Charterhouse Marienehe

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Charterhouse Marienehe
The former location of the Charterhouse Marienehe in Rostock
Charterhouse Marienehe
Rostock

The Carthusian monastery Marienehe (Latin Domus Legis Marie ) was the only monastery of the Carthusian order in Mecklenburg . It was located at the gates of the Hanseatic city of Rostock in the area of ​​today's Marienehe in the Rostock district of Schmarl and existed from 1396 until its dissolution during the Reformation in 1552. Carthusian monuments were rare in northern Germany, almost 200 of the early 16th century There were only six monasteries in northern Germany.

history

Image on the Vicke Schorler role as "Closter zu Margine"

Marienehe was called Mergene or Mergnew in the Middle Ages . This old Slavic name was used by the population until the middle of the 19th century, only after that the name Marienehe, used by the monks, caught on.

founding

Mergnew was a fiefdom of the noble von Barnekow family until 1333 , who then sold it to Rostock patricians . After Winold Baggel, who came from an old patrician family, bought one half of the town in 1393, he acquired the other half in 1395 and sold this half to his father-in-law Mathias von Borken, also a Rostock patrician. In 1396 Winold Baggel founded the monastery together with Mathias von Borken. The deed of foundation was issued on February 2, 1396. This explicitly mentions the gift of Maria von Borken, Baggel's wife. On February 27, 1396, Duke Albrecht III. his consent. The document also mentions Mergene and Mergnew . The original deed of foundation and the consent of the sovereign and the diocesan bishop have been preserved.

On March 7, 1396, the foundation of Schwerin Bishop Rudolf III. confirmed in the presence of his auxiliary bishop Johannes , who granted the monastery an indulgence , freed it from episcopal jurisdiction and added a house in the city of Rostock to the donation, which was called the New Hospital . Rudolf was a cousin of Duke Albrecht III. and with this support of the monastery wanted to commemorate the happy liberation of the duke in 1395. This was held captive for seven years during armed conflicts in Denmark under Margaret I. Bishop Rudolf specified the name Himmelszinnen for the monastery , but this did not prevail, instead the name Marienehe , which was also reinterpreted in the Christian document from Mergene .

It can be assumed that the first monks of the order found accommodation in the Rostock house and began building the monastery in 1398. The first convent of the new settlement included monks from the Kartausen Erfurt , Hildesheim and Eisenach . On March 3, 1399, several citizens of Rostock, Schwerin and Parchim from a family gave 11 Mark Rostocker Pfennigs annual income from the village of Evershagen near Marienehe. The Charterhouse of Marienehe belonged to the late bloom of the order at the end of the 14th century.

In August 1404, on the occasion of a visitation by the priors of the Kartausen Grünau and Nördlingen, the area in which the monks were allowed to move was determined: With the permission of the prior, they were given a room the width of a gate behind the choir up to the Warnow and in the length from the village of Marienehe to the border of the city of Rostock is permitted, although "no women should be seen here". The origin of the visitors leads Lisch to assume that the first monks also came from Central Germany.

Act

For the next 100 years the monks of the Charterhouse managed successfully. They acquired villages in Mecklenburg, including Schutow near Rostock, Sievershagen , Evershagen , Elmenhorst , Mönchhagen and Pastow , as well as villages in the vicinity of Stralsund in the Principality of Rügen such as Devin , mostly Muuks , Schmedeshagen , Hohendorf , Teschenhagen , Brandshagen and Lüdershagen . On the island of Rügen , Götemitz belonged to the monastery, as well as many smaller possessions (gods, poor and work houses) and lease and interest income in Mecklenburg. In the 150 years of existence, the Charterhouse had 15 priors. The priors belonged to the estates, according to the great importance of the monastery .

The second generation of the monks from Marienehe mostly knew each other from their studies in Prague. Eight monks recorded in a document had contact with the monks of the Prague Charterhouse Mariengarten . Heinrich Rezcekow von Ribnitz was a student at the University of Prague in 1376, rector there in 1392 and after his ordination in 1400 prior of Marienehe. Henning Wacholt studied in Prague in 1392 and in 1394 belonged to the negotiating group of the Rostock Hanseatic Council broadcasters in talks with the Teutonic Order . In 1398 he was at the Marienkirche in Rostock, then from 1404 to 1424 he is documented as procurator for the external contacts of the Kartause Marienehe under the prior Heinrich von Ribnitz. In 1423 another former student from Prague came to the Rostock Carthusians. Hermann Schipmann from Lübeck studied in Prague in 1398 and in Leipzig from 1409, where he was elected rector as professor of theology in 1422. In 1425 he was mentioned as vicar of the Charterhouse.

