Arnsburg Monastery

This article deals with the former Cistercian monastery in Arnsburg. For the former community and today's Lich district, see Arnsburg Monastery (Lich) .

Arnsburg Cistercian Abbey
Ruins of the Arnsburg abbey church
location	Germany Hessen
Lies in the diocese	formerly the Archdiocese of Mainz , today the Diocese of Mainz
Coordinates:	50 ° 29 '37.4 "  N , 8 ° 47' 31.6"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 29 '37.4 "  N , 8 ° 47' 31.6"  E.
Serial number according to Janauschek	434
Patronage	BMV
founding year	1174
Year of dissolution / annulment	1803
Mother monastery	Eberbach Monastery
Primary Abbey	Clairvaux Monastery

The Arnsburg Monastery (also Arnsberg Abbey ; Latin Monasterium Castrum Aquilae ) is the partially preserved monastery complex of a former Cistercian abbey and, since 1977, a district of the city of Lich in Hesse , Germany . The abbey was founded in 1174 and abolished in 1803 during the course of secularization . After the monks left in 1810, the monastery property fell to the Counts of Solms-Laubach , who still use parts of the baroque buildings as a castle today, while the late Romanesque and early Gothic parts of the church have been preserved as ruins . A war cemetery has been located in the former cloister since 1960 .

Geographical location

Surroundings of Arnsburg Abbey (engraving from 1715)

Arnsburg Monastery is located on the northern edge of the Wetterau in the valley of the Wetter River , not far from Munzenberg Castle , in the immediate vicinity of the Limes . It can be reached from the west via exit 36 Münzenberg of the A 45 ( Sauerland line ) and the federal road 488 towards Lich , from the east from Lich also via the B 488 towards Butzbach . Places in the vicinity are Lich, Munzenberg, Butzbach and Gießen . Arnsburg Monastery, until December 31, 1976, an independent municipality with the name Arnsburg , has been a district of Lich since the completion of the regional reform in Hesse as well as a separate local district with a local advisory council and local head according to § 81 and 82 of the Hessian municipality code .

history

predecessor

Foundation walls of Arnsburg Castle

At the Roman Wetterau Limes n. Chr. Was a fortified 90 cohort fort on a plateau above the mouth of the creek catfish in the weather. With the abandonment of the Roman Limes 250/260, the Arnsburg fort was slowly decayed. In the following years Franconians settled the Wetterau and near the abandoned fort two castles were built one after the other: a smaller one in the north-western part of the later Arnsburg monastery, which is dated to around 800 and the last remains of which were mentioned in 1834 and a second, the construction of which is set at 1000. This developed in four construction phases until 1151. The site of the former fort belonged, like extensive land in the Wetter Valley, to Arnsburg Castle , near which the medieval settlement of Villa Arnesburg was located.

The first lord of the castle and Reichsministeriale Kuno von Arnsburg, a follower of Emperor Heinrich III. , married Countess Mathilde von Beilstein in 1064. Their daughter Gertrud von Arnsburg married Eberhard von Hagen from Dreieich . Both chose the Arnsburg as their place of residence and from then on called themselves von Hagen and Arnsburg .

Her grandson Konrad II and his wife Luitgart donated the Altenburg Benedictine monastery , which belonged to the Fulda Abbey , in 1150 on the site of the former fort not far from their castle . As a compensation they received the uninhabited Munzenberg from Fulda in 1151 and after 1156 they moved their headquarters to the newly built castle there. Their son Kuno I, born in the same year, was the first of the family to call himself von Hagen-Münzenberg .

With the permission of the owners, the monks used material from the fort and, after 1156, from the now abandoned Arnsburg Castle for the construction of their monastery church, which was badly damaged as a result. However, construction work on the monastery ended as early as 1174 and it was closed.

founding

Map of the Arnsburg Monastery

Only a few months after the departure of the Benedictine monks, Kuno I von Munzenberg handed over the remains of his ancestral castle in Arnsburg, including the land, to the Eberbach monastery to re-establish a Cistercian monastery in the nearby river valley.

Kuno I. von Munzenberg acted in keeping with the times with the appointment of a Cistercian convent to the Wetterau. The era for new Benedictine monasteries in the Hessian area was over, monastery founders turned to the new ideas of the reform orders . In addition to the archbishops of Mainz , ministerial families increasingly appeared as founders. The founders no longer made use of the secular protection rights for the monastery, which had been fiercely contested since the church reform of the 11th and early 12th centuries, but transferred it to the responsible bishop. The Cistercians, Augustinians and Premonstratensians fundamentally claimed bailiff freedom . Kuno I. chose the Cistercians. On July 16, 1174, a meeting took place at Munzenberg Castle, at which he ceremoniously handed over the foundation to Abbot Gerhard of the Eberbach Monastery and the Cistercians also transferred the site of his former Arnsburg Castle with the remains of the fort and the Benedictine church building that had begun. In the deed of foundation, the independence of the Cistercians from the founder was established as guaranteed. The founder was only responsible for the patronage ( tutoris ac provisoris ) over the monastery. King Friedrich II also placed Arnsburg Monastery under his protection ( defensio ) in 1219 , without demanding any privileges. This evidenced freedom of the bailiff led to violent disputes between the authorities and the convent. Despite the initial zeal, the actual founding of the second monastery did not make any progress either. Why the settlement with monks only happened in 1197 cannot be conclusively explained.

possession

Led by their abbot Mengot, the Eberbach monks moved into Arnsburg in 1197. With the foundation in 1174, the monastery received an extensive endowment of 710 acres of land, 150 of which were in the immediate vicinity, but the greater part was widely spread as far as Mainz and Frankfurt .

At the end of the 14th century, the monastery received income from 270 locations and also had its own farms in Frankfurt , Friedberg , Grünberg , Mainz, Marburg , Gelnhausen , Gießen and Wetzlar , where it marketed its agricultural products. Follow-up foundations from pious families who had chosen a burial site in the monastery played an important role in the expansion of the property. The family of the Lords and Counts of Hanau should be emphasized here , who set up their hereditary funeral here and ordered spiritual masses. She was the direct partial legal successor to the founding family. In 1324 Angelus von Sassen from Friedberg, who was a monk in Arnsburg in the last years of his life, donated an altar and provided the monastery with extensive properties in the Wetterau in his will . In 1367, Bishop Rudolf von Verden had a burial chapel built in the monastery and provided it with plenty of money, land and buildings.

Klostergasse

The growing prosperity of Arnsburg was also based on the economic efficiency of the Cistercians. The Konversen Institute fully developed by them , the involvement of lay brothers in the economy and spiritual life of the monasteries, made it possible to successfully transform the monastic economy: central goods and income administration, independent operational units (grangia and curiae) managed by Konversen with the task Generating surpluses and selling them in the cities were central to the concept.

