Ihlow Monastery

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Ihlow Cistercian Abbey
Imagination of the monastery church Ihlow
Imagination of the monastery church Ihlow
location GermanyGermany Germany
Lower SaxonyLower Saxony Lower Saxony
Lies in the diocese Archdiocese of Bremen
Coordinates: 53 ° 24 '15 "  N , 7 ° 27' 32"  E Coordinates: 53 ° 24 '15 "  N , 7 ° 27' 32"  E
Serial number
according to Janauschek 		601
Patronage St. Mary
founding year around 1228
Year of dissolution /
annulment 		1529
Mother monastery Aduard Monastery
Primary Abbey Clairvaux Monastery

Daughter monasteries

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The Ihlow Monastery (Monasterium Sanctae Mariae in Schola Dei) in the municipality of the same name eight kilometers south of Aurich is a former Cistercian abbey.

The founding date of the monastery is 1228. Until its dissolution (1529) in the course of the Reformation , Ihlow was one of the most important monasteries in the Dutch-northwestern German area. The Ihlower abbots played an important role in politics, culture and religion. Among other things, they acted as justice of the peace and practiced the funeral laugh . At the time of the so-called Frisian Freedom , the Ihlower Cistercian Abbey was very probably the archive and office of the Upstalsboom Association. The seal of the Landfriedensvereinigung and the documents may have been kept in the monastery. In addition, there is some evidence that a copy of the Brokmer letter , which was the basis for the jurisdiction in Brokmer and Aurich Land, has been deposited in the monastery . It could be used for comparison in legal disputes in cases of doubt. The monastery in Ihlow thus played the role of last resort. During the chief rule , the tom Brok were patrons of Ihlow. A good 300 years after its foundation, the Counts of East Friesland dissolved the monastery in 1529. They then had the buildings demolished or given a new function.

Today there are no more building remains of the monastery itself in the Ihlower Wald. The excavations uncovered the wall and pillar foundations and floors of the church and the monks' houses. There are also two partially preserved monastery ponds as well as ramparts and protective ditches on the site. In the surrounding forest area you can also see numerous vaulted bakers .

Part of the area is now the Ihlow Monastery Archaeological Park. From 2005 to 2009, the community of Ihlow had the former monastery church rebuilt on a 1: 1 scale: ivy-covered steel mesh mats recreate the walls of the Cistercian building. The evergreen walls are accessible from the inside. From 2005 onwards, the former choir and chancel were also rebuilt as a wood and steel sculpture in original size. The reconstruction, the construction of which takes up the Romano-Gothic style of the medieval brick church, reaches a height of up to 45 meters with the roof turret. Part of the reconstruction is a “room to search for traces” (room of silence) below the former monastery church.

history

Much of the historical tradition of the monastery was lost during the Reformation . The East Frisian Counts Enno II and Johann appropriated Ihlow in 1528. Above all, economic and not reformatory reasons were decisive. They had the monastery dissolved and the archive removed. Documents, contracts, image and written sources that tell something about the history of architecture and art as well as the size and structure of the complex and the business operations are largely missing. A monastery chronicle, such as that for the mother monastery Aduard, is not known from Ihlow.

founding

Filiation of the monastery in Ihlow

The history of the monastery in Ihlow begins in 1216. In that year the abbot of the Meerhusen monastery asked for admission to the Cistercian order . For this purpose he turned to his colleague in Klaarkamp , who was in charge of the oldest monastery of the order in Friesland . Why he wanted to change the order is unclear. Meerhusen was a double convent of Benedictine style. Possibly the desire to practice the ascetic way of life of the Cistercians was decisive. With their Charter Caritatis, they wanted to restore the original strict seclusion of monastic life and the rule " Ora et labora " of the Benedictine order , from which they separated in 1098.

The decision to admit Meerhusen to the order was made by the general chapter of the order in Cîteaux (France). This sent two inspectors, the abbots of Aduard and Heisterbach , to get a better picture of the situation. They should check whether Meerhusen was suitable for a conversion, whether his possessions were sufficient and whether the abbot, convent and the responsible bishop of Bremen supported the conversion. In 1217 they reported their investigations to the General Chapter. This then approved admission to the Cistercian order on the condition that a new monastery be built for the men at a different location and that the Bishop of Bremen, Gerhard II , approves the project. In 1218 the Cistercians incorporated the monastery in Meerhusen. The men must have already left the facility by this point because their rules forbade them to live with women members of the order. Until their own convent was completed, they probably lived provisionally in the Vorwerk zu Timmel .

As the location for the new monastery, the abbot of Aduard assigned the monks a site called “ter Yle” (in the Yl-loh, the yew forest). The relatively quick founding of the monastery in Ihlow was possibly based on land owned by the Klaarkamp monastery, which could be included in the founding process. Presumably, the monastery in Ulbargen (today the community of Großefehn ), Timmel and Ihlow had been running farms in the form of Vorwerke and Grangien for some time . While the order otherwise preferred remote areas away from large cities and traffic routes for its new foundations, the area in Ihlow was already used for agriculture before the monastery was built. This is evidenced by the pre-monastic field horizon that can be traced throughout the excavation area, in which plow marks have partially been preserved. As a result of the investigations, the area was used as seed land until the foundation of the Convention. In addition, several graves were found below the foundation trenches of the enclosure building. They are therefore older than the monastery and are assigned to an earlier settlement of the square, possibly a chapel in a nearby settlement.

The Klaarkamp monastery commissioned the Aduard monastery to look after the new branch . Its abbot, Wigboldus, accepted Ihlow according to the Cistercian annals in 1216, according to another tradition in 1217 under the name "Schola Dei" (Latin: School of God) into the order. Then the construction of the convent began. Wigboldus laid the foundation stone. In 1228 the Bishop of Bremen, Gerhard II , confirmed the foundation of the men's convention. For two years the abbots of Aduard and Klaarkamp inspected Ihlow and introduced the first abbot to his office. This marked the end of the establishment of the Ihlow Monastery as a daughter monastery of Aduard , granddaughter of Klaarkamp and great-granddaughter of Clairvaux Primary Abbey . The Abbot of Ihlow was henceforth also responsible for the monastery in Meerhusen. Legal transactions were carried out by the Ihlow Monastery alone. The two convents thus formed a kind of double monastery, which was spatially separated, but legally formed a unit.

Further development up to the Reformation

The brokmer letter

The Ihlow Monastery quickly gained political importance after its foundation. In East Friesland, the Ihlower abbots were on behalf of the popes on several peacemaking and mediating missions. In 1233 Gregory IX commissioned the abbot with the settlement of a dispute between the Östringer and the Harlingerland . The first abbot of Ihlow mentioned by name, Menko, was involved in the drafting of the contract between the clergy, the consuls and the tota plebs (= universitas) of the Emsgaues and the city of Norden and the city of Bremen and signed it as one of the witnesses. Representatives of the monastery also participated in the peace treaty between the Bishop of Münster and the Frisian parishes on the right and left of the Ems in 1276. In 1338 they sat at the table in the negotiations about the regulations for keeping the peace between Frisians and Groningen . In 1340 the abbot sealed the atonement settlement between the city of Cologne and the Harlinger and Norderland .

Ihlow also achieved an important position within the Cistercian order. In 1244, the abbot and his colleague from Aduard inspected the Augustinian monastery Gerkesklooster in Achtkarspelen , which wanted to be accepted into the order. With the abbot of Klaarkamp, ​​the Ihlower monastery chief examined the Benedictine double monastery Menterna (near Termunten) in 1247, which had applied for incorporation. When the abbot of Hude applied to the General Chapter to relocate his abbey in 1250, the latter sent the Ihlower and Loccum monastery chiefs to Hude to examine the planned location on the Nordheide. In 1260 he was on the same mission together with the father abbot in the Marienkamp nunnery ( Drente ). In 1292, the Aduarter Convention elected Abbot Albert von Ihlow as its head. This died in the same year. In the years 1337/38 Pope Benedict XII. the Ihlower Konvent with the decision on the rights to the parish church of Kropswolde , on which the monastery Rottum and the city of Groningen could not agree. 1345 renewed Pope Clement VI. the mandate to settle the dispute. In 1437, Eugene IV instructed the abbot to check the donations made by the Cirksena to the Carmelite monastery in Appingen and to confirm them in the name of the Pope. In 1450, Nikolaus V let the Ihlower monastery chief examine the assignment of the Benedictine monastery Sielmönken to the Augustinian monastery Marienkamp requested by the bishop of Münster .

