Carmelite Monastery (Frankfurt am Main)

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Complete system from Commerzbank Tower, August 2010
West side on Seckbächer Gasse, May 2007
View from the cathedral (east side)

The Carmelite Monastery in Frankfurt am Main is the seat of the Institute for City History and the Archaeological Museum . From 1246 to 1803 it was a convent of the Carmelite order .

history

Carmelite Monastery (below) and White Women's Monastery (above) on the Merian engraving 1628
The Circumcision of Christ - Fresco by Jörg Ratgeb in the cloister of the Carmelite monastery

In 1246, Carmelites from Cologne founded a branch in Frankfurt. The monastery quickly attracted foundations from Frankfurt patricians , who joined together in five so-called brotherhoods . With their help, the monastery church of St. Maria could be built. The monastery was one of the largest building complexes in Frankfurt's old town . The nave was built by 1270, and a choir was added by 1290 . From 1300 the transept was built . Southwest of the choir was the first cloister of the monastery between the narrow Ankergasse and Mainzer Gasse .

From 1424 the church was expanded in the late Gothic style , presumably under the direction of Madern Gerthener . First the choir was raised, from 1478 the nave and around 1500 the transept. The Annenkapelle was also built to the south of the choir around 1494 . A large part of the new church, especially the choir, was built under Prior Petrus Spitznagel , who officiated from 1431–1443 and later became auxiliary bishop in Speyer . The Augsburg Bishop Johann II von Werdenberg died on February 23, 1486 at the Reichstag in Frankfurt, where the election of Maximilian I as German King took place . He was transferred to the Augsburg Cathedral , where his Tumba tomb has been preserved. Hearts and entrails were buried in the choir of the local Carmelite Church.

Between 1460 and 1520 the premises of the monastery north of the church on Münzgasse were renewed: a new cloister, dormitory , chapter house and refectory were built . In the refectory and the cloister, Jörg Ratgeb created the largest wall paintings north of the Alps from 1513 to 1523. At that time, the monastery experienced its heyday, among other things through the foundations of Claus Stalburg the Rich . He was buried in the church in 1524.

After the Reformation , the monastery remained a Catholic enclave in the city ​​that had become Lutheran and quickly lost its importance. In 1803 it was secularized . His extensive possessions fell to the city as a replacement for the rights to the villages of Sulzbach and Soden, which had been lost to Nassau-Usingen .

In the 19th century, the abandoned church was initially used as a warehouse for goods subject to customs , especially coffee and tobacco . South of the monastery, city architect Johann Friedrich Christian Hess had built a new customs building between Mainzer Gasse and Mainquai in 1838.

From 1866 until the Gutleut barracks were built in 1877, the monastery was a barracks for Infantry Regiment No. 81 , the then Frankfurt garrison . After 1870, with the tacit approval of the authorities, numerous brothels settled in the narrow “Ankergasse” that ran alongside the monastery . The first fire station of the newly founded Frankfurt professional fire brigade was set up in the dormitory and the priory building on Münzgasse in 1873 .

Due to the profane use, the monastery buildings gradually deteriorated. In the 20th century the monastery was used as a stage for the municipal theaters . Only after the First World War did things turn for the better. In 1922 the brothel operations were closed. A residential complex for artists was built in the monastery buildings. The valuable wall paintings and the refectory have been restored. In 1936 the monastery church was renovated in an exemplary manner. In the summer concerts and theater performances took place in the cloister.

On March 22, 1944, the facilities of the monastery were largely destroyed by bombing . In 1950 the burnt-out ruins of the church received an emergency roof. The summer open-air performances of the municipal theaters were resumed with great success until the end of the 1950s, due to increasing traffic noise , especially due to air traffic , no longer allowed performances. The north wing of the monastery with the cloister was restored from 1955 to 1957. Since then, the cabaret Die Schmiere has had its venue in the vaulted cellar of the monastery. In 1958 the Carmelite monastery became the seat of the city archives (today the Institute for City History).

It was not until the 1980s that the monastery church was rebuilt in a simplified form (without the Gothic ribbed vault ) and integrated into the new building of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History . In 1995 she received a roof turret with four small bells. This also completed the Frankfurt city bells designed in 1954 .

