Ensdorf Monastery

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Parish Church of St. Jakob (former monastery church)

The Ensdorf Monastery is a former Benedictine abbey in Ensdorf in Bavaria in the Diocese of Regensburg , today a branch of the Salesians Don Bosco with a youth education center, an environmental station and an environmental music workshop.

history

Founder of the Ensdorf Monastery in the St. Jakobus Church (Ensdorf)

Benedictine monastery from 1121 to 1556

Foundation of the monastery

The Benedictine monastery , consecrated to St. Jakobus the Elder , was founded in 1121 by Count Palatine Otto V von Scheyern and Bishop Otto von Bamberg . The Count Palatine thereby fulfilled the wish of his father-in-law Friedrich III. von Pettendorf-Lengenfeld-Hopfenohe († 1119) after a burial place for the family. The count, his wife Heilika von Schwaben , his daughter Heilika , her husband Count Palatine Otto and their son Count Palatine Friedrich II. Von Wittelsbach , who had entered the Indersdorf monastery as a lay brother in 1179 , were finally buried in the monastery. In addition, Heilika's sister, Heilwig von Lengenfeld , and her husband Gebhard von Leuchtenberg were buried there.

The founding of the monastery was provided with plenty of Bambergian goods by Bishop Otto (including Eschenbach, Geiganz, Pommer, Gmünd, Letten, Troschenreuth), and by Otto V. Weilenbach, Berngotzesreut and vineyards at Kalbing and Uschelberg. Some of the Bamberg estates seem to come from the legacy of Friedrich III. to have come from Pettendorf-Lengfeld-Hopfenohe, which he held as a Bamberg fief . Heilika von Lengenfeld supported the monastery by building a lead water pipe and donating church implements. 1314 the monastery was given by the later Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria , the Low jurisdiction .

Settlement of the monastery

The first Benedictine monks came from Sankt Blasien in the Black Forest , a reform monastery influenced by the Cluny Abbey .

Church building

On July 25, 1123, Bishop Otto inaugurated the first wooden church, which was followed by a second, stone, Romanesque Hirsau building type under Abbot Boto, who ruled from 1170 to 1202, in 1179/80 and Count Palatine Friedrich II of Wittelsbach . It was a cruciform, flat-roofed basilica with three naves and a three- apse- closure, a crossing dome , two double towers and a two-storey porch (paradise) in the west. This church was consecrated by Archbishop Konrad von Salzburg, another brother of Friedrich, and by Bishop Konrad von Regensburg . From this second church only the baptismal font and a column capital remain.

Double monastery

Ensdorf has been attested as a double monastery since 1166 . The convent was built on the north side of the church. The women's convent was founded by his wife Heilika after the death of the Count Palatine, but it was dissolved again in 1314 due to great hardship.

Chancellor reform

Overall, in the 14th century, the abbey experienced a decline in monastic discipline and a party dispute within the convent in addition to the economic decline. Only when the Chancellor reform could be enforced against all opposition from 1413 to 1441 under the abbots Konrad II († 1424) and Ludwig († 1441) did it flourish again.

Gotification and heyday

Under Abbot Ulrich († 1369) the church was given a Gothic vault from which pieces of the ribs are still preserved. The cloister was finally Gothicized under Abbot Hermann Hollenfelder († 1468) and Abbot Hauser († 1503). The tombstones of these two abbots also exist. In 1452, Hollenfelder was granted the right to wear the pontificals miter , ring and staff . With 34 monks, the largest convent in the history of the monastery existed under his reign.

Monastery fire and decline

In 1507 the first major fire accident occurred, from which the monastery did not recover despite being rebuilt under Abbot Friedrich Prentel. After only six monks lived in Ensdorf under Abbot Gregor Sintersperger in 1524 and he had to abdicate in 1525 due to negligence, the monastery was subordinate to clerical administrators. The last conventual had died in 1549, so that it was finally placed under the secular administration of the Elector of the Palatinate in 1554 as part of the introduction of the reformed church order in the Electorate of the Palatinate by Elector Ottheinrich , and was completely repealed in 1556.

1571 was by Count Palatine Ludwig VI. the collection of the bones of his ancestors (these were partly buried in the chapter house, partly buried in St. Peter's Chapel) and buried together in the monastery church. When the old church was demolished, the two lead coffins were found in 1695 under the choir altar, which were reburied in the mausoleum built under Abbot Bonaventura in 1715 to the left of the high altar in 1721 under Abbot Anselm Meiller .