After the development of the regional communities in East Frisia, the monastery continued to gain in importance. In the 13th century, a deep devotion to Mary gripped the Brookmerlanders. The mother of Jesus replaced James the Elder as national saint. After the union of Brookmer and Auricherland , she was the central figure in the seal of the state community. This is interpreted as an expression of the influence of the monastery in Ihlow. The Brookmer letter stored in the monastery served as the authoritative source of law in the Auricher and Brookmerland in disputes . In § 161 it says: If one of the accused Redjeven [= judge] claims that one is doing him an injustice [according to his own copy of the legal letter] , the others (Redjeven) are called together; if they then disagree, the (legal) letter kept by the monks will decide. In the years that followed, the monastery received several substantial donations from the country's powerful families.

Seal of the Upstalsboom Association (1324)

Political importance reached its zenith at the time of " Frisian freedom ". There are several indications for this. On the one hand, the meeting place of the Landfriedensbund, the Upstalsboom , was in the immediate vicinity of Ihlow. Therefore, only the monastery comes into question as a place of storage of the seal and the documents of the union of the regional communities. It was possibly the Federal Archives and Chancellery. The seal of the covenant probably also goes back to the Ihlow monastery. It shows the enthroned Virgin Mary as the patron saint of all Frisians and the Cistercians with the baby Jesus between two Frisian warriors. The interceding monks depicted below the Marian throne are understood as a reference to the Ihlower clergy who had their share in the business of the union. The inscription on the seal, which was evidently based on a blessing formula used by the Cistercian order, speaks for the influence of the Ihlower monks. There is written in Latin HIS SIGNIS VOTA / SVA REDDIT FRISIA TOTA / CVI CVM PROLE PIA / SIT CLEMENS VIRGO MARIA (= With this symbol, the whole of Friesland confirms its promises that the Virgin Mary be gracious with the holy boy). It is possibly based on the Cistercian blessing formula “Nos cum prole pia benedicat virgo Maria” (= The pious Virgin Mary blesses us with the child) from the Marian Office of the 11th and 12th. Century back.

Brick graves in the church

In the course of the 14th century, the Redjeven constitution fell into disrepair . Influential families took the place of the rural communities, who, as " chiefs " (hovedlinge), seized power over more or less large areas. Ihlow was henceforth under the dominion of tom Brok . On May 20, 1378 Chief Ocko I. tom Brok declared himself patron of the monastery. At the altar of the abbey he solemnly vowed to defend the monastery against everyone and deposited a document in the local language that recorded this. The descendants of Ocko brought financial support to the convent as secular donors, thus ensuring wealth and political recognition. Possibly the monastery was also the burial place of the family. According to the statutes of the order, no one was actually allowed to be buried in the church of a Cistercian monastery, abbots according to a statute of 1180 in the chapter house, the prior and highly respected monks mostly in the cloister. The actual monks and conversations as well as the monastery servants were buried in the monastery cemetery. However, this rule found less and less application. This is also the case in Ihlow, where excavations in the transept uncovered a total of ten burials. As a rule, only members of donor families who had transferred property or property to the monastery were buried within monastery churches. Therefore, the graves found in the Ihlower monastery church are almost certainly the final resting place of local rulers. In the area of ​​Ihlow, only the tom Brok are suitable for this. The monastery was the most important in their domain. Most of the buried were laid in wooden coffins. Two of the graves in this row were made of brick. Two skeletons lay directly on top of each other in a brick box. The historian Hajo van Lengen suspects that these are the remains of Ocko II. Tom Brok and his father Keno II . The last male representative of the chief dynasty, Ocko, had appointed the Abbot of Ihlow in his will of April 16, 1435 as the executor of his last will and ordered to be buried in the same grave as his father. The document does not mention where this grave was located. Hence it must have been known to the abbot.

The 14th and 15th centuries were a period of decline. A large number of crises (famines, insufficient sales market for goods, epidemics) led to a loss of public order. From 1347 to 1353 in Europe was raging plague a third of what was then Europe's population - - which an estimated 25 million deaths fell victim. The epidemic reached East Frisia via Utrecht , spread through the port cities and decimated the population. In the 14th century, tensions among the East Frisian chiefs also escalated. The Cistercians and the Premonstratensians in particular got into a dispute about the further direction of their orders. So were shooting Ringer (converse of the Cistercians, named for its "sheer" gray costume) opposite and "Vetkoper" (Brothers of the Premonstratensians, "Traders with fat cattle"). The dispute was a consequence of the agricultural and religious crises of the 14th century. As a result, the Premonstratensians, as representatives of the merchants of the Hanseatic League and the city patricians, pursued a patriarchal, aristocratic, feudalist and tradition-insistent policy, while the Cistercians responded to the crisis with reforms reacted.

Within the Frisian settlements of the Cistercians, the strict rules of the order were followed less and less, so that the situation had to be rearranged. The General Chapter of the Cistercians sent the abbot Johann Boyng von Menterna to Ihlow in 1412 to restore discipline. Boyng had already successfully reformed the sister monastery of Termunten and was repeatedly appointed by the General Chapter after 1408 as visitator, corrector et reformer of the Frisian Cistercian monasteries. The community in Ihlow confirmed Boyng as abbot. An office that he held until 1418. In Ihlow he was to watch over the observance of the discipline and the strict rules of the Cistercians. The decay of morality observed in Ihlow may have played a role in the resolution of the General Chapter of 1412 made at Boyng's request, which concerned the presence of women in the monastery. After that, women were only allowed to walk around the cemetery with the deceased and the entourage if they had their relatives buried at the monastery. In addition, they were only allowed to attend the funeral mass in the northern part of the monastery church. The spiritual reforms of the Boyng go back to ideas of the devotio moderna and the Windesheim congregation derived from it . Boyng kept the number of lay brothers and conversations to a minimum. Reasons for this were, on the one hand, discipline problems among lay brothers and the experience of the dispute between Schieringers and Vetkopers . On the other hand, they were no longer needed, as the monastery's property in the Vorwerke and Grangien was leased. In Ihlow, the reforms resulted in a great gain in reputation. This can be evidenced by the increase in pious foundations that the monastery received towards the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries.

The feuding late medieval chiefs were followed by the rise of the Cirksena to become the new rulers of East Frisia. The unfortified monastery suffered first structural damage in 1450 during the dispute between Ulrich Cirksena and the city of Hamburg over supremacy in the region. The Cistercians then restored it. In the years that followed, it repeatedly received major donations from the Count's House. For example, Countess Theda donated the very large sum of 100 Rhenish guilders to the Ihlow Monastery in 1494 in order to have prayers for her souls. Thanks to donations, Ihlow remained the economically strongest of the 28 East Frisian monasteries. The wealth of the monastery is expressed in the Ihlower Altar, which survived the Reformation. The Cistercians set this up in the abbey at the beginning of the 16th century. Previously, the altar consisted only of a simple wooden cross. In addition, the monastery church received an organ.

In the Saxon feud in 1514, the monastery was again affected.

Secularization 1529

Ihlow Monastery - remains of the undermined foundations

After around three hundred years of activity in the economic and political life of East Frisia, the Ihlow Monastery fell victim to the Reformation in 1529 . Due to the secularization , the monastery fell into the hands of the East Frisian counts Enno II and Johann . A papal decree awarded the monastery property to the abbot of Aduart. However, he was unable to enforce his claims. The sovereign from the Cirksena family dissolved the monastery and appropriated the property. The count had the altar and organ brought to Aurich. The archive was then closed, so that today only two documents remain.

The last abbot, Antonius von Senden, left the monastery in 1529 and converted to the new faith. Part of the convention followed suit. Count Enno and Johann then gave van Senden the pastor's position in Larrelt , the other monks were compensated with money by the East Frisian counts, the oldest of whom received a livelihood. In 1533/34 the monastery was partially destroyed by Balthasar von Esens .

