Johanniterkommende Steinfurt
The Johanniterkommende in Steinfurt was founded in the 12th century. It was the leading branch of the Order of St. John in Westphalia and Friesland . Already weakened by the Reformation , it was officially secularized in 1811.
middle Ages
The crusade movement met with a relatively large response in the Lower Rhine-Westphalian region . The Knights Templar hardly played a role, while the Johanniter were able to gain a foothold as early as the 12th century. Of the eleven comrades in the empire who were founded by the beginning of the 13th century, eight were in the Lower Rhine and Westphalia. The Kommende Steinfurt was one of the early foundings.
The original Kommende was in the immediate vicinity of Steinfurt Castle . It was founded well before something like an urban settlement developed. A commander is only recorded for the 1220s, but the foundation probably went back to the end of the 12th century. Nobleman Rudolf von Steinfurt, who himself took part in the third crusade , took the Johanniter under his protection and was together with his brother Bernhard, who was provost of the cathedral in Munster , the founder of the coming. The noblemen of Steinfurt had also made the property available on which the first religious house was built.
They also later supported the order materially through donations. In 1230 they made the so-called Thirteen Poor Foundation for the benefit of the order. Associated with this was the requirement to take care of thirteen poor daily from the convent kitchen. In the same year they transferred a fiefdom called Aahof to the Johanniter. This is where the order moved its seat. This remained the location of the commander. The course is on the Steinfurter Aa south of the castle near the Great Church . Other goods also fell to the order later. In 1270 the noblemen transferred the patronage rights over the Great Church in Steinfurt to the Johanniter. The current background was that Johannes von Steinfurt, a later son of the noble lord Ludolf, had entered the order and moved to the Holy Land . There were seven large farms belonging to this church, which were also extended.
Until around 1400 other nobles donated properties to the establishment. Other patronage rights of churches, including those of Walsum or Laer , were also included. Around 1381/88 they also received patronage from the noblemen of Steinfurt over a chapel in Steinfurt, from which the small church later emerged. During the further development there were at times disputes between the order and the nobles of Steinfurt over the administration of the parish churches. The noblemen and later counts retained a great influence on the coming. This even applies to the appointment of a commander. The relations between the developing city of Steinfurt and the one to come were also good.
Most of the time, the Commander-in-Chief was also the head of the Westphalia Ballei since 1400 . Various branches were founded in Steinfurt, including in Münster in 1282 ( St. John's Chapel ). Relations with those coming in Friesland were particularly close. The branches of the order there probably went back to the initiative of the Commander in Steinfurt. The Komtur in Steinfurt appointed the heads of the committees in Friesland, accepted new members and collected the dues from the houses for the order. Already in 1319 there were efforts of twenty branches in Friesland to free themselves from the suzerainty of Steinfurt. The connection, however, persisted until the time of the Reformation and the Komtur from Steinfurt carried out regular visitations in Friesland.
In 1341 there were 45 people on the Coming. A large part of them were servants of the knight and priest brothers. The rebuilding of the Great Church speaks for a certain prosperity even during this time. The order church had six altars at the end of the 15th century and 14 members of the order lived in the next. Five of them were brother knights and nine were brother priests. The priests also served as pastors in the parish churches. In 1545, in addition to the commander, the community included six knight brothers, the prior and church lord of Steinfurt as well as seven other priests, a deacon and a subdeacon. The members of the convention elected the commander.
After the Reformation
The overall good relationship between the order and the parish ended with the Reformation, after Count Arnold von Steinfurt converted to Protestantism in 1544. The parish asked the order to return the church property. The order brought the valuable church equipment to Münster in 1553 in connection with the campaign of the Duke of Braunschweig. The bitterness grew as the members of the convent used up the income from the parishes without doing anything in return. Care for the poor was also neglected. In 1564 the church was given to the Johanniter by Count Arnold III. withdrawn. From then on, Protestant services were held in the church and the count also claimed the right of patronage for himself. In 1571, when the church utensils were temporarily back in Steinfurt, the townspeople forced them to be handed over. From 1572 onwards, the comrade had a process before the Reich Chamber Court for church property and treasures. It was not until 1603 that the trial ended in defeat. The church utensils were melted down under Arnold IV in 1598 after the county passed to Calvinism .
The religious stance of the convention was at times unclear. Commander Heinrich von Hövel himself converted to Protestantism and married. He was deposed by the leadership of the order and his successor Alexander von Galen seized the commander in a raid in 1584. This also changed denominations. His successor Eberhard von Galen remained true to the old faith and was in constant conflict with the counts. Also because of the warlike events of the time, most of the committees and convent members had lived in Munster since the Thirty Years' War . At the end of the war, Münster also became the official seat of the Westphalian Ballei. From then on, the property in Steinfurt mainly served to supply the members of the order in Münster and was administered by a rent master.
The chapel, built in 1687, received parish rights for the members of the commander. The coming parish was abolished by the Grand Duchy of Berg in 1810. During the French period , the Kommende was the seat of the sub-prefect of the Mairie Steinfurt. The Kommende was officially canceled in 1811. After 1816 ownership fell to the Bentheim-Steinfurt family . Princely servants lived in the buildings.
buildings
The area is surrounded by a wall. The former residential house (called stone house or stone chamber) of the commander is considered to be the oldest building. The building with house number Kommende 13 is essentially medieval and dates back to around 1290/95. In April 2012 it was Monument of the Month in Westphalia-Lippe . It serves as a residential building. Even after the Reformation, construction work continued in the coming years. These essentially coincided with the occupation of the city of Steinfurt by the bishopric of Münster . The gatehouse built in 1606 and the commandery building built in 1670 are also present. A chapel was built in 1687. Today it serves as a residential building. Another building was built in 1721/22. There is no longer a covered walkway from the commander to the south portal of the Great Church. A portal from the 15th century between the coming and the church was bricked up.
Individual evidence
literature
- Bernhard Regelmeier: The Johanniterkommende to Steinfurt . in: Journal for patriotic history and antiquity / 4. Episode, vol. 69 (1911) (also dissertation, University of Münster 1912). PDF
- Sang-Joon Ahn: The property and the church conditions of the Johanniterkommenden in Steinfurt and Wese . In: Roman Czaja and Jürgen Sarnowsky (eds.): The orders of knights as bearers of rule. Territories, property and church (Ordines militares; vol. 14). Toruń 2007, pp. 157–166 (in German and English).
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 8 ′ 35.6 ″ N , 7 ° 20 ′ 28.3 ″ E