Gray Monastery (Berlin)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Undestroyed Gray Monastery on a picture postcard, around 1910

As Gray Abbey was Franciscan monastery in medieval Old Berlin called. According to the tradition of the Brandenburg chronicler Andreas Angelus, the name goes back to the gray habit of the religious. The Berlin Franciscan monastery was located in today's Klosterstrasse in the Mitte district . Before it was destroyed in World War II , the monastery was considered the most important medieval building in the city. After the end of the war, the ruins of the Franciscan monastery church were structurally secured and are considered a war memorial and one of the last remaining Gothic sights in Berlin .

History of the monastery

Ruins of the monastery, 1951
Ruins of the monastery church of the Littenstraße seen from

The mendicant orders , especially the brothers of the Franciscan order founded in 1210 ( Ordo fratrum minorum , "Friars Minor") played an important role in the German settlement of the areas between the Elbe and Oder and the German settlement in the east . In the cities that were expanding at the time, the way of life of the new, papally recognized itinerant preachers without a “claustrum”, ie without a firmly delimited monastery district, apparently offered convincing social and religious solutions; The Friars Minor represented an “alternative to the prevailing economy and society, indeed to the then prevailing mentality, culture and religiousness, based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ” and were therefore successful. In many places they were promoted by the princes and city leaders and encouraged to found monasteries. They were popular with the population. In the Margraviate of Brandenburg , the Ascanian sovereigns used the mendicant orders for the planned settlement of the country.

In 1250 a Herman Langelis appears in the documents as a lector in the Grawen monastery in Berlin . He was the spiritual advisor and confessor of the Brandenburg princess Mechthild. This fact suggests a close connection between the Franciscans and the Markgrafenhof in Brandenburg.

References to a Franciscan settlement from 1249 go back to the chronicler Andreas Angelus . According to the chronicler, the first branch was in Spandauer Straße (today's house number 49). Field stone remains of a Romanesque hall church from the period before 1250, which were found under the monastery church, indicate that the Franciscans may have settled at an existing church that was left to them - as in other cities. The provincial chapter of the Saxon Order Province (Saxonia) met in Berlin as early as 1252 (and then eight more times ) , which requires sufficiently large convent buildings . The Berlin Franciscan Convent belonged to the Brandenburg Custody of the Saxonia Province .

Location of the gray monastery in the cityscape

An inscription, which was in the monastery itself until the Second World War, said that the Brandenburg margraves Otto V and Albrecht III. In 1271 the Franciscans gave the property near the city wall, in the direct vicinity of the margravial residence (high house) , to the Franciscans . In addition, in 1290 the Franciscans received a brickworks from the knight Jacob von Nybede as a gift, which made the construction of a larger monastery and a new church possible. Remnants of this brick factory were found near today's Kreuzbergstrasse. The monastery bordered directly on the margravial court (auditorium) in the Klosterstrasse and reached right up to the medieval city ​​wall . Overall, the monastery comprised the area between today's Klosterstrasse, Grunerstrasse and Littenstrasse . The construction of the monastery and church was probably completed in the 14th century. Numerous burial sites provide information about the good relationship between the religious and the citizens of Berlin and the Brandenburg margraves. Ludwig the Roman , son of the Roman-German Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria and Margaret of Holland and as Ludwig II Margrave and first Elector of Brandenburg , was buried here alongside others . Elector Friedrich II held a court day in the monastery in 1441.

In addition to the Franciscan monastery in Berlin, there was the Dominican monastery Cölln in the sister city of Cölln . This has been mentioned since 1297 and was perhaps created through the dissolution of a possible Dominican convent in the older city of Spandau.

The Berlin Franciscans were very popular because of the spiritual support they gave the Berlin population during the interdict from 1325 to 1347, which the Bishop of Brandenburg imposed on the city because of the slaying of his provost . This was possibly the decisive factor for the design of the dance of death in the Marienkirche . Because of the papal privileges of the order, the Franciscans had a special position, which allowed them as the only clergy to provide pastoral care even in times of ban. In 1412 a citizens' assembly met in the monastery which agitated against the council.

