Franciscan monastery Berchtesgaden

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Berchtesgaden Franciscan Church

The Franciscan monastery Berchtesgaden with the Franciscan Church (actually: Our Lady on the Anger ) in Berchtesgaden belongs to the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising . The monastery complex and the church are registered as architectural monuments in the Bavarian list of monuments.

The monastery was originally established as a monastery on the Anger for Augustinian choir women around 1400 and expanded to include the monastery church of Our Lady on the Anger between 1480 and 1519 . In 1564 the convent was finally closed after ten years of vacancy. From 1695 - with an interruption from 1822 to 1859 - the monastery complex and church, which had previously been used for other purposes, were handed over to the Franciscan Reformates of the Bavarian Franciscan Province ( Bavaria ) and used by them until 1985. Since 1987, Polish Franciscans from the Upper Silesian Franciscan Province based in Katowice have taken on the pastoral care of the church and monastery.

Parts of the monastery complex were and are used for other purposes for a long time - u. a. from 1868 to 1975 for the Berchtesgaden District Court , from 1988 to 2013 for the National Park House of the Berchtesgaden National Park and since 2015 for a "House of Encounters" maintained by the German Caritas Association .

history

Augustinian choir women (around 1400 - around 1550)

Grave monument of Prince Provost Griesstätter

The Augustinian women's convent in Berchtesgaden was created as a canonical monastery in the early 12th century almost at the same time as the foundation of the monastery in Berchtesgaden by the Augustinian canons . When their previous women's monastery , which was unfavorably located in the Nonntal below the Lockstein , was abandoned by the Augustinian choir women, the canonesses, known as “beautiful women” because of their white dress, moved to the (for them?) Monastery on Anger around 1400 . In the years 1480 to 1488 the monastery complex was extended by a church, which was consecrated due to the veneration of the maiden of corn "Our Lady on the Anger" which began in the middle of the 15th century and, according to Feulner, however, analogous to a year on the side portal, was not until 1519 under provost Gregor Rainer has been completed. Around 1550, the women's monastery “died out” and parts of the monastery were demolished. After the monastery had been empty for a good ten years, the women's monastery was finally closed in 1564 by the first prince provost Wolfgang II. Griesstätter zu Haslach .

Interim use (1564–1694)

After 1564, Prince Provost Wolfgang II. Griesstätter had the buildings of the monastery expanded or partially renewed, so that they could then serve as retirement homes for monastery officials and members of the canons for about 130 years.

At his express request, after his death Griesstätter was not buried in the Berchtesgaden collegiate church like most other Berchtesgaden prince provosts , but in the “church on the Anger, which he loved”.

Franciscan Reformates (1695–1985)

On December 24, 1684 Joseph Clemens von Bayern - at the time still coadjutor , from 1688 a. a. Administrator or prince provost of the prince provost of Berchtesgaden - the first Franciscan reformates appointed temporary workers from the Bavarian "abroad" to Berchtesgaden and initially quartered in the Augustinian monastery. They were supposed to guarantee pastoral care in the collegiate church as well as in the monastery church of Our Lady on the Anger , which the Augustinian canons , who founded the monastery monastery in Berchtesgaden, could not be obliged to do due to their statutes.

In November 1695, Joseph Clemens von Bayern approved the Franciscan Reformats in the buildings of the former Augustinian nuns on the Anger to set up a Franciscan hospice and thus the foundation of the Franciscan monastery. The monastery complex, including the church and garden, became the property of the Bavarian Franciscan Province ( Bavaria ) in 1699 , and the hospice - delayed due to the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) - became an independent convent in November 1715 . Since then, the Franciscan community in Berchtesgaden has comprised eight to twelve priests and a few lay brothers . Between 1716 (other sources give the new building as early as 1699) and 1723/24, the simple new construction of the monastery buildings, which also included a new library room, took place. In the years that followed, the pilgrimage to the miraculous image of the maize of corn ensured the Franciscan monastery economically.

