Gutenzell Imperial Abbey

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Banner of the Holy Roman Emperor with haloes (1400-1806) .svg
Territory in the Holy Roman Empire
Gutenzell Imperial Abbey
coat of arms
Coat of arms is missing


Alternative names Reichsstift
Form of rule Corporate state
Ruler / government Imperial Abbess
Today's region / s DE-BW
Parliament In the Imperial Council , represented by the Swabian kingdom prelate College
Reich register 1521 = 5 foot soldiers
Reichskreis Swabian Empire
Capitals / residences Gutenzell
Denomination / Religions Roman Catholic
Language / n German , Latin


Incorporated into Imperial County Toerring


The gutenzell abbey was founded in the 13th century imperial immediacy Cistercian - Kloster in the church today Gutenzell-Hürbel in Upper Swabia ( Baden-Wuerttemberg ). In the course of the secularization , the imperial abbey was dissolved in 1803 and awarded to the imperial counts of Upper Bavarian aristocrats Toerring as compensation . Most of the convent building was demolished in 1864. The former abbey church of St. Cosmas and Damian was preserved. The parish of Gutenzell today belongs to the pastoral care unit of St. Scholastika in the Biberach deanery of the Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese .

history

From the foundation to the end of the 18th century

Former Gutenzell abbey church, the castle on the left
Schlüsselberger coat of arms in the monastery chronicle

The beginnings of the monastery are in the dark. A first document dated May 29, 1238, but already marks the end of the founding phase: Pope Gregory IX. took the Abbey of Cella Dei under its protection and formally incorporated it into the Cistercian order . An abbess was at the head of the convent , and it already had its own church. Their patronage of St. Kosmas and Damian , which is atypical for the order , suggests that the newly founded monastery was equipped with an existing church. The remains of the 12th century wall uncovered in the area of ​​the monastery church are in line with this. In place of Cella Dei soon joined the 1259 first documented name (Gotteszell) Bona Cella or its German version Guotencelle .

As with the other Upper Swabian women's cisterns, the Salem abbot Eberhard von Rohrdorf is considered the spiritus rector of the foundation by supporting an already existing informal sister collection and bringing it to the Cistercian order. According to a chronicle written in the 16th century, "two noble sisters and devout virgins" from the "ancient counts of Schluesselberg " residing in a nearby castle founded the monastery and belonged to the first convent - although there is a noble family with this name in Upper Swabia not documented anywhere. It is likely that the founders belonged to the noble von Aichheim family , either the main line or the branch named after (Burg-) Rieden . The gentlemen of Aichheim later appeared as sponsors of Gutenzell, and also built their burial place there.

With the parish Gutenzell mentioned in the Liber decimationis of 1275 next to the - tax-exempt - abbey was meant "probably" the clergyman sent by Salem as confessor . A chaplain mentioned in 1465 and connected to the twelve messenger altar in the monastery church was upgraded in 1474: The chaplain Ströhlin donated 900 guilders to the monastery on the condition that a chaplain’s house be built outside the monastery district and the chaplain maintained. For this purpose, the clergyman should also look after the lay people outside the monastery and read a daily mass in the monastery church. In fact, the monastery church was thus also a parish church; the parish and chaplaincy were not formally unified until 1767.

In his history Gutenzell was spared internal unrest and moral decline, but suffered several setbacks from external influences. On Palm Sunday 1369, a lightning strike caused a fire that left the entire monastery to rubble and ashes. The reconstruction was completed by 1390. In 1522 a fire damaged the convent building, and three years later rebel farmers looted the monastery. Gutenzell experienced his hardest time in the Thirty Years' War . In 1632 the abbess and the convent fled from the Swedish troops who devastated the monastery and set it on fire. During the second invasion of Sweden in 1647, the church was "put into the ashes" as a totalite. Reconstruction took decades and plunged the monastery into debt. It was not until 1665 that the renovated, still incompletely furnished monastery church could be consecrated.

