Blankenburg Abbey

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Layout of the former Blankenburg monastery (aerial photo 2010)
"Blanckenburg" in the dike atlas by Johann Conrad Musculus , 1625
Drawing of the "Closter Blanckenburg" with Heidenwall, 1743

The Monastery Blankenburg is a former Dominican nuns - monastery near the Hunte on the eastern outskirts of Oldenburg . The monastery was founded at the end of the 13th century, secularized in the course of the Reformation in 1577 and then experienced a varied history of use. The main house from 1294, the brewery (1623) and the second church, built in 1868, are listed buildings. Blankenburg Abbey , together with the Neuenwege district, forms the Oldenburg district 8 (“Neuenwege, Blankenburg Abbey”).

history

History of the monastery

Five aristocrats and ministerials from Abbey Bremen, who lived east of the Lower Weser, bought land from Count Johann II of Oldenburg in 1294 in order to found a Dominican convent for nuns of the Augustinian and Preaching Order . They had previously tried unsuccessfully to persuade the count to surrender his ownership rights to the village of Lehe at the confluence of the Geeste with the Weser . The driving force behind the founding of the monastery was probably the Dominicans who lived in Bremen. The field name "Scapen" (= Röricht, reed) indicates that the area was swampy, for which an excessive purchase price was paid with 200 marks from Bremen silver.

Giselbert von Brunkhorst , Archbishop of Bremen , took the monastery under his protection. The name Blankenburg (also "Blankenborch") is mentioned for the first time in the consecration document of that time. It probably goes back to a nun named Blanca from the environment of St. Dominic . The addition "castle" refers to the Wurt on which the monastery buildings were erected. Earlier regional narratives, on the other hand, describe that a nobleman from Hanover had to build and equip the Blankenburg monastery as a penance .

An unknown number of nuns moved into the probably still very provisional monastery in the founding year. This was confirmed by the archbishop in 1297 of all indulgents awarded up to then . In 1299 it was so well established that the Archbishop of Bremen removed the monastery and the surrounding area from the parish of St. Lamberti in Oldenburg and elevated the monastery church to a parish church . He justified this step with the poor condition of the roads in winter. In the following years the monastery served as a supply institute for the daughters of well-off Oldenburgers and in at least one case also for the illegitimate descendants of the count's house.

In 1499 a Landsknechtsregiment , the " Black Guard ", devastated the monastery. In 1509 it was refurbished. A prioress of the monastery, Alheidis, was mentioned for the last time in 1557 . In the course of the Reformation , the property was secularized in 1577.

After secularization (17th - 20th centuries)

The former monastery was converted into a " malt and brewery " by the Count of Oldenburg in 1623 . In 1632, Count Anton Günther transferred the estate, which had temporarily served as a warehouse for plague sufferers , to the Blankenburg Abbey Foundation so that a poor house and orphanage could be set up there. From 1786 to 1935, the former monastery was a "preservation and care facility", in the linguistic usage at the time also known as " insane custody " and " infirmary ".

During the time of National Socialism , the institution was closed and the patients were moved to Wehnen , where there was also an "insane asylum". The property was used by the SA as an "auxiliary camp of the SA labor service " for young unemployed people. In 1937 the state-owned Oldenburg Gertrudenheim was relocated to the Blankenburg monastery. On September 19, 1941, the home was evacuated as part of the Nazi “ euthanasia ” program “ Aktion T4 ” and its 253 residents, including psychiatric patients and children with behavioral problems, were mainly taken to the “ Kutzenberg Abbey Sanatorium ” in the Lichtenfels district . Most of these patients died, including around 80 children. Officially designated as a “special hospital” and an alternative hospital for patients from bomb-damaged hospitals and homes, Blankenburg is said to have served as an intermediate institution in 1943 as part of the “ Aktion Brandt ” program. According to the historian Ingo Harms, targeted killings of mentally handicapped children due to hunger and neglect as well as euthanasia crimes and forced sterilization took place in Blankenburg .