The monks were not only successful builders, but also masterful farmers: They grew more productive types of grain and fruit and built farms such as Kolnhausen , Hof Güll , Wickstadt and the Pfaffenhof zu Erbstadt . Their exemplary agriculture is documented in a large field book, 780 pages of parchment, on which each property is noted and which extends from Emsdorf north of Kirchhain near Marburg to Geinsheim am Rhein . Until the abolition of the monastery in 1803, however, these possessions disappeared due to external and internal turmoil, so that their size shrank back to about the extent of the monastery foundation. "Still now belong to the monastery property around 700 acres of land" can be read in a script from 1834.

right

With the possession of the Arnsburg Cistercians, the rights granted to them also grew. So they held the investiture in the nearby Muschenheim and the patronage of several parish churches in the area. In addition, a document issued by Cardinal Bessarion in 1461 confirmed that the churches in Grüningen , Muschenheim, Trais-Münzenberg , Birklar , Bettenhausen , Wickstadt , Holzheim and Eberstadt were incorporated into the monastery. In addition, the Arnsburgs supervised six other Cistercian convents (including Patershausen Monastery ).

Revenue from the sale of indulgences and indirect income by the emperor or the Hessian Landgrave granted tax and customs freedom were among the privileges, as well as the approved already by Pope Hadrian and later repeatedly confirmed tithe freedom for those goods which ordered the monastery itself. The legal position of the monastery was underpinned by the achievement of independence from the diocesan bishop (exemption) to which it was initially subject.

Monastery and donor family

While the founding family around Kuno I had agreed to the waiver of bailiwick rights towards the monastery, their heirs increasingly saw a curtailment of their rights and tried, ultimately with success, to assert them. After the Munzenbergers, their heirs, the Lords of Falkenstein-Eppstein and subsequently the Counts of Solms , fought for the privileges to hold court days in the monastery and to exercise jurisdiction over the indulgence market connected to the monastery. They sent authorized representatives to elect the abbot and had storage and etching . In 1541 and 1542, due to obvious grievances and the pressure exerted by the Reformation in Arnsburg, agreements were reached between the monastery and the Solms counts, which allowed them to have considerable influence on the financial management and even on the lifestyle of the abbot and monks.

Arnsburg monastery territory on a map from the 18th century

When the Lich line of the Solmser joined the Reformation in 1562 , they tried, initially unsuccessfully, to bring the monastery and the surrounding area to the Lutheran faith. The idea of ​​reforming the church in Arnsburg did not meet with rejection from the start: In 1581 the Arnsburg monk Heinrich Jung became a Protestant pastor in Freienseen .

The Solms Reformation efforts naturally called the Archdiocese of Mainz onto the scene. A bitter dispute broke out in which Abbot Robert Kolb I intervened in 1687 and 1694 with his pamphlets on the fighting eagle ( Aquila certans pro immunitate and Laurea aquilae certantis ). The Catholic side took this as an opportunity to demand the old religious privileges and to make themselves independent of the Protestant rule. In 1715 the Reichshofrat in Vienna decided in favor of the monastery, but constant objections by the opposing party never allowed the process to come to a conclusion. The abolition of the monastery in 1803 preceded a judgment. Ultimately, the winners were the successors of the founding family, Counts of Solms-Laubach , to whom the monastery fell and who still own it today and in some cases also use it for residential purposes.

External confusion

Arnsburg was not spared from political and military events. Archbishop Johann I von Nassau confiscated the Arnsburg possessions in the Wetterau, Rheingau and Main during the fighting between Hesse and Mainz in 1406 , banned the monastery and threatened to destroy it. This was prevented by the Archbishop of Trier , Werner von Falkenstein , who transferred 400 men to Arnsburg as a guard. In these disputes, according to Arnsburg records, 26 farms burned down and the damage was estimated at no less than 73,000 guilders. In 1489 the Cistercians therefore had to borrow money from the Grünberg Antonites for reconstruction and debt repayment.

The monastery was badly hit during the Thirty Years' War . As early as 1623, Protestant farmers destroyed the Holy Cross Chapel, which the Cistercians had built in the ruins of the old Arnsburg Castle. Abbot Wendelin Fabri (1616–1631) had the cross of the chapel transferred to the monastery church. This crucifix, which was hung on chains in the nave of the monastery church, was smashed by a farmer from Eberstadt in 1631. Abbot Wendelin Fabri had a Holy Cross Chapel installed in the church, near which he was buried in 1631.

Before the Swedish troops approaching in 1631, the monks fled to Clairvaux with Abbot Johann Adam Will . They could not return until 1634. In the meantime the Swedes and their Solmese allies had settled here. The result was catastrophic: Part of the inventory, including the organ, had been brought to Lich.

Not only was the church cleared and its altars destroyed, but the roofs of the church and dormitory were also demolished. The cloister and all farm buildings showed signs of damage. In 1672, forty years after the destruction, a service could be held for the first time in the vestibule of the church called Paradise .

The Austrian War of Succession and especially the Seven Years War brought new problems around 1759 during the term of office of Abbot Peter Schmitt (1746–1772):

“The monastery was badly visited three times by soldiers on the move; five times the abbot was forced to leave the monastery and seek his salvation in flight; He had to pay three times the ransom for eight abducted monks. "

Despite all the turmoil, the baroque expansion of the monastery with the prelate and kitchen, the gate and the garden house began during this time under Abbots Robert I. Kolb, Antonius Antoni, Peter Schmitt and Bernhard Birkenstock .

Inner conflicts

The Konversen-Institut practiced by the Cistercians, i.e. the integration of lay brothers into monastic life, on the one hand brought economic success, but on the other hand also led to massive conflicts between the groups. As early as 1240 there was an uprising of the Konvers in Arnsburg because they felt they were disadvantaged. The lay brothers, of whom there were more in the monastery than monks, were dissatisfied with the treatment, clothing and food.

By the end of the 17th century, the monks distanced themselves far from the original Cistercian asceticism. The good life with hunting trips, wine and women reached its most extreme phase under Abbot Georg Heyl (1663–1669), but this did not last long. These excesses ended with the appointment of Robert I. Kolb as abbot (1673–1701). Not only did he manage to eradicate the aftermath of the Thirty Years' War, but he also restored monastic discipline. Abbot Conrad Eiff (1708–1714) also led the order strictly according to Cistercian rules and Abbot Peter Schmitt (1746–1772) designed a retreat method to increase the zeal for faith.

