Hospital of the Holy Spirit (Gudensberg)

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The hospital chapel, the original hospital building (2015)
The former hospital and retirement home in 2015

The Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Gudensberg in the Schwalm-Eder district in northern Hesse was a hospice for the sick and infirm, founded in the 14th century . It is located in the center of Gudensberg between Fritzlarer Straße, the swimming pool path and the traffic roundabout established there in 2005. The Hospital church, popularly known as "almshouse", counts with the 1271 consecrated city church "St. Margarethen ” to the oldest buildings in the city.

Todays use

The original building, which also houses the hospital chapel was located, is still used by the evangelical church as a church and as a community center, while in the 17th and 18th centuries built extensions today, after renovation and remodeling in 1981, ten different sized apartments for include elderly and socially disadvantaged people.

The hospital foundation is still responsible for the institution. Its board consists of four members: the Protestant pastor (as chairman) and the mayor, both by virtue of office, as well as two residents of the city who are appointed by the magistrate for four years (the duration of the election period of the city ​​council ). The district president in Kassel exercises the supervision .

history

The hospital and the chapel were founded in 1365 or shortly before by the Gudensberg castle man Hermann von Elben and his wife Else. This foundation, its property and income base, its organization and task and other details were then established on May 10, 1365 by the Gudensberg bailiff Ekkebrecht von Grifte and the cleric Johann Wiese, who was appointed pastor of the hospital chapel, and with the consent of both The founder and the Gudensberger Burgmannen and aldermen are bindingly regulated. The hospital was supposed to have six places for the sick and as many for the sick, and the hospital priest, who was given a ride in the city, was supposed to hold mass every day .

The first two-storey building made of quarry stone not far from the Untertor outside the city ​​wall on the road to Fritzlar was started and probably also completed in the same year. It contained the hospice and the chapel under one roof. The western part was a two- storey chapel dedicated to the Holy Cross with a small roof turret as a bell tower . Above the entrance on the west facade there is a late Gothic multi-figure stone relief of the crucifix from the early 15th century. The altar was the Holy Spirit , the Holy Cross and the Holy Mary , Elizabeth and Sigismund ordained . The eastern part of the building contained the dormitory on the upper floor with six beds for lepers , who could witness the daily worship through an opening in the inner wall. On the first floor there was the room with six beds for other sick people. The location of the hospital on the road to Fritzlar made it possible for the inmates to receive alms from passers-by using a turntable in the north wall of the building .

At the instigation of later priests Hospital chapel was very soon two more altars, the last in 1414, funded by the priest himself and salvation -Spenden Gudensberger inhabitants. Wall niches in the square room of the chapel covered by a star vault are reminiscent of the location of these altars.

In 1441, as dendrochronological examinations of the wooden beams showed, the hospital wing was expanded to about twice its size to the east.

The chapel; right and left parts of the hospital buildings erected in the 18th century

After the introduction of the Reformation in the Landgraviate of Hesse in 1526, the chapel was profaned , but the basic structure was retained. In December 1531 the hospital was visited and then reorganized by the landgrave commission, which included the theologian Adam Krafft and the administrative specialist Heinz von Lüder and which carried out a visit to all Hessian monasteries , hospitals and infirmaries between 1525 and 1531 . It then continued to exist under city and church supervision, but now had to take in not only the sick but also the poor in the city. The hospital received its actual constitution in 1542; in principle it still applies today.

Over the centuries the hospital was the recipient of numerous endowments and donations, and this, coupled with a growing need for space, ultimately led to the construction of comparatively considerable extensions. A second building was built between 1593 and 1596 to meet the obligation to care for the city's poor. In 1692 this building was replaced by the new building of a retirement home, three small, side-by-side, uniform two-story half - timbered houses with attic houses facing both the street and the courtyard. In 1737 an extension building in the same style was built at the east end with a right-angled extension to the north, and in 1777 another half-timbered house in the same style was added to the west. Until the end of the First World War , the residents of the nursing home were entitled to free accommodation, firewood and some cash. In addition, everyone could cultivate a piece of the hospital gardens, located between today's Breslauer Strasse and the Schloßberg and on Fritzlarer Strasse.

The original structure of the former hospital chapel was a long time by the Protestant church used as Jungendbegegnungsstätte, during the renovation of the town church as a place of worship. From 1977 to 2014, the wind choir "The Original Chattengauer", founded in 1956, was allowed to use the premises as a clubhouse and practice room. In 2004 the rooms were restored in such a way that their historical appearance came to the fore again. In 2012 the actual chapel was extensively renovated. The Protestant church community likes to use this place of worship, because its location makes it easy for older people to reach and it offers a special setting for church services at family celebrations.

literature

  • Bettina Toson: Medieval hospitals in Hesse between Schwalm, Eder and Fulda (= sources and research on Hessian history. 164) Hessian Historical Commission Darmstadt and Historical Commission for Hesse, Darmstadt and Marburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-88443-319-5 , Pp. 37-55.
  • Werner Ide: From Adorf to Zwesten. Local history pocket book for the Fritzlar-Homberg district. Bernecker, Melsungen, 1971, p. 153.
  • Waldemar Küther: Historical local dictionary Fritzlar-Homberg. Elwert, Marburg 1980, ISBN 3-7708-0679-4 , p. 117.
  • Friedrich Dott : The old hospital in Gudensberg. In: Hessischer Gebirgsbote. Volume 72, 1971, pp. 72-73.

Web links

Commons : Hospital zum Heiligen Geist (Gudensberg)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ^ Constitution of the “Hospital zu Gudensberg” foundation of December 11, 1984 (PDF); Noteworthy is the incorrect naming of the year of foundation as 1565.
  2. ↑ The von Elben had acquired the noble lords of Gudensberg in the male line shortly after 1335 after the extinction of their stately fiefdoms , including the castle man's seat on the Obernburg , on the basis of an inheritance contract .
  3. ↑ monasterium.net
  4. ^ A b Hilde Zwingmann: Gudensberg: Faces of a City. Magistrat der Stadt Gudensberg, 3rd edition, Gudensberg, 2000, pp. 48–49 ( bibliothek.uni-kassel.de ).
  5. ↑ a b Ulrike Lange-Michael: 650 years of Gudensberger Hospital: A foundation for the salvation of the soul. In: Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine (HNA). September 22, 2015, accessed February 4, 2020 .
  6. ^ Gerhard Aumüller : Biographical lexicon on nursing history "Who was who in nursing history" . Ed .: Hubert Kolling. 1st edition. tape 4 . Elsevier, Urban and Fischer, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-437-26083-4 , pp. 183 ff . ( books.google.de ).
  7. ↑ Documents from the years 1374 to 1464: Landeskirchliches Fond: Documents Gudensberg (1369–1610) Archive, Evangelical Church of Kurhessen and Waldeck.

Coordinates: 51 ° 10 ′ 39.7 ″  N , 9 ° 21 ′ 49 ″  E