Cologne Alexians

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The Cologne Alexians were a Catholic religious order for lay brothers in nursing. They developed in Cologne, as in other cities, especially in the Lower Rhine region and in Brabant from the late medieval Begarden movement . In 1507 the Alexians , who named themselves after their patron saint Alexius von Edessa , were recognized by Pope Julius II as a religious community. In the course of the early 20th century , the Alexians in Cologne founded various branch monasteries. In 1968 they merged with the Alexians from Neuss .

Cologne

Late Middle Ages

The beginnings of the Cologne Alexians are not exactly known, some assume the second half of the 13th century. The focus of her work at that time as Begarden, i.e. as Christian lay people living together , is unclear. What is certain is that later, in addition to providing medical care, they spiritually prepared those sentenced to death for their execution, including witches up until the 17th century. For a time they devoted themselves to caring for the mentally ill. Their first verifiable settlement was in the churchyard of the Benedictine abbey and parish church of St. Mauritius , which still exists today. Soon they left this house and moved into two small houses, which were built on the monastery wall of St. Caecilia and located in Fleischmengergasse, today's old town south . In 1300 they moved to the Erkelenz house in Lungengasse and were referred to by the population as lung brothers based on the street they lived in . The priest Johann von Krefeld, who had joined the community, bought the house and handed it over to her on August 3, 1306.

After the diocesan synod of 1307, the Archbishop of Cologne, Heinrich II. Von Virneburg , commissioned the pastor of St. Aposteln to excommunicate the Lung Brothers . When high-ranking personalities stood up for the Begarden, they were publicly rehabilitated in 1308. In order to provide better legal protection, in 1324 they elected Rutger Overstolz, a patrician of the city, as procurator , who was replaced by a brother four years later. Before the year 1334, some brothers were sent to found a convent in Aachen , from which in 1477 today's Alexian monastery arose. The existence of this monastery has been documented since 1334. This foundation was followed by others in Trier in 1354 and before 1434 in Koblenz . In Cologne, in 1382, the brothers asked the official of the diocese of Cologne, Johannes de Cervo, for a visit to their religious order, i.e. for an official inventory and control of norms. They probably had to pay a significant sum for this, since a few years earlier the Pope had sold the Archbishop of Cologne permission to visit all religious branches in the entire ecclesiastical province in order to improve his heavily burdened finances .

On July 2, 1427 the community gave itself new statutes. Document confirms for April this year 26 brothers who belonged to the house. Also in 1427 the procurator of the Cologne Alexians, brother Johann von Hildesheim, compiled all the documents that had been submitted to the Council of Constance and had them notarized as protection against future persecution, which also represented the beginning of the archive. In 1450 Pope Nicholas V gave them confirmation as an exemter order . The Alexians gave themselves the motto caritas Christi urget nos (We are driven by the love of Christ).

In 1468 the first general chapter of the general order adopted the rule of St. Augustine for the whole order. They therefore turned to their archbishop and asked him to confirm the changes to their statutes and the adoption of the Augustine Rule, which happened on January 2, 1469. Elevated to an ecclesiastical order in 1472 , the Alexians from Cologne took their solemn vows for the first time on January 17, 1473 . Three years later, they turned to the papal legate for Germany, Alexander von Forlì, and asked for permission to build their own chapel, which he granted them in a privilege on April 24, 1476.

After the city ​​council had left the house "Zum Leopard", which was located on Neumarkt , to the Alexians on June 5, 1481 , it also gave them the second half of the house "Zum Klüppel" on November 8, 1484, the first half of which they already had 1336 had acquired. These were leases from the city at the free disposal of the monastery community, which, however, undertook to continue its charitable activities. The city now regarded itself as the patron and founder of the monastery. After the two houses on Neumarkt were acquired, the Alexians began building a chapel which bore the patronage of St. Alexius.