The 18th century brought a final boom to the monastery, which manifested itself in new or modernized buildings, a new organ and a total of nine altars in the abbey church. During the reign (1747–59) of Abbess Maria Franziska von Gall , according to plans by Dominikus Zimmermann , the church was redesigned in the Baroque style from 1755–56 . The catacomb saints Justina and Christina were named co-patron sisters of the monastery, and their relics , which were transferred to Gutenzell in 1698 and 1765 respectively, are kept in two reliquary altars.

secularization

Many construction activities, legal processes, the effects of the Napoleonic coalition wars, war contributions and billeting led to the monastery being heavily indebted. Joseph von Schott, known as the noble von Scharfenberg, was chancellor of the neighboring Benedictine imperial abbey in Ochsenhausen from 1785 to 1802 . In August 1802 he became the chief administrator of the monasteries Ochsenhausen, Heggbach, Gutenzell, Schussenried and Rot an der Rot, which were used as compensation funds . The Ochsenhausen sub-delegation took over the administration of the monastery on December 1, 1802 until the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss . It was started to record the property and income situation of the monastery and to draw up an expert opinion. Oberamtmann Weickmann and the "Bursier" Josepha Krismar promised in a statement that the official business would be closely monitored. Soon afterwards, the dispensable ranks and other superfluous servants were dismissed.

On March 9, 1803, the monastery, under the title of a sovereign imperial county , went to the Bavarian imperial count Joseph August von Toerring , who was compensated for the loss of the immediately imperial left-bank county of Gronsfeld (near Maastricht in the Dutch province of Limburg ). After taking possession, the Count's Councilor Wolfgang Zollner accepted the tribute from the subjects on behalf of the Imperial Count. In an income statement, the Reichsstift came to an annual income of 13,644 guilders. The liabilities were estimated at 193,000 guilders. The pen was in dire financial straits. Count von Toerring traveled to Gutenzell on June 14, 1803, accompanied by his new Count's councilor Valentin Banghard. Against the will of Abbess Justina, he installed the secular clergyman and new confessor of the convent Augustin Rugel. Prioress Magdalena Klauber and the convent committed themselves to the imperial count as the new master.

In 1806 the area became part of the Kingdom of Württemberg . From 1803 to 1806 the new kingdom took over a total of 95 monasteries and ecclesiastical possessions in several stages.

Demolition and end

After the secularization, the convent continued to live together in community. It became a so-called "extinction monastery" that was no longer allowed to accept novices. After long negotiations, the abbess received a modest pension of 600 guilders per year, the 22 choir women 200 guilders and the ten sisters 100 guilders. They also received natural produce in the form of wood, straw, grain and meadow use. Abbess Justina, a trained pharmacist who joined the convent at the age of 19, was born near Weißenburg in Bavaria , died on April 10, 1809 at the age of 63 after a 27-year term in office. After that, the sisters were relieved. The time in the choir was shortened, unhealthy processions restricted, and certain dispensations were achieved on fasting days . The Convention stayed together. The pharmacy continued to operate until 1839. In 1822 a girls' industrial school was founded by the nuns Theresia Krismar and Aloisia Hailer. In 1828 eight convent women and six sisters were still alive. The last nun, Violantia Miller, died in 1851.

Gutenzell sank into bitter poverty. The largest employer and client for the craftsmen initially fell away. Count Toerring was disappointed with his new property, which could not compensate for his loss of the areas on the left bank of the Rhine and still resulted in costs in the form of old nuns' pensions.

In 1864 the convent building was demolished, with the exception of part of the east wing, which still serves as a rectory and forestry office. The former gate guard is also preserved.

Effect to this day

The manual skill and diligence of the nuns are shown by the richly decorated relics still in the church today as well as the large baroque nativity scene with over 100 figures, which is set up in the church every year from Christmas to Candlemas (February 2nd).

Legal status

Tabula Seßionis (seating arrangement) from 1669

Like Salem itself, his daughter monastery was under the protection and umbrella of the Reich in the late Staufer period and was able to maintain imperial immediacy even after the end of the Hohenstaufen. King Sigismund granted Gutenzell extensive privileges in 1418, including freedom from foreign (aristocratic) bailiwicks, which his successors confirmed in 1439, 1444 and 1496. A visible expression of imperial freedom was Gutenzell's inclusion in the imperial register of 1521. The monastery had a seat and vote on imperial and district assemblies. Gutenzell had his place on the prelate bank of the Swabian District between Heggbach and Rottenmünster.

In spiritual matters Gutenzell was under the paternity of the Salem monastery. The Salem abbot represented the monastery in the committees of the order, carried out regular visitations, supervised the election of the abbess and sent one of his confreres to Gutenzell as confessor. In the 18th century there was a rift between Salem and the daughter monasteries, so that Abbot Anselm II. Schwab canceled his paternity in 1752. From then on Gutenzell was subordinate to the Abbot of Kaisheim , even after an amicable settlement with Salem was achieved in 1768.

territory

Ownership history

Gutenzell's ownership history is fraught with uncertainties because the archive was also affected by the fire disasters. Old documents have therefore not been preserved. The first complete overview provides a 1449-scale Urbar . Earlier processes can only be partially deduced from other sources.

