Altomünster Monastery

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Altomünster, St. Alto and St. Birgitta Monastery
St. Alto and St. Birgitta monastery church (west side)

Altomünster Monastery was the only monastery of the old branch of the Order of the Redeemer (Birgittinnen) in Germany. It is located in Altomünster in Bavaria in the diocese of Munich and Freising and is best known today for its monastery church Sankt Alto and Sankt Birgitta by the builder Johann Michael Fischer .

history

Foundation and early days

The monastery goes to a hermit cell of St. Alto back before 760. At a time that is not exactly known, a holl arose from the hermitage. Benedictine monastery consecrated to Peter and Paul , which was renovated by the Guelphs around 970 . In 1056 Welf IV founded the Benedictine monastery Weingarten , which was populated by monks from Altomünster. In return, the Benedictine nuns from the Altdorf monastery near Weingarten, which burned down in 1053, settled the Altomünster monastery in 1056.

Double monastery from 1488

1496–1497 received the from St. Birgitta of Sweden (1303-1373) founded the Order of the Savior, which was expanded again between 1488 and 1496. The papal permission dates from 1488, the duke's deed of foundation from 1496. Until 1803 the monastery remained a double monastery with which now the hll. Alto and Birgitta monastery church consecrated.

In 1497 15 nuns and several priests came from Maria Mai. Altomünster became independent as early as 1500. As with the mother monastery, the recruitment base initially remained urban. The first four abbesses (1500–1530) came from Nuremberg, Nördlingen and Augsburg.

The decisive factor was the entry of the famous cathedral preacher of Augsburg, Johannes Hausschein (1482–1531), Oekolampadius in Latin, who left the monastery after barely two years in the monastery (1520–1522) to work as a reformer in Basel . The Freising Bishop Philipp von der Pfalz (ruled 1488–1541) had brought the former Augustinian prior Johannes Palgmacher (died 1542) to Altomünster in 1519 and had him elected prior. Under him and the abbess Ottilia Openler from Wemding (r. 1530–1557) the resistance to the Reformation strengthened. Later the decisions of the Council of Trent could be implemented.

The Thirty Years' War brought great suffering to the monastery (Abbess Apollonia Wager, ruled 1634–1649). With the prior Simon Hörmann (r. 1669–1701) a great pastoral and religious commitment in the sense of baroque piety came to fruition, with the renewed printing of the revelations (1680) and the monastic union with the Birgitten in the Rhineland (General Chapter of Cologne 1675) . The historically and theologically significant prior Jakob Scheckh (r. 1724–1755) continued this development. The monastery church was rebuilt in 1763–1766 by Johann Michael Fischer (1692–1766). In the years 1693–1798 two priests from Altomünster took care of the house of St. Birgitta in Rome.

Johann Michael Fischer began in 1763 with the construction of the until then Romanesque monastery church in the style of the late Rococo . He used the slope of the church to skillfully implement the structural requirements of the Order of the Redeemer. The result was a central building for the parish as well as a long, narrow and high choir with four different room zones for nuns , monks , diocesan priests and the religious priests of other religious communities. Johann Baptist Straub created the altars and sculptures, Joseph Mages the frescoes . The last major project Fischer (died 1766 in Munich) was completed by Balthasar Trischberger .

Secularization from 1803

In 1803 the Altomünster monastery was abandoned in the course of secularization . With the abolition, the monastery lost its property and library, but the nuns remained in their buildings without taking monastic vows.

King Ludwig I (1786–1866, reigned 1825–1848) allowed the community, which had merged into four nuns, to accept novices again in 1841. The heyday of the following 90 years rested on a predominantly rural recruitment base. Over the centuries Altomünster housed an average of around 30 nuns and 15 priests and brothers, the latter only until 1803.

20th century

The National Socialist attitude towards religion and belief from 1933 onwards brought monastery entries to a standstill. During the Second World War, 59 nuns lived in the monastery, in 1947 even 62, but in the decades that followed, the number of nuns fell sharply. The small convent last ran a guest house for the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising .

Since 1997 the Altomünster Museum has been located next to the monastery with a permanent exhibition on the history of the Order of the Redeemer and the monastery.

Dissolution of the monastery

In December 2015 the Vatican announced that the Birgittinnenkloster, in which only the former prioress Sr. Apollonia Buchinger lived, should be closed. The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life commissioned the Franciscan Gabriele Konrad from the Schönbrunn Monastery as apostolic commissioner to close the monastery. After the creation of an inventory report, the monastery was dissolved on January 17, 2017, and the Archdiocese became the legal successor to the Birgit Order . Sr. Apollonia left the monastery in February 2017. A candidate who wanted to join the convent as a postulant refused to complain about her departure from the monastery. When the Archdiocese informed her in early April 2018 that the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature in the Vatican had finally confirmed the dissolution of the monastery and that she was obliged to move out, she left the monastery at the end of April.

