Falkenhagen Monastery

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Falkenhagen Monastery
Lügde - 16 - Falkenhagen Monastery, Protestant Church (3) .jpg
location District of Lippe, North Rhine-Westphalia
Coordinates: 51 ° 53 '24.5 "  N , 9 ° 18' 23.6"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 53 '24.5 "  N , 9 ° 18' 23.6"  E
founding year 1246
Cistercian since 1247
Year of dissolution /
annulment 		1596

The Falkenhagen monastery is a former Cistercian monastery at the foot of the Köterberg in the Lügder district of Falkenhagen in the former Lippe region .

Prehistory of the foundation of the monastery in Falkenhagen

Founding of a monastery as an atonement

Falkenhagen monastery building from the east
Interior view of the monastery church
Choir windows and stalls, around 1500
Former dormitory from 1509
Chapter House
Former priory from 1581
Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld - memorial stone

At the beginning of the 13th century there were various points of contention between the Counts of Schwalenberg and the Diocese of Paderborn . Before 1209, the Schwalenbergers claimed the bailiwicks over the monasteries Gehrden and Willebadessen , which they tried to enforce by force. When Count Adolf I von Schwalenberg and Waldeck tried to gain control of the city of Korbach by building a city castle and demanded the oath of feud from the citizens, Bishop Wilbrand von Paderborn held a meeting in Korbach at which he gave the Waldeck fiefdom declared confiscated, released the citizens from the feudal oath and committed them to themselves as rulers with an oath of allegiance. On the way back Wilbrand was attacked by Adolf I and insulted by an unspecified "iniuria" (dt .: "injustice"). However, the bishop escaped the attack and banished the count. Adolf's brother Count Volkwin IV. Von Schwalenberg and Waldeck was also involved in the feud that was now unfolding . During the feud that continued in winter, the ancestral castle of the Schwalenbergs, the Oldenburg , was also destroyed. During Holy Week 1227 the counts then asked the bishop barefooted “on the advice of sensible men” for forgiveness, and each of the two vowed to found a monastery as atonement. On April 14, 1227, a document was issued about this, in which the Schwalenbergers, among other conditions, waived the bailiffs over Gehrden and Willebadessen and their claims as well as the building of castles in the area around Korbach. Count Adolf I founded the Marienthal Monastery in Netze as early as 1228 .

Burghagen Monastery

. Count Volkwin IV founded the monastery in Burghagen with a St. John's - patronage . It was settled by Cistercian women from Eisenach . The founding abbess was Kunigunde I von Schwalenberg. Documents from the middle of the 13th century quote the place name in the forms Burchagen and Burighagen . Since a church in Burghagen is mentioned in a document from 1231, but there was no parish there, it is assumed that it is the monastery church and that the monastery was founded between 1228 and 1231.

There are different assumptions about the location of Burghagen. On the one hand, that place between the town of Schwalenberg and Niese is assumed to be on a corridor later called de wöste Kerke , on the other hand, northeast of Falkenhagen on a corridor Berkenhagen . At de wöste Kerke ruins were still to be seen in 1882, but Preuss felt that they were too small for a monastery and, with regard to the later possessions of the Falkenhagen monastery, too decentralized. For the location near Berkenhagen , he states that, according to a local oral tradition, the monastery was founded there, allegedly there were ruins there "until modern times" and there is a "Kerkhof" estate, which the monastery only acquired in 1263 . He explains deviations in the name with poor medieval name tradition. It is possible that the Burghagen monastery was located on the so-called Brink , in place of the later Jewish cemetery in Rischenau .

Between 1246, when donations to the monastery and the church in Burghagen were recorded, and 1249, when Pope Innocent IV gave the monastery the name monasterium de Valleliliorum ( Eng .: Monastery of Lilienthal ), which probably first referred to the relocated monastery, and confirmed his rights by stating the new Marian patronage, the convent was then moved to Falkenhagen for unknown reasons. According to a late source from the period between 1510 and 1535, Count Volkwin IV moved the monastery at the request of his daughter, Abbess Kunigunde. The first express naming of the monastery with the name of the new place comes from 1251.

The Cistercian Sisters in Falkenhagen

The sisters named their monastery in Falkenhagen as Kloster vallis liliorum (German: Lilienthal). Like many Cistercian women, the convent lived according to the Cistercian rule , but was not incorporated into the Order of Citeaux , which did not accept convents for a long time. The monastery church of St. Mary, Alexander and Companions was also the parish church. The second abbess was probably Kunigunde II von Schwalenberg, mentioned in 1268 and 1298, a daughter of Count Volkwins IV von Schwalenberg.

The monastery, which was initially not very well equipped, was able to improve its situation through donations and indulgences to be won there. But during the Everstein feud , the monastery was devastated around 1407. The last nun still living in the monastery was able to flee to the Brenkhausen monastery .