Library

The monastery library , which had grown up until the Thirty Years' War, was almost completely destroyed in the course of this and was rebuilt in a relatively short time after 1648. The catalog of 1708 already had 2,100 books and in 1784 the inventory had grown to around 15,000 volumes. This was primarily due to the two abbots Peter Schmitt and Bernhard Birkenstock, who not only appeared as builders, but also supported the Arnsburg monastery library on a sustainable basis.

The six sections divided library contained in Section I works on monastic life as the Cistercian rule that Life of Bernard of Clairvaux , rule-concordances and holy life, theological in Section II texts such as the Old Testament in Hebrew , the New Testament on Greek , the Koran in the original text and in the translation and writings of the Church Fathers, in Section III the history of the church and orders, in Section IV philosophical works for example by Leibniz , John Locke and authors of the French Enlightenment , in Section V general literature, among others a description of Asia and finally, in Section VI, books that had emerged from the Arnsburg monastery.

End of the monastery

The territorial reorganization that went hand in hand with the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss meant the end of the monastery. In the course of secularization , it was abolished in 1803 and given to the Solms family. The abbot Alexander Weitzel, who had been in office since 1799, had to leave the monastery. He died in his home town of Rockenberg in 1819 .

The Solms people shared their new property, which they had received as compensation for lost possessions on the left bank of the Rhine, in contracts concluded on November 10, 1802 and March 27, 1804 under the lines Solms-Braunfels , Solms-Hohensolms-Lich , Solms-Rödelheim and Solms -Laubach up. The latter line was awarded to the Arnsburg monastery with 5400 acres of land. With the change of administration, Arnsburg became Lutheran and initially looked after by the parish of Gonterskirchen until 1815 , then by the parish of Wohnbach until 1859 .

A large part of the inventory was also removed from the monastery: Solms-Laubach received the monastery library and a Byzantine cameo from the 12th century. The rich rococo pulpit made of linden wood was brought to the Licher Marienstiftskirche , where the Arnsburg main organ (possibly also built by the organ builder Georg Wagner from Lich) had been relocated during the Thirty Years' War to protect against looting . The smaller old choir organ (I / P / 9 [10?]) Of the basilica , built in 1733 by the organ maker Johann Georg Dreuth (Drauth, Drutt) from Griedel, was sold to the (no longer preserved) Catholic Church in 1807. St. Nikolaus Castle Church in Kransberg sold and demolished there after the church was sold in 1883; the larger new choir organ (I / P / 15), built in 1766/68 by the Florstadt organ builder Johann Friedrich Syer , was moved to the Braunfels Castle Church and has been preserved there (after two extensions in 1900 and 1965). The baroque high altar, adapted to the new spatial conditions, found its place in the Catholic parish church of St. Georg in Mainz-Kastel . Some liturgical vestments, the monstrance and the gold chalice went to Rockenberg, Kransberg and Erbach in the Rheingau. Gravestones were also removed or reworked as a drain in front of well troughs.

Between 1803 and 1811 part of the monastery building was used as a breeding, work and madhouse , after which the new masters of Arnsburg Monastery made a decision, the consequences of which soon turned out to be far more devastating than the destruction of the Thirty Years War: you sold part of the building for demolition . As early as 1818 the roofs and vaults of the church collapsed and the cloister and the baroque convent with the library building also fell victim to the pickaxe. After all, it was rebuilt as a church, although reduced by one floor, in nearby Birklar. Prelate and kitchen building, summer house, Bursenbau and most of the farm buildings were preserved and temporarily served the Counts of Solms-Laubach and others as apartments.

The Rentamt man Christian Wilhelm Fabricius lived from 1804 until his death in 1877 in Arnsburg and made up immediately prior to the demolition in 1811 several drawings of the monastery, which make it possible to recognize its state before the destruction.

Initiated by the social reformer Johann Peter Schäfer , the rescue house for neglected girls moved into the garden house in 1847 and from 1877 also into the bursa building . This facility was temporarily followed in 1944 by the Giessen University Women's Clinic and from 1957 to 1961 a children's home , then for a short time a home for the elderly . The early Gothic chapter house and the church porch ( paradise ) were used as a sheepfold, and until the 1950s the cloister area, deprived of its vaults, served as a woodpiling area and orchard.

List of Abbots

(as far as known)

Arnsburg Abbey around 1810

• Gerhard (1174)
• Mengot (1197)
• Johann (1317-1319)
• Rudolph (1418)
• Wendelin Fabri (1616-1631)
• Johann Adam Will (1631–1663)
• Georg Heyl (1663–1669)
• Christian Stattworbis (1670–?)
• Robert Kolb I (1673-1701)
• Robert Kolb II. (1701-1708)
• Conrad Eiff (1708-1714)
• Antonius Antoni (1714–1746)
• Peter Schmitt (1746–1772)
• Bernhard Birkenstock (1772–1799)
• Alexander Weitzel (1799–1803)

Buildings

Medieval buildings

Construction of the monastery begins

Floor plan of the medieval buildings

Led by their abbot Mengot, the Eberbach monks moved into Arnsburg in 1197 and began building the monastery, initially using the castle as a construction hut and quarry , as well as the unfinished church in the fort. Both were torn down to the foundations in the following years.

The monks had to make do with temporary accommodation for several decades, as their first task was to build the church, the year of which is recorded as 1246. Only then did the other buildings of the enclosure and the economic area follow. Construction planning and construction were under the direction of a monk who was known as a master of construction . In Arnsburg, this was Magister Ditericus , whose plans were implemented jointly by monks, lay brothers (conversations) and other assistants.

Like other Cistercian monasteries, Arnsburg had excellent builders and stonemasons ( lapicidae ) who came from among the ranks of the conversations. The quality of the Cistercian buildings prompted several German bishops to use their experience in building the cathedral. This hiring of skilled workers shows what a high reputation the Cistercian builders enjoyed in the late 12th and 13th centuries. The Arnsburg monastery buildings also testify to the craftsmanship and artistic performance of the order.

Monastery wall

The red gate towards Birklar

The monastery wall, which has a total length of 1.6 kilometers and an average height of 2.5 meters, encloses the monastery district in good condition. There are breakthroughs in only a few places: On the one hand at the inflow and outflow of the Wetter and on the other hand at Gottesackertor , the earlier access to the monk's cemetery, at the Red Gate from 1750, which served public transport in the direction of Lich until 1874 and through a The newer wall opening at the garden house was replaced, and at the gate building, the main entrance to the monastery grounds.

Farm buildings

Stair tower of the former forge

Former monastery mill

In the outer area, immediately to the right behind the main entrance through the gates of the monastery, are the farm buildings, an almost 50 meter long barn, the monastery mill from the 17th century (today a restaurant), the old brewery and a stable building. Only the baroque stair tower with half-timbering on the upper floor is preserved from the former forge from 1696 . Further south at the Wetterbrücke with its wrought-iron railing from the 18th century there is another stable in brick framework.