However, on February 15, 2018, at the request of the lawyer, the Munich Administrative Court rejected the decision of the Dachau District Office that there was insufficient fire protection and decided to suspend the proceedings for the time being.

Abbots and Abbesses

Very sketchy up to the Birgittenkloster. source

Original monastery of St. Alto

  • Wolfdregi (unsure)

Benedictine monastery

  • Ruodolf, around 1025
  • Eberhard
  • Hiltpold
  • Heinrich, 1047

Benedictine convent

  • Hiltrud I.
  • Euphemia, † 1180
  • Gisela
  • Hiltrud II., 1253, 1261
  • Luitgard, 1281, 1282
  • Ottilia von Pullenhausen, 1305, 1315
  • Anna I of Hohenkirchen, 1378
  • Elisabeth, 1378, 1404
  • Catharina von Eisolzried, 1408, 1417
  • Diemud
  • Brigida Danielin, 1425, 1431
  • Anna II Geisenhauserin, 1435
  • Agnes Reickerin, 1435, 1469
Administrators :
  • Hans Scharrer von Scharrn, 1474, 1485
  • Martin Prandt, 1485
  • Wolfgang Sandizeller, 1488–1496

Birgitten Monastery

Heads:
  • Anna Hutter, 1496-1498
  • Christina Weigl, 1498-1499
Abbesses:
  1. Ursula Klöbl, 1499–1503
  2. Anna Hutter, 1503-1512
  3. Ursula Klöbl, 1512-1519
  4. Catharina Örtl, 1519–1530
  5. Ottilia Publerl, 1530–1537
  6. Maria Petscherer, 1537–1563
  7. Barbara Steudl, 1563-1570
  8. Catharina Plaicher, 1570–1582
  9. Anna Preuss, 1582–1604
  10. Anna Diether, 1604-1618
  11. Anna Mayr, 1618-1634
  12. Apollonia Wagner, 1634-1649
  13. Magdalena Karl, 1649–1669
  14. Birgitta Stöbler, 1669
  15. Febronia Kornl, 1669–1676
  16. Clara Reischl, 1676–1704
  17. Candida Schraivogl, 1704-1715
  18. Rosa Kögl, 1715-1745
  19. Candida Schmid, 1745-1758
  20. Victoria Hueber, 1758-1790
  21. Josepha Magg, 1790-1791
  22. Generosa Hibler, 1791-1823

architecture

The church is on a hill. You enter it through a gate under the tower. Side chapels lead off to the left and right of an anteroom (on the left the Mount of Olives scene, war memorial, with remains of the Karner and epitaphs ; on the right, Lourdes grotto with the fountain of the Alto spring). Steps lead straight to the octagonal main room. The main room is decorated with stucco from the Rococo, the ceiling fresco by Joseph Mages (with the Trinity in the middle) and the two side altars by Johann B. Straub (St. Augustine on the left, St. Alto on the right). The organ above the entrance was rebuilt in 1986 using the preserved old registers .

Between the main room and the choir is the confessional room, in which the confessionals are located. The monks could get into this from outside without leaving the enclosure. On the first floor there is a gallery and the inaccessible nuns choir. The main altar is again higher up and above it a second, again raised high altar. Behind the high altar is the former monks' choir, which is not generally accessible.

Library and archive

At the time of secularization , the monastery library comprised 3,400 volumes. Over 60 manuscripts and almost 1,200 incunabula from them came into the possession of the Electoral Court Library, today's Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich , while the works, which were considered less important at the time, came into the possession of the current university library of the LMU Munich . 200 volumes from the monastery library were distributed to various Bavarian Latin schools . However, the archive of the convent, which was then rebuilt in 1841, had a number of liturgical manuscripts, including around 30 processionals , from the 15th century. In 2015, numerous illuminated manuscripts from other Birgitten monasteries were found here, which have long since been closed and their legacies have been transferred to Altomünster. Currently (2016) the archive is being viewed and archive and library holdings are being separated. After the dissolution of the monastery in January 2017, in consultation with the Bavarian State Library, all works in the monastery library up to the year of publication 1803 should be digitized and made accessible online by 2018.

Alto source

The holy Alto awakens the Alto spring. Ceiling fresco section by Joseph Magges around 1770

The "real" Alto spring rises under the right side altar of the monastery church and feeds in winter and a. the fountain in the church, the fountain in the Altohof and the market fountain on the market square.

7 Monasteries Way

The monastery is also a stop on the 7-Klöster-Weg , a cycle path that connects seven existing or former monasteries in the Dachauer and Wittelsbacher Lands . The aim of this 100 km long bike path is to bring the monasteries back to consciousness and make them tangible. The seven monasteries: Monastery Schönbrunn in Röhrmoos , Monastery Weichs , Kloster Indersdorf , Kloster Petersberg , altomünster abbey, Kloster Maria Birnbaum in Sielenbach and monastery taxa in Odelzhausen .

