Cologne Charterhouse
The Cologne Charterhouse was a branch of the Carthusian Order in Cologne's Severinsviertel . Founded in 1334, it developed over the centuries into the largest German Charterhouse and one of the most respected monasteries of its order, until it was forcibly dissolved when the French troops marched into Cologne in 1794. The preserved and partially reconstructed building complex is located in the Cologne-Altstadt-Süd district ; the Kartäuserkirche has belonged to the evangelical parish of Cologne since 1928.
History of the Cologne Charterhouse
Prehistory and foundation
Before the founding of the Cologne Charterhouse, there were already 113 Kartausen across Europe, including 30 in Germany, but none in the Archdiocese of Cologne. Walram von Jülich , who became Archbishop of Cologne in 1332, had already got to know and appreciate the work of the Carthusians before he took office in France. In the nearby dioceses of Mainz and Trier , Carthusian monks had been founded since 1312 and 1321/1322, and the founder of the order, Bruno , was born in Cologne. It was founded in an epoch of mystical piety, which generally gave the Carthusian order a heyday and in which Carthusian monks increasingly settled in urban milieus without giving up their secluded life.
On December 6, 1334 Archbishop Walram issued the deed of foundation for the Cologne Charterhouse, which stated:
- “We, Walram, by God's grace Archbishop of the Holy Church of Cologne and Arch Chancellor of the Holy Kingdom for Italy, make it known to all who read this document that we are for the healing of our souls and for the sake of the special favor with which we are part of the Carthusian Order are fond of, have made the following arrangement so that this order grows in our diocese and we are continually remembered in this order: For the construction of the monastery church and a monastery of this order in our city of Cologne, we hereby assign the prior [...] the income of 100 Maltern wheat annually to [...] Given in Cologne, in the year 1334, on the day of St. Bishop Nicholas. "
Since 1389 the “Sencte Mertinsvelt” in the southern Cologne Severinsviertel has been handed down as the place for the Charterhouse. According to legend, this decision was suggested to Archbishop Walram by Saint Martin himself in a dream. A small chapel dedicated to Saint Barbara has existed on the property since around the beginning of the 13th century , which has now been renovated with additional financial support from the Cologne patrician families Scherffgin and Lyskirchen . The Lyskirchen and Overstolz families also donated additional arable land so that the material prerequisites for the start of the religious order were created.
This was the last monastery to be founded in Cologne until the 16th century.
Difficult economic development in the first few years
At the beginning of February 1335 the first six Carthusian monks and their leader ("Rector") Johannes von Echternach moved from Mainz to Cologne. The patronage of Saint Barbara was taken over by the monks from the existing chapel, but a few decades later they handed over the existing relics to the neighboring Minorites .
The task of the first monks was to erect the most necessary buildings for the maintenance of the new charterhouse. With the support of other donations and foundations, in 1338 the charterhouse was officially incorporated into the order. Johannes von Echternach was replaced as first prior at the General Chapter in the same year by Heinrich Sternenberg. The first self-elected prior of the Cologne Carthusians was Stephan von Koblenz.
Economically, the Charterhouse was initially on a weak foundation. Bishop Walram had promised more than he could keep for the Charterhouse in the years that followed. Armed conflicts strained his budget, so the monks were dependent on other foundations from wealthy Cologne residents. The individual foundations and the resulting obligations for the Charterhouse were documented in “benefactor books”, which have been preserved in the historical archive of the city of Cologne until the present day .
For years there were bitter disputes over benefices with the neighboring St. Severin Abbey , whose income was affected by the new Charterhouse. Numerous details about the contracts with St. Severin have been handed down and provide information about the material constraints of the Charterhouse:
- "5. the annual funerals of strangers within the monastery walls are fixed at two, at most three. The thesaurary of St. Severin is to receive the third part of gifts or bequests relating to movable goods that fall to the monastery as a result of a funeral . "
When Bishop Walram died in 1349, the situation became even more precarious; The next few years, however, brought a higher reputation and thus wealthy novices to the Charterhouse, which increased the monastery’s assets, but also ran out of living space and church space. The blueprint for the expansion of the Charterhouse and the construction of the church was then drawn up and remained valid until the 16th century. Foundations for the construction of a new church have been documented since 1354, and in 1354 Emperor Charles IV had also granted duty exemption on building materials, which points to the start of construction around these years. The inheritance of the canon Johannes von Brandenburg, who bequeathed an adjacent, built-up property to the monks in 1365, created space for a new chapter house with library and for the further expansion of the church.