After the Second World War , the former monastery buildings were initially used as a tuberculosis hospital. From 1949 to 1987 a city nursing home was operated in the facility, and from 1957 mainly the long-term psychiatric "Klinik Blankenburg" was operated as the men's department of the then central hospital in Bremen-East for around 300 mentally handicapped , chronically mentally ill and addicted patients. After the psychiatry inquiry in 1975, the city of Bremen concluded an agreement with three facilities for disabled people to set up outpatient support services and small residential units and gradually dissolved psychiatry from 1980/1981. This is a nationwide unique model project with the "most consistent approach of disinstitutionalisation ". In 1988 the psychiatry was closed and the property was sold in 1989 by the Blankenburg Abbey Foundation .

From 1989 the former monastery was the seat of the central contact point for immigrants of non-German nationality. From 1990 to the end of June 2011 the monastery building was used as a home for asylum seekers and was the seat of the Central Reception and Immigration Office in Blankenburg. In February 2010, 570 refugees were housed there in partly hygienically intolerable conditions. When the lease expired in 2011, the refugee accommodation was closed.

Todays use

The property was owned by TAG Immobilien Hamburg from 2006 to 2013

Since 2008 there have been "intercultural gardens" on the outdoor area of ​​the former monastery.

On June 19, 2014, the Oldenburg State Theater performed the “musical-documentary theater project Blankenburg ” for the first time in its rehearsal center . The play deals with the exemplary fates of some former residents who were interviewed especially for this purpose. The performance was originally planned in the monastery itself, but was not permitted by the owners.

Since November 2015, when more and more refugees came to Germany, the monastery has served the state of Lower Saxony as an initial reception facility for up to 600 refugees . Part of the former monastery is used as a branch of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).

Architectural and art monuments

Monastery church

Aerial photo of the monastery church and part of the entire complex (2010)

history

The choir of the first monastery church was consecrated by the Archbishop of Bremen in 1335. When it was completed, it was 30.8 meters long and nine meters wide. After the monastery was profaned in 1577, the church remained in use. In 1864 it was demolished because it was in disrepair.

The church that stands today on the site was built in brick according to plans by the architect Heinrich Breakfast (senior) and consecrated on September 6, 1868. It is 22.5 × 10.2 meters in size; instead of a ridge turret it was given a tower. When the site was used as a Nazi camp, the church was used as a prison. Today it is a listed building.

Altar, equipment, bell

A winged altar was erected in the church in 1520/1530, the preserved parts of which are now exhibited in the Oldenburg City Museum . The predella is missing . The central panel has a width of 1.66 m and a height of 1.38 m, the two wings each measure 0.80 × 1.38 m. The carving comes from the workshop of the masters from Osnabrück and consists of eight pictures. The existing parts are made of oak. Around 1900 the theater painter Mohrmann partially painted over the altar. It was removed from the church in 1988 and restored in 1994. The original color scheme was largely restored.

There is also a communion jug that dates back to 1693. The baroque church vessel has been in the holdings of the State Museum Oldenburg since 1938 . A silver-gilt, medieval altar chalice has also been preserved.

The bell of the second church was cast by bell master Johann Otto Kröger from Oldenburg. It has a circumference of 0.69 m and bears the year 1688.

Other buildings, area

The so-called main house or house of the manager remained of the monastery structure. It was built in 1294. It housed the refectory and a prayer room that was in use until the monastery church was built. According to the "Lower Saxony Monastery Book", the cloister can be guessed at in the area of ​​the Alten Frauenhof . A brewery was built in 1623. The main building and brewery are under monument protection.

All other buildings date from the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century and have a floor space of 17,500 square meters. The entire area is about 20 hectares and includes forest and leisure areas.

Blankenburg Monastery Foundation

The Blankenburg Monastery Foundation received the monastery property in 1632. From 1862 the administration of the foundation monies was the responsibility of the "Grand Ducal Commission for the Administration of Funds and Charitable Foundations". After the Landesfürsorgeverband Oldenburg was founded in 1924 as a special authority of the state administration, it was converted into a municipal association as a public corporation in 1933. The foundation administration of the Blankenburg monastery was transferred to her in 1937. In 1974 the foundation administration was renamed what is now the "Oldenburg District Association".

