Reepsholt Monastery

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Memorial stone for the former monastery.

The monastery Reepsholt was the first monastery in what is now East Friesland . Reepsholt is now part of the Friedeburg community . The canon monastery dissolved before the Reformation in the 15th century.

history

The sisters Reingert and Wendila, who apparently came from well-to-do circles, gave goods to Adaldag , the Archbishop of Bremen, in the 10th century. These included the Hripesholt and More farms and Land in diversis locis . According to the document, he was supposed to establish “a monastery and a community of clergy” there. Emperor Otto II confirmed that Adaldag had founded the monastery on June 9, 983 in Verona . In the deed he expressly affirmed that the place and the monastery were henceforth subject to the control of the Bremen church. At the same time he granted the monastery royal protection and immunity and exempted it from all taxes. From then on it was only under the jurisdiction of the Bremen Church and served to spread Christianity in the region. The diocese of Bremen occupied it with twelve regulated canons . In addition, the monastery received some of the relics that Adaldag had brought from Rome. The patron saint of the monastery was St. Mauritius .

In the course of the 11th century the monastery was presumably transferred to the Bremen cathedral chapter , which from the 12th century at the latest also provided the provost of Reepsholt. In 1134 Bishop Adalbero von Bremen extended his rights. He set up a provost's office in Reepsholt, to which the chapels of Etzel, Marx, Horsten and Dykhusen as well as the recently built church in Westerstede, possibly also (Alt-) Gödens, Abickhafe and Wiesede, belonged. The monastery was thus the center of a subdivision of the Bremen diocese that was to be regarded as an archdeaconate .

Nevertheless, its impact on the region remained low. At a time when the state community of Östringen was developing its structures, its self-esteem and its identity, it was probably perceived as a primarily Bremen institution. This became clear at the beginning of the 12th century, when the residents of Reepsholt began building their own church just a few steps from the monastery (about 200 meters further northwest) , which is still the focus of community life, although it has been worshiping until then visited in the pen. Heinrich Schmidt interprets this in times of the rising Frisian freedom as "striving for a trained independence also in the local area." At the same time, work was also carried out on the collegiate church, which became a "mighty stone building".

The monastery began to decline in the early 15th century. The turmoil of war and other unfortunate circumstances (possibly storm surges) are mentioned in documents. Thereupon Reepsholt was incorporated into the cathedral monastery of St. Willehad Bremen. Pope Eugene IV confirmed this step in 1434. After that, the pen slowly dissolved. As early as 1474, the collegiate church is said no longer to have stood. The provost's office had previously passed to the parish church, which also assumed the patronage and was dedicated to St. Mauritius . Around 1500 the monastery of Archbishop Johann III. Rode von Wale described as desolate and totally destroyed. The last parts of the building are said to have been removed in 1534. The archive and library have not survived either. A memorial stone today commemorates the location of the former Klimp Abbey .

Building history

As a result of archaeological excavations, the abbey district covered an area of ​​130 × 130 meters. It was created over early Christian burials in three phases, during which early wooden churches were probably built. Around 1200 the construction of the brick church began, which was about 40 meters long and 12 meters wide. The equipment of the monastery was lost with the dissolution. At the time of his 17th Abbot Oltmann (1374) it had received two organs.

Name interpretation

After the first mention in 983 as Hripesholt , the place is later called Ripesholt (1100), Repesholte (1202), Repsholt (1719). The current spelling has been in use since 1825. The place name is derived from the East Frisian - Low German word ripe (rîp), the meaning of which is given with a margin. Reepsholt therefore means "forest on the edge or bank".

Location and economic activity

The collegiate foundation was founded on a ridge at a height of 7.8 meters above sea level (NN). It was in the district of Östringen . The old long-distance path that led from Oldenburg to Jever ran in the immediate vicinity. Reepsholt also had access to the Jade Bay and thus to the open sea via a depression. Of the places named in the deed of donation, only the Hrispesholt farm is known as the predecessor of today's village. The location of the other farm, More , is unknown, but is believed to be in the Desenhamm area east of Dose . It is possible that the monastery also had rights to at least three commercial yards in the immediate vicinity. There are also field names such as Popentuun, Krützhamm or Hilgenkämpe, which indicate that the lands once belonged to the monastery.

literature

  • Burkhard Schäfer: Reepsholt . 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 3-89534-959-3 , p. 1289 f.
  • Siefke Ortgies Siefken: A Thousand Years Reepsholt: 983 - 1983. History of the pen for regular canons and the Reepsholt provost in East Frisia . Mettcker, Jever 1983.
  • At a gallop around the hills and into the earth! From the history of the Reepsholt Monastery. In: Ostfriesland Magazin 1986, No. 5, p. 26
  • Heinrich Schmidt : The two churches of Reepsholt. Considerations on the interrelationship between church building and community in the high medieval East Frisia . In: Heinrich Schmidt: Ostfriesland and Oldenburg. Collected contributions to North German regional history . Ostfriesische Landschaftliche Verlags- und Vertriebsgesellschaft, Aurich 2008. pp. 269–283

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Heinrich Schmidt: The two churches of Reepsholt. Considerations on the interrelationship between church building and community in the high medieval East Frisia . In: Heinrich Schmidt: Ostfriesland and Oldenburg. Collected contributions to North German regional history . Ostfriesische Landschaftliche Verlags- und Vertriebsgesellschaft, Aurich 2008. pp. 269–283
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Burkhard Schäfer: Reepsholt . 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 3-89534-959-3 , p. 1289 f.
  3. ↑ a b c d local chronicles of the East Frisian landscape: Reepsholt, Friedeburg community, Wittmund district (PDF; 914 kB), accessed on November 21, 2012.
  4. ^ Antje Sander-Berke, Heinrich Schmidt, Peter Schmid: Fromme Friesen: Medieval Church History Friesland . Oldenburg 1997. ISBN 3-89598-449-3 , p. 110

Coordinates: 53 ° 29 ′ 9 ″  N , 7 ° 50 ′ 51 ″  E