Benedictine monastery from 1669 to 1802

Re-establishment and elevation to the abbey

When in 1669 Elector Ferdinand Maria restored the former monasteries of the Upper Palatinate in the course of the re-Catholicization of the Upper Palatinate, Ensdorf was re-established on July 23, 1669, initially as the priory of theChecking Monastery . In 1695 it was raised again to an independent abbey. The former Tegernsee abbot Bonaventura Oberhuber became the first abbot after the resettlement . He ruled in Ensdorf until 1716.

New building of the church

From 1694 the current church was rebuilt, but it could not be consecrated until October 8, 1717. In particular, the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) brought construction work to a standstill. But also that Abbot Oberhuber became abbot of Reichenbach Monastery since 1699 and administered Ensdorf from there, as well as the death of the presumed first master builder Wolfgang Dientzenhofer († 1706) should have slowed down the construction. Only under the administrator Anselm Meiller , who came from Amberg, did the work move forward again quickly.

For the painting of the high altar, Johann Gebhard vonprüfung was hired. Cosmas Damian Asam , who completed his first major work here, was selected for the ceiling paintings . The main fresco is signed 1714. The father Hans Georg Asam was also planned as a painter, but died in 1711 in nearby Sulzbach. The stucco work was done by the brothers Thomas, Matthias and Bernhard Ehamb and Philipp Jakob Schmuzer. In 1715 the simple donor's tomb was also completed. In 1720 Meiller finally acquired a Madonna and Child (around 1500).

Abbot Meiller and the ceremonial sacristy

In 1716 Anselm Meiller became abbot himself and held this office until 1761. In 1743 , a carved ceremonial sacristy with an imperial eagle was probably made for Meiller by Emperor Karl VII , Elector of Bavaria. In view of the war burdens of the monastery in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), this could not be financed from one's own assets .

Abbot Desing and the monastery library

Meiller was followed by the polymath Anselm Desing as abbot, who headed the monastery until 1772. The period between 1716 and 1772 is considered the scientific heyday of the monastery community. During his time, the monastery library was greatly expanded.

Secularization 1802

After the death of Abbot Diepold Ziegler on November 21, 1801, the government prohibited the election of the abbot. The monastery was dissolved on January 25, 1802 in the course of secularization . The monastic community at that time consisted of seventeen fathers and one lay brother and was intact. The real estate and grounds became state property, including the monastery forest and the Leidersdorf hammer mill . The abbey church became a parish church . Most of the 7,000 to 8,000 volume library went to the newly founded Amberg Provincial Library , where it was still looked after by Joseph Moritz.

The Episcopal Ordinariate of Regensburg acquired large parts of the complex and set up the Xaverianum priests' house .

Abbots of Ensdorf

The most famous abbots of Ensdorf were:

  • Anselm Meiller (1678–1761; abbot, historiographer): his main work is the vita of St. Otto von Bamberg, which is also a history of the Ensdorf monastery. It is committed to the Maurinian ideal of science.
  • Anselm Desing (1699–1772; abbot, polyhistor, author): His works included history, pedagogy, canon law and legal philosophy. He also dealt with astronomy, mathematics, physics and technology. He collected mathematical and physical instruments and made some of them himself.
  • Diepold Ziegler (1728–1801; last abbot, pedagogue): The former professor of philosophy, biblical languages ​​and exegesis set up a so-called pedagogy in 1778 , an "educational school for capable schoolmasters".

For further abbots see: List of Abbots from Ensdorf

Other well-known Benedictines from Ensdorf

Settlement of the Salesians of Don Bosco from 1920 until today

In 1920 the Congregation of the Salesians of Don Bosco took over the complex and built its novitiate in it . In 1940 another fire affected the monastery complex. Only in 1962/63 were the fire damage completely repaired with an interior restoration.

From 1959 to 1996 there was the lower level of a humanistic grammar school with boarding school in the monastery. Organizationally, it was assigned to the Marianum Buxheim and was headed for many years by Father Andreas Dietz. In the 1980s in particular, the grammar school had a boys' choir and a wind orchestra under the direction of P. Schachner. To this day, the musical education of children and young people plays an important role.

The monastery is home to a youth education center ("House of Encounters"), an environmental station and an environmental music workshop. The focus of the work is on orientation days , school camps and creation formation .

Located on the monastery grounds, but belonging to Don Bosco Medien GmbH , there is also the printing shop. The former monastery estate no longer belongs to the monastery, the nursery was leased in the meantime and is currently closed. About 20 members of the order currently live in the monastery.

A Salesian from Don Bosco is currently pastor of Ensdorf. He and the surrounding parishes are supported by the priests in pastoral care.