The Wilhelmites and Lords of the Cross in Falkenhagen

At the request of Archbishop Dietrich of Cologne , administrator of the Paderborn diocese, in 1429 the Wilhelmite Brothers from Witzenhausen tried to settle in the devastated monastery. Because their attempt to rebuild it failed, the archbishop transferred the monastery area to the Order of the Holy Cross in 1432 . Since the former county of Schwalenberg was administered as the sovereign rule of the noble lords of Lippe and the prince-bishops of Paderborn, the former also confirmed the monastery its old rights in 1446.

Reconstruction began around the same time, but was hampered by several disasters. In the Soest feud , the monastery was looted in 1447, in August 1479 just finished farm buildings burned down, and in 1483 a first plague parade is documented, to which 29 monks fell victim within six months. Nevertheless, the choir of the new church was consecrated on October 25, 1483 and the church on October 21, 1487. During this time under Prior Heinrich von Bocholt (1457–1495) the monastery flourished so much that it was considered the largest and richest of the order. In 1518, 89 crossers lived there, including 27 priests, and in 1522 the monastery began to repopulate the desolate villages in the surrounding area. However, it was not until 1533 that a new cloister and cemetery was consecrated.


Even after the Reformation the convent remained Catholic, in 1542 rejected the Lippe Church Regulations and only made a brother available for Lutheran worship under duress. The monastery finally became a crisis convent in one fell swoop when all members of the convent except two lay brothers died of the plague in 1555. In the Protestant environment of the monastery there were not enough novices for a new beginning. That is why Dietrich von Fürstenberg came as Prince-Bishop of Paderborn and Count Simon VI. zur Lippe agreed in 1596 to dissolve the monastery, in which 6 priests and 3 lay brothers still lived, and to divide the property between them.

The Jesuits in Falkenhagen

While Paderborn transferred its share (all farm buildings) to the Jesuits in 1604, the church with its closed buildings fell to Count zur Lippe (Simon VI). This appointed a Lutheran preacher who had to leave Falkenhagen in the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War . The parish has been evangelized since 1649.

Through the work of the Jesuits, it was possible after 1609 to recatholize the inhabitants of the neighboring villages, some of which were Protestant, up to half of them. They were given a generous estate on site by Count Hermann zur Lippe , who had converted , in 1620 and occupied empty monastery buildings during the Thirty Years' War, which they later had to leave again. In 1695 they consecrated their own church on their site, which is still in existence today.

The most famous resident of the monastery was Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld, who stayed in the monastery for a long time in 1629 and 1631. He is said to have worked on his Cautio Criminalis (German: “legal concerns”) against witchcraft madness and torture, which was published anonymously in 1631 in not far away Rinteln . A memorial stone reminds of this on site. On the night of February 9, 1631, Spee and the coadjutor Henricus Mejer were able to stop an attack by robbers on the monastery.

The history of the monastery ended with the abolition of the Jesuit order in 1773. There was a legal dispute between Paderborn and Lippe about the possessions before the Reichshofrat , which ended with a settlement.

Preserved buildings

The following buildings should be mentioned:

  • In the monastery church, consecrated in 1487, today a Protestant parish church, glass paintings from around 1500 have been preserved in three choir windows and the same old choir stalls.
  • To the south of the church there is a wing of the cloister.
  • Of the cloister buildings, the two-storey dormitory from 1509, which is considered the oldest half-timbered building in Lippe, should be mentioned, which shows a typical late medieval half-timbered structure. It serves as a rectory. The chapter house has also been preserved.
  • To the west of the church is the half-timbered priory from 1581 with the Catholic rectory.
  • A massive residential building that was converted into a church in 1695 serves as a Catholic parish church. A renovation in 1929 changed the character of the building little.

