Imperial Abbey of Ochsenhausen

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Banner of the Holy Roman Emperor with haloes (1400-1806) .svg
Territory in the Holy Roman Empire
Imperial Abbey of Ochsenhausen
coat of arms
Book of Arms Circulus Suevicus 16.jpg Coat of arms Ochsenhausen.svg
map
Imperial city of Biberach 1725.png
Partial view of the western areas of the Imperial Abbey of Ochsenhausen with the offices of Ochsenhausen and Ummendorf (light pink; east of Biberach) (1725)
Alternative names Reichsstift ; pen
Arose from ordinary abbey
Form of rule Corporate state
Ruler / government Reich Abbot
Today's region / s DE-BW
Parliament Reichsfürstenrat : 1 curiate vote on the Swabian prelate bank
Reich register 3 horses, 13 foot soldiers, 155 guilders (1521); 4 on horseback, 20 on foot, or 128 guilders (1663); 100 guilders + 77 ½ guilders to the Court of Appeal (18th century)
Reichskreis Swabian Empire
District council County council: 6 on horseback, 26 on foot (1532)
Capitals / residences Ochsenhausen
Denomination / Religions Roman Catholic
Language / n German , Latin
surface 3.5 square miles (around 1800)
Residents 6,000 to 11,000 inhabitants (around 1800)
Incorporated into 1803 Imperial County of Metternich (noble family) -Winneburg; small parts to the Counts of Schaesberg and the Counts of Sinzendorf; 1806 Metternich and Schaesberg shares in the Kingdom of Württemberg; Sinzendorf share in the Kingdom of Bavaria


The ochsenhausen abbey was 1090-1803 a convent of Benedictine in Ochsenhausen in Oberschwaben that the Schwäbischen Circle belonged. With an area of ​​two hundred and fifty-five square kilometers and almost nine thousand subjects at the time of its greatest expansion, the territory comprised about 20% of today's Biberach district . It bordered in the west on the free imperial city of Biberach, in the south on the imperial abbey Schussenried and the secular territory of Waldburg-Zeil , in the east on the imperial abbey Rot an der Rot and in the north on Laupheim. With the office of Tannheim, the monastery had an enclave in the middle of the area of ​​the Reichsabbey Rot an der Rot.

history

Franconian influences determined the Duchy of Swabia after the first millennium . The Franconian-Welf ministers Konrad, Hawin and Adelbert von Wolfertschwenden , together with their sisters, founded a Benedictine monastery in honor of St. George as landowners around 1090 and handed it over to the St. Blasien Abbey . Soon afterwards, Abbot Uto I from the mother house of St. Blasien sent monks to the Rottum and lower Iller . In 1157 the foundation was confirmed by Pope Hadrian IV . In 1343 the monks turned to Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria because of the activities of Schellenberg bailiffs . He placed the convent under the protection of the imperial city of Ulm.

According to Georg Geisenhof , the original monastery was a modest complex before the new baroque building. It consisted of three two-story wings that formed a regular square with the church. The former monastery is identical to today's Kreuzgärtchen . There were six heatable rooms in the monastery, the refectory , which the monks also used as a study in winter, the room of the prior and that of the provost, a sick room with a small chapel dedicated to the Holy Spirit , a guest room and the small entrance hall. Over the centuries the number of monks ranged between twenty and forty.

From the monastery to the imperial abbey

Ochsenhausen Monastery

In 1391 the Ochsenhausen Monastery broke away from St. Blasien and became an independent abbey. The actual reason for the separation of the Ochsenhausen Priory from the mother monastery of St. Blasien was the occidental schism that lasted from 1378 to 1417 . During the temporary split in the church, Ochsenhausen stayed at the side of the Pope of Roman obedience , Urban VI. , while the mother monastery submitted to the antipope Clement VII of the Avignon obedience. In 1388 Nikolaus Faber was elected provost and prior of the convent. Prior Heinrich Laurin, appointed by St. Blasien, and provost Heinrich von Södorf were referred back to St. Blasien in the same year. The matter remained contentious and Nikolaus Faber traveled to Rome in 1391 to see a decision made by the new Pope Boniface IX. to obtain. After an audience, Boniface decided that Ochsenhausen should be raised to an independent abbey. The convent, consisting of seven monks, elected Nikolaus Faber as its first abbot on April 19, 1392 .

Ochsenhauser Pflegehof in Ulm, built in 1490

In a document dated October 13, 1397, King Wenzel granted the abbot and convent the right to freely choose bailiffs and to be free from foreign courts. He confirmed the imperial city of Ulm as a freely chosen umbrella bailiff . This meant that the monastery was only subject to imperial power. Only the monastic courts were now responsible for the monastery subjects, the monastery itself had the citizenship of Ulm and was subordinate to the Ulm city court. Since 1422 Ochsenhausen has been listed as an imperial estate in the imperial registers.