Picture gallery

  • Monastery church: view of the choir

  • Monastery church: organ

  • Interior, view from the gallery to the main altar

  • Monastery church: Alto altar

  • Monastery church: pulpit

  • Herb garden of the monastery

  • Monastery church with monastery buildings

literature

  • Wolf Bachbauer: Altomünster. Parish and monastery church St. Alto and St. Birgitta. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, 2006, ISBN 3-89870-280-4 .
  • Wilhelm Liebhart: Old Bavarian monastery life. The Birgittenkloster Altomünster 1496–1841. St. Ottilien 1987.
  • Wilhelm Liebhart : The holy Alto and the beginnings of Altomünster. In: Wilhelm Liebhart (Ed.): Altomünster : Monastery, market and community. Altomünster 1999, ISBN 3-00-005192-9 , pp. 63-78.
  • Wilhelm Liebhart: The monastery of St. Benedict. In: Wilhelm Liebhart (Ed.): Altomünster: Monastery, market and community. Altomünster 1999, pp. 79-108.
  • Wilhelm Liebhart: The Birgitten Monastery. In: Wilhelm Liebhart (Ed.): Altomünster: Monastery, market and community. Altomünster 1999, pp. 109-144.
  • Georg Paula : The monastery and parish church Altomünster. In: Wilhelm Liebhart (Ed.): Altomünster: Monastery, market and community. Altomünster 1999, pp. 423-470.
  • Josef Buehl, Sebastian Dachauer , Heinrich Föringer: Regesting unprinted documents on Bavarian local, family and regional history. Volume 17: Documents of the Altomünster Monastery in Upper Bavaria from the time of the possession of the Order of St. Benedict. Munich 1850 ( online ).
  • Thomas Führer: P. Matthäus Ludwig, last prior of the Birgittine monastery in Altomünster. In: Amperland , 1969, pp. 19-21.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Apollonia elected the new prioress. In: Münchner Merkur from November 22, 2013
  2. ↑ Viktoria Großmann: Vatican dissolves Birgittenkloster , Süddeutsche Zeitung , December 3, 2015
  3. ↑ Dominik Göttler: After 519 years: Altomünster monastery is dissolved , Münchner Merkur , March 18, 2016
  4. ↑ Wolfgang Eitler: The monastery is to be dissolved by the end of the year , Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 12, 2016
  5. ^ Wolfgang Eitler: A case of restructuring , Süddeutsche Zeitung , August 13, 2016
  6. ↑ a b After the dissolution by the Vatican: Altomünster monastery remains in the hands of the church , Münchner Merkur , January 19, 2017
  7. ↑ Announcement of the Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Culture, Science and Art from February 2, 2017 ( KWMBl. No. 3/2017 )
  8. ↑ Self-appointed candidate for the order has to leave a dissolved monastery. In: sueddeutsche.de. March 12, 2018. Retrieved May 9, 2018 .
  9. ^ Alois Ostler, Sabine Schäfer, Kathrin Brack: Bavaria's monasteries are looking for a new purpose , Oberbayerisches Volksblatt , September 15, 2018
  10. ↑ https://www.lto.de/recht/kurioses/k/vg-muenchen-kloster-altomuenster-nonne-anwaerterin-brandschutz-auszug/
  11. ↑ Michael Hartig: Die Oberbayerischen Stifts , Volume II: The Premonstratensian Monasteries, the Altomünster and Altenhohenau Monasteries, the Collegiate Monasteries, the Order of German and the Order of Malta, the post-medieval wealthy medals and pens . Publisher vorm. G. J. Manz, Munich 1935, DNB 560552157 , p. 36.
  12. ↑ Altomünster, Birgittenkloster in the Marburg Repertory on Translation Literature in German Early Humanism (MRFH), accessed on August 26, 2016
  13. ^ Rudolf Neumaier: Research thriller: The book treasure in the shopping bag , Süddeutsche Zeitung , August 24, 2016, p. 9, accessed on August 26, 2016; see. Also If the church can sell off and the manuscript treasure of Altomünster? , Article by Klaus Graf on Archivalia from August 25, 2016, accessed on August 26, 2016; https://www.academia.edu/30699012/Newly_Discovered_Birgittine_Manuscripts_at_Risk._The_Library_of_the_Monastery_at_Altom%C3%BCnster_Germany
  14. ↑ David Rising on Associated Press, http://bigstory.ap.org/article/81cd01800c3f49bab3f959ffe4171863, December 26, 2016
  15. ↑ The "7 Klöster Weg" in the Dachauer and Wittelsbacher Land ( Memento from 23 May 2015 in the Internet Archive ) - (Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Odelzhausen , accessed on 23 May 2015)

Web links

Commons : Altomünster Abbey  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Altomünster Monastery  - Sources and full texts

Coordinates: 48 ° 23 ′ 19 ″  N , 11 ° 15 ′ 23.4 ″  E