Breitenau monastery

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Breitenau monastery complex

The Breitenau monastery was a Benedictine abbey in the village of Breitenau in the Guxhagen community near Kassel , in what was then the "Breiten Aue" at the confluence of the Eder and Fulda rivers . From the 19th century the facility was used as a "reformatory" and from 1974 as a psychiatric hospital . During the Nazi era, the Breitenau concentration camp was housed in the monastery .

Structurally, the Romanesque complex is an important example of the Hirsau building school in Hesse .

history

Benedictine monastery

Breitenau monastery church

The founding of the Breitenau monastery goes back to the Hessian count Werner IV. Von Maden and his wife Gisela around the year 1113. Werner had from his father Werner III. inherited the important office of primicerius et signifer regis ( precursor and standard bearer of the king) and was therefore also Count von Grüningen , and he was related to the abbot Bruno von Beutelsbach of the Hirsau monastery in the Black Forest . Werner turned to him about the foundation of the monastery after he understood a light in the sky as a sign of God. On November 17, 1119, Drutwin and twelve other Benedictine monks from Hirsau Monastery are said to have moved into the first monastery buildings in the "Breiten Aue". The Archbishop of Mainz , Adalbert I , appointed Drutwin as the first abbot of the monastery that was consecrated to St.  Peter and Paul . The monks began building a large monastery church as early as the spring of 1120 .

Werner IV., Who died on February 22nd, 1121 without a male heir, bequeathed all of his private fortune to the monastery between the Werra , Rhine and Main . The only exception was his wife's witchcraft until her death , who apparently only died shortly before February 4, 1155. Werner was buried in the choir of the church that was still under construction. On July 7th, 1123 his widow Gisela and his vassal Engelbold subordinated the monastery of St. Martin ( patron of the Mainz Cathedral ) and, freed from all archdeaconal powers , directly to the Archbishop of Mainz. It also received privileges such as pastoral care, baptism and burial rights as well as the free choice of an abbot and the freedom from customs duties within the Mainz region. The archbishop also added more lands to the already rich possessions of the monastery. The Count of Hesse kept the bailiwick of the young monastery until the Hessengau fell to the Ludowinger Landgraves of Thuringia in 1137 . After the male line of the Ludowingers died out in 1247, their Hessian property became independent as the Landgraviate of Hesse after the Thuringian-Hessian War of Succession, and Landgrave Heinrich I became guardian of the Breitenau monastery.

After Drutwin's death in 1132, the learned Hirsau monk, known as particularly saint, became the new abbot. A pope and martyr Felix is said to have appeared to him in a dream in 1144 and showed him his hidden head, which became a relic of the monastery. Likewise, Abbot Heinrich is said to have been handed over to the church by the Archbishop of Cologne , Arnold II (1151–1156), four bodies of the 11,000 virgins . Abbot Heinrich had tried to improve an extreme Limburg canon for Arnold when he was still provost of the St. Georgstift in Limburg an der Lahn (1122–1152) .

The monastery church was a 54-meter-long and 18-meter-wide cruciform, three-aisled and flat-roofed Romanesque pillar basilica in the style of the “Hirsauer Building School” with five apses for the main altar and the side altars. The choir and transept of the large church were probably completed between 1142 and 1145 and were placed under the patronage of the Mother of Jesus . Long nave and aisles are said to have been built between 1160 and 1180, the westwork without its superstructure from the end of the 12th century to the middle of the 13th century. The central nave in particular was adorned with elaborate ornaments , many of which can still be seen today.

The entire monastery complex was almost circularly enclosed by a wall that still exists today, in which there were two gate towers , the still preserved “ Grifter Gate” and the former “Fulda Gate”. The actual monastery building was connected to the north side of the church with the cloister ; only remnants of the former enclosure are preserved today. The stone tithe barn was built in the 15th century. In the south of the area was the monastery cemetery with the Nikolauskirche, first mentioned in 1321, which served as a parish church . At the western end of the site there were barns and stables, and the Breitenau cloister mill was on the Fuldaufer . Fruit, vegetables and wine were grown on the monastery grounds, and fishing was carried out on and on the Fulda.

The heyday of the monastery was probably between the mid-12th century and the beginning of the 14th century. It owned the villages of Guxhagen, Ellenberg and later also Büchenwerra , over which it also exercised the lower jurisdiction with the Breitenau court , as well as fields, meadows, forests, vineyards and bodies of water in almost 100 other places in the near and far. Archbishop Siegfried III. von Mainz granted Abbot Widekind and his successors the right to wear an inful in 1239 . But with increasing wealth, morals also deteriorated. As a result, there were fewer and fewer donations to the monastery, and the monastery lost its property again due to disorderly housekeeping and the “greed of the neighbors”. The lands were eventually so fragmented that in 1324 Pope John XXII. appointed a commissioner to deal with the grievances.