16th Century

This publicly accessible chapel initially had only one altar , but was gradually expanded. An agreement reached on May 15, 1518 between the pastor of St. Aposteln and the brothers shows that she now owned a small turret with a bell. In this document, the religious community was granted the right to own three consecrated altars in the chapel and to keep the Holy of Holies and the holy oils. At the same time, they were allowed to have any clergyman read a public mass in their chapel, as well as to set up a consecrated cemetery for the brothers and all those who died in the house. In return, however, the monastery had to take on some financial obligations and the priest, who was responsible for organizing the monastery service, made a promise not to interfere with the parochial rights of St. Apostles. When the Alexians once failed to comply, the entire parish clergy in Cologne complained to the Vicariate General in 1718 .

The monastery, which also took care of old people, suffered from a worsening financial situation since the middle of the 16th century. At their request, the city gave the brothers a certain amount of support, as a result of which the Alexians increasingly came under the tutelage of the Cologne authorities. In 1546 the brothers first complained to the city council about the broken circumstances of their finances and asked them for help, whereupon the latter instructed his provisional officers to think about the settlement of their financial affairs together with the brothers. In 1566 the financial situation of the house was so bad that many brothers left the monastery and lived in the city. The city council, who regarded themselves as patron , was not willing to accept this situation and asked the brothers living in the city to return to the house or to leave the city. The highly indebted community, however, complained again about their situation, so that the city council provided financial support. After an in-depth investigation, the city council appointed two temporary agents to oversee the monastery finances. The brothers agreed to this measure, which restricted their freedom, as the council also agreed to pay their debts, which amounted to around 1,000 guilders. For years the council dealt in its meetings with the finances of the brothers, who despite everything did not want to recover. After the monastery had already sold a house and started a lawsuit against defaulting debtors, the city council, which tried hard to help the brothers, allowed a collection to pay off their debts in 1593. However, in order to ensure a certain success right from the start, he sent his temporary agents on the tour, as it were to exert pressure on the donors. They must have been quite successful because as early as 1608 they were able to buy a house again. If they had also lost their debts , they no longer lost the supervision of bookkeeping and accounting by the city, which carefully safeguarded and used their “rights”.

17th century

The morality of the order deteriorated, so that in 1601 the brothers received a reprimand from a commission from the Archbishop of Cologne for causing serious inconvenience to the pastors at the funerals through their behavior. The situation did not improve, however, so that in 1613 the visitor asked for a commissioner because he could no longer cope with the grievances in the monastery. Accompanied by three commissioners, the aforementioned visitor made another visit on March 13th of that year. When this did not move anything either, the decision was made to depose the father . Since no one could be found in the convent who could have taken on the position, the deposed Father stayed in his office for another year.

After the situation improved again, the city council forbade the brothers in 1636 from carrying Protestant corpses. When the brothers protested, the ban was soon lifted. During the plague in 1665, all 22 brothers of the convent except Father Gottfried Undorp died while caring for the plague sufferers. When the last two novices died in December of this year , Father Gottfried put the habits of his deceased confreres on the communion bench of the church so that anyone who wanted could take them and join the community. The prescribed entrance fees were waived under these circumstances. Six brothers of the new entrants fell victim to the epidemic in the following year, two in 1667 and five again in 1668. The Convention recovered from these deaths relatively soon, but not entirely from its precarious financial position.

18th century

In 1701 Brother Peter Efferen was elected Father. After initially improving the economic situation and enjoying the trust of the council and its confreres, it soon became clear that they had been mistaken about him. His lifestyle caused anger, his reputation was bad, and he wasted the monastery income. After several brothers complained about him repeatedly to the nuncio , a visit took place on May 27, 1707, which reproached the priest and imposed a penance on him. The behavior of the priest did not improve, so that the visitor, who was now appointed general commissioner by the nuncio, held a provincial chapter on June 10, 1710 to raise discipline. Since neither chapters nor repeated visits changed anything in the situation of the house, the nuncio, at the request of some brothers, carried out a visit himself, which ended with the deposition of the priest. But Peter Efferen had influential friends, who got him reinstated in office with the nuncio on September 13, 1717. He continued his previous behavior unchanged. The Alexians in Aachen and Trier then broke away from Cologne and stated that they only wanted to recognize the Commissioner General as superior. The nuncio felt compelled to inform the Apostolic See of this and proposed an extraordinary visit, which was held from March 4 to 6, 1722. The consequence was the renewed removal of the priest and his deputy. Now finally removed from his office, brother Peter Efferen went to Siegburg , where he died in 1733.