At the beginning of the 15th century the initial crisis was finally overcome. Neither the occidental schism nor the plague had fundamentally shaken the Charterhouse; In 1393 the new Carthusian Church was consecrated, the basic form of which has been preserved to this day, and St. Barbara experienced an upswing that made it one of the richest monasteries in Cologne.
Expansion and heyday
The Carthusian Church was rebuilt and consecrated during the tenure of Prior Hermann von Deventer. After the consecration, an unusually large number of altars are erected in the monastery church and these are decorated in a splendid manner, which was quite unusual for a Carthusian church, as it was normally only allowed one altar. One explanation for this is the large number of priest monks who were obliged to read mass every day .
In addition to further expansions to the Carthusian Church, including the Angel and Mary Chapel, work on the monastery buildings continued according to the plan - always supported by foundations. It is believed that the first modest cells and buildings were made of wood and half-timbering, which have only now been gradually replaced by a refectory, cloister and 25 cells made of masonry.
One of the main activities of the monks, who lived in strict contemplation, was working on books and manuscripts. Through book foundations and the entry of wealthy and educated men into the Charterhouse, which brought in entire libraries, St. Barbara owned one of the most extensive manuscript collections in medieval Cologne by the middle of the 15th century. Each cell was equipped with a workstation where the monk could copy writings - unlike in other monastery libraries, the copyists did not have to work directly in the library, but were allowed to take the templates with them into their cell.
The Cologne Carthusians must also have gained a reputation within the overall order, because their prior Roland von Luysteringen was sent to the Council of Constance as a representative of the order . Pope Martin V freed the Cologne Charterhouse from archbishopric jurisdiction in 1425, so that St. Barbara was directly subordinate to the Pope ever since.
The ambitious monastery life was suddenly interrupted when a devastating fire on November 6, 1451 completely destroyed the chapter house and chapter house as well as the adjoining buildings, with them the entire library - with the exception of the writings that were currently being processed in the monks' cells.
Restoration and other foundations
Thanks to generous donations to the Charterhouse - here the rector of Cologne University, Peter Rinck is primarily mentioned - the chapter house and library were able to be rebuilt within two years. It took much longer for St. Barbara to recover from the financial and ideal loss of books and manuscripts. However, there was a very targeted effort to get the lost treasures back. New manuscripts were acquired or lent and copied by their own copyists or even wage clerks. The prior Hermann von Appeldorn (1457–1472) is considered to be the driving force in this period of reconstruction; on his death he was honored as “reformer et recuperator huius domus” because of his economic fate. During his priory not only was a large part of the library renewed, but also a new gatehouse was built and Master Christoph painted a picture for the angelic altar of the Carthusian Church. From 1447 to 1502, Werner Rolevinck wrote a widespread universal history and a history of old Saxony in the Cologne Charterhouse.
Even before the Carthusian monastery had a significant economic upturn, the prior Johannes Castoris was appointed by Pope Pius II in 1459 as abbot of the Cologne Abbey of St. Pantaleon , which was heavily indebted. With this unusual measure of converting to the Benedictines, St. Pantaleon was to be reformed and returned to the “right path”, a testament to the high reputation and trust that the Charterhouse enjoyed within the church through its consistently adhered to religious discipline and way of life.