In 1339 the abbess of the Kaufungen monastery and the abbots of the Hasungen , Breitenau and Spieskappel monasteries joined forces with the St. Petri monastery in Fritzlar to jointly defend against all unjust attacks against them (renewed in 1386). In the 15th century, however, the general decline of the Benedictine order followed, both economically, morally and spiritually. In 1496, Breitenau joined the Bursfeld Congregation , a reform movement that started at the Bursfelde Monastery on the Weser , and brought another brief upswing for the monastery, which ended with the introduction of the Reformation in the Landgraviate of Hesse. An outward sign of the will to reform was the conversion of the choir and transept in the Gothic style between 1502 and 1509, and the painting of the choir nave in 1508.

Abbots of the monastery

The abbots of the monastery and their terms of office are not passed down completely. The list therefore shows the abbots known by name and the years of their official mention.

  • Drutwin 1123 (1119-1132)
  • Henry I (1132), 1144, 1150, 1155
  • Kuno 1162
  • Henry II 1170, 1171
  • Eilbert 1196
  • Giso 1215, 1235, 1236
  • Widekind 1239, 1246
  • Si (g) frid 1255
  • Hermann von Wolfershausen 1260 (counter-abbot)
  • Henry III. 1261, 1268, 1282
  • Isfrid 1263, 1264
  • Bodo 1289, 1291, 1294
  • Johann (es) 1295, 1305
  • Si (g) frid 1307, 1309
  • Werner von Elben 1314, 1316, 1323, 1339
  • Albert (counter-abbot) 1342
  • Heinrich IV von Wallenstein 1346, 1348
  • Reinhard 1355, 1357, 1368
  • Johann von Wolfershausen 1377, 1380
  • Hermann von Gilsa 1383, 1386, 1392, 1399, 1407
  • Heinrich V von Wolfershausen 1407, 1412, 1414
  • Hermann von S (ch) lutwinsdorf 1416, 1417, 1436, 1440, 1443
  • Werner 1419 (counter-abbot)
  • Konrad / Kurd von Herzenrode (1434), 1436, 1438
  • Kurt Platzfuß 1439 (head of the convent, opposing abbot)
  • Johan (n) Goßel 1444, 1453, 1459
  • Nikolaus Merlen 1458 (counter-abbot)
  • Nikolaus / Klaus Ratzenberge 1464, 1465, 1469
  • Dithmar Uttershausen 1471, 1477
  • Johann Storen 1485, 1488, 1497
  • Konrad 1494 (counter-abbot)
  • Nicholas 1499 (counter-abbot)
  • Johann (es) Meyer (1502), 1503, 1525 (1497? –1527, † 1529)

secularization

In October 1527, when the Reformation was introduced in the Landgraviate of Hesse , Landgrave Philipp stopped operating the monastery . Abbot Johann Meyer (Maier), Prior Theobald Zabel (Cabel) and the 16 remaining monks converted to Protestantism. They were compensated with a fruit pension and almost all of them left the convent. Zabel, a Dutchman from the island of Texel , became the first Protestant pastor of Guxhagen. He had made a great contribution to viticulture ; so in 1527 he harvested 6½ loads (about 6240 liters ) of red and white wine . The vineyard in the Breitenau reached from the monastery to the Fulda, but around 1650 it became unprofitable and fruit trees were planted in place of the vines.

The entire monastery complex was converted into a landgrave's chamber property, and most of the scattered lands that once belonged to the monastery were leased. The income from the estate went to the princely rent chamber and partly served church purposes such as the salaries of the pastors in Breitenau, Wollrode and in six other places in the area as well as the sacrificial man in Guxhagen. In addition, the Philipps University of Marburg , founded in 1527, received scholarships for poorer students. The church building was converted into a fruit store and a horse stable in 1579: the windows and arcades were bricked up, new hatches were broken and several intermediate floors were installed in the entire nave, dividing the building into five floors . The aisles were probably torn down as well. Only the Nikolauskirche, the parish church of the communities of Guxhagen, Ellenberg and Wollrode, was available for worship in Breitenau.

Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel planned to found a city in 1606, but the attempt to persuade Cologne merchants to settle in the Breitenau failed, as did the settlement of 630 citizens from various Hessian towns. From 1607/1608 he had the estate converted into a "pleasure stay" according to his own plans. The old priory, the old bailiwick house and the crumbling cloister were demolished. Master builder Wiedekindt completed the construction of a stables in 1622 ; a mansion , a hunt, several farm buildings, pleasure gardens, fish ponds and a fountain followed.