The founding of the University of Rostock on November 12, 1419 was of great importance to the brothers. The Carthusian monks worked scientifically, they were educated and, in addition to field work, were busy copying books. The Carthusians saw copying theological writings as a special life task for the world, since they had to forego the preaching of the word.

A mutually beneficial cooperation developed between the university and the Charterhouse. Proof of the good cooperation is the stipulation in the statutes of the university, which stipulated that in the event of disputes between the council of the university and the council of the city that cannot be settled by the arbitrators of both parties, the prior of the Charterhouse Marienehe or the abbot of the Doberan Monastery , whose decision must be respected under all circumstances.

Around 1444 construction was completed with the consecration of the monastery church.

Another monastery founded in 1462 resulted in fruitful cooperation for the monks of the Charterhouse. The brothers from living together settled in the Rostock city area and built the Michaeliskloster . In 1475 they founded the first printing company in Mecklenburg here. The extensive library in Marienehe is proof of the benefits for the Carthusian monks.

When Magnus II of Mecklenburg pushed through the establishment of a cathedral collegiate foundation against the will of the Rostock authorities in 1487 and a long-term dispute broke out between the duke and the council, which went down in history as the Rostock cathedral feud , the monks of Marienehe sided with the council. Negotiations about the establishment of the cathedral chapter took place in Marienehe.

Beginning of the Reformation

The Reformation in Mecklenburg began in Rostock. It was promoted by the determination of large sections of the citizenry and the free spirit of the university. Joachim Slüter , chaplain at the Petrikirche , began to preach Lutheran as early as 1523 . In 1529 the citizens urged to admit Protestant preachers in all parish churches and on April 1, 1531, the abolition of " papist " services was ordered. In 1534 the Dominican monastery and the Franciscan monastery , both of which were within the city, were closed and withdrawn. The Brothers of Living Together also had to end their brotherhood in 1531 and in 1533 place themselves under the city council. As they reformed their foundation in line with the zeitgeist, they kept their property and were instructed to run a German school and set up additional elementary schools.

During the difficult times of the Reformation, Marquard Behr was prior of the monastery. Coming from a noble family, Behr took office in 1525. In 1529 it is documented that Marienehe was Catholic. On September 14, 1530, Emperor Charles V took the monks of the Charterhouse Marienehe into "umbrella and escort" at the Reichstag in Augsburg because of their loyalty to their rules and devotion to the emperor and confirmed their rights and possessions. This was of no use to the Marienehe monastery, because the monks earned their living mainly by running the house within the city walls and were thus at the mercy of the council.

The Hans Prange case

A rather incidental dispute about the negotiations of an escaped monk gave new fuel to the city's expropriation efforts. As early as 1491, the monk Hans Prange had been sentenced to the usual prison sentence in the Marienehe monastery for disobedience and bad life, as the rules of the Carthusians expressly provided.

Through the intercession of some Rostock relatives Pranges with Duke Magnus and Balthasar , Prange was released from prison and swore the oath that he "was rightly held prisoner and that mercy only deserves the betterment of his life for God's sake". He wanted to stay in the Charterhouse of God's Grace near Stettin for improvement until he was called to Marienehe again.

Forty years later, in 1531, he escaped from Stettin to Rostock. When the monks in Marienehe became aware of this, they demanded the apostate's return. The city council therefore asked the duke for the right to act provisionally and sent the scholar Johann Oldendorp , the councilor Johann von Herverden and the notary Lambert Takel to Marienehe to negotiate.

On April 2, 1532, people gathered in the monastery for “friendly interrogation”. Around 40 Rostock citizens and servants appeared with the three commissioners and stood protectively in front of Prange. Marquard Behr declined with the harsh words that he was not negotiating with "the traitor and enemy of the cross of Christ" from further discussions and left the room. The council rejected a complaint from the prior about the violent and improper treatment and forbade the monks to enter the city.

In a letter dated April 14, the commission sued the duke's monastery because they saw themselves vilified, ridiculed and despised by Marquard Behr, and accused the prior of having insulted the commission. According to the report by the Marieneh brothers, the Duke disapproved of the council's proceedings on May 23, accusing the commission of deceit and instructing that the “wanton ban” on entering the city should be lifted. Nothing more was known about the fate of Hans Prange and after this dispute the Carthusians were able to go about their business for a while.

