Möllenbeck Monastery

Möllenbeck Monastery, view from the west

Möllenbeck Monastery, view from the southwest

The former Möllenbeck Monastery (also Möllenbeck Monastery ) in Möllenbeck in the Weser floodplains near Rinteln in Lower Saxony is one of the most important architectural monuments in the Weser Uplands of Lower Saxony.

It was built between 1478 and 1505 on the site of a previous building that had previously burned down in the late Gothic style and is considered to be one of the best preserved late medieval monasteries in Germany. Only the round towers and the crypt remain from the Ottonian period .

The Lower Saxony State Office for the Preservation of Monuments describes the cultural and historical significance as follows: "In their overall complex, the cloister buildings are among the most extensive and best-preserved monastery complexes of the late Middle Ages in Germany."

history

Monastery church Möllenbeck

Monastery church Möllenbeck

Cloister of the monastery

Monastery church Möllenbeck

The monastery was founded in 896 by the noble free Hildburg as a canonical monastery and equipped with seven own churches . Bishop Drogo von Minden provided material support to the monastery. Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia confirmed the founding on August 13, 896. The document about it is the oldest known document in the Schaumburg region and is in the Bückeburg State Archives . This makes Möllenbeck one of the oldest monasteries in the Weser Valley. Bailiffs were temporarily the Counts of Sternberg .

After a heyday in the High Middle Ages, the monastery, like so many others, fell into disrepair more and more in the 15th century due to the effects of war, personal conflicts, waste, mismanagement, loss of goods and a decline in morals and discipline. It was then dissolved in 1441 and transferred to the male order of the Augustinian Canons, whose northern German branches were reformed at that time under the guidance of the Augustinian prior and monastery reformer Johannes Busch in the spirit of the Windesheim congregation . The canons also tried successfully to restore the monastery property, but suffered a catastrophe in 1474: the entire complex, including the extensive library, was destroyed in a major fire; only the crypt and the Ottonian round towers, which still shape the exterior of the building complex today, have been preserved. Between 1478 and 1505 the church, cloister and enclosure were rebuilt.

After the official introduction of the Reformation in the county of Schaumburg in 1558, the prior of the monastery, Hermann Wenig, and the entire convent converted to Lutheranism. In the now Protestant canonic monastery, a consciously Protestant monastery life flourished until the end of the Thirty Years War . The monastic order, the religious clothing and the choir prayer (now with German singing) were expressly retained ; the fair was held in the form of the Deutsche Messe . A Latin theological school was opened to train good pastors and preachers . One of the most important teachers at the school was the subprior Conrad Hoyer , who in addition to several theological works, such as B. Catechism interpretations , published in 1623 in the Rinteln university press under the title De fundatione Monasterii Mollenbeccensis an apology of evangelical religious life.

It was not until the end of the Thirty Years War, with the division of the Grafschaft Schaumburg in 1640 after the death of the last Count Otto V and the incorporation of its southern part into the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel , that the monastery was dissolved and the entire property was converted into a Hessian state domain . The last Protestant canon in Möllenbeck, the monastery preacher Father Petrus Grener, died in 1675.

During the Napoleonic occupation, when French troops used the church as a barn and storage room, the valuable furnishings were auctioned, so that today the architectural harmony of the complex with its roofing made of Weser sandstone (Solling slabs) is primarily of art historical importance. It was not until 1836, when the church was rededicated to the Protestant parish church of the municipality of Möllenbeck, that it received its current furnishings in neo-Gothic style.

investment

From the foundation building from Carolingian times, only remains can be found in the area of ​​the apse foundations . In the 10th century a much larger, three-aisled church was built, a cruciform basilica about 60 meters long . Its original shape could be proven during an excavation by the uncovering of foundations, which Klessmann published in 1952. Only the two round towers and the crypt remain from her. A massive, ascetically simple sarcophagus from around 900 was found in the crypt , which presumably contains the remains of the monastery donor Hildburg; a Romanesque Tumba fragment with fine figurative work could be assigned to this grave (today walled in at the entrance of the church).

The current three-aisled hall church dates from 1478 to 1505; it has a choir with a large sacristy annex . The newly built enclosure building at the same time is a two-story, three-wing complex with a basement and the church to form a mighty square assembly. The outer walls are structured by regularly lined up rectangular windows and only interrupted by risalits on the north side of the east and west facades . The cloister is integrated into the ground floor and, like the cellar, is spanned by groin vaults. The rooms are furnished with rich late Gothic wall and ceiling paintings, carved tracery on the beams, delicate spiral stairs and scrollwork decoration . The preserved stucco remains on the ceilings contain ornamentation of the early Renaissance . Also of interest are the stonemason's marks from the construction period that are visible in many places on the southern outer wall of the nave .