Johann had the monastery church and parts of the enclosure demolished in order to have a castle built. The reasons for the demolition are, on the one hand, to be found in the high maintenance costs. On the other hand, Johann wanted to create political facts, because without a church the Cistercian order could hardly demand the return of Ihlow.

In the years that followed, the monastery area was the preferred hunting ground of the East Frisian counts. They continued to use the monastery grounds profanely. The west wing with the cloister in front and the east cloister arm together with the associated building wing remained standing and converted into the guest house of the hunting lodge that Count Johann had built in Ihlow. It is still unclear where this building was located. It was also Johann who settled the first game in Ihlow.

Further use

Between 1608 and 1612 Count Enno III built. to the west of today's forester's lodge is a small, baroque hunting lodge, which the counts and princes of East Friesland used as a summer residence from May to September. The building was a 13 by 10 meter house with a stair tower. In addition, Enno III. In the same year, plant the avenue of lime trees that still exists today, leading from Krummen Tief to the building. French gardens were the model for this. From then on, Ihlow was next to Berum Castle , the pleasure palace in Sandhorst and the hunting lodge in Meerhusen, the most frequented hunting ground of the East Frisian princes. Archaeologist Marion Brüggler explains that there was a relatively small building in Ihlow as a summer residence for the East Frisian rulers and their families by the fact that there were a number of other buildings from monastic times in Ihlow, as noted on a map from 1744. There guests and servants' rooms, kitchen and stables were housed. The stud farm of the East Frisian princes was also located on the site. A document from 1644 mentions the number of 189 horses in Ihlow.

After the Cirksena died out , East Friesland and the princes' possessions fell to King Friedrich II in 1744. The new Prussian administration first sold the agricultural inventory in 1749 and had the furnishings of the hunting lodge transported to Berlin to be auctioned there. In 1756 Peter Janssen Haneborger bought the hunting lodge with permission to tear it down, which he did in 1763. Haneborger built a garden house ( hunter's apartment ) in Ihlow for this. In 1797 the owners of the garden house were given the concession to “hold a wine and café bar for the Aurich and Emden public who traveled to Ihlow for pleasure”. The area of ​​the monastery desert was then used for agriculture. In 1804 the first forester's house stood on the area, a predecessor of the current building.

After the battle of Jena and Auerstedt in 1806, East Friesland was incorporated into the Kingdom of Holland and thus into the French sphere of influence. In 1810, the Ems-Orientale (Osterems) department became part of the French Empire. The new rulers had the Ihlower forest plundered from 1811 in order to win trees for the construction of "Napoleonschanzen" on the islands. A total of 45 carts with 130 harnessed horses drove more than 2000 oaks to Dornumersiel during this time. It is no longer possible to determine whether the avenue of lime trees was also damaged. The age of today's trees suggests that.

At the end of the 20th century, the forester's house was extensively renovated and has since been used as a seminar room, café and exhibition room on the history of the monastery.

Archaeological rediscovery

Archaeological excavations in 2007

Landscape councilor Harm Wiemann suggested in 1970 that the former Cistercian monastery Ihlow should be investigated because of its importance for the historical development of East Frisia. As a result, the first excavations on the desert began in 1973 under the leadership of Wolfgang Schwarz. Until then, it was only known that the monastery was once located in the clearing, but not the location of the monastery church. The archaeologists discovered a building dating back to the time of the monastery in two small search cuts, which apparently served as a forge. At the initiative of the municipality of Ihlow, the East Frisian landscape began further test excavations in Ihlow in August 1977. The aim was to determine the location of the monastery church. This could be proven with the discovery of part of the choir arch with adjoining pillar foundation as well as part of the foundations of a row of pillars in the west. During the following excavations between 1983 and 1985, the scientists gradually determined the floor plan of the brick church. The aim of the 1990 campaign was to search for stratified woods in order to be able to examine the building history of the monastery church on the basis of dendrochronological data.

The investigation of the cloister building began in 1989 and was continued in several excavations until 2008. A geophysical prospecting of a 6.4 hectare part of the desert carried out in 2005 revealed numerous structures that suggest extensive construction activities. In 2003 and 2004, the East Frisian Landscape carried out excavations in the area of ​​the former hunting lodge.

Economic activity

Ihlow Monastery - fish pond

The basis of the successful economic activity was the property of the monastery. In the course of its existence, the Ihlow monastery had 368 hectares of land in use and thus an important part of the colonization of the southern Aurich country. Wills show a close relationship with the sovereigns of the tom Broks, who as secular donors may have brought the monastery financial support and political wealth and recognition. As a result, the monastery received rich donations, donations and property transfers from individual members of the count's house , from leading representatives of the local knighthood and a number of citizens. Ihlow subsequently developed into one of the largest and most economically powerful East Frisian abbeys and assumed a dominant position.

The convent had large ocean areas . These concentrated on areas around the Krumme Tief and the later Fehntjer Tief. In order to manage its properties, the monastery maintained grangien, farms and farms. Such are proven in Mönnikeborgum , in Riepster Hammrich , on the Leybucht , in Simonswolde , Timmel and Victorbur as well as further away in Ostergroden near Dornum . The monastery also had free float in Hinte , Logum , Marienwehr , Uphusen and Uttum .

The city of Emden, which can be easily reached by water, was of particular importance to the monastery. There it maintained a town house through which it maintained close economic relationships. The citizens of Emden also gave the monastery benefits in cash and in kind.

The monks farmed and raised livestock in the vast areas. The monks also cultivated the forest and created a clearing and several ponds for fish farming in the immediate vicinity of the monastery. The monks soon became an economic role model. Due to its good network with the other Cistercian houses, the monastery became a model business, through which new agricultural and economic technologies found their way into East Friesland, be it in the reclamation of the swamps, the installation of mills , the cultivation of grain or in arable farming and livestock . This work was carried out less by the choir monks than by the conversers , the lay brothers with reduced prayer duties, or by employed workers. The monks followed the principle from the Benedictine tradition, Ora et labora . Praying (“ora”) was done by the monks, work (“labora”) by conversers and wage workers. From the Cistercian monastery Ihlow new techniques and methods spread in agriculture, hydraulic engineering, construction and craft.

In addition, it played a major role in the recovery of land that had been lost due to the collapse of the Leybucht . From 1517 the Abbot von Ihlow was one of the functionaries of the Oberemsische Sielacht , proof of the great economic importance of the monastery. The abbot was one of two sluice judges who provided the Auricher Land for that south-western part of its area that drained through the Oldersumer Sluice .

Building history

Ideal plan of a Cistercian monastery
Reconstructed floor plan of the church and enclosure of the Ihlow Monastery, as it was in the 15th / 16th centuries. Century

Large parts of the former Ihlow Monastery are still unsafe or unknown in terms of architectural history. So far it is unclear where the first wooden church was and what the interior of the brick basilica looked like. Construction activity is assumed from 1230 to the early 14th century. It is believed that Ihlow was built according to the specifications of the ideal plan of a Cistercian monastery. This envisaged the establishment of monasteries in remote areas, in which the monks could not be disturbed by outside influences in the exercise of their way of life.

Large areas of the former desert have not been the subject of excavations to date. The investigations by the Archaeological Service of the East Frisian Landscape concentrated on the monastery church and part of the enclosure, so that the floor plan of the abbey and the east and west wings are known. On the other hand, the development in the area of ​​the south wing of the enclosure is still unclear.

After the secularization , the East Frisian counts had the monastery buildings demolished, so that today there are no longer any remains of the wall. The architectural history of the monastery is therefore largely examined using archeological methods. In Ihlow, the monks intervened heavily in the landscape to prepare the building site for the monastery. The clearing on which the monastery was built has a size of nine hectares and was made up of various buildings. In the center there was a small natural hill in the otherwise rather low-lying and damp terrain. The monks increased this by filling it up in order to erect temporary buildings. A rerouted brook served the monastery for sewerage purposes.

