Aland Monastery

The cemetery on the former monastery site

The monastery Aland (Island) was one of the holy Virgin Mary monastery dedicated. It was located in East Friesland between Canhusen and Werdenum (today's district of Werdenum) near the old Greetsieler Sieltief and was probably founded in the middle of the 12th century by Premonstratensians from Steinfeld. The monastery presumably administered an independent parish, which was first united with Canhusen after the Reformation and with Willum after 1591. The cemetery was used until the 18th century.

designation

The name probably goes back to the location of the monastery. The Leybucht reached Aland during the Middle Ages. It is possible that the monastery was surrounded by the estuary of a river that made it an island.

history

According to the current state of research, the monastery was founded around 1240 by Premonstratensians from the Dutch Abbey of Oldenklooster near Kloosterburen ( De Marne ). It is possibly first mentioned in documents in 1255 as prepositus de insula . An equation with Aland is no longer valid, so that a mention of 1354 ( prepositi in Alandia ) is the earliest known evidence of the name. In the beginning it probably did not belong to any circariate , but before 1287 it was part of the circariate Friesland and, like the Langen monastery, was subordinate to the convent in Marne. As a result, there were repeated conflicts with the mother monastery, which could only be resolved when the Abbot of Marne renounced his supervisory rights in Aland and Langen in 1374.

At first Aland was a dual monastery . After the heavy North Sea storm flood ( Lucia flood ) from December 13th to 14th, 1287, 90 inmates are said to have lived in the monastery. The economic basis of the monastery was its property, which is said to have been up to 400 hectares in size. These lands were in the immediate vicinity of the monastery. In addition, the convent maintained properties in neighboring Uppigen and in Osteel . The few surviving documents (around 30 in total) suggest that Aland had a solid economic base. The majority of them deal with land purchases in the vicinity.

At the beginning of the 16th century the male monastery went under. In 1509 the provost of the monastery informed the General Chapter of the Premonstratensian that there were no more canons in Aland who could serve the church. The monastery was then again subordinated to Marne. The further story up to the dissolution of the convention is unclear. After the Reformation , the last provost Johannes Oldeguil began working as a Protestant preacher in Aurich from 1528. In 1565 a large part of the land was leased by the East Frisian Countess Anna . Later the monastery was owned by Chancellor Franzius and from 1624 by Chancellor Wiarda. After his death it was bought by the East Frisian Count House in 1637 for 7,000 guilders and transferred to domains .

After the Reformation, the monastery church served Canhusen to the south as a church between 1555 and 1560. The organ was taken over by the Greetsiel Church in 1555 . The buildings were all still there in 1610, except for the desolate church. However, due to lack of care, they fell into disrepair and were sold for demolition in 1710. Today there are no more building remains. However, the layout of the monastery complex can be modeled on the courtyards.

literature

Josef Dolle: Aland . In: Josef Dolle with the collaboration of Dennis Kniehauer (Ed.): Lower Saxony Monastery Book. Directory of the monasteries, monasteries, comedians and beguinages in Lower Saxony and Bremen from the beginnings to 1810 . Part 1, Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 3895349577 , pp. 5-7
Werner Löhnertz: Steinfeld Monastery and its East Frisian daughter monasteries. Notes on the beginnings of the Premonstratensians in Friesland . In: Yearbook of the Society for Fine Art and Patriotic Antiquities in Emden 73/74, 1993/94, pp. 5-42
Hemmo Suur: History of the former monasteries in the province of East Friesland: An attempt . Hahn, Emden 1838. P. 96 ff. (Reprint of the edition from 1838, Verlag Martin Sendet, Niederwalluf 1971, ISBN 3-500-23690-1 ).

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Josef Dolle: Aland . In: Josef Dolle with the collaboration of Dennis Kniehauer (Ed.): Lower Saxony Monastery Book. Directory of the monasteries, monasteries, comedians and beguinages in Lower Saxony and Bremen from the beginnings to 1810 . Part 1, Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 3895349577 , pp. 5-7
^ Ostfriesland-brookmerland.de: Historical information on the community of Werdenum ( Memento from October 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). From: Rudolf Folkerts, Jakob Raveling: The land around the Störtebekerturm , ISBN 3-922365-33-7 , accessed on April 29, 2010.
^ Hemmo Suur (bailiff to the north): History of the former monasteries in the province of East Friesland , Emden 1838, p. 100.
^ Prämonstratenser.de: Aland in Werdenum near Emden (Aurich district, East Friesland) , viewed on April 29, 2010.

53.456666666667 7.215Coordinates: 53 ° 27 '24 " N , 7 ° 12' 54" E

[Klosterbuch-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Josef Dolle: Aland . In: Josef Dolle with the collaboration of Dennis Kniehauer (Ed.): Lower Saxony Monastery Book. Directory of the monasteries, monasteries, comedians and beguinages in Lower Saxony and Bremen from the beginnings to 1810 . Part 1, Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 3895349577 , pp. 5-7

[2] Ostfriesland-brookmerland.de: Historical information on the community of Werdenum ( Memento from October 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). From: Rudolf Folkerts, Jakob Raveling: The land around the Störtebekerturm , ISBN 3-922365-33-7 , accessed on April 29, 2010.

[3] Hemmo Suur (bailiff to the north): History of the former monasteries in the province of East Friesland , Emden 1838, p. 100.

[4] Prämonstratenser.de: Aland in Werdenum near Emden (Aurich district, East Friesland) , viewed on April 29, 2010.