Franciscan monastery Ulm

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The Barefoot Church near Münsterplatz from Hirschgasse; Oil painting (1829), Museum Schloss Klingenstein

A Franciscan monastery in Ulm existed from the 13th century until 1531. In the course of the Reformation , which was also joined by the Free Imperial City of Ulm , the monastery was closed. The Franciscans were resettled in the city in 1920; this monastery existed until 2009.

The first monastery

The Franciscan monastery in Ulm was allegedly donated by pious Ulm citizens in 1229, i.e. three years after the death of the founder of the order, Francis of Assisi , and was located at the Löwentor, i.e. the southwest corner of today's Münsterplatz, where the town hall now stands. It belonged to the Upper German (Strasbourg) order province of Argentina and was part of the Swabian custody .

The citizens of Ulm are said to have maintained a close relationship with the monastery and donated many goods to it for their salvation and often chose it as their final resting place. It was a spiritual and spiritual center of the city. The importance of this is shown by the fact that court hearings also took place in the rooms there and that Emperor Sigismund even took up residence there on a visit to Ulm in 1434 .

The Franciscans were committed to a vow of poverty . However, as the many foundations accumulated wealth, it became increasingly difficult to keep this vow. In the 15th century this gave rise to an internal demand for strict observance of this rule. The Ulm monastery was also confronted with this request, but did not comply. It was not until 1484 that the observants succeeded in reforming the monastery with the help of municipal military tutoring . They shouldn't enjoy their success for long, because even one of their own fathers, Johann Eberlin from Günzburg, soon joined Martin Luther's new teaching and therefore had to leave the monastery in 1521. The restrictions imposed on the monastery, such as the ban on preaching, the setting of a maximum number of 13 brothers, etc. led the remaining brothers to leave the city in 1531 and retreat to the Söflingen Monastery , where the Franciscans worked until this monastery was secularized in 1803 in the wake of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss .

The monastery building in Ulm was rededicated and served the city as a Latin school , which became a grammar school from 1622. In 1879 the buildings and the church, which had become useless after the construction of a new grammar school, were demolished to "expose" Münsterplatz. The aim was to have a clear view of the church tower of Ulm Minster, which was about to be completed.

Resettlement in the 20th century

A resettlement of Franciscans of the Thuringian Franciscan Province ( Thuringia ) in Ulm began in 1919 with the approval of the Episcopal Ordinariate Rottenburg . In 1920 the house at Glöcklerstrasse 10 was acquired, which the provincial administration had previously used as a hospice for St. John of Capestrano had designated as the settlement of the order. Father Paulus Sondergeld has been appointed superior of this house. However, since a rental agreement continued until 1923, the house was not available. Therefore, in 1920, Father Paulus first moved to the Good Shepherd , the asylum of the Ulm Rescue Association at Friedensstrasse 38. From there Paulus worked as a chaplain. He also re-established the Franciscan Third Order and tried to spread it. With the Ulm District Court Judge Lehner, he introduced the Catholic Academic Association in the city in 1920 .

After several intermediate stops, the construction of the Franciscan monastery, which was called Franziskusheim , began in 1926 at Haßlerstrasse 11 according to the plans of the then building councilor Eugen Eger from the railway building department under the construction management of architect P. Lämmle . The branch was elevated to a convent in 1928 . The first guardian in Ulm was Father Athanasius Hank. During the anti-church measures of the Third Reich , the house faced its state-decreed repeal several times. In 1944 the house was partially confiscated. Apart from a few incendiary bombs, the Franciscan Church was the only place of worship spared from the bombs next to St. George's Church .

In 1942 the provincial chapter of Thuringia met in the Ulm monastery - this was the first time in the Ulm area since 1692. In 1945, a group of politically active and responsible persons, brought together by the former Reichstag deputy Franz Wiedemeier , met regularly in the refectory of the monastery founded the Christian-Social Union . The Ulm CDU began in the Franciscan monastery on Hasslerstrasse (in the "Klösterle").

Apart from minor changes, the church and monastery building are still based on the plans from 1926. A major change occurred during the last church renovation in 1975. Of the four successive chapels created by the architect Eger on the left, the first two became one in 1975 larger chapel united.

The monastery was sold to the Catholic Free School Foundation of the Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese in 2005 , but the Franciscan church and monastery were still able to use it. Due to staff shortages among the Franciscans, the Franciscan monastery was closed on October 11, 2009 with a solemn farewell service. The former monastery church is still used for church services by the Catholic "Pastoral Care Unit Ulm West".

literature

  • Isnard W. Frank: Franciscans and Dominicans in pre-Reformation Ulm . The church buildings in Ulm from the beginning to the present. In: Hans Eugen Specker / Hermann Tüchle (ed.): Churches and monasteries in Ulm. A contribution to Catholic life in Ulm and Neu-Ulm from the beginning to the present. Ulm 1979, pp. 103-147.
  • Karl Suso Frank: Franciscan monastery and "Klösterle. In: Churches and monasteries in Ulm 1979. (1979), pp. 457-469.
  • Franziskanerkonvent Ulm / Donau (Hrsg.): Guide through the Franciscan monastery Ulm Donau. Beuron 1992.
  • Kurt Füller: The Ulmer Klösterle through the ages. In: Quarterly magazine, ed. from the University of Ulm and the Ulmer Universitätsgesellschaft e. V., the City of Ulm and the Ulmer Universitätsgesellschaft, No. 27/1973, pp. 46–51.
  • Johannes Gatz: Ulm. Franciscan Upper Servant Monastery. In: Johannes Gatz (Ed.): Alemania Franciscana antiqua. Former Franciscan male and female monasteries in the Upper German or Strasbourg Franciscan Province with the exception of Bavaria. Second volume. Komm.-Verlag August Späth, Ulm / Donau 1958, pp. 5-40.
  • Hartmut Scholz: Wall painting from the workshop of Hans Multscher: the rediscovered baptism of Christ from the barefoot monastery in Ulm. In: Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft 49 / 50.1959 / 96, pp. 89-102.
  • Reinhard Wortmann: The church buildings in Ulm from the beginning to the present . In: Hans Eugen Specker / Hermann Tüchle (ed.): Churches and monasteries in Ulm. A contribution to Catholic life in Ulm and Neu-Ulm from the beginning to the present. Ulm 1979, pp. 513-515; 522-526.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Franziskanerkonvent Ulm / Donau (ed.): Guide through the Franciscan monastery Ulm Donau . Beuroner Kunstverlag, Beuron 1992, p. 20-24 .
  2. ↑ Franziskanerkonvent Ulm / Donau (ed.): Guide through the Franciscan monastery Ulm Donau . Beuroner Kunstverlag, 1992, p. 22-23 .
  3. ↑ Franziskanerkonvent Ulm / Donau (ed.): Guide through the Franciscan monastery Ulm / Donau . Beuroner Kunstverlag, Beuron, S. 24-29 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 23 '53.2 "  N , 9 ° 59' 26.5"  E