The apostolic commissioner tried to make a few transfers between the branches and thus to reverse the resulting break, but failed because of the resistance of the individual houses. When the father of the Aachen house did not appear at the provincial chapter on June 6, 1722, the feared break was finally completed. In the future, the religious spirit of the Cologne Alexians did not recover, so that the nuncio made a personal visit on June 9, 1751. In his report, he mentioned wearing civilian clothes, using silver tobacco boxes, withholding funds, visiting taverns and being drunk. The nuncio hoped to cure this, among other things, that the brothers had to be in the house early that evening. The visitor was commissioned by the nuncio to thoroughly inculcate the provisions he had made on the brothers, going even further, so that in future the feast days of the community as well as dressing and professions would not last longer than one day and even then only until 8:00 p.m. a limited number of secular guests could be celebrated. From then on, dance, games and women were forbidden in the monastery. When new statutes were issued after an apostolic visitation in 1776, the situation seemed to have improved. Sas monastery, which in 1726 had its exemption expressly activated, received an episcopal monastery commissioner in 1786, whereby they sank to an episcopal congregation and were placed under the supervision of the archbishop. Housing more than a dozen retirees, including two clergymen and several mentally ill, the community counted 19 professed brothers and three novices in 1787, ten of whom were native Cologne.

When the storm of the French Revolution broke out, the Alexians in Cologne were the only male community that was spared from the dissolution . From February 9, 1798, the religious order was no longer allowed to accept novices. The monastery was placed under the supervision of a municipal authority, the administration of the hospitals. This was replaced by the state hospice commission after the revolution.

19th century

In 1800 they had 19 brothers, by 1809 they had fallen to twelve professed brothers and two novices between the ages of 24 and 59. At that time they did not have a hospital ward in their monastery, but they cared for 15 sick people living scattered around the city. At that time they drew an annual income of 11,860 francs from their work and their capital, but this was offset by expenses of 12,000 francs. When the first funeral director opened his business in Cologne, the brothers refused to continue burials, so the city released them from this service on October 25, 1810.

On July 30, 1813, the Alexians received new statutes from the constitutional bishop administrator of Aachen, Johann Dionys le Camus , whereby he already announced his ignorance by the designation Frerés de la miséricorde , i.e. merciful brothers. These statutes dropped the vow of poverty from now on and gave each brother full property rights, and placed the monastery under episcopal authority in all spiritual matters, but under the administration of the hospitals in all secular matters. In the future, the approval of the administrative commissioner had to be obtained for all matters, who was also present at the chief elections and had to confirm the elected. The community even had to obtain his approval for admissions and the taking of vows.

The Congregation , which on June 17, 1813, asked for the statutes to be withdrawn and which they described as completely useless, had now completely become dependent on the state. Despite the new statutes, however, no vows seem to have been taken, as only one of the 12 brothers living in the monastery in 1817 had taken the vows and was wearing the religious clothing. But the household seems to have remained stable in the following years, because in 1825 it still had 12 brothers, five pensioners, a chaplain and four servants.

After Ferdinand August von Spiegel was made Archbishop of Cologne, he tried to regulate the church affairs of his diocese. This also included the Alexian Monastery in Cologne, for which he personally prepared a draft statute and thus hoped to return it to its old state. Spiegel seems to have paid special attention to the Alexians, as he not only dealt personally with the Cologne monastery, but also took care of the affairs of the Neuss monastery, which was officially a branch of Cologne until 1829 . When the new statutes were presented to the convent on February 27, 1826 by the monastery commissioner and the brothers were asked to accept them, two of the brothers set conditions and two refused to accept the new statutes, which require the taking of the vows of obedience and chastity for five years prescribed, completely. A few days later they also left the monastery, so that seven brothers were present for the taking of their vows on March 8th. As a result of the new vows, the head of the monastery was given his traditional official title "Father".