Abbot Michael Ryssel had a higher church tower built with little effort and fitted with larger bells as well as the Gothic cloister and the prelature. He had a Gothic chapel built next to the tower and consecrated to the founder of the order, Benedict of Nursia . He rebuilt the dilapidated St. Veit cemetery chapel , in which the monastery's founders were buried, from scratch and furnished it with three altars . During the term of office of the fourth abbot, Johannes Knuß , the plague reached Upper Swabia in 1470. Under Simon Lengenberger , the monastery was given the title of a free imperial abbey in 1495 . With a certificate issued in Innsbruck on December 23, 1488, Emperor Friedrich III. the abbot the right of blood jurisdiction , combined with the permission to set up stick and gallows. In the same year Abbot Simon began building the new monastery church in Gothic style. On May 29, 1495, it was solemnly consecrated by Constance Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Zehender, Titular Bishop of Belline in Syria. The new church had fifteen altars, the high altar was made by Jörg Sürlin from Ulm. Sürlin began the work in 1496 and completed it in 1499 under the later abbot Hieronymus Biechelberger. In addition, Abbot Simon had a guest house built.

Spiritual territory, peasant war and Reformation

Former imperial abbey in Ochsenhausen
East facade of the monastery

In 1501, under Abbot Hieronymus I. Biechelberger , the feudal farmers rose from the 38 villages belonging to the monastery and achieved improvements in their feudal conditions with the subject contract of 1502 , although these were largely withdrawn after the defeat of the farmers in 1525. The agreements of 1502 may have been the reason why the Peasants' War did not cause any major damage. Among other things, the following changes were made in the legal relationship between the monastery and its subjects.

  • All monastery goods were inherited.
  • The goods had sales rights, the monastery received a right of first refusal at a price that was one guilder below the estimated value.
  • If the landowner changed, the old one paid five percent, the new ten percent of the estimated value to the monastery.
  • If goods were re-assigned, monastery subjects were preferred, but each farmer was only allowed to cultivate one property.
  • The serfs could bequeath their traveling property, whereby the heir had to pay five percent of the estimated value to the monastery.
  • There was freedom of movement for the subjects, but they still had to make their payments to the monastery.
  • Corporal taxes were limited to a flat rate of 1 pound Heller for garments .
  • The monastery allocated timber and firewood to the farmers.

Under Abbot Andreas I. Kindscher the dispute with the subjects continued. The Reformation found its way into Upper Swabia. The magistrate of the imperial city of Biberach decreed the removal of Pastor Knecht from Baltringen in 1542 under an evangelical majority . Abt Georg Müller called on the screen Bailiwick Ulm in the dispute for help, the now well-known to the majority Protestant denomination. Ulm transferred two companies of troops to Ochsenhausen. An Ulm preacher was supposed to hold a service in the collegiate church of the monastery because of the salvation of the soldiers' souls. Roman rite masses were banned. Abbot Georg fled to Augsburg in 1547 . Emperor Charles V stayed in Augsburg for the Reichstag in Augsburg. The emperor recommended Abbot Georg to resign . His successor was the abbot of Weingarten Gerwig Blarer . Blarer became the leader of the Catholics in Upper Swabia. He succeeded in preventing the introduction of the Reformation in the monastery area. The preachers sent by Ulm , the protective power that had become Protestant, had to be withdrawn again. In 1548 the Reichsstift terminated the patronage of the city of Ulm and placed itself directly under the protection of King Ferdinand and the House of Habsburg . In 1556, Blarer, the most political abbot, obtained an ordinance from Charles V for the imperial abbey of Ochsenhausen, "which put a stop to the pernicious trade practices of the Jews ." In 1570 Abbot Andreas II sold the village of Wain to the city of Ulm on Sunday . Abbot Johannes Ernst had the Sankt Anna Chapel built between Oberstetten and Steinhausen an der Rottum in 1592 and buried himself in it at the foot of the altar. During Abbot Urban Mayer's tenure , "death sentences of old women mistaken for witches " were signed.