Archaeological Museum

The late Gothic choir of the Carmelite Church

1984 to 1988 the architect Josef Paul Kleihues created a new building south of the monastery church. Since then, the new building and the monastery church have housed the collections of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History (now the Archaeological Museum).

The Archaeological Museum includes collections on the following topics:

  • In the transept of the Carmelite Church, prehistoric finds from Frankfurt and the surrounding area are presented. The exhibits cover the period from the Paleolithic to the Early Iron Age .
  • The new building houses an exhibition of the Middle East with ancient Iranian finds.
  • The antique collection (also in the new building) contains small art and everyday objects from classical antiquity from the Mycenaean period (14th to 12th century BC) to the early period of the Roman Republic (5th century BC).
  • In the nave of the Carmelite Church, the Roman prehistory of Frankfurt, in particular the Roman city of Nida, is presented.
  • The subject of the exhibition in the Annenkapelle is the early Middle Ages up to the Carolingian era .

Institute for City History

Since 1959 the Carmelite Monastery has housed the Institute for City History, the former Frankfurt City Archives. In 1436 the city created an archive for the first time, which had its place in the house "Frauenrode", a building of the Frankfurt city hall complex . Since 1614 the city archive was a separate office with its own staff. In the 19th century, the holdings experienced great growth, on the one hand through the files of the monasteries and monasteries secularized in 1803, and on the other hand through the documents of the Reich Chamber of Commerce and the Higher Appeal Court of the four free cities concerning Frankfurt . In 1878, the new city ​​scales built by cathedral builder Franz Josef Denzinger in neo-Gothic style on the "Weckmarkt" south of the cathedral became the headquarters of the city archives (until 1944).

During the Second World War , they did not begin to move the valuable historical holdings until 1942. Therefore, essential files, especially the valuable old holdings, fell victim to the bombing raids in 1944. After the war, the city archive initially had several temporary locations before it found its final place in the Carmelite monastery.

Exhibition "The Emperor Makers"

To mark the 650th anniversary of the Golden Bull , the exhibition Die Kaisermacher , jointly organized by four Frankfurt museums, took place from September 30, 2006 to January 14, 2007 . The Institute for City History showed documents on the history of the Golden Bull in the refectory of the Carmelite Monastery. For the first time in a long time, the Frankfurt original, the so-called “Reich Copy”, normally kept in a safe, was again accessible to the public during this time.

In the cloister of the monastery was an exhibition on various stages of constitutional history from the Middle Ages to the current discussion about the European constitution .

Architecture and art

Carmelite Church

The Anna Altar (now in the Historical Museum)

The Carmelite Church is a late Gothic hall church , the last construction phases of which were only carried out around 1500 . It is one of the last church buildings in Frankfurt before the Reformation, only the parish tower of the cathedral was built later. The transept is remarkable, from which only the southern arm could be carried out, as the cloister was to the north of the church.

The St. Anne's Altar was an important work of art in the Carmelite Church . It was painted at the end of the 15th century by an unknown Dutch artist on behalf of the Annenbruderschaft. The altarpiece is now in the Historical Museum .

Instead of the bell that was lost in World War II , the former Carmelite monastery church did not get a new ring of four bells until 1995. Thus, after more than four decades, the melody of the Frankfurt city bells , which was composed in 1954 by the Mainz bell expert Paul Smets , was completed, albeit an octave higher than planned. Cast by the Rincker in Sinn foundry , which had also planned the city bells, the four bells, which together “only” weigh 141 kg, with their three-line pitch, form the acoustic peaks of the Frankfurt city bells.

Since the city had difficulties with the financing - it was only a five-figure sum - the bells were donated: two by individual Frankfurt citizens, the other two as part of a general fundraising campaign.

No.
  		Surname
  		Nominal
(16th note) 		Weight
(kg) 		Diameter
(mm) 		inscription
 
1 Carmelite bell c 3 +3 53 425 My name is the Carmelite Bell. Karl Andrassy gave me. Rincker in Sinn poured me in 1995
2 White woman bell d 3 +3 42 388 O maria magdalena dulcis dei philomela MCCCLXXIX ("O Maria Magdalena, sweet nightingale of God 1479"). 1479 Martin Moller poured me. I burned to death in 1875. 1995 Walter Pinger gave me new.
3 Holy Spirit Bell f 3 +3 26th 328 Veni sancte spiritus reple tuorum corda fidelium 1723. 1972. 1995. (“Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your believers”.)
4th Gemperlin g 3 +3 20th 299 Gemperlin nominata sum eque sororibus una. Quae paschales cantant voce quaterna. Urbi cives largi dono nosque dederunt. 1954 Frankfurt Big City Bell. 1995 ("I am called Gemperlin and I am one of the sisters who sing Easter praise in four voices. The city was given to us by generous citizens".)