After an agreement between the archbishop and the poor commission, the brothers should be transferred to the city's citizens' hospital. However, since the brothers refused to leave their house, they were offered the former Benedictine convent on Mauritiussteinweg, today's Wolkenburg . They acquired these, together with three fields, on June 17, 1829 at a price of 15,500 Thalers and moved into them in December of the same year. They were able to sell their old monastery for 9,560 Thalers. On December 10th, 1829 Pastor Geistmann inaugurated the chapel of their new home in honor of St. Alexius and St. John of God . The state authorities, which had abstained from any interference in the affairs of the monastery since 1849, allowed the small community to build a new chapel after repeated requests, which they were able to inaugurate on November 12, 1854. In view of the positive development, the monastery commissioner asked again the following year about the willingness of the brothers to open up to perpetual vows . Contrary to the assessment, people in the monastery spoke out unanimously against poverty and against the perpetual vows.

For decades it has been the custom that every brother in the monastery lived and was fed free of charge, but had to pay for the equipment in his cell and the maintenance of his clothes himself. The necessary financial means flowed to him from the maintenance fees, the largest part of which was due to each person personally, and which were increased in the first half of the 19th century from 2 ½ to 7 ½ silver groschen. In 1858 a new wing of the building was added, the lower floor of which housed the laundry room, bakery and brewery , while the upper floor was reserved for the care of the elderly and sick, so that outpatient care was only provided in urgent individual cases. In the same year there were violent disputes between the city and the brothers, in which the poor administration fully claimed their old rights again, but the community tried to defend itself with all means at its disposal. Despite all efforts, the convent soon found itself pushed back within the limits imposed on it by the constitutions of 1826. It was not until 1898, when the community built a new monastery in Cologne-Lindenthal and bought themselves out of the city for 350,000 marks, that the constant tutelage ceased.

There were some changes in religious life in the second half of the century. Cardinal Melchers tried to get the brothers to take the vow of poverty, but failed because of the brothers' resistance. From 1866 onwards, the Archbishop required every new entry that he would agree to join a common brother fund and unconditionally accept any changes in relation to the vow of poverty or the perpetual vows. But that was not the end of the matter, because in 1867 the 15 professed brothers were supposed to comment on this question again. While 13 of the brothers agreed to take the vow of poverty on a trial basis for a period of five years, the two senior citizens never agreed to do so. It was explained to the archbishop's authority that one would take the vows when the monastery was released from state supervision and the two other brothers could remain in the monastery with all rights and duties. This was of course an unacceptable requirement for the episcopal authority, so that the whole thing was postponed again.

From 1874 onwards, the brothers who had joined in 1866 had to combine their assets into a joint fund. Now the ultimate goal of reform was not too far off. In 1886 the community declared itself ready to take the vow of poverty, so that the archbishop could enter into negotiations with the state and the statutes could then be changed in 1888. On May 10, 1894, 13 brothers and three novices, for the period up to August 1895, took the vow of poverty, which they repeated on August 28, 1895 for a period of five years this time. No sooner had the head of the monastery submitted the application to take perpetual vows to the archbishopric on August 18, 1900, when it was already approved, and on September 30, 1900, 15 brothers set off for the first celebration of perpetual vows in 102 years.

During these years of struggle the congregation began to grow numerically, increasing from 11 brothers and two novices in 1891 to 25 professed and ten novices in 1910. As the congregation was now in a steady growth, one saw oneself in the In the 1920s, additional cells were forced to set up in the attic, as it was no longer possible to accommodate other brothers in the motherhouse, especially as they had grown to 130 brothers by 1934, of which around 85 were in the motherhouse.