Thirty Years War and the Baroque Period

Swabia 1572

From 1615 to 1618 the new convent building was built under Abbot Johannes Lang . After the defeat of the Catholic military leader Johann t'Serclaes von Tilly in the battle of Rain am Lech on 14./15. April 1632 and the subsequent conquest of Augsburg , the imperial army withdrew to the east. Ulm became the base of the Swedish occupation army. The Reichsabbey of Ochsenhausen was announced a contribution of 6000 guilders under threat of cremation of the monastery ( arson ). On June 22nd, 1632, the monastery was sacked by the Swedes , leaving nothing of any value to reach or detach. A short interlude in which the general of the imperial Habsburg army, Johann von Aldringen , came to the aid of the beleaguered Upper Swabian clerical territories, only fueled the anger of the Swedes. The castles of Thannheim and Ummendorf were also looted. This was repeated every time a new Swedish division was stationed in southern Germany. During the Thirty Years War, the monastery was badly affected by epidemics and other looting, but recovered very quickly afterwards.

The so-called baroque construction worm had broken out. Abbot Franziskus Klesin had the palace rebuilt at the official seat of the monastery in Tannheim in 1696, and from 1700 to 1702 the early baroque church of St. Martin right next to it . The successor Abbot Beda Werner had the parish churches in Bellamont, Ringschnait and Oberopfingen built from scratch . He changed the exterior of Obersulmetingen Castle and the churches in Laupheim and Achstetten. When Abbot Beda died, there was an income surplus of 100,000 florins in the main treasury of the spiritual territory of the imperial abbey.

Between 1783 and 1793, under the last abbot, Romuald Weltin, the library hall, convent hall and an observatory were added in the south-eastern pair of towers. As early as 1792, a large number of expelled conventuals from the abolished monasteries came from France. In 1796 French revolutionary troops occupied the territory for the first time and confiscated all supplies of money, fruit and wine. The immediate imperial spiritual territory did not have its own Landwehr . With its 255 square kilometers and 8,665 inhabitants and an annual income of 120,000 guilders, it took second place after the also Benedictine Weingarten monastery in Upper Swabia. Augsburg , the largest imperial city in terms of population in the Swabian Empire , had 35,000 inhabitants, and nearby Memmingen 11,500.

There was no patronage at all when the abbots and later the imperial abbots were appointed in Ochsenhausen. The surrounding noble houses, free imperial cities, Ulm umbrella bailiffs or the imperial court in Vienna also had no influence on the choice of the abbot. The abbots often came from middle-class, urban parental homes or were "surplus" sons of farming or artisan families. All of them passed through almost all pastoral positions and offices in the administration of the monastery and were only elected abbots as experienced old monks.

secularization

Legal title of secularization

In the course of secularization , the monastery was designated an extinction monastery in 1803 and dissolved. Imperial Count Franz Georg Karl von Metternich received it as compensation for his possessions on the left bank of the Rhine in Winneburg , Schaesberg - Kerpen and Sinzendorf-Rheineck . Imperial Count Franz Georg Karl was the father of Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich , who later became one of the most powerful and famous statesmen in Europe of his time. On June 30, 1803, Emperor Franz II granted the imperial count the personal prince dignity and elevated Ochsenhausen to a principality. The formerly spiritual territory became a secular principality for a short period of three years. Thanks to a cleverly negotiated contract, the prince was able to dispose of the monastery's movable objects, books and liturgical equipment relatively freely. Abbot Romuald was instructed to take up residence in Obersulmetingen Castle . He received an annual pension of 7,500 guilders. He only came back to Ochsenhausen once, when his new subjects paid homage to Prince Metternich. He died on January 19, 1805. In 1806 the property fell to the Kingdom of Württemberg . In 1807 the convent was finally dissolved. In 1825, Prince Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich sold his possessions to the Kingdom of Württemberg for 1.2 million guilders. The monastery stood empty and was left to decay. Prince Metternich had already had most of the inventory removed or sold. This is also the case with the death book, the Ochsenhausen necrology , which is important for the history of the monastery and which was only rediscovered in Kynžvart Castle around 1970 . Anything that could still be saved was brought to the court in Stuttgart or Ludwigsburg .

From 1964 to 1992 the monastery complex was renovated by the state of Baden-Württemberg . The construction work was carried out by the building construction department in Ulm and amounted to 28 million DM. 800 craftsmen were employed. Today the state academy for young people making music in Baden-Württemberg and part of the Ochsenhausen grammar school can be found in the monastery walls . The convent building, the prelature, the refectory and the historical observatory can be visited on guided tours. A monastery museum in the south wing of the prince's building provides information about the 700-year history of the monastery. The monastery complex is looked after by the “ State Palaces and Gardens of Baden-Württemberg ”.