The successors of the Priore Appeldorn and Castoris followed the chosen path and brought the Charterhouse further forward - under Johann von Bonn (1476–1507) there was again significant construction activity, especially in the lay areas such as the kitchen and pantries, but also with the decoration of the church record. By the end of the 15th century, the Carthusian monastery library had grown to 500 volumes again and the Carthusian Church had two new triptychs by the master of the Bartholomew Altar , which are considered masterpieces of European painting and are now exhibited in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum .
Age of Reformation
At the beginning of the 16th century there was both a printing and a bookbinding shop in the Charterhouse. The sacristy was completed in 1511, probably in 1537 the large cloister and a cemetery cross. The structural development of the facility was thus completed for the time being.
Formative for the first half of the 16th century and the beginning of the Reformation was the priory of the Dutchman Peter Blommeveen , who joined the Cologne Charterhouse in 1489 after studying at Cologne University and had headed it since 1507. During his tenure, the founder of the order, Bruno, was canonized and, like other Carthusian monasteries, the Cologne Carthusian monastery received some of the relics he had found in 1502. Aegidius Gelenius recorded in his 1645 directory of the church treasures of the Charterhouse among numerous other relics “two parts of the skull of St. Bruno”.
Under Blommeveen, a small extension was built towards the Carthusian Wall in order to enable women, who were strictly forbidden to enter the monastery, to seek advice from the prior as pastors.
When the Reformation that began after 1517 brought about an era of upheaval and unrest, many monks also resigned from Carthusian monasteries. While a single Charterhouse - in Nuremberg - dissolved completely, the Cologne Charterhouse remained true to its strict principles; Blommeveen published his own writings in defense of the Catholic faith and published the writings of his friar Dionysius van Leeuw , who had developed his own approaches to church reform. The Carthusian monks - since they did not appear as preachers because of their vow of silence - opposed the Reformation with Catholic beliefs in writing.
Blommevenen's successor, Gerhard Kalckbrenner, supported the Jesuit order when it settled in Germany for the first time and ensured that the well-known Beguine and mystic Maria von Oisterwijk , with whom he was on friendly terms, could settle in Cologne and that her works were printed. Likewise, the Cologne Carthusian Johannes Justus von Landsberg published works by the mystic Gertrud von Helfta . At that time the Jesuit preacher Petrus Canisius was closely connected to the Carthusians . He persuaded the hagiographer Laurentius Surius to join the order.
The centuries up to secularization
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the building activity of the Charterhouse was limited to restoration and the decoration of the church rooms. Johannes Reckschenkel from Trier, who became prior in 1580, created not only his own writings but also some paintings in the sacristy and ensured better hygienic conditions in the monks' cells. Despite declining foundations, around 1630 the Cologne Charterhouse with 23 brothers was the largest settlement of their order in Germany and new altars, windows and choir stalls were built for the new, baroque interior of the church. Some roofs were renewed, dilapidated living cells replaced and around 1740 a larger, three-winged brothers building was built facing the street.
The Charterhouse library had grown by 1600 into one of the largest and best libraries in all of Cologne; a location catalog from 1695 lists 6,600 volumes, in the 18th century there were almost 8,000 volumes. Already in the 18th century there was a decline in the inventory due to the sale of manuscripts, but the final end of the library and the entire Charterhouse was heralded on October 6, 1794, when the French troops occupied Cologne.
A few weeks after the invasion, on October 23, Prior Martin Firmenich received the order that the Charterhouse should be evacuated within 24 hours, since it was to serve as a military hospital. The attempt was in vain to save the most valuable pieces of the church treasure, but looting, emergency sales and destruction ensured that books and art objects were scattered, except for the archive, which was removed early.
From 1794 until the final dissolution of all monasteries and monasteries as part of the secularization in 1802, the Carthusian monks lived in an emergency shelter in today's Martinstrasse 19-21, which the Cologne mayor Johann Jakob von Wittgenstein had made available to them. After that some looked for a pastor's position or tried to earn a living in some other way.