After there had been renewed disputes with the city in 1891 due to a land register entry in the name of the monastery, the archbishop, Cardinal Philippus Krementz , advised the monastery not to lead a lengthy and expensive process against the city, which would end after all but rather to come to an agreement with the city. Now the community set as a prerequisite for unification the regaining of their freedom from the city supervision, which the city promptly responded to. She offered the brothers 500,000 marks and an 8-acre property in the Cologne suburb of Sülz for their property, which was valued at 930,000 marks . But the congregation declined the city's offer, as they were not ready to move to an area that was still completely undeveloped. The city then made them a second offer in which they wanted to pay them 80,000 marks more instead of a piece of land and to keep the remaining 350,000 marks for the waiver of the right to oversee the community. For the congregation this was a perfectly acceptable offer, and by December 1897 both the archbishop and the royal government in Berlin gave their approval for the undertaking. After the decision was made public in January 1898, the city gave them three years to clear the monastery building.

As early as July 1897, the monastery had acquired 6 ½ acres of building land in the Cologne suburb of Lindenthal, where on May 14, 1898 the groundbreaking ceremony for a new building was done. When there were construction delays, the monastery board asked the city administration to postpone the eviction until May, for which they demanded the very high lease sum of 4,000 marks. Since the city of Cologne was obviously unwilling to accommodate the Alexians, they began to move to the not yet fully completed building on February 21, 1901, seven days before the deadline, made difficult by the chaos and the cold of winter.

20th century

Now the community began to develop into a "modern congregation" and founded its first branch in Eschweiler in 1904 , which was followed by a second in Risa near Mechernich three years later . Their growth stagnated briefly during World War I , when nine brothers served at the front and six brothers in field hospitals and two of them died. Already in 1921 with new statutes, in 1923 they were able to set up their own cemetery within the monastery walls. In the following year the monastery church was raised to parish rectorate , but they resisted for a long time because they saw it as an impairment for themselves.

The community threatened to run into economic difficulties again when another Catholic general hospital was opened in the area, and bed occupancy fell by 43% between 1930 and 1934. So one looked around for alternative medical offers. So it came about that behind the hospital another wing of the building was built for the "mildly mentally ill and mentally ill", and in recent times people have been increasingly asked to accept them. The venture began in 1935, for which, however, various loans had to be taken out.

A visit to the hospital, which was held in 1934 by the medical advisor Stroth, cast a rather sad picture on the house. Although it was described as structurally good, only the heating of the brothers' retreat had to be repaired, but the elevator was described as frightening. The ventilation was portrayed by the Medical Council as so disastrous that it supposedly smelled already. Cleanliness, the women in the house were cleaning the house, and asepsis were insufficient, so that the brothers regularly developed tuberculosis. Spittoons from infectious patients were not disposed of separately, but simply emptied in the trash. The laboratory was kept extremely simple. In his final report, Stroth expressed his suspicion that too much was being pulled out of the hospital, but too little was being put into it. Except for the novice master , it was said, no one showed understanding for the list of shortcomings of the medical council. Rather, one wondered who had incited the otherwise so well-liked man against the monastery. The superior general weighed in innocence and finally complained about the disagreement in the house.

The Third Reich , which came a little later, finally broke the neck of the flourishing community. During the foreign exchange processes of 1933, the hospital's bookkeeping was strictly controlled and when it was finally believed that a mistake had been discovered, the superior general was taken into protective custody, but had to be released shortly afterwards due to lack of evidence. Two years later, investigations began to uncover moral offenses in the house. The superior general refused to make incriminating statements, banging his fist on the table, and asserted that he would rather be shot than make a false statement out of fear. There was nothing incriminating to be found in the house itself. But the brothers were not yet rehabilitated and the moral allegations continued, so that another visit was scheduled for July 7, 1936. However, this had to be postponed to the 9th of the month at short notice, as the superior general announced by telephone that the Gestapo was in the house. Since there were still two costumes on March 3, 1937, the events surrounding the congregation must have come thick and fast.

In the course of the morality trials against members of the religious order and priests under National Socialism , 46 Alexians from Cologne were sentenced to prison terms in 1937.