Well-known Salesians with reference to the Ensdorf monastery

Way of St. James

The Ensdorf Monastery has been a pilgrimage station on the Way of St. James through the Upper Palatinate to Santiago de Compostela, known since the Middle Ages . Coming from today's border crossing at Tillyschanz near Eslarn on the Czech border via Schwandorf , the route leads via Nuremberg and Ansbach to Rothenburg ob der Tauber . There the path joins the Franconian Way, which goes from Fulda via the Kreuzberg to Würzburg and from there via Ochsenfurt and Uffenheim to Rothenburg. The Franconian Alb Association maintains the signs for the almost 200 km long hiking trail from Ensdorf to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Dead red hotel collection of the Ensdorf monastery

The Totenrotel collection of the monastery Ensdorf (1716–1789) with 1497 Totenroteln on seven folio volumes has been kept in the provincial library in Amberg since the secularization .

Organs

The organ builders Johann Sebastian and Georg Carl Wild from Kirchenrohrbach built an organ in 1739, which was replaced by an organ by Andreas Weiss from Nabburg (24 / II / P) in 1782 . Weiss took over the jewelery from the old organ in its magnificent case , which bears his typical signature. In 1913 a new pneumatic organ was purchased from Binder & Siemann . Rainer Kilbert / Hönighausen added a 16 'trombone to the pedal during a general renovation in 2009 . During this renovation, the signature "Andreas Weiss 1782" was discovered in the housing. In the Eggenberg Church there is a positive by Manderscheidt from 1648, it is the second oldest organ in the Upper Palatinate.

literature

About Ensdorf Abbey:

  • Hans Zitzelsberger: Chronicle of Ensdorf . Municipal administration, Ensdorf 1991
  • Hans Zitzelsberger (1999): Church leader of the former Benedictine abbey since 1802 parish church of St. Jakobus Ensdorf. EK Servise Porth, Saarbrücken
  • JB Schmidt (Ed.): Festschrift for the 800th anniversary of the founding of the former Benedictine monastery Ensdorf. 1121-1921.
  • Parish of Ensdorf (Ed.), Text Josef Bartmann (1998): 875 years Jakobuskirche Ensdorf. July 25, 1123 to 1998. Don Bosco Grafischer Betrieb, Ensdorf

About individual Benedictines from Ensdorf:

  • Manfred Knedlik, Georg Schrott (Eds.): Anselm Desing (1699-1772). A Benedictine polymath in the Age of Enlightenment . Verlag Laßleben , Kallmünz 1999, ISBN 3-7847-1167-7
  • Manfred Knedlik, Alfred Wolfsteiner (ed.): Literary monastery culture in the Upper Palatinate. Festschrift for the 300th birthday of Fr. Odilo Schreger . Verlag Laßleben, Kallmünz 1997, ISBN 3-7847-1163-4
  • Dietmunda Kagermeier: Joseph Moritz. 1769-1834 . Eisele Verlag, Augsburg 1934 (also dissertation, University of Munich 1934)

About the Totenrotel Collection:

  • Manfred Knedlik, The Totenrotel Collection of the Benedictine Abbey of Ensdorf in the State Library Amberg , in: Seat of Wisdom. 200 years of the Amberg Provincial Library. Verlag Laßleben, Kallmünz 2005, ISBN 3-7847-1187-1 , pp. 135-145

About the library:

  • Walter Lipp, The library of the Ensdorf monastery in the age of the late Baroque and the Enlightenment up to its dissolution in 1802 , in: Manfred Knedlik, Alfred Wolfsteiner (ed.): Literary monastery culture in the Upper Palatinate. Festschrift for the 300th birthday of Fr. Odilo Schreger . Verlag Laßleben, Kallmünz 1997, ISBN 3-7847-1163-4 , pp. 133-164

From individual Ensdorfer Benedictines:

  • Odilo Schreger (Author), Manfred Knedlik (Ed.), Alfred Wolfsteiner (Ed.): Speiß-Meister Or Useful Lessons Of Eating And Drinking . Verlag Laßleben, Kallmünz 2007, ISBN 978-3-7847-1205-5 (reprint of the first edition Munich 1766)

Audio book:

  • Odilo Schreger: Interesting things about unreasonable animals . kdg mediatech, Elbigenalp 2005 (1 CD, spoken by Manfred Brunner; HB 70900)

Web links

Commons : Kloster Ensdorf  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Josef Hemmerle : The Benedictine monasteries in Bavaria. Winfried-Werk, Augsburg 1970, p. 92.
  2. ^ Totenrotel collection of the Ensdorf monastery. in the Bavarian State Library
  3. ↑ Michael Bernhard, Organ Database Bavaria, Munich 2009 and information from Rainer Kilbert.

Coordinates: 49 ° 20 ′ 27.2 ″  N , 11 ° 56 ′ 11 ″  E