Use of the Charterhouse by the Prussian administration
In contrast to other monasteries, the buildings of the charterhouse were initially preserved through its conversion as a military hospital over the years of secularization. In 1810 they passed into the possession of the city of Cologne by decree, which they, however, ceded to the Prussian military treasury in 1816/17 in exchange for other properties. It was only from this time that the considerable destruction began. The brother building served again as a hospital, the remains of the cloister as a laundry room, church and chapter house as an artillery depot , horse stable and coach house . In 1827, twelve yokes remained from the Great Cloister, everything else was removed. Altars and rood screens disappeared, windows were bricked up and, if necessary, broken into the masonry. Debris was thrown into wells and rubble stones were used from burial chambers and tombs to wall up the church windows. Not only the religious, but also the architectural and art-historical importance of the Charterhouse and above all the Charterhouse Church was completely lost from public awareness by the end of the 19th century.
It was not until 1894 that cathedral builder Ludwig Arntz drew attention to the existence and condition of the complex in an article in the magazine for Christian art . Nevertheless, the situation hardly changed even after the First World War, when the Prussian-owned buildings were transferred to the Reich property administration: wounded soldiers were quartered again, and parts of the buildings were empty.
The Carthusian Church becomes a Protestant church
After the First World War, the use of the Charterhouse as a military hospital ended and a discussion began about its continued use. At the same time there was a dispute over the continued use of the Romanesque church of St. Pantaleon , which had served as a Prussian - Protestant - garrison church since 1818 and thus also served as a church for the civil Protestants in Cologne. The Catholics demanded it back from the War Ministry after the Prussian garrison had withdrawn, and in 1921 they were successful through a ministry decree. As compensation, the Protestant community was to receive 200,000 marks in paper money. With inflation just beginning, this was hardly seen as an adequate compensation. The suggestion made by District President Philipp Brugger in 1919 to use the unused Carthusian Church for the Protestant community has now been taken up again. Because of the increasing inflation, the renovation work dragged on; the restoration was completed in 1928 and the old Carthusian church was consecrated as a Protestant church on September 16 of the same year. The Cologne-South tax office moved into the former brothers' building.
Second World War: Destruction and Reconstruction
In the early years of the World War, the Charterhouse was initially largely spared from air raids. The last major attack on March 2, 1945 caused extensive damage: the majority of the church, chapter house, cloisters and priory were ruined, and the outer wall facing Kartäusergasse disappeared completely. The newer brother building was also devastated.
In a makeshift way, a church service room was prepared in the remaining ruins - the evangelical community had grown with the influx of evangelical expellees and refugees. On August 19, 1945 the first service was celebrated in the "rubble church" and in December a new presbytery was elected. As a result, the church and parts of the area were rebuilt in three construction phases by 1953. The destroyed outer wall facing Kartäusergasse was rebuilt by community members in joint work. The brothers' building, which was used as a tax office before the war, was now used by the Evangelical City Church Association.
By 1955, parts of the two cloisters were restored from a historical conservation point of view - a complete reconstruction would not have been financially feasible. A reconstruction of the chapter house was initially out of the question for the same reasons, the reconstruction dragged on until 1985.
West side
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Monastery garden, cloister u. Chapter house
refectory
Chapter House
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Charterhouse library
The monastery library of the Cologne Carthusian monastery was the largest and most well-kept library in Cologne at the end of the 15th century and for much of the modern era . Construction began soon after the monastery was founded. The Carthusian monks' special interest in their library results from their strict law of silence:
- "We wish that the books, as it were, are guarded with great care as the eternal nourishment of our souls and that they are produced with great zeal so that we can proclaim the word of God, if not with our mouth, at least with our hands (writing)" .
One focus of the Cologne Carthusians was on preserving the writings by copying them: after the library had burned down completely in 1451, some of the books were only preserved because the copying activity was so brisk that texts were also taken to the monks' cells. In particular after the monastery fire, when the rebuilding of the library was a top priority, additional wage clerks were hired. Instead of parchment paper was used and elaborate illustrations were dispensed with - the focus was on copying texts quickly. Among the otherwise mostly anonymous Carthusian writers , Peter Kaltyseren and Heinrich von Dissen were named as outstanding copyists . In the 1748 catalog, 46 manuscripts by Heinrichs Hand are mentioned.
