Alsfeld Monastery

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alsfeld, Dreifaltigkeitskirche

The Augustinian Hermitage of the Redeemer in Alsfeld was founded in the 13th century by the Augustinian monastic order. The founding year of the monastery cannot be determined in a document. The oldest documented message dates from 1339. Today only the Gothic sermon church and individual parts of the building remain from the Augustinian monastery. The Hessian reformer Tilemann Schnabel emerged from the Alsfeld monastery, which was dissolved by Landgrave Philipp in 1527 . He studied with Martin Luther in Wittenberg . Tilemann Schnabel later became superintendent in the city of Alsfeld.

history

Alsfeld belonged to the Saxon-Thuringian province of the order created by the division of 1299 and was the western base in its central German area. The mother monastery was Gotha . The Augustinians spread from here in the area of ​​the Mainz diocese. In old chronicles, a stone sermon chair in the cloister is mentioned in 1452, a stone column in the kitchen and a fountain in 1525. Alsfeld only played a relatively modest role until its secularization by Landgrave Philipp of Hesse in autumn 1527. In 1498 the monastery was opened by Landgrave Wilhelm d. J. von Hessen reformed and abolished in 1527. At the time of the abolition the convent had 17 or 18 monks. A city hospital was set up in the monastery buildings in 1533 and the income was given to the University of Marburg in 1540. The church has been the Trinity Church of the Protestant community since 1664.

In the West, the monasteries were the spiritual centers of early medieval culture. It was the monks who made great achievements in the field of agriculture and colonization, in the charitable and also in the scientific field. They were the bearers of cultural life in the Middle Ages. A monastery is understood to be a dwelling of the monks that is isolated from the outside world, usually a group of buildings consisting of a church, residential and farm buildings. The monasteries of the Middle Ages with their large preaching churches were mostly built on the outskirts of the city next to the defensive walls, where the friars could move more freely, but were nevertheless closely connected with the citizens. In addition to the Dominican and Benedictine monastic orders , it was the Augustinians in particular who founded numerous monasteries in Germany. The Alsfeld monastery was founded by the Augustinians. The monastery also bears the name "Augustinian Hermit Monastery of the Redeemer".

Building of the monastery complex

There were certain regulations for the construction of the monasteries. It was z. B. forbidden to build towers and to vault the churches - with the exception of the choir. The size and height of the monks' cells was also prescribed. The position of the individual rooms, the position of the groups of buildings in the direction of the compass and the position of the church choir to the east were also precisely defined. The southern city wall was particularly preferred for the construction of a monastery. In a monastery building, the rule was that the group of buildings was arranged in a square, the northern boundary of which was usually the church with its much higher longitudinal walls as protection for the adjacent low buildings. Typical rooms in the monastery are: refectory (dining room), dormitory (bedrooms) and monastery chapter (assembly room) as well as the necessarium (need room ). The Augustinian monastery in Alsfeld shows the typical features of this early monastery complex. The monks ' bedrooms were on the first floor and were accessible from a central aisle on both sides. The dimensions of the room can be seen: each cell was enough for a bed, a chair and a desk and was lit by a relatively small, narrow window. As the largest building in the complex, the church was accessible from the city side and also from the monastery side.

Church of the monastery

The church is a hall church of early Gothic origin, which was extended between 1415 and 1436 and received a side aisle. Today the church serves as the winter church of the Protestant parish Alsfeld.

On the west and north sides, the church is now surrounded by medieval half-timbered houses and therefore no longer reveals the earlier urban situation of the entrance to the monastery and its connection to the Mainzertor. The hospital building, which was built from the demolition material from the monastery, dates from the time of Landgrave Philip, who gave the monastery with the church to the city of Alsfeld in 1532.

literature

  • Wilhelm Dersch: Hessisches Klosterbuch: Source studies on the history of the founders, monasteries and branches of religious cooperatives founded in the administrative district of Kassel, in the district of Grafschaft Schaumburg, in the province of Upper Hesse and the district of Biedenkopf , Marburg 1940.
  • The Upper Hessian monasteries. Regesten und Urkunden , Vol. 3, 1 ed. v. Albrecht Eckard, Marburg 1977.
  • Eduard Edwin Becker: The documents of the Augustinian monastery in Alsfeld . in: Karl Glöckner: Mitteilungen des Oberhessischer Geschichtsverein, Vol. 36, Gießen 1939, p. 12.
  • Herbert Jäkel: Alsfeld in the 19th century, Alsfeld 1984.
  • Herbert Jäkel: Alsfeld in the revolution of 1848/49. Documentation and contribution to the history of the city of Alsfeld, Alsfeld 1998.
  • Magnus Backes: Dome, churches and monasteries in Hesse, Frankfurt am Main 1964.
  • Fritz Herrmann: D. Tilemann Schnabel: the reformer of the city of Alsfeld, Alsfeld 1925.
  • August Pabst, Karl August Mengel: The Augustinian monastery in Alsfeld, Alsfeld 1958.
  • Friedrich Theis: Monasteries of our homeland in the Middle Ages, Mittenaar-Bicken 2009.
  • Peer Zietz: Cultural monuments in Hessen. City of Alsfeld, Wiesbaden 2002.
  • Albrecht Eckhard: On the founding history of the Augustinian monastery in Alsfeld. in: From history and its auxiliary sciences: Festschrift for Walter Heinemeyer on his 65th birthday. Edited by Hermann Bannasch, Hans-Peter Lachmann, Marburg 1979, p. 570.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eduard Edwin Becker: The documents of the Augustinian monastery in Alsfeld. In: Karl Glöckner: Messages of the Upper Hessian History Association. Vol. 36, Giessen 1939, p. 12.
  2. ^ A b Albrecht Eckhard: On the founding history of the Augustinian monastery in Alsfeld. In: Hermann Bannasch, Hans-Peter Lachmann (ed.): From history and its auxiliary sciences. Festschrift for Walter Heinemeyer on the occasion of his 65th birthday (= publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse. Vol. 40). Marburg 1979, p. 570.
  3. ^ Friedrich Theis: Monasteries of our homeland in the Middle Ages. Mittenaar-Bicken 2009, p. 18.
  4. ↑ Wilhelm Dersch: Hessisches Klosterbuch: Source studies on the history of the founders, monasteries and branches of religious cooperatives founded in the administrative district of Kassel, in the district of Grafschaft Schaumburg, in the province of Upper Hesse and the district of Biedenkopf. Marburg 1940, p. 4.
  5. ^ August Pabst, Karl August Mengel: The Augustinian monastery in Alsfeld. Alsfeld 1958, p. 3.
  6. ↑ Internet presence of the parish , accessed on January 6, 2019.
  7. ^ August Pabst, Karl August Mengel: The Augustinian monastery in Alsfeld. Alsfeld 1958. pp. 8-12.

Coordinates: 50 ° 44 ′ 58.9 ″  N , 9 ° 16 ′ 12 ″  E