The pastoral work of the Franciscans in the Berchtesgadener Land included the so-called popular missions and school lessons at the elementary school as well as, not least, “disputes with the Protestants ”. While Archbishop Matthäus Lang (1468–1540) sought the violent suppression of the Reformation from the beginning and therefore numerous Protestants from the Salzburg region were forced to emigrate as early as the 16th century , the Protestants in the Berchtesgaden region were only increasingly searched and rigorous interrogations from 1687 exposed - the Franciscans in Berchtesgaden were influenced in this regard by the Salzburger Land and probably also approved the climax of the counter-Reformation policy in the prince provosty, when in 1733 more than 1,100 Protestants from a total of around 9,000 inhabitants were forced to emigrate or were expelled from the Berchtesgadener Land. (→ See also the sections on this paragraph: Reformation and Counter-Reformation, expulsions and emigration in Berchtesgaden )

In the 1770s, attempts were made to expel the Franciscans from their monastery and to win over Tyrolean Capuchins for pastoral care instead . However, the Bavarian elector placed the Berchtesgaden Franciscans under his personal protection and "finally" slammed the monastery into the Bavarian Franciscan Province.

After secularization in Bavaria , the Berchtesgadener Land, ruled by the prince-prince until 1803, including its main seat and founding place Berchtesgaden, was incorporated into the Kingdom of Bavaria after several changes of rule in 1810. Although the monastic provincial associations were dissolved in 1812, the Berchtesgadener Konvent was spared the fate of an official secularization or abolition, and in 1813 only the number of conventuals in the Franciscan monastery was reduced to six. However, the community only “survived” the next few years as a monastery that was extinct : in 1822 the last Franciscan who had entered the monastery before secularization died.

Interim use (1822–35)

After the death of the last conventual in 1822, the main saline office or main salt office moved into most of the extinct monastery.

In April 1825, the Berchtesgaden Rent Office , which had apparently excavated the entire monastery library, sent 105 selected volumes from the library to Munich. The much larger part with around 3000 volumes is now part of the Berchtesgaden parish library.

Tyrolean Franciscans (1835–59)

At the repeated insistence of the Berchtesgaden population, King Ludwig I of Bavaria granted the Franciscan monastery on the Anger to continue as a hospice in October 1835: only a lay brother maintained continuity when a Tyrolean Franciscan filled the monastery with new life in December 1835 .

Franciscan Reformates (1859–1985)

When the Bavarian Franciscan Province had enough offspring again, in 1859 the Franciscan monastery on the Anger, which had been run by the Tyrolean Franciscans, was again taken over by Franciscan Reformates. Most of the monastery remained in the hands of the main saline office and, from 1868 to 1975, the district court of Berchtesgaden , so that the Franciscans only had about a third of their former buildings.

After the overthrow of the monarchy by the November Revolution of 1918, the association "Friends of the Franciscans" was formed, which campaigned for the preservation of the monastery. In the years of the economic crisis from 1930 to 1934 the Franciscans were able to alleviate the plight of many unemployed Berchtesgaden residents a little by distributing the “monastery soup”.

During the National Socialist era , the Franciscans in Berchtesgaden also suffered from reprisals, which culminated in the confiscation of the church and monastery buildings in 1941. According to Rudolf Kriss , the Berchtesgaden Christmas riflemen in particular excelled in their work for the monastery and their board member Brandner was therefore the only Berchtesgaden post officer to be drafted into the Wehrmacht . On March 9, 1941, the monastery was confiscated in favor of the Kinderland deportation , and on April 9, 1941 (during Holy Week ) the monastery brothers had to leave their cells. The Roman Catholic pastor of Berchtesgaden then made some rooms of the rectory and sacristan's house available to the priests and lay brothers until the end of the war. The monastery premises turned out to be unsuitable for the children, but instead of giving them back to the Franciscans, modern living quarters for the district court were set up in them in addition to the official residence. After the end of the war and the invasion of the Americans, the superior tried successfully to return the monastery on May 31, 1945, so that the Franciscans could move back into their monastery in mid-August 1945.