End of the monastery

In the same year 1532, Duke Heinrich V ordered the abolition of the Catholic foundations in Mecklenburg. On May 12, 1533, the city council forbade the monks to make confessions and to give the Lord's Supper. Since the Carthusians still had many followers in the city who did not follow this instruction, the council complained to the prior, who did not respond. Rather, he tried to find a solution through friendly mayors and councilors as to how the convention and the city could be served. Regardless of this, in 1534, after the monasteries within the city had been closed, the council decreed that no citizen, maid, guest or servant was allowed to go to mass in Marienehe, Biestow or Kessin, otherwise they would have to pay a fine of ten guilders. Since then the Carthusian monks have remained undisturbed. This quiet time was favored by the fact that Duke Albrecht VII continued to follow Catholic doctrine.

Marquard Behr tried, with the help of some patricians who were kind to him, to make arrangements that would ensure the survival of the brothers. In a contract dated June 16, 1550, he returned a bond to Stralsund's mayor Christoph Lorber and his brother Olof Lorber, with the obligation to pay the Carthusians the interest as long as one of them was alive, but then to pay the interest to use two thirds to poor virgins and for clothing poor people, but to use one third themselves. This contract is one of the last known official acts of the Carthusians.

After Albrecht VII. 1547 and Heinrich V (the peacemaker) had died on February 6, 1552, the young Duke Johann Albrecht I moved to Augsburg in March 1552 with 600 horsemen to fight with other allied princes against Charles V for the Protestant Thing to fight. On his departure he gave the order to abolish the monastic field monasteries , after which on March 6th the Cistercian monastery Dargun and on March 7th the monastery Doberan were abolished. Since there was fear of greater resistance in the Marienehe monastery, 300 “armed men on horseback” were sent to attack and loot the monastery. The prior and the entire convention were "stripped of everything, driven into misery and unknown lands and driven out". In a letter of protest dated January 13, 1553, it is reported that the "soldiers chased the prior and all his brothers, including old, sick men, by force and threw their clothes and bedclothes at them with much mockery and abuse".

Marquard Behr fled to the befriended Ahrensbök monastery , taking the seal and some gems with him, and continued to fight against its dissolution. He continued to try to save interest income, for example from shares in a salt works in Lüneburg , from the Duke's access. To this end, he traveled tirelessly, so on October 24, 1552 in Wismar he had a document from 1447 certified by the council in Wismar, which guaranteed the son of the founder Baggel an apartment in the monastery; the foundation document from 1396 was also certified here. On December 15, 1552, he met friends and relatives in Rostock and wrote a complaint to a notary, which was to be proven by the certified documents, the letter of escort and protection from Emperor Charles V from 1530 and an umbrella letter from Duke Heinrich from 1537 . In the lawsuit, he called for reinstatement. The notary went to the duke with this complaint, who had him dismissed, put him off and ultimately did nothing. In fact, he took over the ownership of the Charterhouse and gave the order to throw the prior and all the monks in prison. Marquard Behr protested against this "even pitifully while shedding tears" on January 13, 1553 before the same notary. He is now suing the Reich Chamber of Commerce , the suit was heard on August 18, 1553 in Speyer. In the same year around Michaelis , Marquard Behr died. The remaining monks chose Christian Westhof as a prior, but were unsuccessful due to the slow course of the court and the duke's delaying tactics. The monks warned several times about a decision, but this only led to the only finding in the court records of 1558 Anno 1557 nihil actum reperitur , so nothing had happened and the trial fell asleep.

The documents of the Charterhouse could still be determined by the last monks and in 1576 the last Carthusian handed over the document drawer with around 400 documents to the city of Rostock. They are deposited in the archive of the Hanseatic City of Rostock . Further documents are to be found in the main state archive in Schwerin and in the archives in Lübeck and Potsdam. 56 documents from the period 1303 to 1555 are in the Stralsund city archive and relate exclusively to the monastery property in and around Stralsund, which was initially handed over to the administration of the Stralsund council after the Reformation. Some manuscripts by the Rostock monks are in the libraries in Berlin, Prague and Leipzig and suggest that they were closely related to them earlier. The last Rostock monk appeared in 1576 in the Marienkloster Charterhouse near Hildesheim.

After the Charterhouse was abolished in 1552, Duke Johann Albrecht I gave the order to demolish it on October 19 of the same year. The monastery was demolished in 1559 and the stones were used to build the Güstrow Castle , which burned down in 1557. Rostock private individuals were also allowed to fetch stones. The demolition was carried out so consistently that hardly anything was left. In 1861 only a few stones were found in a desolate area between the Marienehe farm and the Warnow, the area was called wilderness at that time . The area was used as a princely domain property.