The west gable, facades, the roof and the winter refectory were renovated in several construction phases from 1995 with the help of the German Foundation for Monument Protection .

organ

The organ of the monastery church was built in 1844, probably by the organ builder Christian Wilhelm Möhling (Rinteln). In 1909 the organ builder Friedrich Klassmeier (Kirchheide) built a new organ, reusing old pipe material. The instrument has 20 stops on two manuals and a pedal. In 2013/14, organ builder Henrik Ahrend carried out a restoration that returned the instrument to its original condition. The original system with the main unit, upper unit and pedal unit (on both sides) was reconstructed as a mechanical slider-door organ. The two manuals have again received a sounding brochure. The wooden principal bass in the pedals was restored by Möhling. For most of the manual registers, original pipes were still found in the inventory of the Klassmeyer organ. From this it could be deduced, among other things, that the mixture in the main work contained a third chorus in the treble. Two original Möhling keyboards could be reused for the reconstruction of the play area. Three vacant spaces were also provided for during the restoration. From the original organ files it emerged that there were very different views of the experts when the organ was built. A disposition with up to 24 registers was set up, but this could not be implemented due to insufficient funds. Möhling had to provide the huge west wall of the church with an organ prospect with very modest means. In 2017, Hendrik Ahrend added the three voices planned in the first construction phase to the organ: violin principal 8 'and mixture 3-fold in the upper section, trumpet 8' in the main section. The organ project could thus be completed. After the restoration by the Ahrend organ building workshop, the Möhling organ is once again one of the most beautiful monument organs. The restoration of the Möhling organ was largely supported by funding from the European Union.

Restoration / reconstruction of the case and the color version by Dietrich Wellmer 2013/14.

Todays use

Today the monastery is owned by the Evangelical Reformed Church . It is used in a variety of ways by the local community and made accessible to a broader public. Once a year the Irish Folk Festival takes place here in the Möllenbeck Monastery and the youth rock concert Möllenbeck rocks! instead, which is organized on a voluntary basis by some community members.

Other events include the sunflower festival (annually in autumn) and various concerts.

Guided tours take place between Easter and the end of October by appointment or on the second Sunday of each month at 11:00 a.m.

literature

• Dieter Brosius : Möllenbeck. 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 3, Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 978-3-89534-959-1 , pp. 1059-1065.
• Ernst Andreas Friedrich : The collegiate church in Möllenbeck. In: If stones could talk. Volume IV, Landbuch-Verlag, Hannover 1998, ISBN 3-7842-0558-5 , pp. 55-57.
• Nicolaus Heutger : Möllenbeck - a Protestant monastery. In: Quatember . Lutherisches Verlagshaus Hannover, Hannover 1955, pp. 159–160.
• Nicolaus Heutger: On the history of the Möllenbeck monastery in the Minden diocese. In: Communications from the Minden History and Museum Association. Volume 39, 1967, pp. 37-44.
• Nicolaus Heutger: The Möllenbeck Abbey on the Weser. Kanonissenstift, Windesheimer Chorherrenstift, Evangelisches Stift. 2nd Edition. Hildesheim 1987, ISBN 3-7848-4012-4 .
• Georg Kerst: Möllenbeck Monastery near Rinteln ad Weser. Brief overview of history, presented in a popular way. Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1949.
• Rüdiger Klessmann : The building history of the collegiate church in Möllenbeck on the Weser and the development of the western group of three towers. Dissertation . (= Göttingen studies on art history. 1). Goettingen 1952.
• Rüdiger Klessmann: Möllenbeck Monastery. (= Small art guide for Lower Saxony . Issue 6). 4th edition. Goettingen 1989, OCLC 846318684 .
• Johann Conrad Paulus: History of the Möllenbeck Monastery from its first foundation to the present day. Rinteln 1784 ( E-copy ).

Web links

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

• Möllenbeck Monastery, at the German Foundation for Monument Protection
• Document registers from the archive of the Möllenbeck Monastery / digital Westphalian document database (DWUD)
• Description of Möllenbeck Monastery on the Lower Saxony monastery map of the Institute for Historical Research

Individual evidence

1. ^ Willy Leson: Heide, Harz and Weserbergland. Landscape, history, culture . JP Bachem, Cologne 1980, ISBN 3-7616-0530-7 , p. 175.
2. ↑ Information on the organ of the monastery church

Coordinates: 52 ° 10 ′ 5.4 ″  N , 9 ° 2 ′ 6.6 ″  E