literature

  • Wilhelm Hunecke: Lilienthal Abbey and the Falkenhagen community: Festschrift to celebrate the completion of the restoration and the 400th anniversary of the former Falkenhagen abbey church, 650 years after the abbey was founded. Detmold 1897 ( Münster University Library )
  • Facti Species About a militaire and violent depossession ... Concerning the Closter Falckenhagen in the Graffschaft Lippe Ampts Schwalenberg whose ruling Graffen zur Lippe Wider Die Jesuiter zu Falckenhagen and the Jesuiten-Collegium zu Paderborn. approx. 1678 ( LLB Detmold )
  • Willy Gerking: 750 years of Falkenhagen Monastery. Festschrift for the 750th anniversary of the founding of the monastery and the 500th anniversary of the consecration of the church. On behalf of the ev.-ref. Falkenhagen parish published by Willy Gerking. With contributions by Willy Gerking, Gerald Klaassen, Ralph Röber, Heinrich Rüthing, Hermann-Josef Schmalor, Barbara Seifen, Dirk Strohmann, Hans-Peter Wehlt, Hans Ulrich Weiß and Jürgen Wieggrebe. Leopoldshöhe 1997.
  • Otto Preuß : On the history of the beginnings of the Falkenhagen monastery. , in: WZ 40 1882. Digitized.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinrich Schoppmeyer : The emergence of the estates in the Hochstift Paderborn. , in WZ 136 1986, p. 271. Digitized.
  2. ↑ Diether Pöppel: Das Hochstift Paderborn Origin and development of state sovereignty. , Paderborn 1996, p. 84 f, cf. P. 55 f.
  3. ^ Friedrich Hohenschwert: Der Kreis Lippe II - Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany, Stuttgart 1985, p. 205, ISBN 3-8062-0428-4
  4. ↑ Diether Pöppel: Das Hochstift Paderborn Origin and development of state sovereignty. , Paderborn 1996, p. 84 f. Hans Jürgen Brandt , Karl Hengst : History of the Archdiocese of Paderborn. Vol. 1, (= Karl Hengst et al: Publications on the history of the Central German Church Province. Vol. 12), Paderborn 2002, p. 291. Ludwig August Theodor Holscher: The older diocese Paderborn, according to its borders, archdeaconates, districts and old courts, Part I. , in: WZ 37 1879, pp. 57-59. Digitized. Otto Preuß : On the history of the beginnings of the Falkenhagen monastery. , in: WZ 40 1882, pp. 88-97. Digitized.
  5. ^ Hans Jürgen Brandt , Karl Hengst : History of the Archdiocese of Paderborn. , Vol. 1, (= Karl Hengst et al.: Publications on the history of the Central German Church Province. , Vol. 12), Paderborn 2002, p. 290 f.
  6. ^ Hans Jürgen Brandt , Karl Hengst : History of the Archdiocese of Paderborn. , Vol. 1, (= Karl Hengst et al: Publications on the history of the Central German Church Province. , Vol. 12), Paderborn 2002, p. 291. Otto Preuß : On the history of the beginnings of the Falkenhagen monastery. , in: WZ 40 1882, pp. 88-97.
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g history of the monastery. klosterlandschaft-owl.de, accessed on January 19, 2018 .
  8. ^ Hans Jürgen Brandt , Karl Hengst : History of the Archdiocese of Paderborn. Vol. 1, (= Karl Hengst et al: Publications on the history of the Central German Church Province. Vol. 12), Paderborn 2002, p. 291. Ludwig August Theodor Holscher: The older diocese Paderborn, according to its borders, archdeaconates, districts and old courts, Part I., in: WZ 37 1879, pp. 57-59. Digitized.
  9. ^ Hans Jürgen Brandt , Karl Hengst : History of the Archdiocese of Paderborn. , Vol. 1, (= Karl Hengst et al.: Publications on the history of the Central German Church Province. , Vol. 12), Paderborn 2002, p. 270. Hans Jürgen Brandt , Karl Hengst : History of the Archdiocese of Paderborn. , Vol. 2, (= Karl Hengst et al.: Publications on the history of the Central German Church Province. , Vol. 13), Paderborn 2007, p. 283. Ludwig August Theodor Holscher: The older diocese Paderborn, according to its borders, archdeaconates, districts and old Courts, Part I., in: WZ 37 1879, pp. 57–59. Digitized.
  10. ↑ Willy Gerking: The villages of the large community of Lügde. In: Heimatland Lippe, August 1984, 2009, pp. 279f.
  11. ↑ Hans Jürgen Brandt , Karl Hengst : History of the Archdiocese of Paderborn, Vol. 2 (= Karl Hengst and others: Publications on the history of the Central German Church Province, Vol. 13). Paderborn 2007, p. 543 f.
  12. ^ Sander: Historia Collegii SJ, handwriting Pa 43, vol. 2, p. 99 in the library of the Theodorianum in Paderborn, quoted from Klemens Honselmann : News about the stay of P. Friedrichs von Spe [sic!] In Paderborn , Westfälische Zeitschrift 109 1959, p. 367. Digitized
  13. ↑ Hans Jürgen Brandt , Karl Hengst : History of the Archdiocese of Paderborn, Vol. 1 (= Karl Hengst et al .: Publications on the history of the Central German Church Province, Vol. 12). Paderborn 2002, p. 270.
    Hans Jürgen Brandt , Karl Hengst : History of the Archdiocese of Paderborn, Vol. 2 (= Karl Hengst et al .: Publications on the history of the Central German Church Province, Vol. 13). Paderborn 2007, p. 290 f.
    Georg Joseph Bessen: History of the Diocese of Paderborn , Volume 2. Paderborn 1820, p. 366.
  14. ^ Wilfried Hansmann : Art travel guide Westphalia. , Bindlach 1988, p. 437. G. Ulrich Großmann : Eastern Westphalia / From Hellweg to Weser / Art and culture between Soest and Paderborn, Minden and Warburg. , Cologne 1986, p. 257 f.