After the reconstruction of the monastery, the handling and work with the books was regulated in Hugo Loher's library regulations. On January 13, 1538, he began to keep a booklet he called “Registrum”, which was a kind of protocol for the librarians. In addition, in 1538 he wrote a set of rules for the library covering the duties of the librarian, lending books to outsiders and behavior in the library (“de officio librarii”, “que debeant observari in accomodatione librorum externis”, “de legibus seu moribus fratrum in libraria servandis ”and“ modus recipiendi libros temporibus laborum communium ”). These rules include such things as library cleanliness, which the librarian must maintain, the reliable lending of books which the librarian must keep watch over, and the protocol which he must keep. The monks, on the other hand, were not allowed to pass on books, they had to protect them in the cells from smoke, rain and worms and they should also take care that the books were treated with care. In addition, a kind of "inventory" was regulated, the library revision, for which all books had to be returned and re-borrowed. The fact that there was also a brisk lending activity, which is documented in the registry, shows that external contacts also played an important role for the Cologne Carthusian Order, although lending for monastery libraries was rather unusual.
In the course of the existence of the library, various inventory catalogs were made. The first catalog is attested in a usage regulation from the 16th century:
- Nobody should leave the library catalog ... open, nor put it near the window.
These usage regulations were issued under Prior Gerhard Kalckbrenner, who worked in the Carthusian Order of Cologne between 1536 and 1566. This catalog is no longer available.
On the other hand, a site catalog from 1695 can be viewed. This shows that in around 60 years the library's holdings had grown from 6,600 to around 7,800 books and manuscripts. It can also be seen that the holdings were divided into 14 subject groups, with the subject group “asceticism and mysticism” being the largest subject group with 20 percent of the volumes collected. It should be noted, however, that there were also very small-format volumes among them, which was sometimes less the case in other subject groups.
In order to obtain information about the actual holdings of the Carthusian monastery library, the catalog from 1748, which is arranged alphanumerically according to the first name of the authors and decorated with a large title page, is easier to use.
These catalogs, especially the catalog from 1748, prove that the Cologne Carthusians were resolute opponents of the Reformation: Reformation writings by Martin Luther or Johannes Calvin were completely forbidden, writings by Philipp Melanchthon or Ulrich Zwingli were only found as appendices to other books. Represented on the other hand were John Eck , Johannes Fabri , Johann Cochlaeus and Frederic Nausea , all Catholic opponents of the Reformation. Around 40 volumes were found by Eck alone.
The close and friendly relationship between the Carthusian monks in Cologne and the Jesuit order was also reflected in the library holdings of the 16th and 17th centuries: while theologians of the Franciscan and Dominican order only recorded a few writings, the catalogs contained significantly more works by Jesuit scholars such as Franz Suarez .
Statements can also be made about the Carthusian attitude towards philosophy. Although Plato and Aristotle showed partial opening for humanism , large parts of the scholastic and the complete non-scholastic philosophy are missing. In 1695, philosophy did not have its own subject group, but was represented in the “Other Sciences” section with a few works.
There were also more serious works by Cicero , Virgil and Seneca alongside comedies by Terenz and Plautus . There was a disagreement within the Carthusian Order about views on secular literature: A note in the catalog of locations says that a book should be removed because it was obscene, and another monk deleted this note. A large number of classical Latin texts and resources for the Latin language, such as dictionaries, can be explained with a preference for the polished style that monks copied from authors of classical antiquity. Indications for this are, for example, continuous style smoothing in one's own writings: It was believed that this paved the way for thought to become educated.
literature
in order of appearance
- Christel Schneider: The Cologne Charterhouse from its foundation to the end of the Middle Ages (= publications of the Historical Museum of the City of Cologne , issue 2). Peter Hanstein Publishing House, Bonn 1932.
- Paul Clemen (Hrsg.): The art monuments of the Rhine province . Seventh volume, III. Department: The Church Monuments of the City of Cologne. L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1934.