War destruction

During the Thirty Years' War , the complex was hit several times by troops of the Catholic League . 1626 was by soldiers of the commander Tilly looted and pillaged . All the buildings that Landgrave Moritz had built were destroyed, three large bells and the extensive library stolen. In 1637 Croatian horsemen invaded under the imperial general Isolani . Finally, in 1640, Octavio Piccolomini's troops burned down the entire complex except for the two church buildings, the stone tithe barn and the monastery wall with the two gates. After that, the rest of the former monastery was left to decay. Only the monastery church was still used as a granary and the Nikolauskirche as a parish church, which received an organ for the first time in 1660. In 1713 the rectory on the Fuldaufer was rebuilt and enlarged.

In the Seven Years' War (1756–1763) the complex was looted again; This was processed literarily by Heinrich Ruppel in the story "The Michaelis Bride of Guxhagen". In 1785 the community of Guxhagen sent a request to the landgrave to divide the land of the domain Breitenau into inheritance among the completely impoverished residents of Guxhagen, who had to suffer from the war for almost the entire seven years . Around 900 acres were then distributed to the 40 residents who had applied. On September 1, 1786, the public church fine was abolished. In 1791 the dilapidated Nikolauskirche had to be demolished; from then on the old tithe barn served as a parish church.

Institution and home

In 1850 the inheritance was replaced and the former monastery property became state property of the Electorate of Hesse , so the monastery church had served its purpose as a fruit store and has been empty since then. In the Franco-German War were from 18 January to 6 April 1871 around 750 French prisoners of war interned in the monastery church and probably also in the tithe barn, guarded by 80 men a Thuringian Infantry - regiment . After the end of the war, the Prussian administrative district of Kassel - the Electorate of Hesse had been occupied and annexed by Prussia in 1866 - took over the neglected complex and rebuilt it from 1872 to 1874. The choir, transept and about an eighth of the central nave were separated from the rest of the monastery church by a wall, set up as a place of worship for the community and used again as a church since August 23, 1874. The tithe barn was converted into apartments for officials. The other part of the monastery church received a large staircase, new windows were partially broken into the walls and dormitories were set up on the four intermediate floors in the nave. A “ correctional and rural poor institution ” came here for beggars , vagabonds , prostitutes and “neglected” young people, later called “Landesarbeitsanstalt und Landesführsorgeheim Breitenau”. In 1911 a cell was added, which was mainly used for prisoners from the Royal Prussian prison in Cassel-Wehlheiden .

In 1897, the old "stone bell" from the Fulda Cathedral , which was originally billed in 1401 , was purchased for the monastery church in Breitenau and a second, somewhat smaller bell was also cast. According to the plan by State Building Inspector Alfred Röse from Kassel, a neo-Romanesque bell tower adapted to the westwork was built on the monastery church in 1900 . This was the first time since 1626 that the parish of Guxhagen-Breitenau had a bell that was inaugurated on September 30, 1900. At the beginning of November 1927, however, a field of vaults fell inside the church and destroyed the organ. The entire building complex had to be secured, it was restored until 1929 under the direction of district curator Friedrich Bleibaum , the Gothic ceiling paintings from the beginning of the 16th century were exposed and a new, large organ was installed. The church was festively consecrated on March 23, 1930.

Concentration and labor education camps

From June 1933 to March 1934 a " concentration camp " for political prisoners was set up on the site . A total of 470 opponents of National Socialism were imprisoned in Breitenau. Political prisoners were from 1933 to 1945 a. a. the SPD politician Ludwig Pappenheim , who was transferred to the Neusustrum concentration camp in October 1933 and murdered there on January 4, 1934, and Fritz Wagner , a later SED functionary. In 1940 the former monastery became a so-called “ labor education camp ” for German and foreign forced laborers who had to work in the armaments industry and agriculture. In addition, it was also a concentration assembly camp for deportation to other concentration camps. The Jewish doctor Lilli Jahn , mother of the later Federal Minister of Justice Gerhard Jahn , was brought to Breitenau on August 30, 1943 and deported to Auschwitz in March 1944, where she was murdered. In 1944, the monastery was an alternative point of the Gestapo Kassel, which murdered 28 prisoners on the Fulda in 1945 not far from the monastery.

post war period

The American military government dissolved the state labor institute in 1949, the state welfare home continued to exist. From 1952 to 1973, a girls' education home, the Fuldatal youth center, was housed in the Breitenau monastery. Up to 150 girls were admitted. The accommodation was characterized by monotonous work, strict rules and punitive measures. The punishments included deprivation of food or being locked in isolation cells with wooden beds. Influenced by Herbert Marcuse's marginal group theory , Thorwald Proll demonstrated together with Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader against the welfare conditions at the Breitenau monastery in 1968 . In 1974, Breitenau Abbey became a branch of the Haina and Merxhausen psychiatric hospitals of the State Welfare Association of Hesse (LWV).