First buildings in Ihlow

With the introduction of the first abbot in Ihlow in 1230 there must have been a basic inventory of buildings that made monastic life possible. After the results of the excavations, the monks first raised a small natural hill in the otherwise rather damp area and erected a building around eleven meters wide and 22 meters long on it. Its north-south orientation precludes its use as a chapel. Since the relics of this building were under what will later be the east wing, it is probably the first dormitory . For its construction, the Cistercians used the up to this point in time completely untypical technique of swelling frame construction, which was based on the experience of the order with stone buildings.

A first, wooden oratory was possibly in the southwest of the monastery church (and thus outside of the previous excavations), as the hill rose towards it. In the immediate vicinity of this presumed building there was a cemetery in the crossing of the later monastery church during the early days of the monastery, where the graves were covered with oak planks. Occupancy began around 1234.

Construction of the monastery church

Model of the monastery church

It is unclear when the foundation stone for the stone monastery church was laid. Its construction can only have begun after the youngest grave was occupied, because the first cemetery was built over by the brick church and some graves were destroyed in the process. Since the last burials in the first cemetery of the monastery took place around or after 1270 according to dendrochronological analyzes , the construction of the basilica began with great certainty at the end of the 13th century. The ground on which the church was to be built was still uneven, for the most part deep and therefore damp. First, the Cistercians felled trees on the edge of the existing hill and piled it up massively to create enough space for the brick basilica. The craftsmen then dug foundation trenches, the deeper layers of which they filled with sand, leveled and solidified in order to create a stable foundation for the foundation. These measures should prevent a basic break . A foundation directly on the bed was out of the question, as the foundations would then have been partially in the groundwater. In analogy to the church of Chorin Monastery , which was built around the same time, the construction time was around 25 to 30 years, so that construction in Ihlow was probably completed around 1300.

The building was erected in one go without any major interruptions. First the Cistercians erected the eastern part of the building. The construction work began in the crossing area with the apse arch. The longship was then built in a west-east direction and the transept in a south-north direction. After its completion, the Romano-Gothic basilica with a width of 33.80 meters in the transept and 23.50 meters in the nave and a length of 68 meters was the second largest church between for several centuries after the Marienkirche in the nearby Marienhafe Groningen and Bremen. The church was a cruciform, three-aisled vaulted basilica with a double transept and a polygonal choir. To the west of the actual transept was a smaller so-called stub transept. The walls were not plastered inside. This strict sobriety corresponded to the Cistercian ideal and was intended to ensure that the visitors to the church could concentrate fully on their prayer. Only on the columns and pillars were the walls interspersed with strips of brown and green glazed bricks and shaped stones. In the area reserved for the monks, the choir and the crossing, the floor was adorned with glazed and two-tone (yellow-red) floor tiles. Only a small remnant of diagonally laid, large-format brick slabs (21 × 21 × 6 cm) set in sand remained from the former church floor of the nave. In the middle of the choir, archaeologists discovered in 1977 and 1983 a rectangular pit about 5 meters long and 2.20 meters wide, filled with yellow sand. This could be the foundation of the main altar. On the other hand, no traces of the formerly existing side altars have been found to date. Ornate glass, with which the windows were once decorated, was hardly found in the excavations. In the north transept there was a well with a wall made of peat sod. There is evidence that this was only created after the church was built and could have served as a holy water supplier. There was no church tower in Ihlow - as is usual with the Cistercians. Instead, the church had a roof turret to hold a small bell.

Other buildings in monastic times

Model of the monastery

Overall, the trapezoidal immunity area was between 250 and 300 meters long and 300 meters wide. It was surrounded by a double wall and ditches. So far, little is known about the appearance and development of the area. Farm buildings such as stables, storage, bakery and brewery are to be expected there. To the east and north of the church, the monks created a new monastery cemetery.

The cloister buildings connected at right angles to the south side of the church building and were grouped around an inner courtyard. In this area, the archaeologists identified several construction phases, in which some radical changes were made to the design of the enclosure. The cloister was built in three phases. The first one was built by the Cistercians around 1300 out of wood right next to the brick church. This was followed by the timber construction of the first west wing. The second brick building after the monastery church was in the area of ​​the later east wing. The building was at least 3.60 meters and a maximum of 5.80 meters wide. Inside the building, three clay floors demonstrate the intensive use. Under the screed it was insulated with peat sod, an insulation of which no comparable findings are known in East Frisia. A first brick cloister was built in the 14th century. Its floor was covered with square, undecorated brick slabs. At this time, the Cistercians also had the wooden west wing replaced with brick buildings, the east wing rebuilt and additional buildings built inside and outside the enclosure. During excavations, the use of the building wings in the sense of the Cistercian ideal plan could be proven. Remnants of air heating show a calefactorium (= warm room) in the east wing. In Cistercian monasteries, the west wing is usually reserved for the so-called converses, the working monks. The church entrance for the working monks, their dining room and a larger storage room were located there in Ihlow. In 2007, two water points and a building with fire pits came to light in the immediate vicinity of this wing, which have an economic background. The archaeologist Bernhard Thiemann suspects that they were used for an activity that required a large amount of water, such as brewing beer. He also considers the production of malt (roasting of crushed, germinated grain) to be conceivable. In the 15th century, the cloister and west wing were torn down again and replaced by a new building.

A large part of the nine hectare clearing on which the monastery was built, however, has not yet been archaeologically examined. The results of a geomagnetic prospecting suggest that it was passed with different buildings. Especially in the southern half of the clearing there were numerous anomalies that suggest a dense development. The function of these buildings is still unclear.

Demolition of the basilica and construction of subsequent buildings

The monastery area on the map of the master builder August Fuchs from 1744.
A: The castle
B: The manorial kitchen, hunter's apartment and apartments
C: The domain administrator's apartment, horse stable and servants' rooms
D: Barn

After the secularization , Count Johann ordered the demolition of the monastery church. To do this, he had the foundations deliberately undermined so that almost all of the walls fell to the north. Only the east wall of the church, the most south-westerly pillar of the nave and the east flank of the choir top fell to the east. In this way, damage to the southern enclosure buildings, for which further use was planned, should be avoided. The count had the west wing extended over the foundations of the former abbey and a hunting lodge built on the site of the desert, which has not yet been discovered. The east wing was also preserved. In 1612 Count Enno III built a hunting lodge in Ihlow. The area on which the building was built was on a natural sand hill and was demonstrably built on in the monastic period. Possibly a farm building or a separate abbot house stood there. The hunting lodge was about 13 meters long and 10 meters wide. It was 7.5 meters high and had four floors, two of which were "under the roof", as it is called in a Prussian description. During the excavations in 2004, archaeologists found the relics of a stair tower and a half-cellar-like basement, the room layout of which they were able to reconstruct. Remnants of the former floor paving were also preserved. For the construction of the castle, the craftsmen used almost exclusively material that they obtained when the monastery complex was demolished.

After the demolition of the baroque castle and the last structural remains of the monastery, the new owner of the area, Peter Janssen Haneborger, built a garden house on the foundation walls of the castle after 1763 , the appearance of which is unknown. According to modern maps, there were two farms in the southern half of the demolished church in the 18th and 19th centuries, of which only one has so far been clearly identified during excavations. In 1804 a forester's house in the form of a Gulfhof stood on the monastery site . This was about 28 meters long. It burned down in 1828 and was replaced by a new building in 1834, which was given its current appearance after 1931. At the end of the 20th century, the Ihlow community had the building extensively renovated. Since then it has housed a café, a seminar room and an exhibition room on the history of the monastery.

Art historical features

With the dissolution of the monastery during the Reformation, large parts of the furnishings were lost. Count Enno II appropriated most of the convent's possessions. In 1530 he had all the Vasa sacra , i.e. silver and gold-plated goblets, godparents, monstrances, communion jugs and other valuable items from all East Frisian monasteries handed over and then sold them. The Ihlow Altarpiece is the most important of the preserved furnishings.