Territory of the imperial abbey / possessions

Ochsenhauser Hof in Biberach

The Ochsenhausen monastery had already been provided with plenty of goods when it was founded. Through further donations, but also numerous purchases and exchanges, large amounts of property were acquired over the centuries, of which only the essential goods are mentioned here:

The monastery also owned the Hersberg Castle Estate near Immenstaad on Lake Constance and goods, inclines and rights in foreign areas. The population was estimated at 11,000 inhabitants in 1803, the income at 100,000  florins .

Former monastery church

Church of the former imperial abbey of Ochsenhausen

The first monastery church, a three-aisled Romanesque columned basilica, was built in 1093 by the Constance diocesan Bishop Gebhard III. consecrated by Zähringen to St. George . A new monastery church was built in the late Gothic style between 1489 and 1495 under Abbot Simon Lengenberger (1482–1498) by Martin Österreicher from Buchberg and consecrated on May 29, 1495 by Daniel Zehender, Vicar of Constance.

The Baroque transformation of the late Gothic church began in 1660 with the decoration of the sacristy and continued for eight decades.

Fruit box

Fruit box

The fruit box was built between 1719 and 1725 under Abbot Hieronymus II. Lindau to store crops. During the Second World War, helicopters were built by Henrich Focke in the fruit box ; later the building was used for refugee housing. Since 1987 it has housed the municipal gallery and an event hall.

List of the abbots of the monastery

In total, the monastery had twenty-six abbots before it was secularized in 1803 and declared an extinction monastery. Before independence from the mother monastery of St. Blasien in 1391, there were ten priors.

Priors

  • 1103-1164 Burkhard
  • 1164-1194 Konrad
  • 1194-1222 Herman
  • 1222-1238 Arnold
  • 1238–1262 Heinrich I von Zwiefalten
  • 1262-1304 Reiner
  • 1304-1332 Ulrich
  • 1332-1370 Peter
  • 1370–1383 Heinrich II.
  • 1383–1388 Heinrich III.
  • 1388–1392 Nikolaus Faber, also elected provost , from 1392 abbot
Romuald Weltin (painting by S. Bildstein)

Abbots

literature

  • Georg Geisenhof : Brief history of the former Reichsstift Ochsenhausen in Swabia . Ganser, Ottobeuren 1829.
  • Johann Daniel Georg von Memminger: Description of the Oberamt Biberach . Cotta, Stuttgart a. a. 1837.
  • Otto Beck: Parish Church of St. Georg Ochsenhausen . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 11 1998, ISBN 3-7954-4232-X , ( Schnell, art guide 304).
  • Max Herold (Ed.): Ochsenhausen. From the Benedictine abbey to the Upper Swabian country town. Anton H. Konrad Verlag, Weißenhorn 1994
  • Volker Himmelein (ed.): Old monasteries, new masters. The secularization in the German southwest 1803. Large state exhibition Baden-Württemberg 2003 . Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2003, ISBN 3-7995-0212-2 , (exhibition catalog and essay volume)
  • Volker Himmelein, Franz Quarthal (ed.): Front Austria. Just the tail feather of the imperial eagle? The Habsburgs in the German southwest . Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Ulm 1999, ISBN 3-88294-277-0 , (catalog of the state exhibition).
  • Hans-Jörg Reiff, Gebhard Spahr , Dieter Hauffe: Ochsenhausen Monastery. History, art, present. Biberacher Verlagsdruckerei, Biberach 1985, ISBN 3-924489-27-0 .
  • Dehio : Baden-Württemberg II. The administrative districts of Freiburg and Tübingen. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1997
  • Imperial Abbey of Ochsenhausen. History and art . Published by the city of Ochsenhausen, Bad Buchau 1984.

Web links

Commons : Ochsenhausen Monastery  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Ochsenhausen Monastery  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Geisenhof: Brief History , p. 11
  2. ↑ a b City of Ochsenhausen (Ed.): Reichsabtei Ochsenhausen. History and art. Ochsenhausen 1984, p. 113
  3. ↑ Benedictine Abbey of St. Georg Ochsenhausen - History , Monasteries in Baden-Württemberg, viewed on July 19, 2009
  4. ^ City of Ochsenhausen (Ed.): Reichsabtei Ochsenhausen. History and art. Ochsenhausen 1984, p. 132
  5. ↑ Geisenhof: Brief History , p. 84 .
  6. ↑ Geisenhof: Brief History , p. 100 .
  7. ↑ Geisenhof: Brief History , p. 90.
  8. ↑ Volker Himmelein (ed.): Old monasteries, new masters. Secularization in the German Southwest 1803. Articles. First part. Prehistory and course of secularization , p. 430
  9. ↑ Visitor information from Ochsenhausen Monastery

Coordinates: 48 ° 3 ′ 51 ″  N , 9 ° 57 ′ 5 ″  E