In 1950 Wilhelm Hugues created a memorial stone for the victims of National Socialism in the Breitenau concentration camp. In 1984, a memorial to the concentration camp set up in the former monastery was opened in the former tithe barn. In 2012, the memorial in the former monastery was one of the exhibition venues for the dOCUMENTA (13) art exhibition . One of the central works of the world exhibition, a work by Judith Hopf , was exhibited in the monastery church .

Personalities

  • Heinrich (I), scholar and second abbot of the Breitenau monastery (1132–1155).
  • Carl Glinzer , painter, born in 1802 in the Breitenauer Klostermühle as the son of the mill owner.
  • Christoph Weber , librarian, born in 1883 as the son of the gardener of the correctional and rural poor institute in the Breitenau.
  • Friedrich Bleibaum , art historian.
  • Heinrich Ruppel , teacher and writer.
  • Friedrich Paulus , Field Marshal General, Commander-in-Chief of the 6th Army during the Battle of Stalingrad , born in 1890 as the son of the cashier and the daughter of the conductor (director) of the correctional and rural poor institute in the Breitenau.

literature

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Haas, p. 228, relies on Trithemius, but his source regarding the Breitenau monastery is not known (Müller); see. Trithemius, Annalium Hirsaugiensium , p. 367 f., 373, 272, as well as Chronicon Insigne Monasterii Hirsaugiensis , p. 141, 143. In fact, the year of foundation is not recorded and old chronicles vary between the years 1110 and 1117; see. Johann Heinrich Zedler: Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts, which bißhero was invented and improved by human understanding and wit. Volume 4, Leipzig 1733, Col. 1227 .
  2. ^ "Newes poem about the arrival of the Closter Breidenaw", written by a monk from Breitenau between 1502 and 1527; see Ev. Parish office Guxhagen-Breitenau, p. 54.
  3. ↑ length; see. Schmincke, p. 658 f.
  4. ^ Wilhelm Dilich : Hessische Chronica. Other part . Dilich et al. a., Cassel 1605/06, p. 124 f.
  5. ↑ Trithemius, Annalium Hirsaugiensium , p. 412; see also Zedler, Volume 4, Col. 1227. Presumably Felix III. meant, because under this Pope Benedict of Nursia founded the Abbey of Montecassino .
  6. ↑ Trithemius, Annalium Hirsaugiensium , p. 410, dates the handover to the year 1142, but this is probably due to a confusion with Archbishop Arnold I of Cologne (1137–1151) (Noll, Burkardt, p. 94 f.).
  7. ↑ Noll, Burkardt, p. 94
  8. ↑ Abbot Giso could be identical with the son of the same name of Count Rudolf II von Ziegenhain .
  9. ↑ See Wolfgang Ayaß : Das Arbeitshaus Breitenau. Beggars, vagrants, prostitutes, pimps and welfare recipients in the correctional and rural poor institution in Breitenau (1874–1949). Published by the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies , Jenior and Pressler, Kassel 1992 (= National Socialism in Northern Hesse , Volume 14: Hessian Research on Historical Regional and Folklore Studies , Volume 23) ( Dissertation Gesamtthochschule Kassel 1991), ISBN 3-88122-670- 2 .
  10. ↑ Martin Doerry "My Wounded Heart". The life of Lilli Jahn 1900–1944. DVA, Stuttgart a. Munich 2002 ( Google Books extract from the 2012 edition of Pantheon). The journalist Doerry worked on the correspondence (over 500 letters) between Lilli Jahn and her children in Immenhausen .
  11. ↑ Breitenau Memorial: The "Fuldatal" educational center for girls. Retrieved April 6, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Peter Wensierski: Strikes in the name of the Lord. The repressed history of children in care in the Federal Republic . 3. Edition. Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-442-12974-4 .
  13. ^ Friedrich Paulus. In: HNA-Regiowiki . Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine (HNA), accessed on August 22, 2015 . See the Royal Prussian State Service Calendar for the Cassel administrative region for the year 1890/91 . Reformed Orphanage, Cassel 1891, p. 249 ( Corrections and rural poor institute in Breitenau. ORKA ).

Coordinates: 51 ° 12 ′ 9 ″  N , 9 ° 28 ′ 36 ″  E