Alexanderdorf Monastery

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Main building, former manor house

The Alexanderdorf Monastery - Benedictine Abbey of St. Gertrud is a women's monastery in the Alexanderdorf district of the Kummersdorf-Alexanderdorf district of the Am Mellensee municipality in the Teltow-Fläming district , Brandenburg . The only post-Reformation Benedictine monastery in Brandenburg was established in a former manor house in 1934 and elevated to an abbey in 1984 . Around thirty Benedictine nuns live in the abbey according to the Regula Benedicti . The patron saint of the monastery is St. Gertrud von Helfta .

history

Free-standing bell tower

The roots of the Alexanderdorf Monastery are in Berlin in 1919 . Nurses who were active in the hospital service of the First World War came together with the aim of celebrating the church liturgy with the Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours in addition to their work . In 1924 the community was recognized as the St. Hildegard Sisterhood .

When the Berlin hospitals were given up in 1934, the nuns moved to the Mark Brandenburg region and founded the St. Gertrud Monastery around 30 kilometers south of Berlin in a former estate in Alexanderdorf. In the war and post-war years, the sisters rebuilt the courtyard buildings according to their requirements. During the Soviet occupation of Alexanderdorf in 1949, 22 sisters in the Oldenburger Münsterland ( Lower Saxony ) in the diocese of Münster founded the St. Scholastika Monastery in Dinklage Castle , which is still associated with Alexanderdorf Monastery today. In 1984 the Alexanderdorf monastery was elevated to an abbey and the first abbess Sr. Gisela Müller was elected. Her first successor was Sr. Ursula Schwalke in 2000, and Sr. Bernadette Pruss followed in 2013.

Monastery life and work areas

The sisters work in the kitchen, in the extensive garden and in a laundry room. In a parament workshop arise liturgical vestments . The monastic wafer bakery supplies almost all Catholic and increasingly also Protestant communities in East Germany. There are offers for guests on the spirituality of St. Gertrude and on subjects of the Benedictine tradition. Bible days and weekends for "meditation of dance" complete the range of offers. Another focus of work is two guest houses with 22 rooms, which are also open to families looking for relaxation. There will also be summer music. After the aid of the diocese ceased to exist, the Friends of the Monastery of Alexanderdorf eV supported the nuns.

Abbesses

Guest house
Monastery circular route and European long-distance hiking route E10
  • Gisela Müller, 1984-2000
  • M. Ursula Schwalke, 2000-2013
  • Bernadette Pruss, 2013-

Buildings and surroundings

In a first step, the sisters converted the buildings and stables found in 1934 into a chapel , living and working rooms and a guest house. Later, a secondary wing was redesigned as an enclosure . In 1979 the barn was converted into a church with a free-standing bell tower . At the same time, the exam was renovated. Between 1998 and 2000, the guest wing was extensively renovated and expanded. In the outdoor area there is a playground , a table tennis table and a guest lawn with a small pond.

The flat, meadow and wooded area, which is part of the Notte lowland, which is criss-crossed by moats , offers various signposted hiking trails . These include the monastery circular route or a path to the nearby nature reserve at Schulzensee . In addition, the European long-distance hiking trail E10 Baltic Sea - Bohemian Forest - Dolomites leads past the monastery. Bathing beaches can be found on the Mellensee , which is around five kilometers to the east. The place Kummersdorf-Alexanderdorf, which has about 650 inhabitants, has a restaurant, a pension and a veterinarian. Larger places in the area are the small towns of Zossen and Trebbin .

literature

  • Karl-Heinz Schulisch: From the history of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Gertrud in Alexanderdorf. Alexanderdorf 1998.
  • Ruth Lazar: Not built on sand. Benedictine women in Alexanderdorf. With photographs by Angelika Fischer. More Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-87554-358-0

Web links

Commons : Alexanderdorf Monastery  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dinklage Castle - History

Coordinates: 52 ° 10 ′  N , 13 ° 20 ′  E