At the beginning of June there were deliberations regarding a dissolution of the congregation, which was no longer tenable due to "known incidents". At the request of the Secret State Police, or Gestapo for short, it was decided that the hospital would be taken over by a community of sisters. In one-to-one conversations with each brother about his supply options and wishes for a possible dissolution of the congregation, one had to negotiate several times with most of the brothers. If they did not want to change to another religious community, those who had left were to be financially compensated according to the number of years they had spent in the order, but the remaining brothers should move to Siegburg.

In a letter dated May 13, 1937, the Archbishop of Cologne, Karl Joseph Cardinal Schulte , applied to the Religious Congregation in Rome to dissolve the cooperative. In it the archbishop reported that after a visitation in 1934 a Jesuit had been appointed, but the general and moral conditions had by no means improved. Even a visitation carried out in June 1936 by the cathedral capitular Höller and two religious priests did not result in any positive change in the situation. Since there were numerous young brothers in the congregation who were not suitable for the religious order, who entered due to unemployment and delicta turpia (moral offenses ) had occurred, this step would now be initiated after careful consideration. The answer from the Congregation for Religious in Rome came quickly and instructed the Archbishop in a letter of May 25 of the same year to “suppress and extinguish the Congregation” . As ordered, all postulants, novices and temporary professed were immediately released from the congregation, but the perpetual professed were advised to leave the community. As planned, the brothers left the city and retired to Siegburg. The hospital itself was handed over to the Cellitinnen from Antonsgasse, who signed the necessary lease agreement with them on August 9, 1937. Only seven old and sick brothers were allowed to stay in the house after removing their religious robes. Of the 66 brothers at the turn of 1937, only 29 remained. There was no resistance to any of this. The superior general - a willing tool in the hands of the diocesan administration, easily manageable, as he had already proven in earlier times.

Even before the Second World War , Cardinal Schulte had proposed a union between the Neussers and the Cologne Congregation, but this project had to be postponed for war reasons. Since most of the brothers who were left after the dissolution of the fellowship were rather old, the number of brothers decreased to 15 by 1951. In 1960 the community had only seven members. Although the Cologne brothers were already in negotiations with the Steyler Fathers (SVD) and the Siegburg Benedictines, the Superior General of the Neuss Alexian Brothers, Father Paulus Parensen, offered them a union of the two congregations in 1958. At the urging of the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Josef Frings , this offer was accepted unanimously by the community on November 25, 1960, whereupon a letter from the Apostolic See of April 25, 1963 empowered the Archbishop to carry out the merger.

In the following years, however, there seems to have been abductions, so that a letter from 1967 says that there is a spirit of fearfulness and uncertainty in the monastery and that the brothers always withdrew to relatives and acquaintances on occasion. Even if the letter threatened the possibility of a complaint to the Religious Congregation in Rome, which, according to Schreiber, was not to be expected from the five brothers who were still alive, the current acceleration of the matter, which was brought about by the unification decree of November 8, 1967 was completed, probably not due to this letter. After the unification was celebrated in 1968 with a joint general chapter of the now merged congregations of Neuss and Cologne / Siegburg, the last Alexian from Cologne died in 1987, brother Eduard Hostadt.