Since the Franciscan Reformats, after their more than 250 years of service (only interrupted between 1822 and 1859), could no longer find any offspring for the Berchtesgaden monastery, in 1985 the end of its continued existence threatened once again.

Franciscan of the Assumptionis BVM Provincia (since 1987)

In 1986, the leadership of the Bavarian Franciscan Province, to which the monastery belonged until 1985, won over Polish confreres who moved into the monastery in May 1987 and have been providing pastoral services there again since then. The Franciscans of the German region of the Upper Silesian Franciscan Province ( Assumptionis BVM Provincia “Province of the Admission of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, seat in Katowice ) chose the legal form of a non-profit association for their branches in Berchtesgaden, Bensheim and Freystadt , “Franciscans of the Admission of Mary to the Himmel eV “in the echo of the name of the order province.

building

Franciscan monastery

Front and side: “National Park House” (1988–2013) of the Berchtesgaden National Park, since 2015 a “House of Encounters” of Caritas Front and side: “National Park House” (1988–2013) of the Berchtesgaden National Park, since 2015 a “House of Encounters” of Caritas
Front and side: “National Park House” (1988–2013) of the Berchtesgaden National Park , since 2015 a “House of Encounters” of Caritas

The three-winged monastery complex has two floors with hipped roofs , which was largely new built between 1716 and 1724, but the core was built around 1400. The Ölbergkapelle ( also: “Blutschwitzkapelle”) to the north of the Läutturm, donated in 1691, is a deep plastered niche with a shingled pyramid roof.

After the Augustinian women's convent was dissolved in 1564, the monastery buildings were used as retirement homes for monastery officials and members of the canons for a good 130 years. In the period from 1595 to 1822, the monastery complex probably came completely under the care of the Franciscan Reformates, and from 1699 also in the possession of the Bavarian Franciscan Province (Bavaria) superior to them. From 1822 the monastery again "extinct" was, and virtually the entire monastery was now the main Aline office or main office Berchtesgaden salt available. In 1859 it had to reduce its use by about a third in favor of the newly drafted Franciscan Reformates. 1868 took the from the former Hofrichterhaus relocated District Court Berchtesgaden the spaces of the main Aline Office . The rooms of the monastery, which had been vacant since 1975 as part of the Bavarian regional reform of 1972 after the Berchtesgaden District Court was dissolved, were rebuilt between 1986 and 1988. Then until 2013 the “ National Park House ” of the Berchtesgaden National Park was housed there. a. a library, exhibitions and film screenings. (The House of Mountains , which opened on May 24, 2013, took over this function .) Since 2015, the German Caritas Association has maintained a "House of Encounters" in these rooms.

Thus, the use of monks since 1859 always only a small part of the monastic buildings.

Franciscan Church

Angel, above: "Ave Gratia"

The church, built between 1480 and 1488 and consecrated to Our Lady on the Anger , was probably not completed until 1519, analogous to the year on the side portal. Since when it has been called the “Franciscan Church ” and how this name came about, although (also?) After the Franciscan Reformats took over their patronage “ Annunciation ” on March 25th, cannot be proven at the moment . Presumably this is simply based on a colloquial abbreviation of "Church of the Franciscans" after the Franciscans took over the church with the monastery in 1699.

Berchtesgaden Franciscan Church has a late-Gothic two-aisled hall with two polygonal choir circuits and roof skylights , which was probably built by Peter Inntzinger 1488-1519. From 1668 to 1673 the Marienkapelle ( also: Gnadenkapelle) was inserted between the two choirs with a triangular closure and in 1682 the northern facade tower was built.

Furnishing

The two-aisled church has a late Gothic net rib vault with frescoes from the early Renaissance period (around 1560), which depict the family tree of Jesus. The interior of the church has been redesigned several times over the centuries, and its current inventory is neo-Gothic. The church building is completed by the chapel of grace, which was kept in the Italian baroque style, with a miraculous image of the " maiden of corn " from 1450.