1583 documented Vicke Schorler in his monumental Abkontrafaktur the area of the former Carthusian monastery with the already partially torn Church and demolished cloistered walls. At the beginning of the 17th century there were still habitable buildings that Duke Ulrich used as an illegal coin to make double shillings. On a landscape sketch around 1617 by the builder Gerth Evert Pilooth , only two buildings are shown next to the remains of the cloister. The former mill pond was only filled in in 1948 when the fishing port was built. Drawings of the excavations in 1831 by W. F. Knoop and of the development status of the former monastery area from 1884 by the archivist Ludwig Krause are in the Rostock Monument Office. A detail of the Rostock Charterhouse Marienehe can be seen on the Carthusian triptych in the Germanic Museum in Nuremberg.

In 1934 Ernst Heinkel acquired the site to expand his aircraft factory. In World War II heavily damaged, residual industrial facilities were expanded to the fish combine with the harbor basin of today's fishing port and built over the former Kartausengelände with an operating clinic.

Priore of the Carthusian monastery

  • 1400–1425 Heinrich Rezcekow von Ribnitz
  • 1481–1485 Vicke design by Arensbök
  • 1485–1489 Heinrich VI.
  • 1490–1502 Timothy II.
  • 1502–1523 Heinrich V. Cleri
  • 1525–1553 Marquard Behr at Neuhof
  • 1554 Christian Westhof00000

literature

  • GCF Lisch : Marquard Behr, last prior of the Karthaus Marienehe near Rostock, and the sinking of the Karthauser. In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology. Volume 27, 1862, ISSN  0259-7772 , pp. 3-83. (Digitized version)
  • GCF Lisch: On the history of the last prelates in Mecklenburg , 3. The last prior of the Marienehe monastery. In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology. Volume 38, 1873, p. 14.
  • Gerhard Schlegel: Rostock-Marienehe , in: Monasticon Cartusiense , ed. by Gerhard Schlegel, James Hogg, Volume 2, Salzburg 2004, 754–761.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Lisch, p. 12.
  2. ↑ Lisch, p. 7.
  3. ↑ Archive of the Hanseatic City of Rostock / AHR, Mariene Marriage holdings
  4. ^ Mecklenburgisches Urkundenbuch MUB XXIII. (1911) No. 12933.
  5. ↑ Lisch, p. 10.
  6. ↑ Lisch, p. 6.
  7. ↑ Lisch, p. 13.
  8. ^ Gerhard Schlegel: University and Charterhouse - former students and professors in northern German Charterhouse . In: Files of the II. International Congress for Carthusian Research in the Ittingen Charterhouse . Ittingen 1995, pp. 67-84.
  9. ↑ MUB XXII. (1907) No. 12654, MUB XXIII. (1911) no.13514.
  10. ↑ Lisch, p. 19.
  11. ↑ Lisch, p. 31.
  12. ↑ Lisch, p. 39.
  13. ^ Gerhard Schlegel: The forgotten Charterhouse Marienehe near Rostock (1396-1552). In: Carthusian liturgy and Carthusian literature (= Analecta Cartusiana. Vol. 116, 4). Volume 4. University of Salzburg - Institute for English and American Studies , Salzburg 1989, ISBN 3-7052-0196-4 , pp. 119–151.
  14. ^ Heiko Wartenberg, Archive Guide to the History of Pomerania up to 1945, Munich 2008, p. 165
  15. ↑ Stralsund City Archives, Marienehe Monastery Documents, No. 56
  16. ^ Gerhard Schlegel: Writings from the Charterhouse Marienehe near Rostock and its surroundings. In: James Hogg (Ed.): The Mystical Tradition and the Carthusians. = The mystical tradition and the Carthusians. (= Analecta Cartusiana. Vol. 130, 4). Volume 4. University of Salzburg - Institute for English Studies, Salzburg 1995, ISBN 3-7052-0447-7 , pp. 87-98.
  17. ↑ Archive of the Hanseatic City of Rostock / AHR, Mariene Marriage holdings
  18. ↑ Germanisches Museum Nürnberg, No. 580.
  19. ↑ Heinrich von Ribnitz (1360-1435), in: Biographisches Lexikon für Mecklenburg , Volume 4, p. 89; Gerhard Schlegel: From the catheter to the Charterhouse: Heinrich von Ribnitz - Rector of the University of Prague and Prior of the Charterhouse Marienehe
  20. ↑ Dessin, Vicco (around 1442–1495), in: Biographisches Lexikon für Mecklenburg , Volume 4, p. 28
  21. ^ Georg Christian Friedrich Lisch : Marquard Behr, last prior of the Carthusian Marienehe near Rostock, and the sinking of the Carthusian monastery . In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology, Volume 27 (1862), pp. 3-83 (digitized version )

Coordinates: 54 ° 6 ′ 40 ″  N , 12 ° 5 ′ 15 ″  E