In the Franciscan monastery in Berlin there was a period of in-house study to train the next generation of the order through lecturers . In addition, the monastery probably had several appointments ; the appointments (celle) in Jüdenstraße in Spandau , which existed until 1493, are certain . After the introduction of the observance in Saxonia , also at the urging of the Brandenburg Elector Friedrich I , the Berlin Franciscans adopted the Martinian Constitutions , a moderate reform of the poverty rules, in 1493 and renounced the ownership of their appointments, but initially retained the right to use the buildings; In 1540 they handed over the dates to the Spandau council. With the division of the Saxon Franciscan Province in 1518, the convent in Berlin came with about 75 other monasteries, which had also accepted the Martinian statutes, to the Saxon Province of St. John the Baptist , which went down after a few decades during the Reformation .

Change of use as a result of the Reformation

Gable of the gym, group of bears (around 1900), photo from 1930

As a result of the Reformation that took place in Berlin in 1539, the monastery was dissolved by Elector Joachim II and his property was secularized . Some brothers were able to stay in the buildings; the last Franciscan died there on January 4, 1571. A grammar school was set up in the buildings in 1574 , which was called the Berlinisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster . One of the most famous leaders of this school was the hymn poet Michael Schirmer (1606–1673).

The buildings of the former monastery and the monastery church were badly damaged in the Second World War. The poorly secured ruins of the church, the refectory and the chapter house again suffered massive damage when a subway tunnel was built in 1951. The remains of the other building parts of the monastery were cleared between 1959 and 1961, while the refectory and chapter house were to be rebuilt as a wine restaurant. In June 1968, however, the widening of Grunerstraße resulted in an above-ground demolition. Since 1968 only the ruins of the monastery church can be seen; the grammar school has been located in the Schmargendorf district since 1963 .

In the 21st century, the Franciscans have two new branches in Berlin: the Franciscan monastery founded in 1921 by the Silesian Franciscan Province of Silesia in the Pankow district ( Wollankstraße 19), which maintains a soup kitchen , and the Franciscan monastery in the Wilmersdorf district ( Ludwigkirchplatz 10, since 1986, previously since 1967 in Berlin-Tempelhof), whose main task is pastoral care at the Ludwigskirche .

Preserved underground remains

Instead of the monastery building, the Berlin magistrate had a green area laid out. Archaeological excavations were carried out on this area in 2013/2014. The foundations of the chapter hall, a field stone foundation, remains of piers of the cloister and floor coverings were excavated, as Senate Building Director Regula Lüscher explained in response to an inquiry in the Berlin House of Representatives in November 2014. Subsequent installations, a stair tower from the 19th century and even pipes from the 19th and 20th centuries were exposed. Further on-site investigations are planned for 2019 in accordance with the decision of the Berlin House of Representatives on the 2018/2019 double budget. It was not disclosed whether some of the finds would be added to a collection. In June 2019, ideas for a future design and function of the monastery site began with a scientific colloquium in which medievalists , urban developers , monument conservationists and politicians were involved.

literature

  • Andreas Angelus: Annales Marchiae Brandenburgicae. Frankfurt / Oder, 1598.
  • Gustav Abb, Gottfried Wentz: The Diocese of Brandenburg 1st part (Germania Sacra 1,1). De Gruyter, Berlin 1963. (Repr. Of the Berlin 1929 edition)
  • Karl-Heinz Ahrens: Residence and rule. Studies on the organization of rulership, rulership practice and residence formation of the Margraves of Brandenburg in the late Middle Ages. Frankfurt / Main 1990.
  • Gerhard Bronisch: The Franciscan Monastery Church in Berlin. Association for the History of Berlin, Berlin 1933.
  • Ursula Creutz: History of the former monasteries in the diocese of Berlin. St. Benno Verlag, Leipzig 1995, ISBN 3-89543-087-0 .
  • Erik Hühns: The Berlin Dance of Death. In: Yearbook for Folklore. Volume 14 (1968), pp. 243-268.
  • Church ruins of the Gray Monastery in Berlin. Edited by the State Monuments Office Berlin. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2007 ISBN 978-3-86568-200-0 .
  • Gustav Leh: The Franciscan Monastery in Berlin. In: Berlin home. 3rd volume (1958), pp. 128-138.
  • Ralf Nickel: The Friars Minor in Berlin. In: Dieter Berg (ed.): Franciscan life in the Middle Ages. Studies on the history of the Rhenish and Saxon order provinces. Dietrich-Coelde-Verlag, Werl 1994, ISBN 3-87163-201-5 ( Saxonia Franciscana Volume 3), pp. 1-26.
  • Burchard Thiel: The Franciscans in the area of ​​the diocese of Berlin. St. Benno Verlag, Leipzig 1963.
  • Knut Elstermann: Convent children. German résumés at the Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster in Berlin. be.bra, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-8148-0168-1 .

