House HohenEichen

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Retreat house HohenEichen, Dresden

Haus HohenEichen is a spiritual center of the religious order of the Jesuits in the diocese of Dresden-Meißen . The facility mainly offers retreats based on Ignatius von Loyola . The program includes around 50 of its own offers per year, accompanied by around 50 course instructors. The retreat house in Hosterwitz is located on the Elbe slope in the southeast of Dresden and consists of five buildings, surrounded by a park and forest.

history

Haus HohenEichen was donated in 1921 by Princess Maria Immaculata of Saxony, "to render a service to my dear Saxon homeland [...] and to bring about the salvation of many souls through a settlement of the Jesuits", so the will of the donor . Maria Immaculata was the wife of Johann Georg von Sachsen and thus sister-in-law of the last Saxon king, Friedrich August III. She bought the house - a spacious three-story house with a chapel and large garden - and donated it to the Society of Jesus . Retreats have been offered there since 1922 , only interrupted by the Second World War .

In May 1941 the Gestapo confiscated the house and the Jesuits had to leave HohenEichen. The house and property were expropriated in January 1942 as “property of enemies of the Reich” and HohenEichen then served as a home school for the Hitler Youth . At the end of the war in 1945 the house was full of evacuees and refugees. The Sorbian Father Stanislaus Nauke SJ was the only Jesuit who stayed in HohenEichen, and it is thanks to his knowledge of the Russian language that the house was returned to the order.

In 1946, the retreat work was resumed, with an enormous upswing compared to the pre-war period: The refugees meant that there were more Catholics in the surrounding area and retreats for women were now also offered. In the GDR , it was an important place for the Catholic Church , where people could speak freely and where their faith was strengthened. Haus HohenEichen was renovated in 1997/1998 and expanded with new buildings.

Jesuit community

The Jesuit community of Haus HohenEichen includes four fathers and one brother . The house manager is Father Albert Holzknecht SJ, his deputy is Father Willi Lambert SJ. (Status: 2020)

program

Mainly Ignatian exercises are offered , in the form of biblical contemplation exercises and contemplative exercises with the Jesus prayer . Both forms include several hours of meditation each day , one-on-one discussions with a companion, the Eucharist and constant silence . The practitioner can reflect on his relationship with God, his neighbor and himself in silence . The duration of the retreat can vary and is three to thirty days. In addition, there are special forms of retreat, biblical weekends , days of reflection , evening series on various topics, pilgrimages and the offer of spiritual accompaniment. Haus HohenEichen is also open to guest groups and is available to individual guests for time-outs and individually accompanied quiet days. The aim is to convey a spirituality suitable for everyday life to people , which helps them to lead a successful and fulfilled life.

The House

Haus HohenEichen consists of five buildings:

  1. the chapel ,
  2. the original house with chapel, now a guest house with 29 rooms with a total of 39 beds,
  3. the seminar house with reception, offices, dining rooms, meditation room, seminar rooms, library and common room,
  4. the hunter's house with three single rooms, kitchen and bathroom,
  5. the house for the Jesuit community.

The facility is surrounded by a park with tall old trees, a crucifix and stations of the cross . Above the park, the Dresden Elbe slopes extend to the Rockauer Höhe . The patron saint of Haus HohenEichen is St. Francis Xavier , a Jesuit missionary of the 16th century.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ SPIRIT & SPACE. Art and history guide on the 90th anniversary of Haus HohenEichen. Edited 2011 by Father Markus Franz SJ, Haus HohenEichen, p. 18.
  2. ↑ Christoph Kentrup: 80 years of the HohenEichen House, in: Canisius. Communication from the Jesuits, Pentecost 2002, p. 22.
  3. ^ Sächsisches Verwaltungs-Blatt, Dresden, January 16, 1942.
  4. ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the German Jesuits (1814-1983). Vol. 4: 1945-1983. Münster, Aschendorff 2013. p. 242.
  5. ↑ SPIRIT & SPACE. Art and history guide on the 90th anniversary of Haus HohenEichen. Edited 2011 by Father Markus Franz SJ, Haus HohenEichen, p. 26.
  6. ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the German Jesuits (1814-1983). Vol. 4: 1945-1983. Münster, Aschendorff 2013. p. 243.
  7. ↑ Christoph Kentrup, Markus Franz: House HohenEichen - a good soil, in: Jesuiten 2004/3, p. 30.

Coordinates: 51 ° 1 ′ 18.9 ″  N , 13 ° 51 ′ 32.7 ″  E