Branch monasteries

Eschweiler

On May 1, 1904, the superior general, brother Dominikus Loweg, rented an apartment in Eschweiler Peilsgasse with seven living rooms and two attic rooms, which also included a small garden. Here he founded the first branch of the Cologne Alexians, the Alexian monastery in Eschweiler , with the purpose of outpatient nursing. On November 3rd, 1904, the first three brothers, Ignatius Glasmacher, Laurentius Walter and Sebastianus Ramm, moved in. Since the residents of Eschweiler did not know the house and the work of the brothers, they found almost no employment in their professional activity in the beginning. Even if a sick person used her help here and there, her income was far from being secured. In July 1906 the congregation acquired a 70.62 acres plot of land on Poststrasse (from 1935: Jülicher Strasse), on which a house was to be built that would also accommodate around 30 pensioners. After the groundbreaking ceremony on March 16, 1908, the monastery, which was consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the request of Archbishop Antonius Cardinal Fischer , was already open on April 22, 1909. But the small community also went through difficult times in the future, so that in its poverty it had to be provided with what it needs by some benefactors. Over time, however, the house established itself, so that in 1936 six brothers worked here in outpatient nursing and caring for 20 retirees. A visit that was also carried out this year confirmed that the branch had a good atmosphere. When the congregation was abolished in the coming year, the house was only with two brothers at the end of the year, but an early dissolution of the branch was not possible because the care of the pensioners had to be guaranteed. After the Congregation had been negotiating with the Cologne Ursulines since August 1943 regarding a handover of the house, it concluded this contract on December 31 of that year. After the approval of the same was given on February 12, 1944, the brothers left the house immediately and handed it over to the sisters. When the Ursulines had left the house, the Eschweiler Mining Association followed them as tenants on March 5, 1956 . On January 1, 1960, the building and land were leased to a manufacturer who later bought it for DM 110,000  . A few years later the building was demolished. Today the little street in the cloister garden reminds of the Eschweiler monastery.

Risa

With the establishment of the second branch, the St. Rochus Home in Risa near Mechernich in the Eifel, the brothers were supposed to be able to relax. In 1907, for example, the monastery commissioner drew the community's attention to a property belonging to the Mechenich Mining Association for sale, which consisted of a residential building, six acres of parkland and about six hectares of meadows and farmland. Acquired after a visit, in the course of the following years some lands adjoining the property were acquired, so that the entire property grew to a size of about 46 acres and was looked after by six brothers as early as 1909. During his visitation in 1906 the visitor found that it was quite difficult to get a look inside the house. This didn't seem to have been completely denied to him after all, as he found out that almost the entire monastery business took place in the kitchen during the day. There were also other complaints, as the exam was often broken and guests ate together with the brothers in the refectory. Brother Francis, the senior of the house, complained about the weak religious spirit of the small community, which had not been able to celebrate weekday mass in the house for a year or two, so that they had to attend it in the surrounding villages. In order to counteract the bad financial situation and to achieve an increase in income, some nursing cases were started to be included in the house, but this did not change anything about the "increasingly apparent deterioration" of the property and thus provoked the general management's displeasure. Since the local brothers were of greater use after an expansion of the motherhouse in Cologne, an application was made to the Vicariate General for the sale of the house in 1936 and the branch was closed shortly afterwards.

Siegburg

In order to ensure the proper supply of the parent company in Cologne, the idea of ​​acquiring their own farm for agriculture and livestock had been toyed with for some time. When in 1930 the opportunity arose for a relatively cheap acquisition of one in the knight's seat "Zur Mühlen" near Siegburg, this opportunity was taken. This house, like the community itself, had a long history. Possibly already in 1060 with the associated mill compulsory right in the possession of the abbey Siegburg, the house was outside of the Siegburg castle ban and the Vogtei Wolsdorf in the area of ​​the office Blankenberg. After it was first mentioned in 1312, when it was still in the possession of the St. Michael Abbey of Siegburg, its owner, the knight Johann von Attenbach , was granted mill compulsory rights by the Duke of Berg in 1369 for the judicial district of Wolsdorf and the villages of Kaldauen, Schneffelrath, the Höfe an der Heide, Rodenbach, Schmitthof, Leyhorst and Junkersbroich.

When the von Attenbach family died out, the castle house, made of tuff stone and with towers, fell to von der Reven in the 16th century, who in turn sold it in 1618 to von Gevertzhagen, Lords of Attenbach. After the last member of the family died in the siege of Kaiserswerth in 1690, the inheritance fell to Philipp Adolf von Wittmann after the death of his widow. However, since he later became mentally ill and the property was completely run down by the administrator, the property was auctioned off. The new owner became Raban Wilhelm von Wecus on April 26, 1735, who moved the chapel outside of the house on the site of today's Heiligenhäuschen Johänneken von Troisdorf and his son died here in 1799. Heir was his daughter Elise, who in turn was married to the Cologne art collector Everhard Oswald Freiherr von Mering. Her son, the historian Dr. phil. Friedrich Everhard von Mering, described the house in which he spent his childhood as follows: “You can only get to the front door via a stone bridge.” He dates the Empire-style house, which he describes as having a large garden and Surrounded by ponds, to the year 1760. After it fell to his son-in-law, the Russian staff commander von Kezelli, as an inheritance, it came into the possession of Johann Neuhöffer in 1827.

