Carmel Regina Martyrum
The Carmel Regina Martyrum is a monastery of the Discalced Carmelites in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg-Nord , Heckerdamm 232. The Convent Regina Martyrum was established in 1982 by the Discalced Carmelites of the Dachau Carmel Holy Blood .
In the immediate vicinity of the monastery and connected to it, the Memorial Church of the German Catholics in honor of the martyrs for freedom of belief and conscience from the years 1933–1945, Maria Regina Martyrum (" Maria , Queen of the Martyrs "), for the 1960s of the time Bishop of Berlin, Julius Cardinal Döpfner , had laid the foundation stone. The Plötzensee Memorial is also nearby .
Cardinal Döpfner had already considered the settlement of a monastery near the memorial church. Alfred Cardinal Bengsch initiated the first steps towards the establishment of the Carmel in 1979, and Joachim Cardinal Meisner consecrated the monastery in 1984. Sr. Gemma Hinricher OCD became the first prioress . The nuns who came blood from the Convention Heilig, who at the Dachau Concentration Camp is located, were with their settlement in Berlin aware of the near Plotzensee to the service of the then divided city intercessory prayer to make:
“To live as a community with the memorial church Maria Regina Martyrum, near Plötzensee, that means a constant challenge for us sisters. It means opposing the trend towards forgetting and keeping the memory of the darkest period of our past alive in a personal dismay. It also means becoming sensitive to the manifestations of intolerance and discrimination in the present. [...] This willingness to face the memory, to let the suffering in and to try to bear it is ultimately only possible in openness to God. "
The buildings of the monastery with living space for around 24 sisters also include rooms for individual visitors or visitor groups such as meditation groups as well as a monastery shop on Heckerdamm. For the construction of the monastery, the community rooms built with the construction of the Maria Regina Martyrum memorial church were demolished. The facade to the Heckerdamm in the design of the architect Hans Skull with curtained concrete slats was retained. The change was made possible because the Diocese of Berlin reorganized the parishes in Charlottenburg in 1984. The parish of Maria Regina Martyrum was merged with the neighboring Siemensstadt parish of St. Joseph , the church became a locality and the parish rooms became dispensable. The crypt of the memorial church was extended to the north by a chapel room for the daily Holy Mass and the choir prayer of the sisters .
The convent of Carmel Regina Martyrum leads a contemplative life in the cloister of the monastery. A candle workshop and a monastery shop are run for a living. In addition, the sisters devote themselves to pastoral care and spiritual guidance. The current prioress has been Sister Teresia Benedicta Weiner OCD since 2015.
Web links
- Site of the monastery
- Nothing should frighten you - Carmelites on a Path of Hope , a film on YouTube
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfgang Knauft: Christians in the Resistance. July 20th in the Diocese of Berlin. o. O. (Berlin) o. J. (approx. 1995).
- ↑ Catholic Memorial Church Maria Regina Martyrum Berlin. Verlag Schnell & Steiner GmbH, 2nd edition, Regensburg 1995 (Schnell, Kunstführer No. 1703, text: Sr. Maria-Theresia Smith OCD), pp. 28,31.
- ↑ Catholic Memorial Church Maria Regina Martyrum Berlin. Verlag Schnell & Steiner GmbH, 2nd edition, Regensburg 1995 (Schnell, Art Guide No. 1703, text: Sr. Maria-Theresia Smith OCD), p. 4.
Coordinates: 52 ° 32 '25.2 " N , 13 ° 17' 52.9" E