Monastery building

The murals by Jörg Ratgeb , painted with casein tempera paints ( al secco ), are among the most important works of art in the monastery . Between 1515 and 1520 he furnished the cloister with around 40 scenes from Christian salvation history - from the creation of the world to the birth and death of Jesus Christ to the Last Judgment at the end of time. The cycle extended over a length of 150 meters over an area of ​​540 square meters. Today only a small part of it has been restored .

After the cloister, Ratgeb also painted the refectory . On an area of ​​114 square meters, it presented the history of the Carmelite Order (persecution and salvation) as well as that of the Old Testament prophet Elijah and his disciple Elisha .

Most recently, the still impressive murals in the cloister and refectory were extensively and costly restored between 1980 and 1986.

  • Jörg Ratgeb : Adoration of the Magi, 1515, cloister / south wall

  • Miracle of the baby Jesus in the temple of Sotinen according to Pseudo-Matthew , chapters 22-24

  • Beginning of the effectiveness of Jesus: farewell to parents, baptism , temptation and transfiguration

  • Flagellation of Jesus according to John 19: 1-3 EU

  • Cloister, south side, view to the east

  • Courtyard in the cloister with the former convent building

  • Cloister, east side

  • View from the cloister to the southwest to the monastery church

Monastery concerts

In cooperation with a concert agency, the Institute for City History has been organizing the “Monastery Concerts” concert series in the cloister and the refectory of the medieval monastery complex since 1998. Music programs from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque and Classical periods are played on historical instruments. The concerts take place once a month on Sundays at 5 p.m. from May to October.

particularities

The cabaret Die Schmiere - The Worst Theater in the World, founded by Rudolf Rolfs - has been playing in the basement of the Carmelite Monastery since 1959 . The artist cellar is a well-known meeting place for Frankfurt artists and theater-goers.

During the secularization , the city of Frankfurt also came into possession of the vineyards of the monastery in Hochheim am Main . This resulted in the winery of the city of Frankfurt am Main, with 25 hectares of vineyards one of the largest wineries in the Rheingau . The city managed the estate itself until 1994, and since then it has been leased to the winemaker Armin Rupp in Hochheim.

literature

  • Friedrich Bothe : History of the city of Frankfurt am Main . Frankfurt 1977, ISBN 3-8035-8920-7 .
  • Frankfurt Historical Commission (ed.): Frankfurt am Main - The history of the city in nine contributions. (=  Publications of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . Volume XVII ). Jan Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1991, ISBN 3-7995-4158-6 .
  • Evelyn Hils-Brockhoff (Ed.): The Carmelite Monastery in Frankfurt am Main . History and art monuments, Frankfurt am Main 1999.
  • Fried Lübbecke : The face of the city. According to Frankfurt's plans by Faber, Merian and Delkeskamp. 1552-1864. Frankfurt am Main 1952.
  • Roswitha Mattausch-Schirmbeck: Jörg Ratgeb's wall paintings in the Carmelite monastery in Frankfurt . Office for Science and Art Frankfurt am Main (ed.). Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-88270-700-3 .
  • Bernhard Müller: Picture atlas on the history of the city of Frankfurt am Main . Frankfurt 1916.

Web links

Commons : Karmeliterkloster Frankfurt  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frankfurter Architects and Engineers Association: Frankfurt am Main and its buildings. Reprinted by BoD - Books on Demand, 2012, p. 117, ISBN 3-8457-2489-7 ( Digitalscan ).
  2. ^ Placidus Braun : History of the Bishops of Augsburg , Volume 3, p. 86; (Digital scan)
  3. ↑ Schomann, Heinz: 111 Frankfurt architectural monuments describe. Dieter Fricke, Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-88184-008-7 , p. 28 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 33 ″  N , 8 ° 40 ′ 41 ″  E