The Ihlower Altar

Altar of the monastery church, open
Altar of the monastery church, closed

According to a local tradition for which there are no further sources, the convent ordered the Ihlower Altar before 1517. The art historian Hans Georg Gmelin dates the work to the year 1510. The late Gothic Antwerp reredos is 2.13 meters wide and high of 2.16 meters. It was made by the Antwerp Guild of Luke . This is indicated by fire and gouge marks on the back of the altar. There are burned hands (symbols from the Antwerp city coat of arms, which were used by the local Guild of St. Luke). The structure of the case and the elaboration of the representations also correspond to the factory of the Flemish workshops, which works in series for export.

While the weekday side shows painted panels, the holiday side is decorated with detailed carved reliefs.

When closed (the so-called weekday side) the altar shows Abraham and Melchizedek on the outside of the wings on the left and a representation of the Lord's Supper on the right. Gregory's mass is depicted on two panels in the center , to which the portraits on the two small wings on the extension, an angel with the Vera icon on the left and the floating Man of Sorrows on the right, are assigned.

On the festival side, where all wings are open, gilded and painted carved figures are visible. Depicted on the inside of the wings is the Capture and Christ before Pilate on the left and the Ascension and the Miracle of Pentecost on the right. Images of the crucifixion and the resurrection form the center of the work. On the inside of the small wings on the excerpt, Christ before Caiaphas is depicted on the left and the apparition of the risen Christ to Mary Magdalene on the right. In the lower register, from left to right, the Annunciation and the Visitation can be seen, in the slightly raised center the Lamentation and on the right the birth and circumcision of Christ.

After the Reformation, Count Enno II had the altar set up in the chapel of the Aurich Castle . About 100 years later Count Ulrich II. (1628–1648) donated the altar to the Aurich Lambertikirche , in which it has stood since then.

Floor tiles

Ihlow Monastery - Floor tile found during excavations

The Ihlower tiles are considered to be the most important find complex of medieval floor tiles in Northern Germany. The strict lifestyle of the Cistercians was reflected in their simple buildings. The buildings should be sober and without ornamentation, without jewelry and gold. All parts of the monastery complex were rationally designed buildings that only serve their purpose and should not appear ostentatious. In 1218 the General Chapter, the highest authority in the strict centralized leadership structure of the order, banned colorful church floors. Nevertheless, there were floor tiles in the Ihlower monastery church in the area of ​​the crossing and the choir , which were replaced about every 60 years. They were decorated with geometric patterns, but also with figurative representations. Most of these were animal representations and mythical creatures, which probably go back to the Physiologus , an early Christian doctrine of nature about plants, animals and mythical creatures. The oldest tiles are provided exclusively with plant motifs, as depictions of humans and animals were forbidden in the early years of the monastery.

Saint Christopher and Saint Margaret

Christophorus figure
Statuette of St. Margaret

The four centimeter tall figure of St. Christopher with the baby Jesus on his shoulder is a unique find for north-west Germany and beyond. Archaeologists discovered the ferryman's amulet made of gold-plated silver during excavations in 2004 in one of the graves in the area of ​​the former Ihlower monastery church. There it was on the left forearm of the buried woman, who was around 50 to 55 years old and probably a member of the Frisian upper class. The head of the excavation, Marion Brüggler, dates the finely crafted amulet iconographically to the late 15th century. On the back of the amulet there were two eyelets with which it could be attached to clothing. However, one of them had already broken out at the time of use. According to medieval popular belief, the sight of the saint protected against a sudden, unprepared death - that is, a death without the sacraments - on the respective day.

The clay statuette of St. Margaret of Antioch was found without a head in the area of ​​the enclosure. Figures of saints made of clay were extremely popular in the Middle Ages and were mass-produced in very different quality. The Ihlower specimen is very carefully made and, according to its style, should be a Lower Rhine work of the late 15th century. The small female figure with remnants of a gold leaf application stands on a kite. In her right hand she holds a cross pressed against her chest. Margareta was of great importance as the patron saint of agriculture during the Middle Ages and was called upon for help even with difficult births.

The organ

The organ is mentioned for the first time in connection with the dissolution of the monastery when it came to the Aurich Lambertikirche. It is said that in 1529 the first "organ in the Aurich church (without the Rückpositiv, which was added some time ago [1675]) came from the Closter Ihlo". The instrument by an unknown maker had eight registers , which were divided between the main work, breastwork and pedal . Around 1500, numerous East Frisian monasteries and churches were equipped with an organ that had a Dutch influence. Master Harmannus from Groningen created the organ in Rysum in 1457 . In Emden around 1480 Master Hinrick and around 1520 Petrus von Emden as organ builders are tangible. These late Gothic instruments were block works with wing doors on the side and thick, hammered lead pipes, the rows of which could not be played separately but only as a whole. In Aurich, Joachim Kayser added a Rückpositiv to the monastery organ in 1675 , but it often had to be repaired. Eventually, between 1755 and 1760, the instrument was replaced by Johann Friedrich Constabel and Ernst Berner with a new structure with 27 registers.

Archaeological Park Ihlow Abbey

General view of the Archaeological Park

In 1986, participants in an ABM project laid out the course of the walls and the floor plans of the pillars with bricks. For the first time, it was also possible for the population to get an idea of ​​the shape and size of the monastery church on the spot. A year later, a new monastery garden was created in the area of ​​the former enclosure.

In 2000, on the initiative of the historian Bernhard Buttjer, plans began in the municipality of Ihlow for an archaeological park on the site of the former Cistercian abbey. Construction work on the three million euro project lasted from 2005 to 2009. Numerous state, church and private institutions and foundations financed the project; a large steel producer provided almost 300 tons of steel. Lower Saxony's then Prime Minister Christian Wulff , the former Hanoverian State Bishop Margot Käßmann and the Catholic Bishop of Osnabrück, Franz-Josef Bode , inaugurated the park in front of around 1500 visitors in November 2009. In addition to the imagination of the monastery church, the archaeological park includes a room to search for traces , the room of silence , the monastery garden, the reconstructed linden tree avenue and the forester's house, which houses a café, seminar and other exhibition rooms. The park is run by the "Klosterverein Ihlow". Cooperation partners are the parish of Ihlow and the Evangelical Lutheran church district of Aurich.

Land-Art-Projekt Geschichte und Küren

History and freedoms

The installation Geschichte und Küren above the access path to the monastery in Ihlower Forst is the work of the artist Monika Kühling from Funnix. With the help of ribbons, flags, banners and cloths in the colors of the East Frisian flag, the Land Art project represents the Basic Law of Frisian Freedom, the Seventeen Common Frisian Freies . The work of art is intended to bridge the gap between the independence of the Frisians and the motto of the Cistercian monks Symbolize “ora et labora” (pray and work) .

Reconstruction of the monastery church

The centerpiece of the complex is the nationwide only imagination of a church in original size, developed by the Danish architect Finn Larsen. Steel and wood reproduce the pillars, the vault and the roof turret in the area of ​​the apse and the left transept. Overall, the imagination at the top of the roof ridge reaches a height of almost 45 meters. Below the roof ridge there is a viewing platform at a height of around thirty meters. In the roof turret itself hangs a bell that four boys found in the Watt near Wilhelmshaven after the war. It is not known where the 120 kilogram bell originally came from. Their inscription, "UT UNUM SINT" (so that they may be one) goes back to the Gospel of John ( Jn 17:21  VUL ). The ceiling height of the reconstruction, which in its Romano-Gothic style is closely based on the original, is around 25 meters. The approximately one meter thick outer walls of the former brick church are modeled on mats made of steel mesh overgrown with ivy. In the nave, about two meter high replicas of the former pillars were created, in each of which a brick of the most important former monastery complex in East Frisia was built.

Tracing room

Under the former apse and the choir, the Society of Friends of the Monastery and the Aurich church district set up the semi-underground “Room for Searching for Traces”. The 500 square meter level extends like a crypt below the reconstruction, but is not a preserved space, but was built as a concrete cube as part of the construction work for the archaeological park. The “room in search of traces” is located about one and a half meters below the floor level of the former abbey. There you can see an exhibition on the history of the monastery as well as the exposed wall foundation remains and graves. For the presentation of the exhibits, the initiators hired the exhibition organizer Holger von Neuhoff, who designed the very successful " Titanic " exhibition in Hamburg's Speicherstadt in 1997 . Christopher von Deylen from Berlin composed the sound installation in the room for the search for traces.