The original foundation property probably only included Gutenzell itself, the size of which is unknown at the time. After the monastery was founded, it was converted into an in-house business ( grangie ). It was not until the 15th century that there were houses outside the monastery wall, which the monastery issued as fiefs together with the associated arable land. The later village of Gutenzell developed from them. For the core area of ​​the territory, which was completely acquired before 1449, the so-called Upper Lordship , consisting of the surrounding hamlets of Bollsberg, Dissenhausen, Huggenlaubach, Niedernzell and Weitenbühl , the existence of letters of purchase is assured, but the documents themselves have been lost. In the late Middle Ages, some of these places only consisted of one courtyard, so they were possibly also managed as grangia. Here, too, began to be divided into smaller units in the 15th century.

In 1437 the monastery bought around a third of the village of Oberholzheim from citizens of Ulm . (The remaining 2/3 belonged since 1439 the Biberacher hospital.) The local United tithe acquired Gutenzell in two stages in 1356 and 1442. 1447 sold William the younger von Freyberg , of the village Achstetten had shared with his brothers, his third to the monastery. The hamlet Mönchhöfe, three courtyards and seven Selden in Kirchberg and two Selden in red , whose origin is unclear, appear as further possessions .

In 1503 Gutenzell acquired the village of Steinberg from the Rembold family in Ulm , but had to sell it again in 1522 in order to finance the reconstruction of the burnt-down enclosure. It was not until 1686 that the precarious finances allowed another purchase: Veit Ernst von Rechberg sold his half of Kirchberg (belonging to the Kellmünz rule) to the monastery for 20,000 guilders . (The other half came from the city of Ulm to the Rot monastery in 1692. ) The final acquisitions were Glaserhof and Glaserforst, which belonged to the Fuggerian county of Kirchberg until 1767 and 1776 respectively . Gutenzell had free float in Erolzheim, Laubach and Weihungszell, for example. Around 1800 there were 180 subject families in their own jurisdiction and 20 families in foreign jurisdiction throughout the territory, the population was around 1200.

Until secularization, the monastery kept the vineyards in the Lake Constance area, which it had acquired from the 14th century, with a focus on Markdorf and Kippenhausen . Initially, these goods were jointly owned by the Gutenzell and Heggbach Abbeys until they were divided up in 1504.

jurisdiction

Before Emperor Sigismund gave the abbess her own court with twelve judges in 1437 , the Landvogtei Swabia exercised all jurisdiction in Gutenzell territory. Blood jurisdiction was explicitly excluded from the imperial privilege , which initially remained with the bailiwick.

The lower jurisdiction in the monastery area was linked to the manor . In the condominium types Achstetten and Oberholzheim, the chairmanship in the village court alternated according to the shares in power. The situation in Kirchberg was complicated, because the old Gutenzell estates belonged to the court of the Red village half since 1692. Attempts to fix this through an exchange failed.

It was not until 1685 that the monastery received the blood spell for the core area and Achstetten (including the Mönchhöfe and the "foreign" places Bronnen and Ellmannsweiler ) as an Austrian fiefdom, which was extended to 1717. In 1742 Austria transferred the jurisdiction over these places (excluding Bronnen) to the Salem Monastery; The Salemer Pflege Schemmerberg acted as the executive body. Disagreements about the demarcation between high and low jurisdiction - Gutenzell continued to perceive the latter himself - led the monastery, like Heggbach, who was confronted with the same problem, to take legal action against the father monastery. The trial, which was first held before the Lehenhof in Freiburg in front of Austria, and then before the Reich Chamber of Commerce, dragged on. Finally, in 1768, a compromise was reached that Gutenzell paid 9,000 guilders and received the blood ban from Salem as an after-fief. The following year a gallows was set up. In 1776 the monastery acquired not only the Glaserforst, with which forest and hunting sovereignty were connected, but also the blood spell over Kirchberg.

Convention and business enterprise

In 1573 there were 15 nuns in the monastery, including four novices . After the Thirty Years' War the convent had shrunk to three women choirs. Lay sisters have only been recorded since the end of the 17th century. After the monastery recovered, the convent numbered around 25 women choirs and 10 to 15 lay sisters. Various social classes were represented, in addition to bourgeois and farmer's daughters, members of the lower nobility and the patriciate of the surrounding imperial cities. The handicraft activity of the Gutenzell Cistercian women expressed itself mainly in textile work. The main branch was parament embroidery , and altar flowers and vestments for nativity figures were made. Clothing and jewelry for the relics were also made in the monastery.