Other farm buildings from different eras are scattered over the entire monastery grounds, such as the wagon at the entrance to the cemetery.

Bursae construction

Bursae construction

The bursa building opposite the mill, which dominates the inner courtyard of the monastery, was built around 1250. He served the asset management of the monastery. This building is the most important medieval building outside of the enclosure . Due to the rising terrain, it is turned slightly to the southeast to the otherwise rectangular system of the monastery complex, probably not to narrow the corridor that leads between Paradies and Bursenbau to Klostergasse. A passage with a round arch, which leads under the building to Klostergasse and the entrance of the cloister, separates the basement into two rooms. The lay refectory was to the south of the passage and the cellar to the north. Noteworthy in this passage are the various openings, which are now partially walled up, with Gothic, formerly Romanesque arches, which provided access to the cellar and the refectory. There was also a dog kennel here.

The refectory of the lay brothers on the ground floor, originally divided by six bays and later reduced to five as part of a baroque renovation, has also been changed several times in the following years. On April 2, 1457, the upper floor fell victim to a fire. Hastily rebuilt, the new roof structure collapsed again. The facility, which was then renewed again, was completely rebuilt again in 1750. The rectangular windows and the mansard roof and the new entrance on the north-west corner with an outside staircase and richly decorated grille resulted from this conversion .

The Bursenbau includes an extensive, two-part cellar vault that extends from the northwest side to the front church, paradise . The entrance, which was hidden for a long time by a roof and exposed in 1987, is located on the left in front of the arched passage to Klostergasse; there is no access from the building. The left part of the basement has two aisles with square pillars supporting a ridge vault and has a floor area of ​​13.8 by 6.55 meters. The right basement room with a barrel vault , which lies in front of the north side of the Bursen building, has a size of 10 by 6.35 meters. A medieval drainage canal leads from the basement in an arch to the south and flows into the mill ditch at the monastery mill.

Cloister

War victims cemetery in the former cloister, Romanesque east building

The cloister , built around 1250 and measuring 27.18 by 31.60 meters, and thus the enclosure , directly adjoined the southern side of the nave of the basilica. The only external access from Kirchgasse then, as now, is a narrow gate opposite the vaulted passage of the Bursenbau. The circumferential corridor, originally provided with delicate groin vaults, the arches of which rested on the still existing consoles on the surrounding walls, disappeared as part of the demolition clearance in 1810. The wall plinths of the cloister facing the cross garden with the foundations of their buttresses and those of the well chapel were restored in the course of the conversion of the complex into a war victims cemetery from 1958 to 1960. The fountain itself was reconstructed and put back into operation using two original bowls that were found in the Lich palace gardens.

The cloister, which was originally not open to the general public, and the enclosure served the von Hanau family as a hereditary burial from the 13th to the beginning of the 15th century , as they did not have their own monastery . The Cistercian convent Patershausen they founded was subordinate to the Arnsburg monastery. From the year 1343 a document has been handed down in which Adelheid von Hanau , daughter of Ulrich II. , Is allowed to visit the father's grave in the cloister of the monastery, which is not open to the public, twice a year, which incidentally was three years before happens to the death of her father.

Ulrich IV was the last Hanauer to find his final resting place here, as did all his predecessors and their wives in 1380. Some of the ornate tombstones have been preserved and attached to the walls of the cloister. The following were buried here:

Entrance to the chapter house

• Reinhard I of Hanau († 1281)
• Elisabeth von Rieneck , wife of Ulrich I († approx. 1300)
• Ulrich I of Hanau (* 1255 /1260; † 1305 /1306)
• Countess Adelheid von Nassau († August 8, 1344), wife of Ulrich III.
• Ulrich II. Von Hanau (* approx. 1280/1288; † September 23, 1346)
• probably also Agnes von Hohenlohe (* before 1295; † November 29, 1346) as the wife of Ulrich II. However, there is no evidence of this.
• Ulrich III. von Hanau (* approx. 1310; † 1369/1370)
• Adelheid von Hanau († 1378)
• Ulrich IV. Von Hanau (* 1330/1340; † 1380)

Chapter House

Chapter house with tombstone of Johann von Falkenstein, 1365

In the building bordering the cloister and thus today's war victims cemetery to the east, several doors facing the cloister stand out on the ground floor. Behind it were rooms important for monastic life such as the auditorium , a passage to the convent building and the door to a room with an internal staircase to the dormitorium on the upper floor. The group of portals and windows on the ground floor, which characterize the chapter house, is striking, a particularly beautiful early Gothic room with three by three square bays with groin vaults. The east wall of the chapter hall opens into three groups of three round-arched windows each, and opposite to the right and left of the entrance through two pointed arch fields, each with two windows separated by twin columns. The portal and windows on this side were never closed, but opened towards the cloister. Two-tiered benches that run around the chapter house show that the chapter house was not a self-contained room, but an extension of the cloister. The reconstruction of the floor covering in the chapter house today is based on the structure of the original.

On the east side of the chapter room there is a modern, altar-like canteen with the inscription Mortui viventes obligant (“The dead oblige the living”). It dedicates the chapter house to the memory of the 447 war dead buried in the Kreuzganggeviert, soldiers who fell in Northern Hesse and slave laborers murdered in the last days of the war.

sacristy

To the left of the chapter room, the walled up former gate to the sacristy can be seen. The second entrance from the church still leads into this room, which used to be a source of the water that was necessary to clean the altarpieces. The sacristy now serves as a chapel for the dead.

Southern rooms

Dormitory

South of the chapter house is the door to the reconstructed staircase leading up to the dormitory , the former dormitory of the monks. The elongated room, demolished in the 19th century, was recovered through extensive work. Today it is used in the front, three-aisled part for changing exhibitions and in the rear, two-aisled part for holding concerts. Today's main entrance to the dormitory is via a staircase in the transept of the basilica.

Next to the staircase to the dormitory is a passage to the eastern buildings, which originally housed the hospital ward. It was later replaced by the baroque convent building, which was demolished around 1811. Finally, in the southeast corner of the cloister is the entrance to the auditorium . This room offered the monks, who were otherwise subject to strict silence, the opportunity to talk.

Monk portal and former entrance to the sacristy

The most notable gate, the monk portal, is in the northeast corner of the cloister. It was used by the monks to access the basilica directly from the cloister and is richly decorated according to its importance. The horizontally closed doorway sits in a Romanesque round arched niche, the stepped, semicircular arches of which end in three-quarter columns. The monk portal is permanently closed today.