Web links

Commons : Graues Kloster (Berlin)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernd Schmies and Volker Honemann : The Franciscan Province of Saxonia from its beginnings to 1517: basic features and lines of development. In: Volker Honemann (Ed.): From the beginnings to the Reformation. Paderborn 2015, pp. 21–44, here pp. 33–37.
  2. ↑ Johannes Schlageter: The beginnings of the Franciscans in Thuringia. In: Thomas T. Müller, Bernd Schmies, Christian Loefke (Eds.): For God and the World. Franciscans in Thuringia. Paderborn u. a. 2008, pp. 32–37, here pp. 33 f., 36.
  3. ↑ a b c d building history
  4. ↑ Dieter Berg (Ed.): Traces of Franciscan History. Werl 1999, pp. 51, 83, 99, 111.
  5. ↑ The architectural and art monuments of the GDR , Berlin, I; Edited by the Institute for Monument Preservation at Henschelverlag, Berlin 1984; P. 64
  6. ↑ Dieter Berg (Ed.): Traces of Franciscan History. Werl 1999, p. 165.
  7. ↑ Dieter Berg (Ed.): Traces of Franciscan History. Werl 1999, p. 103.
  8. ^ Hans-Joachim Schmidt : Economy of the convents and relation to the population. In: Volker Honemann (Ed.): From the beginnings to the Reformation. (=  History of the Saxon Franciscan Province from its founding to the beginning of the 21st century , vol. 1) Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2015, ISBN 978-3-506-76989-3 , pp. 165–193, here p. 183.
  9. ^ Johannes Schlageter OFM: Franciscan Theology of the Middle Ages in Saxonia. In: Volker Honemann (Ed.): From the beginnings to the Reformation. (=  History of the Saxon Franciscan Province from its foundation to the beginning of the 21st century , Vol. 1) Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2015, ISBN 978-3-506-76989-3 , pp. 415-520, here p. 516.
  10. ^ Ralf Nickel: The Friars Minor in Berlin. In: Dieter Berg (ed.): Franciscan life in the Middle Ages. Studies on the history of the Rhenish and Saxon order provinces. Dietrich-Coelde-Verlag, Werl 1994, pp. 1–26, here p. 7.
    celle : CDB A 11 136 f., No. 182–184; see. Arnd Mindermann: The Franciscan appointment system. In: Volker Honemann (Ed.): From the beginnings to the Reformation. Paderborn 2015, pp. 195–263, here p. 198, note 35.
  11. ↑ Volker Honemann (Ed.): From the beginnings to the Reformation. (=  History of the Saxon Franciscan Province from its foundation to the beginning of the 21st century , vol. 1) Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2015, ISBN 978-3-506-76989-3 ; therein: Volker Honemann: The reform movements of the 15th and early 16th centuries in Saxonia. Pp. 45–163, here pp. 69–121 f. and: Arnd Mindermann: The Franciscan appointment system. Pp. 195-263, here pp. 238-257.
  12. ↑ Dieter Berg (Ed.): Traces of Franciscan History. Werl 1999, p. 249.
  13. ↑ Otto-Friedrich Gandert a. a .: Heimatchronik Berlin. Cologne 1982, p. 146.
    Dieter Berg (Ed.): Traces of Franciscan History. Werl 1999, p. 287.
  14. ^ Benedikt Goebel: The conversion of old Berlin to the modern city center. Planning, building and ownership history of the historic Berlin city center in the 19th and 20th centuries , Verlagshaus Braun, Berlin 2003, pp. 85–88.
  15. ^ Remains of the Gray Monastery found in Berlin . In: Berliner Zeitung of November 13, 2014, p. 23.
  16. ^ Maritta Tkalec: Campus Klosterviertel. In: Berliner Zeitung , number 143, June 24, 2019, p. 10.

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 6 ″  N , 13 ° 24 ′ 46 ″  E