The highest administrative officer of the monastery had held the title of Hofmeister at least since 1502, from 1663 he was designated as bailiff, later as senior bailiff. The imperial abbey maintained three mills, a brickworks, a forge and a tavern including a brewery in terms of handicrafts and businesses .

List of Abbesses

Heraldic shield of the imperial abbess Maria Bernarda von Donnersberg
Epitaph for Abbess Maria Franziska von Gall

Since no corresponding documents have been received, the information for the 13th century is based on later chronicles. Abbot Eberhard von Salem is said to have appointed the first abbess, Mechthild von Aichheim, in 1237. It was followed by Ita (1243), Heliata (1245), Laicardis (1250), Gertrudis (1259), Guta (1277, 1281), Hilga (1293) and Ita (1294). The data from the 14th century are also incomplete. Only names and dates that have been handed down chronically are in italics.

  • Gertrudis 1299
  • Agnes von Berkach 1311
  • Clara von Tissen 1314
  • Luitgard von Aichheim 1317 , 1325
  • Heilwig 1338
  • Sophia 1347
  • Gutte von Weiler 1349 , 1355
  • N. Becht 1403
  • Elizabeth frey 1403
  • Bertha von Griesingen 1404 , died 1408
  • Bertha von Freysing 1408
  • Agnes 1437
  • Dorothea Neth 1437, 1444
  • Ottilia Durlacher 1449, 1450
  • Ursula Egloffer 1478
  • Walburga Gräter 1478–1503
  • Walburga bugglin 1504
  • Katharina Becht 1516, 1526
  • Barbara von Stotzingen 1526, 1527
  • Magdalena von Freyberg 1532, 1540
  • Maria von Landenberg 1542–1567
  • Maria Segesser of Brunegg 1567–1610
  • Anna Segesser of Brunegg 1610–1630
  • Maria Barbara Thumb von Neuburg 1630–1663
  • Maria Franziska von Freyberg 1663–1696
  • Maria Victoria Hochwind 1696–1718
  • Maria Bernarda von Donnersberg 1718–1747
  • Maria Franziska von Gall 1747–1759
  • Maria Alexandra Zimmermann 1759–1776 (daughter of Dominikus Zimmermann )
  • Maria Justina von Erolzheim 1776–1803, died 1809

building

Gutenzell, St. Kosmas and Damian, interior to the east
The former monastery complex in a model, view "from the west"

The building stock and equipment of the former monastery and today's parish church of St. Kosmas and Damian contain elements from different epochs, with the oldest components dating from the 14th century. The Gothic church, completed around 1390, was a pillar basilica with no transepts and a retracted, just closed choir . In 1518 the chancel was redesigned into a polygonal choir with a three-eighth end, and in 1714 the Sacred Heart Chapel was added on the north side. Dominikus Zimmermann's plans, according to which monastery builder Nikolaus Rüeff rebuilt the church in 1755–56, did not interfere with the Gothic core components. The existing pillars were sheathed, new vaults were drawn in in the central nave and the upper facade windows were changed. Franz Xaver Feuchtmayer was responsible as the leading plasterer ; Johann Georg Dieffenbrunner painted the ceiling pictures . They show scenes from the Old and New Testaments in the vaulted domes of the nave, and the twelve apostles on the walls. The church patrons Kosmas and Damian are shown on the choir fresco.

The convent buildings were grouped around the cloister adjoining the church to the south . On the ground floor there were: in the west wing the gate, kitchen and storage rooms, in the south wing the refectory and pharmacy, in the east wing the chapter house and the lay sisters' dormitory. The abbess's rooms and the single rooms of the choir women were on the upper floor. The guest building, which was added around 1700 outside the square, today the Count's Castle of Toerring, and part of the east wing were spared from demolition. The gatehouse, which has been preserved on the south side of the former monastery district, also comes from the Baroque period.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The key on a Dreiberg corresponds to the coat of arms of the Franconian Schlüsselbergers , who married several daughters to Swabia: there are records of marriages with Counts von Vaihingen, von Zollern and von Helfenstein. See also female heirs of Konrad II von Schlüsselberg .
  2. ↑ Der Landkreis Biberach , Volume II, ISBN 3-7995-6186-2 , p. 58.
  3. ↑ Schwäbische Zeitung January 2nd, 2009  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.szon.de  
  4. ^ Biberach district archive, Gutenzell rule, Ochsenhaus subdelegation in the matter of compensation for the Reich matters, 1802

literature

Web links

Commons : Reichsabtei Gutenzell  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 6 ′ 53 "  N , 9 ° 59 ′ 45.5"  E