While visitors from outside came through Paradise , the front church, into the north aisle, the lay brothers only used the access at the end of Kirchgasse between the Bursenbau and the cloister.

basilica

Elevation of the nave (1888)

Through this Gothic portal, the visitor arrives at the ruins of the three-aisled basilica, the most impressive building of the monastery. The church, built from Lungstein , is only present up to the level of the sills of the upper clad windows after it was dismantled in the early 19th century . Some parts of the vaults in the north aisle have been preserved. Two drawings by Fabricius from 1810 show the exterior of the church building shortly before it was destroyed. In these pictures, the plastered outer walls have a pilaster structure and a round arch and console frieze under the eaves or the gable . The building was dominated by a large roof turret over the crossing of the nave and transept, on the sides of which there were smaller roof turrets.

Basilica main and side aisles

The entire church building, including the front church and chapel wreath, has an outer length of 85.30 meters, the transept 36.75 meters. The outside of the nave is 24.15 meters wide, the transept 12.00 meters. The internal dimensions of the transept are 32.75 by 8.95 meters, those of the central nave 65.17 by 8.80 to 8.87 meters. The two side aisles that accompany the central nave over the full length are slightly different in width: 4.45 and 4.55 meters and have a uniform height of 7.22 meters to the transom and 9.90 meters to the previous vertex . They are clearly towered over by the central nave, which is 19.50 meters high and 13.23 meters high.

The size of the building is characteristic of Cistercian churches. The basilica of the Arnsburg Monastery is 65.17 meters long and comparable to the buildings in Georgenthal , built in 1143 and 54.50 meters long, and the Altenberg Monastery from 1255 with 77.50 meters in length. The original ceiling height of the Arnsburg basilica is also comparable with other Cistercian churches. The ratio of the nave width to its apex height is 1: 2.18 in Arnsburg, 1: 1.88 in Eberbach (1145) and 1: 2.35 in Otterberg (1200 to 1270), so it is around the ideal ratio of 1: 2 .

The entire east-facing church building, apart from the nave with an antechamber, central nave and two side aisles, as well as the transept, consisted of the choir building with a surrounding chapel wreath and an All Saints Chapel in the northern connection to the nave, according to Cistercian custom . The year 1197 is assumed to be the start of construction. In 1246 the first, eastern building section of the basilica was consecrated, the others in 1256, 1257 and 1260, each documented by papal indulgence letters .

Capitals of the transept

This construction time sequence explains that the late Romanesque forms of the eastern parts that were started first are followed by early Gothic in the west. The Romanesque style with its round arches can be seen from the choir to the fourth yoke of the nave. From then on, the zygomatic arches change into the pointed Gothic shape, while the formation of the consoles and capitals was continued in the manner that had begun towards the west. The light openings running above the south aisle are also designed as arched windows up to the western end, as have been preserved in the upper wall sections of the choir and transept. The change in the architectural style is also evident in the execution of the services , column-shaped images of the ribbed vaults leaning against the pillars . If these load-bearing elements rise from the ground up to the east side of the crossing, they emerge from the yoke pillars at different heights in the further western course.

The chapel wreath around the choir deserves special attention. It was destroyed in the early 19th century after excavation work by Dr. Siemer Oppermann can be recognized today again in 1979, as the foundations were bricked up so far that the floor plan of these parts of the building was visible. This applies not only to the eleven chapels that were arranged around the choir, but also to the All Saints Chapel, which was added in 1394 to the north of the aisle over a length of four bays.

The knight Johannes von Linden and his wife Guda von Bellersheim, who were buried here, are considered to be the founders. Her red sandstone gravestone is 3.46 meters high and 1.56 meters wide and used to stand on the west wall of the All Saints Chapel until it was moved to the north aisle in 1985. It is severely damaged by environmental influences. The upper end is missing, for which Martin Morkramer suggests a blind arch frieze. Stylistic analyzes suggest that Master Tyle von Frankenberg , who worked in the area around Frankenberg from 1360 to 1396, was the creator of the tomb .

paradise

Paradise (pre-church)

The pre-church called Paradise was a waiting room for visitors from outside. Today it serves as a Protestant church. The west side of the building consists of ashlar masonry . Similar to the side aisles of the basilica, it is closed under the roof by a pointed arch frieze. There are console friezes on the narrow sides in the north and south. The portal facing the Sindicus garden and a pointed arched window above mark the central axis of the building. The original groin vault with three square yokes, which are divided by two round arches with profiled spars , was provided with stucco strips in 1744 . The keystones are covered in the south with the Christ monogram, in the middle with the coat of arms of Abbot Antonius Antoni and in the north with the renovation year "ANNO 1744".

After the secularization in 1803, the pre-church was used as a sheepfold for decades, so that the manure gradually piled up a meter, up to the threshold of the west portal . In 1877, the paradise was freed from 120 cubic meters of sheep dung so that the room could again be used for church services. Around 1890 there was again a pulpit, a gallery and a stove. Until 1944, Paradise was used for Protestant worship, then temporarily, like the Bursenbau, the Gießen University Women's Clinic as a sick bay. Since 1967 the pre-church has been gradually restored to its original state and is still used as a church today.

The organ building company Förster & Nicolaus put together a new work in 1979 from various preserved organ parts. The baroque organ case and a pedal register came from the church of Bindsachsen , the manual keyboards and two old registers from the Gedern church and another old register from the church in Holzheim . Today the instrument has eight registers, which are distributed on a manual and pedal. The sculpture "Christ on the Tree of Life" by the Polish sculptor Józef Sękowski (* 1939) from 1996, which is based on a woodcut from the 15th century and is made of polychrome gilded linden wood, is mounted above the simply walled block altar.

Monk cemetery

Monk cemetery

In the north wing of the transept of the basilica, the cemetery portal opens as a counterpart to the monk portal opposite. The cemetery portal was the entrance to the former monks cemetery, which extends from the north side of the church to the monastery wall. To the west, the cemetery is closed by the small building of the wagon factory. Behind it, the Sindicus Garden stretches between paradise , the monastery wall and the baroque gates. Opposite the monk portal is a covered crucifix by the Frankfurt master Wolfgang Fröhlich, made around 1700, leaning against the monastery wall .

The cemetery is still used today as a final resting place for members of the Solms-Laubach family and families who are friends.

Baroque buildings

In the middle to the end of the 18th century, the castle-like buildings dominating the monastery ensemble were built in the baroque style, in chronological order the prelate building 1727, the abbey building 1745, the kitchen building 1747, the new upper floor of the bursa building 1750, the garden house 1751 and finally the gate building 1774– 1777.