After the property was sold in 1989, according to its own information for economic reasons, the Blankenburg Abbey Foundation invested part of the proceeds in two new homes and a day care center for people with mental disabilities. The foundation's assets today consist of the three homes Sophienstift Jever, Dormitory Fichtenstrasse Delmenhorst and Dormitory Sande and - with a farm, land and cash capital - assets of around 5,868,000 euros.

literature

  • Lower Saxony State Administration Office: Monuments in Lower Saxony, Volume 31, City of Oldenburg . CW Niemeyer, Hameln 1993, ISBN 3-87585-253-2 , p. 54-55, 242-243 .
  • L. Schauenburg: History of the Oldenburg poor relief from the Reformation to the death of Anton Günther . In: Oldenburg yearbook of the society for antiquity and regional history . Stalling, Oldenburg 1898, pp. 1-74 ( online )
  • G. Rüthning: The nuns in Blankenburg . In: Oldenburg yearbook of the society for antiquity and regional history . Stalling, Oldenburg 1925, pp. 185–201 ( online )
  • Wolfgang Runge: Churches in the Oldenburger Land Volume III. Church districts Oldenburg 1 and 2 . Holzberg, Oldenburg, 1988, ISBN 3-87358-298-8
  • Peter Tornow, Heinrich Wöbcken: 700 years Blankenburg Abbey in Oldenburg . 2002, ISBN 978-3-89442-205-9
  • Gerda Engelbracht: Blankenburg Abbey Clinic . In: Gerda Engelbracht: From the mental hospital to the central hospital Bremen-Ost. Bremen psychiatry history 1945-1977 . Edition Temmen, Bremen 2004, pp. 73–90.
  • Ingo Harms: Biologism - On the theory and practice of a powerful ideology , historical research in special and rehabilitation education, BIS-Verlag of the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. 2011, p. 13. ISBN 978-3-8142-2205-9 ( online )
  • Michael Reinbold: Blankenburg - Dominicans . 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 1-4. Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 3-89534-956-9 , pp. 80–86.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ City of Oldenburg: Neuenwege, Blankenburg Abbey ( Memento from February 4, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ). Statistical yearbook of the city of Oldenburg (Oldb.) 2003
  2. ↑ a b c E. Gäßler: Blankenburg. In: Albrecht Eckhardt (Ed.): Oldenburgisches Ortlexikon. Archeology, history and geography of the Oldenburger Land. Volume 1: A-K. Isensee Verlag, Oldenburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89995-754-9 , p. 91 f.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Michael Reinbold: Blankenburg - Dominican women . 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 1-4. Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 3-89534-956-9 , pp. 80–86.
  4. ↑ G. Rüthning: The nuns in Blankenburg . In: Oldenburg yearbook of the society for antiquity and regional history . Stalling, Oldenburg 1925, pp. 185-201
  5. ↑ a b c d e Nordwest-Zeitung : "Blankenborch" received 1299 parish rights , April 3, 2013
  6. ↑ Zeno.org ; Blankenburg Abbey (source given there: Ludwig Strackerjan, Superstitions and Legends from the Duchy of Oldenburg 1–2 , Volume 2, Oldenburg 1909, pp. 376–377). Retrieved February 1, 2014
  7. ^ A b Georg Dehio: Dehio - Handbook of German Art Monuments: Handbook of German Art Monuments, Bremen, Lower Saxony. German art publisher; Edition: revision, greatly expanded edition. Munich, Berlin (January 1, 1992), ISBN 3-422-03022-0 , p. 1030
  8. ^ A b Nordwest-Zeitung : Many changes in the old monastery , February 6, 2010
  9. ↑ Ludwig Kohli: Handbook of a historical-statistical-geographical description of the Duchy of Oldenburg together with the inheritance of Jever and the principalities of Birkenfeld and Lübeck , Wilhelm Kaiser, Bremen 1825, p. 21 ( full text in the Google book search)
  10. ↑ a b Kreiszeitung : No second Blankenburg , March 2, 2011
  11. ↑ In contrast to the two other sources, the Oldenburg local section of September 5, 2010 ( memento of July 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) ( original Internet source ) named the year 1859 and an NWZ article of March 30, 2013 the year 1860 as the date the transformation into a "preservation and care institution".