The new Ihlower Altar

Possible fragment of an altar panel
The new Ihlower Altar

Below the former sanctuary , where the medieval reredos once stood, is a new altar created by Gunther Gerlach . The sculptor from Bremen won an artist competition in 2006 with his design. The altar consists of a top-shaped table made of many layers of glued beech wood, which is supported by a bronze sculpture. This is modeled on the fragment of a stone slab with a consecration cross that archaeologists discovered during excavations in Ihlow. The consecration cross engraved on it indicates that it is the corner of an earlier altar plate.

The many layers of wood symbolize historical epochs that connect, support and build on each other. According to the sculptor, the bronze sculpture stands “for the old [that] always supports the new” . According to him, the new Ihlow Altar should be understood as "part of a complete form, of a whole, like the not yet finished Ihlow Monastery". It stands in the middle of a round surface made of Solnhofen sandstone, around which a ring made of turquoise-blue painted glass is drawn into the floor. This should represent the stream of endless flow. The altar is illuminated by daylight that falls through a glass dome into the semi-underground space.

On November 29, 2007, the Lutheran state superintendent of East Friesland, Detlef Klahr , officially used the altar. Since then, there have been regular devotions in Ihlow.

Monastery garden

The monastery garden laid out in 1987 lay fallow again after a short time. Since 2001 the monastery garden women , an association of members of the monastery association and colleagues from the Ihlower Hermann Tempel comprehensive school, have been maintaining the approximately 200 square meter area. It is based on the architectural design of medieval cloisters in the shape of a cross. The basis for this was the St. Gallen monastery plan , a medieval architectural drawing of an ideal monastery district from the early 9th century (not before 826). A total of around 200 plants are grown. The selection of the plants in the medicinal plant area is based on the writings of Hildegard von Bingen , that of the plants in the kitchen garden on the Capitulare de villis vel curtis imperii of Charlemagne . The Mariengarten is dedicated to the patron saint of the monastery. The so-called Marian plants such as roses, lilies and the Marian flower grow in it. The witch garden is supposed to commemorate the women who were executed on a stake in 1543 in nearby Riepe after a witch trial . Herbs that were used in gynecology in the Middle Ages or plants that played a role in popular superstition, such as nightshade , mandrake and henbane, are grown .

The historic lime tree avenue

The Lindenallee is first shown on Fuchs's map from 1744. It is considered to be the only surviving example of princely garden culture in East Frisia. Following the nature conservation concept of the time, the forestry department let the avenue run wild in the 20th century until it had to be completely closed for safety reasons. On the initiative of the monastery association, the Lower Nature Conservation Authority of the district of Aurich approved in September 2004 an application from the municipality of Ihlow to restore the linden alley and the western monastery moat. Until 2011, members restored the natural monument. They replanted missing linden trees on the avenue that was preserved and, following the historical guidelines, extended it by 80 meters in the direction of the forest house garden. The total cost of the project, financed by the Irma Waalkes Foundation and the Ihlow Monastery Association, was around 20,000 euros.

Regular events

The reconstruction of the monastery church illuminated for the Ihlower Lüchtermarkt

Guided tours of the monastery take place regularly on Sundays until November. The week-end prayer at the new Ihlower Altar in the room of the search for traces was offered for the first time in the Advent season 2009 at the monastery Ihlow. Since April 2010, an ecumenical working group of eleven people has led the devotions alternately on Friday after the evening bell at 6 p.m. In addition to the psalms, the liturgy includes a prayer specially written for the room in search of traces, which gives the week-end prayer its name. The Ihlower Klostertage is a handicraft market with an attached garden fair. They take place every year in mid-June. The event emerged from a monastery garden festival. The Ihlower Lüchtermarkt celebrated its premiere on the 1st of Advent 2007. Since then, thousands of visitors have come to the Christmas market every year, at the center of which is the illuminated monastery church imagination. The East Frisian Monastery Day has a more scientific character . It was carried out for the first time in October 2012 on the initiative of the Ihlow Monastery Association and is to be offered on a regular basis. The aim is to exchange ideas between the various monastery associations and associations in the region. A joint monastery website is planned as well as the creation of a monastery route.

literature

Overall representations

  • Marion Brüggler and Rolf Bärenfänger (eds.): Ihlow - archaeological, historical and scientific research on a former Cistercian monastery in East Friesland . Publishing house Marie Leidorf, Rahden / Westf. 2012, ISBN 3-89646-936-3 .
  • Bernhard Buttjer; Martin Stromann: Where the monks once lived: The Ihlow monastery, a forest and twelve villages . Verlag SKN, Norden (Ostfriesland) 2009, ISBN 3-939870-22-6 .
  • Hajo van Lengen: History and meaning of the Cistercian monastery Ihlow . In: College of the East Frisian Landscape (ed.): Res Frisicae. Harm Wiemann on his 75th birthday (= treatises and lectures on the history of East Frisia, Volume 59). Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 1978, without ISBN, pp. 86-101.
  • Herbert Reyer: Ihlow . 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 2, Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 3-89534-958-5 , pp. 850-853.
  • Hemmo Suur: History of the former monasteries in the province of East Friesland: An attempt . Hahn, Emden 1838, pp. 40 ff. (Reprint of the edition from 1838, Verlag Martin Sendet, Niederwalluf 1971, ISBN 3-500-23690-1 ).

archeology

altar

  • Jost Galle, Brigitte Junge, Franz Traxler, Gerhard Wittkugel (eds.): Passion and Propaganda. East Frisian altarpieces in religion and art. Aurich 2002 (72 pages).
  • Herbert R. Marwede: Pre-Reformation altars in East Friesland (PDF; 1.3 MB). Hamburg 2007.