The abbot Antonius Antoni, who came from Mainz, planned the uniform expansions presented to the medieval monastery buildings in the east and south and began in the east, on the site of the medieval hospital and parallel to the old east building, with the two-story new convent building, which was included in the north and south three-story corner buildings completed. After 1810 the building itself was demolished except for a piece of five window axes and sold. The municipality of Birklar acquired the northern corner building in 1818 and rebuilt it the following year, one floor lower than the village church . The southern corner building, which served as the abbot's apartment, was not sold and has been preserved to this day as a prelate building.

Prelate building

Abbey building and prelate building

The prelate building, built in 1727 according to plans by Bernhard Kirn , is a self-contained, square three-storey building. The portal is located in the adjoining abbey building.

The ground floor, made of red sandstone, dominates the building as a base, above whose cornice the main and upper floors with red window frames rise in four axes between white plaster. A mansard roof forms the end. The two central axes are projected like a risalit and crowned in the roof zone by a semicircular gable field in which the Arnsburg coat of arms is held by two large swans . The swan was the heraldic animal of Abbot Antoni. The north side of the prelate building is unadorned. It was added functionally after the convent building was demolished.

Inside the prelate building there is a beautiful iron banister from the time it was built. Above the marble door framed by pilaster strips to the abbot's apartment on the upper floor is the coat of arms of Abbot Antoni. The Latin inscription indicates the year of construction and the builder: Antonius Antoni de Moguntia Abbas Arnsburgensis hanc abbatiam erigi curavit anno Domini MDCCXXVII (Antonius Antoni from Mainz, Abbot of Arnsburg, had this abbey built in the year of the Lord in 1727).

Abbey building

The long, two-storey building with an attic floor, which adjoins the prelate building to the west, is the abbey building from 1745 and originally housed ancillary or office rooms. The building is just so far south of the medieval enclosure that the southern end of the eastern building still protrudes into the abbey building. The south front of the building has 21 axes. The windows have frames made of red sandstone with an architrave profile . Above the two side entrances, the windows are in two parts, wider and higher than the others. On the western narrow side, there was a connection to the bursa structure, which was shortened by two axes. This connecting structure, the outline of which can still be seen, was later replaced by a stone archway.

The abbey building has a total of three portals. The middle one is not the dominant one, as is usually the case, but appears rather modest compared to the two on the side. This is due to the more important function of the similarly designed side portals. The left one is placed so that it lies at the beginning of a straight corridor that led through the abbey building and through to the demolition of the medieval refectory to the well chapel. The eastern portal is the entrance to the prelate building, which does not have its own entrance. Both side portals have staircases leading upwards, while the middle one only conceals a narrow room with a spiral staircase that leads to the auditorium and dormitory of the medieval east building. On the upper floor of the eastern staircase to the prelate building there is a wrought-iron railing with rococo shapes and the year 1751 on one side and the coat of arms of Abbot Peter Schmitt (1746–1772) on the other.

Above the doors of the side portals there is a semicircular skylight with wrought iron grids , which is closed off by a segmented gable supported by Tuscan columns. The middle portal, on the other hand, is not made of sandstone, but of colored lung stone without a column frame. The straight lintel is covered by a rectangular skylight, above which a plaque with the building inscription and the year MDCCXLV = 1745 and above it a sandstone shield with the coat of arms of Abbot Antonius Antoni is attached.

Kitchen construction

Kitchen construction

Abbot Peter Schmitt had the kitchen built to the east of the prelate building, probably based on plans by Bernhard Kirn, whose name refers to the monastery kitchen housed here. In the eastern part there is also the ballroom. Like the abbey building, the 13-axis kitchen building is two-story with an attic. The windows of the kitchen and adjoining rooms have smooth walls, those of the ballroom on the upper floor are slightly larger. The door of the arched entrance, which lies in the central axis, is covered with a semicircular skylight with a rich decorative grille. Above this there is an elaborately crafted segmented gable and above it the client's coat of arms. Another, simpler door with a rectangular skylight is located on the narrow eastern side of the building below the ballroom.

The entrance hall behind the main portal leads to a central corridor, at the end of which was the monastery kitchen with a vaulted ceiling, while the front rooms on the ground floor have straight ceilings. The kitchen had a connection with the Mühlbach, which runs along the narrow western side between the prelate building and the kitchen building. A small canal ran from him under the building to the weather.

The ballroom, which occupies the three eastern axes on the upper floor, is characterized by rich rococo ornaments on the inner door frame, which bears the abbot's coat of arms, on the window niches and the ceiling.

Garden shed

Garden shed

The palace-like garden house from 1751, which was also built by Abbot Peter Schmitt, and its outbuildings are a bit away from the actual monastery complex behind the farm buildings beyond the weather. The small, single-storey building with nine axes has a mansard roof . While the side windows have smooth frames, the portal is flanked in the slightly protruding middle part by two larger windows with rounded ends. The portal itself, to which a two-flight flight of stairs leads, first has a stucco cartouche with the abbot's name above a straight lintel , above it a flat roof and finally the abbot's coat of arms.

In front of the two-flight flight of stairs to the main portal, the former abbey garden, which was originally laid out in a baroque style and was later redesigned with fruit trees into a simple kitchen garden, extends almost rectangularly, surrounded by a low stone wall. The central axis of the former baroque complex is still clearly visible.

Gate construction

Gate construction

The most representative building of the baroque period is the gate building, designed by Father Coelestinus Wagner and built between 1774 and 1777, through which the main entrance leads from the west into the monastery district. The client was the penultimate Arnsburg abbot Bernhard Birkenstock, who had the building erected on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the monastery. The building with a round arched passage, lateral pedestrian passages and low side wings had a medieval predecessor, which was restored after the destruction from 1631 to 1632, like a drawing from 1761 that was in the possession of the Upper Hessian Museum in Gießen and is not today there is more, showed.

The entire complex was significantly enlarged by the new baroque building. On both sides of the higher central wing are two-storey side wings, which are designed on the south side with three axes and on the north side with four axes, each with a door on the east side. Pilaster strips structure the outer edges and the middle border of the central building, which is extended by 28 centimeters on both sides of the door. The sandstone sculpture of St. Bernard of Clairvaux with a book and crook as an indication of the Cistercian affiliation of the monastery is located above the outside passage portal. On the inside, this figure corresponds to that of the Immaculate over the crescent moon and the snake. Both sculptures come from the Mainz court sculptor Martin Binterim . Both archways are crowned by a keystone with a relief of a double-headed eagle.

The outside of the central building is particularly emphasized by a large segmented gable, which, like the console band, is made of red sandstone and has its counterpart on the front side of the prelate building. A standing oval with the Arnsburg coat of arms is depicted between trees and deer, and above it a miter and crook.

Cultural use

Cultural monument

Bridge over the weather

While the medieval monastery church remained at least as an expressive ruin, individual buildings and entire building complexes disappeared in 1811 due to the demolition permit. Others were only partially removed and, thanks to the initiative of the Friends of the Arnsburg Monastery Association, have been faithfully restored since 1960. The Solms-Laubach family made considerable funds available for this.