  12. ↑ a b c d e f Ingo Harms: Biologism - On the theory and practice of a powerful ideology , historical research in special and rehabilitation education, BIS-Verlag of the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. 2011, p. 13. ISBN 978-3-8142-2205-9 (full text as pdf online )
  13. ↑ Ingo Harms: Nobody wanted to know . In: Oldenburger Stachel , No. 9/94
  14. ↑ a b Hamburger Abendblatt : Monastery with a gloomy history becomes a refugee home , November 7, 2015, accessed on October 22, 2016
  15. ↑ a b c The time : The end of the institution , November 16, 2008
  16. ↑ Jan Glasenapp: In the field of tension between security and freedom: about deinstitutionalization in the disabled aid , 2010. S. 165f In: Series: Forum Disabled Education, Volume 14, ISBN 978-3-643-10755-8 ( preview in the Google book search)
  17. ↑ taz : "People were lying in the hallways" , May 17, 2013
  18. ↑ Weser-Kurier : On the way to the west with Heike Oldenburg. Tour of the history of psychiatry: from Blankenburg Abbey to the Blaumeier studio and the Blue Caravan , October 6, 2013
  19. ↑ a b c Oldenburg District Association: Blankenburg Monastery Foundation ( Memento of the original from October 10, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved September 2, 2018 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bezirksverband-oldenburg.de
  20. ↑ Beate Lama: Underworlds - The Blankenburg Monastery ( Memento from July 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). Oldenburg local section , September 5, 2010. On archive.is
  21. ↑ a b c Nordwest-Zeitung : Blankenburg Monastery is sold , March 30, 2013
  22. ↑ Radio Bremen : The Blankenburg Project ( Memento of the original from January 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , June 20, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.radiobremen.de
  23. ↑ Foundation anstiftung & ertomis: Oldenburg: Intercultural Gardens in Blankenburg Monastery ( Memento of the original from February 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.anstiftung-ertomis.de
  24. ↑ Blankenburg (WP) - A musical-documentary theater project (2014). Oldenburgisches Staatstheater, June 4, 2014, archived from the original on February 22, 2014 ; accessed on December 11, 2015 .
  25. ^ Radio Bremen: State Theater Oldenburg - Premiere: Blankenburg. Archived from the original on January 21, 2015 ; accessed on December 11, 2015 .
  26. ↑ Neue Presse : Interior Minister opens initial reception facility for refugees , November 19, 2015, accessed on October 22, 2016
  27. ↑ Neue Presse: The first refugees move into the former Blankenburg monastery , November 7, 2015, accessed on October 22, 2016
  28. ↑ Land established in Blankenburg initial reception facility , accessed on August 7, 2015
  29. ↑ a b c Landesmuseum Oldenburg : Artwork of the month March 2005. Communion jug of the former Blankenburg monastery church, dated 1693 ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , March 2005 ( Download as pdf ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ). Retrieved February 2, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.landesmuseum-oldenburg.niedersachsen.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.landesmuseum-oldenburg.niedersachsen.de
  30. ↑ Peter Tornow, Heinrich Wöbcken: 700 years Blankenburg Abbey in Oldenburg . 2002, ISBN 978-3-89442-205-9 , pp. 138 and 140
  31. ^ A b Lower Saxony State Administration Office: Architectural Monuments in Lower Saxony , Volume 31, City of Oldenburg. CW Niemeyer, Hameln 1993, ISBN 3-87585-253-2 , pp. 54-55
  32. ^ Wolfgang Runge: Churches in the Oldenburger Land Volume III. Church districts Oldenburg 1 and 2 . Holzberg, Oldenburg 1988, ISBN 3-87358-298-8 , pages 223 and 246
  33. ^ Oldenburg district association: Our history. Establishment of the Oldenburg district association ( Memento of the original from February 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bezirksverband-oldenburg.de

Coordinates: 53 ° 9 ′ 6.9 ″  N , 8 ° 17 ′ 11.2 ″  E