Web links

Commons : Ihlow Monastery  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dissertation by Herbert R. Marwede: Pre-Reformation Altars in East Friesland (PDF; 1.3 MB). Hamburg 2007, p. 79, accessed on October 22, 2011.
  2. ^ Karl-Ernst Behre, Hajo van Lengen: Ostfriesland. History and shape of a cultural landscape . Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 1995, ISBN 3-925365-85-0 , p. 241.
  3. ^ A b c d Wolfgang Schwarz: District Aurich, Ihlow (EG), Ludwigsdorf (Gmk). Trial excavation on the site of the former Cistercian monastery Ihlow , viewed on October 27, 2012.
  4. ↑ a b c d Bernhard Thiemann: From the beginning in the care of the order. Findings on the founding of the Cistercian monastery Ihlow, Aurich district, East Friesland ( Memento of the original from February 22, 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. (PDF; 2.6 MB) p. 1. In: Bulletin of the German Society for Archeology of the Middle Ages and Modern Times Volume 24, 2012, viewed on October 22, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dgamn.de
  5. ^ Winfried Schich: Economy and cultural landscape. Collected contributions from 1977 to 1999 on the history of the Cistercians and Germania Slavica . Berlin 2007, ISBN 3-8305-0378-4 , p. 137.
  6. ^ Ulrich Knefelkamp, ​​M. Stolpe: Cistercians: Norm, culture, reform - 900 years of the Cistercians. 2001, ISBN 3-540-64816-X , p. 52.
  7. ^ A b Hajo van Lengen: History and meaning of the Cistercian monastery Ihlow. In: Res Frisicae (= treatises and lectures on the history of East Frisia, 59). 1978, p. 88.
  8. ^ Ulrich Knefelkamp, ​​M. Stolpe: Cistercians: Norm, culture, reform - 900 years of the Cistercians . 2001, ISBN 3-540-64816-X , p. 53.
  9. ↑ a b c d e Hajo van Lengen and Wolfgang Schwarz: District Aurich, Ihlow (EG), Ludwigsdorf (Gmk). Trial excavation on the site of the Cistercian monastery Ihlow , viewed on October 27, 2012.
  10. ^ Excavation reports of the East Frisian landscape: Ludwigsdorf, Ihlow municipality, Aurich district, FSt 2510/9: 15 Cistercian monastery Ihlow , viewed on October 27, 2012.
  11. ^ Ulrich Knefelkamp, ​​M. Stolpe: Cistercians: Norm, culture, reform - 900 years of the Cistercians . 2001, ISBN 3-540-64816-X , p. 53.
  12. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Herbert Reyer: Ihlow . 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 2, Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 3-89534-958-5 , pp. 850-853.
  13. ↑ a b c d e f g h Marion Brüggler: Results of the excavations in the Cistercian monastery Ihlow 1973-2005 . In: Rolf Bärenfänger (Ed.): Cistercians in the north - new research on monastery archeology. International Archeology - Working Group, Conference, Symposium, Congress 11 . Rahden / Westf. 2007, ISBN 3-89646-439-6 , pp. 77-87.
  14. ^ A b Nicolaus Heutger: Lower Saxony religious houses and monasteries: history and present. Lectures and research . Berlin 2009, ISBN 3-86732-038-1 , p. 91.
  15. ^ Hajo van Lengen: History and meaning of the Cistercian monastery Ihlow. In: Res Frisicae (= treatises and lectures on the history of East Frisia, 59). 1978, p. 89.
  16. ↑ Harm Wiemann: Res Frisicae. Contributions to the East Frisian constitutional, social and cultural history . Aurich 1978, ISBN 3-923668-57-0 , p. 95 ( copy of the certificate ).
  17. ↑ Harm Wiemann: Res Frisicae. Contributions to the East Frisian constitutional, social and cultural history . Aurich 1978, ISBN 3-923668-57-0 , p. 96.
  18. ↑ Hajo van Lengen: Charlemagne, Virgin Mary and other saviors as guarantors and patrons Friesicher Freiheit. In: Hajo van Lengen: The Frisian freedom of the Middle Ages. Life and legend. Aurich 2003, ISBN 3-932206-30-4 , pp. 91-134, here p. 119.
  19. ↑ Wybren J. Buma, Wilhelm Ebel: Old Frisian legal sources. Texts and translations: Old Frisian legal sources II. Brokmer law. Texts and translations . Volume 2. Göttingen 1965, ISBN 3-525-18151-5 , p. 97.
  20. ^ Nicolaus Heutger: Lower Saxony religious houses and monasteries: history and present. Lectures and research . Berlin 2009, ISBN 3-86732-038-1 , p. 92.
  21. ^ A b Hajo van Lengen: History and meaning of the Cistercian monastery Ihlow . In: Res Frisicae. Contributions to the East Frisian constitutional, social and cultural history (= treatises and lectures on the history of East Frisia, 59). Aurich 1978, ISBN 3-923668-57-0 , pp. 86-101, here p. 96.
  22. ↑ Wilfried Ehbrecht: Contremuit tota terra propter iuratos, quos universitas Frisonum de more vetustissimo creavarat apat Upstellesbame. Community, state and federal government in Friesland in the 14th century. In: Hajo van Lengen: The Frisian freedom of the Middle Ages. Life and legend. Aurich 2003, ISBN 3-932206-30-4 , pp. 134-193, here p. 189.
  23. ↑ Hajo van Lengen: Charlemagne, Virgin Mary and other saviors as guarantors and patrons Friesicher Freiheit. In: Hajo van Lengen: The Frisian freedom of the Middle Ages. Life and legend. Aurich 2003, ISBN 3-932206-30-4 , pp. 91-134, here p. 120.
  24. ↑ Harald Seiler (ed.): Low German contributions to art history . Volume 8. Deutscher Kunstverlag Berlin 1969, p. 129.
  25. ^ Hemmo Suur: History of the former monasteries in the province of East Friesland: an attempt. Published by T. Hahn, 1838, p. 41.
  26. ↑ Melanie Timmermann: The Ihlower Cistercian monastery: Praying, working and healthy living in the Middle Ages! - An anthropological study (PDF; 7.1 MB). Dissertation to obtain the academic degree of Doctor of Science. Berlin 2012, p. 4.
  27. ↑ a b Marion Brüggler: The Cistercian monastery Ihlow has been the subject of archaeological research for more than 30 years ( Memento of the original dated December 8, 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. , accessed December 2, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ihlow.de
  28. ↑ Klaus Bergdolt: The Black Death. The Great Plague and the End of the Middle Ages . Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-45918-8 , p. 83.
  29. ↑ Umbringers do not sin . In: Ostfriesland-Magazin . No. 9, 1993 , accessed January 3, 2010.
  30. ^ Hajo van Lengen: History and meaning of the Cistercian monastery Ihlow. In: Res Frisicae (= treatises and lectures on the history of East Frisia, 59). 1978, p. 97.
  31. ^ A b Eggerik Beninga, Johann Beerens: Cronika der Fresen: with police regulations Countess Anna 1545 . Norderstedt 2012, ISBN 3-8448-1466-3 , p. 97.
  32. ↑ Hajo van Lengen (ed.): The Frisian freedom of the Middle Ages - life and legend . Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 2003, ISBN 3-932206-30-4 , p. 239.
  33. ^ Bernhard Buttjer; Martin Stromann: Where the monks once lived: The Ihlow monastery, a forest and twelve villages . Verlag SKN, Norden (Ostfriesland) 2009, ISBN 3-939870-22-6 , p. 74.
  34. ^ Ulrich Knefelkamp, ​​M. Stolpe: Cistercians: Norm, culture, reform - 900 years of the Cistercians . 2001, ISBN 3-540-64816-X , p. 45.
  35. ↑ a b Marion Brüggler: Excavations in the hunting lodge Ihlow ( Memento of the original from December 29, 2015 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. , accessed October 26, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ihlow.de
  36. ↑ Bernhard Buttjer, Martin Stromann: Where the monks once lived: The Ihlow monastery, a forest and twelve villages . Verlag SKN, Norden (Ostfriesland) 2009, ISBN 3-939870-22-6 , p. 80.
  37. ↑ a b Bernhard Buttjer, Martin Stromann: Where the monks once lived: The Ihlow monastery, a forest and twelve villages . Verlag SKN, Norden (Ostfriesland) 2009, ISBN 3-939870-22-6 , p. 81.
  38. ↑ Emder Zeitung of April 30, 2011: Unter den Linden am ihlower Jagdschloss .
  39. ^ Marion Brüggler: Ludwigsdorf (2004). FdStNr. 2510/9: 15-9, Ihlow parish, district Aurich , viewed on October 27, 2012.
  40. ^ Ostfriesen-Zeitung of February 14, 2009: Monastery as a park landscape .
  41. ^ Excavation reports of the East Frisian landscape: Ludwigsdorf, Ihlow municipality, Aurich district, FSt 2510/9: 15 Cistercian monastery Ihlow , viewed on October 27, 2012.
  42. ^ A b c Marion Brüggler: Ludwigsdorf (Ihlow) (2005). FdStNr. 2510/9:15, Gde.Ihlow, Ldkr.Aurich, accessed on October 24, 2012.
  43. ↑ a b Melanie Timmermann: The Ihlower Cistercian monastery: Prayer, work and a healthy life in the Middle Ages! - An anthropological study (PDF; 7.1 MB). Dissertation to obtain the academic degree of Doctor of Science. Berlin 2012, p. 3.