The baroque buildings of the 17th and 18th centuries, with the exception of the convent building, have been preserved and, having been restored in an exemplary manner, shape the present-day appearance of the entire monastery complex.

After the destruction and neglect of the medieval monastery areas, nature began to gain the upper hand. Bushes and trees took root on the crowns of the walls of the monastery church and in the church itself. During the renovation of the monument in 1983, the compromise was made to clear only the north walls of the heavy ivy and tree vegetation so as not to disturb the romanticism of the ruins . In 2007, however, the east walls also showed severe damage from the vegetation, so that this also had to be removed in order to preserve the church ruins.

Today the facility is a cultural monument according to the Hessian Monument Protection Act .

War victims cemetery

War victims cemetery

The German War Graves Commission took the mid-1950s negotiations with the owners monastery to the abused as a timber yard cloister inside the cloister quadrangle feed back an appropriate, dignified experience. The plan arose to relocate victims of the Second World War, who were widely scattered in graves in the districts of Gießen, Alsfeld and Büdingen, regardless of their ethnic origin, in a war victims memorial in Arnsburg Monastery. This undertaking was not a matter of course at the time, as it was supposed to be the very first war graveyard where not only German soldiers were buried, but also civilians from other nations. That is why the memorial was carefully chosen not to use one of the common names such as war cemetery or military cemetery , but war victims cemetery . On the day of popular mourning in 1959, the cemetery was handed over to its intended use as a memorial and the structure was completed in 1960.

447 row graves planted with thyme and lined with grass paths are laid out within the cloister. Based on the burial practice of the Cistercians, they are oriented from west to east. Bronze plaques at the foot of each grave bear, as far as known, the personal data of the buried, which often only consists of a date or year. Stone crosses made of reddish lava tuff are scattered across the complex, individually or in groups . In addition to fallen soldiers, deceased prisoners of war and foreign workers from the former Soviet Union , Poland , Hungary , Romania , France and Luxembourg also found a final resting place, among them 81 women and six men from different countries who worked at Hirzenhain shortly before the arrival of the American army on On March 26, 1945, SS and Gestapo people shot dead in a night-and-fog operation . Of the 87 murdered, only Emilie Schmitz (grave 320) from Luxembourg could be identified.

A plaque on the west side of the cloister commemorates this group of victims of National Socialist rule. In the chapter house adjoining on the east side there is a memorial stone in the form of an altar ( cafeteria ). In addition to the Latin inscription Mortui viventes obligant (“The dead oblige the living”), it also bears the Arnsburg coat of arms, the ribbon of the Cistercian order and the five crosses of the war graves welfare organization.

tourism

The Arnsburg Monastery is signposted from the entrance to the B 488. Two visitor parking spaces have been created within the monastery wall. From there a circular path leads to all buildings of the monastery. Entry to the basilica, the dormitory and the monks' cemetery is chargeable. In the former monastery mill there is a restaurant, which until 2013 also managed the Bursenkeller as a ballroom and operated a hotel on the upper floor of the Bursen building. A narrow footpath makes it possible to walk around the entire circumference of the monastery wall on the outside. Outside the monastery walls one arrives at the Hainfeld, 800 meters south-west, with the ruins of Arnsburg Castle . Another 600 meters to the southwest are the remains of the Roman fort in Arnsburg-Alteburg . Castle and fort played an important role in the history of monastery construction. Expert tours can be obtained from the Freundeskreis Kloster Arnsburg e. V. be ordered.

circle of friends

The Freundeskreis Kloster Arnsburg eV has existed since 1960 and has carried out numerous maintenance and reconstruction projects since it was founded. Around three million euros were spent on this until 1997 to remove the weathered wall crowns in the church ruins and secure them with three layers of rubble, to joint the masonry, to restore and fortify the north aisle vaults, to expose and wall up the north and choir chapel foundations as well as those of the apses to reintroduce four choir arches made of lung stone and use sandstone slabs to make the paths to the monks 'cemetery, the dormitory and the monks' hall more accessible.

With the support of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau , the paradise was expanded and made usable again for church services, and a baroque organ was acquired for this room .

In cooperation with the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge the cloister and chapter house could be prepared and in the east building the sacristy, the passage room next to the chapter house, the former monks hall and the two staircases to the dormitory were repaired. In the dormitory, damaged vaults and belt arches and four vault fields of the medieval window groups were renewed, the pillars were erected, the southern part with the beamed ceiling was expanded and the stage, heating, ancillary rooms, toilets and lighting were repaired.

The former bakery and the earlier entrances to the demolished convent building in the baroque kitchen were expanded and the stair tower of the forge restored, the roof areas of the eastern building and farm buildings were newly covered with plain tiles, the 1.6 kilometer long monastery wall secured and the monks' cemetery including the crucifix repaired.

The search for Arnsburg Castle as the origin of the monastery was started in 1981 with the financial participation of the Freundeskreis and led to success in 1982 through aerial photographs by Prof. Baatz, the director of the Saalburg Museum, so that the excavation of this castle complex including the Holy Cross Chapel began in 1984 and was built as a ground monument in 1986 could be made available to the public.

For this, the Freundeskreis was awarded the Silver Hemisphere of the German Prize for Monument Protection in 1987 by the German National Committee for Monument Protection , at that time at the Federal Ministry of the Interior .