The main entrance is the west portal and inside to the right of it is a hunched holy water basin made of Adnet marble from the 17th century .

From 1887 to 1894 the monastery church underwent a thorough renovation, another followed in 1935, the last between 1992 and 1995.

Web links

Commons : Franziskanerkloster Berchtesgaden  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c List of monuments for Berchtesgaden (PDF) at the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, monument number D-1-72-116-40
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Franziskanerkloster Berchtesgaden , basic data and history:
    Angelika Schuster-Fox:  Pastor of the Fürstpropstei - Franziskaner in Berchtesgaden in the database monasteries in Bavaria im House of Bavarian History , online at hdbg.eu
  3. ↑ a b Canons of Berchtesgaden , basic data and history:
    Stephanie Haberer:  Fürstpropstei Berchtesgaden - Canons and salt miners in the database of monasteries in Bavaria in the House of Bavarian History
  4. ↑ Dieter Albrecht : Die Fürstpropstei Berchtesgaden in: Max Spindler, Andreas Kraus (ed.): Handbook of Bavarian History , p. 290 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  5. ↑ a b The Franciscan Church in Berchtesgaden ( Memento from December 28, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), online at stiftskirche-berchtesgaden.de
  6. ↑ a b Manfred Feulner : Berchtesgaden - history of the country and its inhabitants . Pp. 50-51
  7. ↑ Manfred Feulner: Berchtesgaden - history of the country and its inhabitants . Pp. 102-103
  8. ↑ Manfred Feulner: Berchtesgaden. History of the country and its people. P. 103.
  9. ^ A b books.google.com Annemarie Spethmann: Historical catalogs of the Bavarian State Library Munich , p. 170
  10. ↑ Manfred Feulner: Berchtesgaden - history of the country and its inhabitants. See The Expulsion of Protestants from Berchtesgaden. Pp. 168-169.
  11. ↑ Manfred Feulner: Berchtesgaden - history of the country and its inhabitants. see The expulsion of the Protestants from Berchtesgaden. Pp. 171-174.
  12. ↑ The source does not reveal any motive for the attempt to expel the Franciscans in the 1770s or for the elector's protection, and no other source is currently known. This does not apply to the "final" award of the monastery to the Bavarian Franciscan Province in this context, as this is said to have taken place as early as 1699, see above.
  13. ↑ a b Hellmut Schöner (ed.): The Berchtesgadener Land in the course of time. Supplementary volume I, Association for Local Studies d. Berchtesgadener Landes, Verlag Berchtesgadener Anzeiger and Karl M. Lipp Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-87490-528-4 . P. 315 f.
  14. ↑ Kriß, Rudolf: The Christmas shooters of the Berchtesgadener country and their customs. 4th edition. Berchtesgaden (Berchtesgadener Anzeiger) 1994, pp. 93-95.
    No other historical source is known that mentions or cites the statements made here on the initiative of the Christmas shooters for the Franciscan monastery.
  15. ↑ Fröhlich, Elke and Broszat, Martin: Bayern in der NS-Zeit, p. 207 with quotations from Rudolf Kriss.
  16. ↑ a b The Franziskaner in Berchtesgaden , online at franziskaner-berchtesgaden.de
  17. ↑ Franziskaner Bensheim - Verbund Homepage homepage of the Bensheim monastery and the two other monasteries connected with it in Berchtesgaden and Freystadt , online at franziskaner-bensheim.de
  18. ↑ a b c church leadership - Franciscan church with unbequellten information inter alia for local and church building history, online at franziskaner-berchtesgaden.de
  19. ↑ 2013 circular from the Friends of the Berchtesgaden National Park (fdn) in November 2013 on the opening date, PDF file, p. 1 of 6 pages
  20. ↑ nationalpark-berchtesgaden.de Service and information points of the Berchtesgaden National Park

Coordinates: 47 ° 37 ′ 47 ″  N , 13 ° 0 ′ 6 ″  E