  44. ^ Peter Johanek: City and Cistercian convent . In: City Archives and City History, Festschrift for Fritz Mayrhofer . Linz 2004, p. 217 ff .
  45. ^ Bernhard Thiemann: From the beginning in the care of the order. Findings on the founding of the Cistercian monastery Ihlow, Aurich district, East Friesland ( Memento of the original from February 22, 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. (PDF; 2.6 MB), p. 3. In: Bulletin of the German Society for Archeology of the Middle Ages and Modern Times Volume 24 (2012), viewed on October 22, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dgamn.de
  46. ↑ a b Bernhard Thiemann: From the beginning in the care of the order. Findings on the founding of the Cistercian monastery Ihlow, Aurich district, East Friesland ( Memento of the original from February 22, 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. (PDF; 2.6 MB), p. 7. In: Bulletin of the German Society for Archeology of the Middle Ages and Modern Times Volume 24 (2012), accessed on October 22, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dgamn.de
  47. ↑ Wolfgang Schwarz: Ludwigsdorf FStNr. 2510/9:15, parish Ihlow, district Aurich Cistercian monastery. In: Ostfriesische Landschaft : Fundchronik 1990
  48. ^ Bernhard Thiemann: From the beginning in the care of the order. Findings on the founding of the Cistercian monastery Ihlow, Aurich district, East Frisia. ( Memento of the original from February 22, 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. (PDF; 2.6 MB) p. 2. In: Bulletin of the German Society for Archeology of the Middle Ages and Modern Times . Volume 24, 2012, accessed October 22, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dgamn.de
  49. ^ Excavation reports of the East Frisian landscape: 2510/9: 15 Ludwigsdorf, Ihlow community. Monastery complex of the Cistercian monastery Ihlow , viewed on October 27, 2012.
  50. ^ A b Nicolaus Heutger: Lower Saxony religious houses and monasteries: history and present. Lectures and research . Berlin 2009, ISBN 3-86732-038-1 , p. 94.
  51. ^ Marion Brüggler: Ludwigsdorf (Ihlow) (2005). FdStNr. 2510/9:15, Gde.Ihlow, Ldkr.Aurich, accessed on October 24, 2012.
  52. ↑ Ostfriesische Landschaft: Ostfriesische Findchronik 1989: Ludwigsdorf, Gemeinde Ihlow, Landkreis Aurich, FSt 2510/9:15 Cistercian monastery Ihlow , viewed on October 24, 2012.
  53. ↑ a b c Bernhard Thiemann: Ludwigsdorf (2006) FdStNr. 2510/9:15, Gde.Ihlow, Ldkr.Aurich, accessed on October 24, 2012.
  54. ↑ a b Bernhard Thiemann: Ludwigsdorf (2007) FdStNr. 2510/9:15, Gde.Ihlow, Ldkr.Aurich, accessed on October 24, 2012.
  55. ^ Bernhard Thiemann: Ludwigsdorf (2007). FdStNr. 2510/9:15, Gde.Ihlow, Ldkr.Aurich, accessed on October 27, 2012.
  56. ^ Marion Brüggler: Ludwigsdorf (Ihlow) (2005). FdStNr. 2510/9:15, Gde.Ihlow, Ldkr.Aurich, accessed on October 27, 2012.
  57. ↑ Bernhard Buttjer, Martin Stromann: Where the monks once lived: The Ihlow monastery, a forest and twelve villages . Verlag SKN, Norden (Ostfriesland) 2009, ISBN 3-939870-22-6 , p. 85.
  58. ^ Marion Brüggler: Ludwigsdorf (2004). FdStNr. 2510/9: 15-9, Ihlow parish, district Aurich , viewed on October 26, 2012.
  59. ↑ Herbert R. Marwede: Pre-Reformation altars in East Friesland (dissertation; PDF; 1.3 MB). Hamburg 2007, accessed on October 22, 2011, p. 82.
  60. ↑ a b c The Gregor's Mass. An image science database: The Ihlower Altar , viewed on October 29, 2012.
  61. ↑ Herbert R. Marwede: Pre-Reformation altars in East Friesland (dissertation; PDF; 1.3 MB). Hamburg 2007, accessed on October 22, 2011, p. 81.
  62. ↑ Eberhard Lutze, Lothar Klimek : Ostfriesland . Berlin 1967, p. 30.
  63. ↑ Dissertation by Herbert R. Marwede: Pre-Reformation Altars in East Friesland (PDF; 1.3 MB). Hamburg 2007, p. 80, accessed on October 22, 2011.
  64. ↑ a b Theo Meyer: From chiefs, pirates and whalers: A journey through time through East Frisia . Erfurt 2011, ISBN 3-86680-831-3 , p. 31.
  65. ↑ Marion Brüggler, Bernd Päffgen: Burials in Cistercian monasteries using the example of Ihlow (Schola Dei) . In: Rolf Bärenfänger (Ed.): Cistercians in the north - new research on monastery archeology. International Archeology - Working Group, Conference, Symposium, Congress 11. Rahden / Westf. 2007, ISBN 3-89646-439-6 , pp. 89-99.
  66. ^ Marion Brüggler, Ostfriesische Landschaft , excavation reports: Ludwigsdorf - Kloster Ihlow (2004) FdStNr. 2510 / 9-15, Ihlow community, district Aurich , viewed on October 23, 2012.
  67. ↑ Bernhard Thiemann: Margarete and Christopherus - two saints from the Ihlow monastery . In: Jan F. Kegler, Ostfriesische Landschaft (Ed.): Land der Entdeckungen - land van ontdekkingen 2013. The archeology of the Frisian coastal area. Soltau-Kurier Norden, Norden 2013, ISBN 3-940601-16-0 , p. 311.
  68. ↑ Christian Funck: East Frisian Chronicle . Ed .: Johann Diedrich Funck. tape 2 . Borgeest, Aurich 1784, p. 55 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  69. ↑ Ralph Nickles: Organ inventory of the Krummhörn and the city of Emden . Hauschild Verlag , Bremen 1995, ISBN 3-929902-62-1 , p. 43 .
  70. ^ Harald Vogel, Günter Lade, Nicola Borger-Keweloh: Organs in Lower Saxony . Hauschild Verlag , Bremen 1997, ISBN 3-931785-50-5 , p. 316 .
  71. ^ Excavation reports of the East Frisian landscape: Ludwigsdorf, Ihlow community. Cistercian monastery Ihlow. FSt 2510/9:15 , accessed October 27, 2012.
  72. ↑ a b c d Evangelical Church in Germany: Den of faith and chief grave. A huge steel replica of the church is being created from the remains of a monastery in Lower Saxony ( Memento of the original from January 27, 2013 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. , accessed October 27, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ekd.de
  73. ↑ Oliver Vorwald: The Ihlow project  ( 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. (PDF; 250 kB), accessed on October 29, 2012.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ihlow.de  
  74. ↑ a b Uda von der Nahmer, Bernhard Buttjer: In the footsteps of Friesian freedom in the Ihlower Forest ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 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. , here quoted from the website of the development and service company Ihlow mbH , viewed on November 3, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ihlow-tourismus.de
  75. ↑ The wording can be read from Rainer Driever: The Common Frisian Seventeen Kuren (PDF; 88 kB), accessed on November 3, 2012.
  76. ↑ Kloster-Ihlow.de: Imagination , accessed on October 29, 2012.
  77. ↑ Kloster-Ihlow.de: Room of the search for traces. The exhibition , viewed on October 29, 2012.
  78. ↑ Emder Zeitung of March 15, 2009: Altar consecrated in the “Room of the Search for Traces” (PDF; 738 kB), viewed on October 29, 2012.
  79. ↑ Kloster-Ihlow.de: monastery garden . Accessed October 29, 2012.
  80. ↑ EWE Foundation: Klosterstätte Ihlow ( Memento of the original from December 24, 2015 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. , accessed October 27, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ewe-stiftung.de
  81. ↑ Marian plants: Symbolically referring to the Mother of God, mostly red, white or blue plants such as arnica , (white) lily , iris , (red) rose , peony , columbine , violet , lily of the valley , strawberry , daisy , feverfew , jasmine , myrtle and others . Christina Becela-Deller: Ruta graveolens L. A medicinal plant in art and cultural-historical importance (=  Würzburg medical-historical research, volume 65; mathematical and scientific dissertation Würzburg 1994). Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1998, ISBN 3-8260-1667-X , pp. 185, 188, 194.
  82. ↑ Irma Waalkes Foundation: Monastery as a park landscape , viewed on October 29, 2012.
  83. ↑ Emder Zeitung of April 30, 2011: Historic lime tree avenue restored .
  84. ↑ Ihlow parish: Regular weekly closing prayer at the monastery Ihlow near Aurich begins ( memento of the original from December 8, 2015 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. , accessed November 3, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ihlow.de
  85. ↑ Emder Zeitung of December 5, 2008: Spiritual matters at the monastery in Ihlow , viewed on November 5, 2012.
  86. ↑ Ostfriesen-Zeitung of October 28, 2012: “We can support one another” , viewed on November 7, 2012.