The owner carousel was now turning faster and faster, because in 1845 the topographer JP Weyer, in 1846 von Klitzing and in 1857 finally the princes of Salm-Horstmar were the owners. On September 20, 1902, a tragic incident occurred when the tenant of the farm shot his wife and steward to death. After his acquittal, he had committed the act in a state of lack of will, committed to the provincial insane asylum.

The house, which until about 1806 had a seat in the Bergisch Landtag and was included in the Rhenish provincial estates as a manor in the 19th century, finally found its last owner and was sold to the Cologne Alexians on July 1, 1930 for 300,000 gold marks. In the same year, the community began building a chapel, which was consecrated to St. Joseph on April 2, 1931. A new farm building, a monastery building and a ward for about 100 patients were tackled shortly afterwards and soon completed. One can say that the Mühlenhof fulfilled its purpose to the full satisfaction of its operators, especially since when the Congregation of the Cologne Alexian Brothers was abolished in 1937, the 25 remaining brothers withdrew here. After the house was temporarily converted into a military hospital, one of the wings of the building was leased to the city of Siegburg on July 1, 1941, which housed an isolation ward for their hospital here. With this concession, the small community believed that it had finally escaped repeal or expropriation, which was a mistake. In mid-July 1942, however, the congregation was urged to sell the house to the National Socialist city administration. Fortunately, with the help of a lawyer friend, it was possible for the brothers to postpone a decision until the end of the war, so that the Congregation avoided the loss of its last settlement and thus possible homelessness. Even if the house was at the heart of the battlefield in the last days of the war, it was largely spared. But the war cost many a casualty, as there were six brothers who died in the war and numerous brothers who were taken prisoners of war in England or the Soviet Union, some of whom did not come home until 1949.

In the first post-war years still maintained by 17 brothers, the convent shrank to four brothers by 1968. Since the brothers were all older, after the union with the congregation of the Neuss Alexian Brothers, some brothers were sent from Neuss to Siegburg, where they were supposed to strengthen the small convent. The management also passed into the hands of a Neuss brother who was supposed to make the business, which had been badly run down in recent years, profitable again. We cannot say exactly how far he succeeded, as the buildings were completely outdated and the regular victims of smaller fires. Former Neuss patients and "home residents" were housed in the cloister section above an archway, so that a closed cloister area was not set up again until the 1980s, but now on the second floor of the manor house. It is true that the house's three-person convent in 1984 was completely out of date; the youngest member was the 68-year-old superior, but the other two were already 78 and 82 years old. But it was soon to develop into the youngest of all Alexianer branches and in 1987, after the novitiate was moved from Neuss to Siegburg, it grew to four brothers and four novices. After the agricultural buildings were finally a victim of the flames in the previous year, a retirement home for around 100 residents was built on the site of the former business enterprise and the Empire-style mansion was converted into a purely enclosed building. When the convent was broken up in the first third of the 1990s due to resignations and transfers, the province moved the novitiate to Aachen in March 1994 and left only one brother in the Haus zur Mühlen. However, extensive renovation and conversion work began in the house as early as 2002, as the novitiate was supposed to return to Siegburg again, which then did not happen.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Hans Günter Hockerts: The Morality Processes Against Catholic Members of the Order and Priests 1936–1937 , Mainz 1971, p. 48.
  2. History of Alexi Ander monastery of St. Joseph. (No longer available online.) Association of Friends and Patrons of the St. Josef Monastery and Retirement Home, Siegburg eV, formerly the original ; Retrieved April 18, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.sanktjosef.org