court painter Franz Georg Hermann put up portraits of all his predecessors in office since the 15th century.

literature

• Alfred Weitnauer (Ed.): Old Allgäu generations. Part XXXVIII: Eduard Zimmermann, Friedrich Zollhoefer (ed.): Kempter coat of arms and symbols encompassing the city and district of Kempten with the adjacent areas of the Upper Allgäu. (= Allgäu homeland books. Volume 60). Verlag für Heimatpflege, Kempten 1963, p. 314.
• Ludwig Zenetti: The Surgers. History of the Barons of Syrgenstein . Adapted from the sources collected by the deceased Mr. Ludwig Freiherrn zu Rhein (= Swabian genealogy. Volume 1). Historischer Verein für Schwaben, Augsburg 1965, p. 37 and p. 103-106.

Web links

• Article on the 250th anniversary of Engelbert von Syrgenstein's death . In: allin.de, May 28, 2010

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Ludwig Zenetti: Die Sürgen. History of the Barons of Syrgenstein . Adapted from the sources collected by the deceased Mr. Ludwig Freiherrn zu Rhein (= Swabian genealogy. Volume 1). Historical Association for Swabia, Augsburg 1965, p. 37.
2. ^ Johann Baptist Haggenmüller: History of the city and the princes of Kempten . Volume 2: From the end of the peasant war to the incorporation into the Bavarian state . Tobias Dannheimer publishing house , Kempten 1847, pp. 292-298.
3. ^ Walter Brandmüller : Spiritual life in Kempten of the 17th and 18th centuries. In: Journal for Bavarian State History . 43 (1980), pp. 620 f.

predecessor	Office	successor
Anselm Reichlin from Meldegg	Prince Abbot of Kempten 1747 - 1760	Honorius Roth von Schreckenstein