literature

• Günther Binding , Matthias Untermann: Small art history of medieval order architecture in Germany. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1985.
• Georg Dehio : Handbook of German art monuments , Hessen I: Administrative districts of Giessen and Kassel. Edited by Folkhard Cremer, Tobias Michael Wolf and others. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03092-3 .
• Wilhelm Dersch: Hessian monastery book. Source studies on the history of the founders, monasteries and branches of religious cooperatives founded in the administrative district of Cassel, the province of Upper Hesse and the Principality of Waldeck. Elwert, Marburg 1915. p. 6 f.
• Carl Ebel: History of the Arnsburg Monastery in the Wetterau. In: Communications of the Upper Hessian History Association. New series Volume 4, 1893, pp. 66-101 ( online ).
• Hans Harvest: Scattered goods from Arnsburg Monastery. In: Hessian homeland. No. 1/12. January 1966.
• Otto Gärtner: Arnsburg Monastery in the Wetterau - its history - its buildings. Photos by Helmut Lindloff (= The Blue Books ). Published by the Freundeskreis Arnsburg eV 3rd, revised edition. Langewiesche, Königstein im Taunus 1998, ISBN 3-7845-4052-X .
• Wilhelm Haffke: The war victims cemetery in Arnsburg monastery. In: Willy Zschietzschmann (Ed.): 800 years of Arnsburg monastery. 1174-1974. Volkmann, Lich 1974.
• Walter Heinemeyer (Hrsg.): The becoming of Hessens (= publications of the historical commission for Hesse. No. 50). Elwert, Marburg 1986, ISBN 3-7708-0849-5 .
• Bettina Jost; Administration of the State Palaces and Gardens of Hesse (Ed.): Munzenberg Castle Ruins - Adelsburg Castle of the Staufer Period (= Small Art Guide. Volume 2410). Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2000, ISBN 3-7954-6250-9 .
• Bettina Jost: The Reichsministerialen von Münzenberg as builders in the Wetterau in the 12th century. Department of Architectural History of the Institute of Art History, Cologne 1995.
• Gottfried Kiesow : Romanesque in Hessen. Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8062-0367-9 .
• Andreas Kuczera: Grangie and manorial rule. On the economic constitution of the Arnsburg monastery between self-management and pension manorial rule 1174–1400. Hessian Historical Commission, Darmstadt 2003, ISBN 3-88443-081-5 .
• Waldemar Küther : The Arnsburg monastery in German and Hessian history. In: Cistercian Chronicle. NF 81, 1974, pp. 74-78.
• Josef Leinweber, Johannes Burkardt: Altenburg / Wetterau. In: The Benedictine monasteries and nunneries in Hesse (= Germania Benedictina. Volume VII). In connection with Regina Elisabeth Schwerdtfeger arr. by Friedhelm Jürgensmeier and Franziskus Büll. EOS Verlag, St. Ottilien 2004, ISBN 3-8306-7199-7 , pp. 50-53.
• Doris Moos: Bernhard Birkenstock - an important son of Erbach . In: Cistercienser Chronik 126 (2019), pp. 71–83.
• Martin Morkramer: The Linden-Bellersheim tomb. In: Communications of the Upper Hessian History Association. New series 67, 1982, pp. 143-149.
• Simone Noehte-Lind: From the history of the Arnsburg monastery. In: Willy Zschietzschmann (Ed.): 800 years of Arnsburg monastery. 1174-1974. Volkmann, Lich 1974.
• Karl-Heinz Spieß: Family and Relatives in the German High Nobility of the Late Middle Ages. Steiner, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-515-06418-4 .
• Ernstotto zu Solms-Laubach : Lombard influence in Arnsburg monastery. The memorial stone of Johann von Linden and Guda von Bellersheim In: Hessische Heimat. Volume 21, 1970, pp. 77-79.
• Heinrich Walbe : Arnsburg Monastery with Altenburg - The Art Monuments of the District of Gießen Volume 2; historical part by Carl Ebel, appendix by Nikolaus Kindlinger Directory of the grave monuments in the Arnsburg monastery , Darmstadt 1919.
• Wilhelm Wagner: The former spiritual pens in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. Vol. 1, Darmstadt 1873.
• Peter Weyrauch : The spiritual supply of Arnsburg after 1803 and its paradise as a Protestant church. In: Willy Zschietzschmann (Ed.): 800 years of Arnsburg monastery. 1174-1974. Volkmann, Lich 1974.
• Eberhard Wieser: Travel into the past - Schiffenberg, Munzenberg, Arnsburg and the time from the investiture dispute to the First World War. Gardez! -Verlag, Remscheid 2006, ISBN 3-89796-179-2 .

Web links

Commons : Arnsburg Monastery  - Collection of images

• Arnsburg Monastery
• The place on the website of the city of Lich
• Arnsburg, district of Giessen. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
• Arnsburg Monastery, Gießen district. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
• Literature about Arnsburg Monastery in the Hessian Bibliography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Law on the restructuring of the Dill district, the districts of Gießen and Wetzlar and the city of Gießen (GVBl. II 330–28) of May 13, 1974 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): Law and Ordinance Gazette for the State of Hesse . 1974 No. 17 , p. 237 ff ., § 9 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 1,2 MB ]).
2. ↑ Main statute of the city of Lich of July 21, 2006, last amended on May 21, 2014 (PDF; 94 kB)
3. ^ Intelligence Journal for the Province of Upper Hesse, Friedberg, 1st year, pp. 95 f, 1834
4. ^ Jost, Reichsministerialen.
5. ↑ Jost, castle ruins
6. ↑ Heinemeyer, p. 171
7. ↑ ^{a b} Ebel in Walbe, p. 9
8. ↑ Kiesow, p. 235
9. ↑ To that extent proven in Dersch, p. 6.
10. ↑ See Munzenberg Inheritance
11. ↑ Heinemeyer, p. 172
12. ↑ Küther, p. 74
13. ↑ Ebel in Walbe, p. 4f
14. ↑ Noehte-Lind, p. 11
15. ↑ Noehte-Lind, p. 57
16. ↑ Noehte-Lind, p. 68
17. ↑ Noehte-Lind, pp. 52, 64, 67
18. ↑ Harvest, in: Hessische Heimat No. 1/12. January 1966
19. ↑ See the Kransberger Chronik (Walter), year 1807; Franz Bösken : Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine , Vol. 2: The area of ​​the former administrative district of Wiesbaden , Part 1 (A – K). Schott, Mainz 1975, ISBN 3-7957-1307-2 , p. 95.
20. ^ Wagner, p. 224
21. ^ Wagner, p. 229
22. ↑ Binding u. a., p. 190
23. ↑ Walbe, p. 137
24. ↑ Walbe, p. 140
25. ↑ Spieß, p. 481, note 129
26. ^ Johann von Falkenstein 1365, Arnsburg. Grave monuments in Hesse until 1650 (as of December 14, 2011). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on August 30, 2013 . 
27. ↑ ^{a b} Haffke, p. 123ff
28. ↑ Walbe, p. 39f
29. ↑ Gärtner, p. 37
30. ↑ Johann von Linden and Guda born. von Bellersheim called Groppe 1394, Arnsburg. Grave monuments in Hesse until 1650 (as of December 14, 2011). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on September 9, 2013 . 
31. ↑ Morkramer, pp. 143ff
32. ↑ Peter Weyrauch: The churches of the old district Gießen. Mittelhessische Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Gießen 1979, p. 23.
33. ↑ Weyrauch, p. 109ff
34. ^ Franz Bösken, Hermann Fischer : Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine. Vol. 3: Former province of Upper Hesse . Part 1 (A-L). Schott, Mainz 1988, ISBN 3-7957-1330-7 , p. 78 .
35. ↑ Dehio, p. 27
36. ↑ Gärtner, p. 66
37. ↑ Kiesow, p. 236
38. ↑ Weyrauch, p. 115

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on March 5, 2008 .