- Joseph Greven: The Cologne Charterhouse and the beginnings of the Catholic reform in Germany . From the estate of the author with his portrait, edited by Wilhelm Neuss (= Catholic life and struggles in the age of religious schism , vol. 6). Aschendorff, Münster 1935.
- Rainer Sommer (Ed.): The Charterhouse in Cologne. Commemorative publication of the Evangelical Community of Cologne on the 50th anniversary of the dedication of the Carthusian Church in Cologne to the Evangelical Church on September 16, 1978. Cologne 1978.
- Werner Schäfke (Ed.): The Cologne Charterhouse around 1500. Volume of articles, Cologne City Museum, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-927396-37-0 .
- Werner Schäfke (Ed.): The Cologne Charterhouse around 1500. Guide to the exhibition, Cologne City Museum, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-927396-38-9 .
- Bruno Kammann: The St. Barbara Charterhouse in Cologne (1334 to 1953) continuity and change. A contribution to the church and city history of Cologne (= Libelli Rhenani: Writings of the Archbishop's Diocesan and Cathedral Library on Rhenish Church and State History as well as Book and Library History , Vol. 33). Archbishop's Diocesan and Cathedral Library, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-939160-24-3 .
- Harald Goder: Cologne , in: Monasticon Cartusiense , ed. by Gerhard Schlegel, James Hogg, Volume 2, Salzburg 2004, 577-588.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christel Schneider, The Cologne Charterhouse from its Foundation to the End of the Middle Ages, Cologne 1932, p. 13
- ↑ Rainer Sommer: The Cologne Charterhouse 1334-1928. in: The Charterhouse in Cologne. Festschrift, Cologne 1978, p. 19
- ↑ quoted from Rita Wagner: A little history of the Cologne Charterhouse St. Barbara, in: The Cologne Charterhouse around 1500. A journey into our past. Guide to the exhibition, Cologne 1991, p. 30
- ↑ Quoted from Christel Schneider: The Cologne Charterhouse ... p. 62
- ↑ Ludwig Arntz: Kartäuserkirche - building history. In: Paul Clemen, Die Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz, Volume VII. Section III: The Church Art Monuments of the City of Cologne, Cologne 1934, p. 142
- ↑ Rita Wagner: A little story ... p. 35
- ↑ Rita Wagner: A little story ... p. 37
- ↑ Rita Wagner, A Little Story ... p. 40
- ↑ Rainer Sommer: The Cologne Charterhouse 1334-1928, p. 29. (WRM 179 and WRM 180)
- ^ The Cologne Charterhouse around 1500. Volume of essays. Cologne 1991, p. 15
- ↑ Rita Wagner: A little story ... , p. 48
- ↑ Ludwig Arntz: Kartäuserkirche - building history. In: Paul Clemen, Die Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz, Volume VII. Section III: The Church Art Monuments of the City of Cologne, Cologne 1934, p. 147
- ↑ Ulrich Bergfried: Shine, Destruction, Reconstruction. 20 hard years for the Cologne Charterhouse. In: Rainer Sommer, The Charterhouse in Cologne
- ^ Rainer Sommer (Ed.): The Charterhouse in Cologne. Festschrift of the Evangelical Community of Cologne on the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the Carthusian Church in Cologne as the Evangelical Church on September 16, 1978. Cologne 1978. P. 77, line 14
- ^ Joachim Vennebusch: The books of the Cologne Carthusians. On the history of the monastery library in: The Charterhouse in Cologne. Festschrift, Cologne 1978, p. 77
- ↑ Summer 1978, p. 78, line 24
- ↑ Sommer (ed.) 1978, p. 93, 2nd paragraph.
- ↑ Sommer (ed.) 1978, p. 96, lines 6 ff.
- ↑ Sommer (ed.) 1978, pp. 95 ff.
- ↑ Sommer (ed.) 1978, p. 100 ff.
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Coordinates: 50 ° 55 ′ 28.2 " N , 6 ° 57 ′ 20.3" E