Roggenburg Monastery

The Premonstratensian Canons Monastery of Roggenburg

The Roggenburg Abbey is a canon monastery of the Premonstratensian Order in Roggenburg in the Neu-Ulm district , Bavaria , which is run as a dependent priory of the Lower Bavarian Abbey of Windberg . The monastery operates an educational facility and a museum and is known nationwide for the baroque buildings that have been preserved almost unchanged and the organ concerts that take place in the church.

history

Coat of arms of the Roggenburg Abbey

The baroque convent building

Choir of the monastery church

Count Bertold von Bibereck founded the monastery in 1126 together with his wife and two brothers Konrad ( Bishop of Chur ) and Siegfried ( Canon in the Diocese of Augsburg ). The first Premonstratensian Canons came from the nearby Ursberg Monastery and built the first Roggenburg monastery church.

In 1444 the monastery was elevated to the status of an abbey . The first designation of Roggenburg as imperial direct can be traced back to 1482/1485 - this status was cemented under imperial law in several steps during the first half of the 16th century. However, the prerequisite for the new imperial immediacy were reforms in the monastery territory, which in particular strengthened the judicial and police system. The extensive statutes and statutes of 1573 (see bibliography) are a good example of this.

On Saturday, April 1st, 1525, the monastery was plundered during the Peasants' War by the rioting farmers of the Leipheimer Haufen . The abbot Jodok and the monks had already left the monastery, so that the farmers did not encounter any resistance when the monastery buildings were storming. The preacher and farmer leader Hans Jakob Wehe von Leipheim and the Ingstetter farmer captain Jörg Ebner were also present at the attack . During the feast held by the farmers, Jörg Ebner made himself the new abbot of the monastery. The following day the monastery complex was haunted again by the arriving farmers of the Illertisser Haufen after the Leipheim residents had left and there was further destruction on and in the buildings.

In the 18th century, the monastery and its parish and subsidiary churches were rebuilt in the baroque style as they still exist today. Among other things, the convent buildings were rebuilt in 1732. In July 1752 the new building of the church began, which lasted six years and was completed under Abbot Georg Lienhardt .

In 1802, after secularization , the Reichsstift was occupied by the Bavarian military . The convent was dissolved and the last abbot Thaddäus Aigler was removed from his office.

In 1982 the Premonstratensians moved into the monastery again. On November 8, 1992 the monastery was raised to the rank of a dependent priory by the Windberg Abbey . In the meantime, an educational institution for family, environment and culture, a museum, a house for art and culture as well as gastronomic facilities have been built in the monastery complex under her care. In addition, devotional objects , wines from monastic cultivation and various products of own production are sold in a monastery shop .

Monastery church

The monastery church

The monastery church, an important building of the Swabian Rococo , was built from 1752 to 1758 according to plans by Simpert Kraemer in the shape of a cross . The single-nave hall building with transept extension and twin towers is 70 m long, 35 m wide and has an interior height of 28 m. The two towers are 70 meters high. As is customary with Premonstratensians, the church building is integrated into the monastery complex and therefore has no entrance facade in the longitudinal axis. The church is used today as the Catholic parish church of the Assumption of Mary .

Furnishing

The stucco was probably made by plasterers from the Wessobrunn school . The ceiling frescoes were created by the painter Franz Martin Kuen . They are considered his main work, but have not been preserved because the ceiling collapsed in 1845. After their restoration, new frescos were added in 1900 by the academic painter Waldemar Kolmsperger. As in many Premonstratensian churches, the central ceiling painting depicts the Christmas events, an indication of the foundation of the order on Christmas 1121.

The altar leaves of the high altar and the side altars are also by Franz Martin Kuen. The large figures on the high altar were created by Anton Sturm and depict St. Augustine as the author of the rules of the order on the left and the patron saint John the Baptist on the right . The figures of the cross altar and transept altars, created by Christoph Rodt in 1628, come from the previous church . The choir stalls with space for 50 canons also come from the previous church.

Roof truss

A special feature of the monastery church is the roof construction . In order to span the width of 35 m, a so-called hanging truss was used, the main feature of which is that the construction rests on the walls, but these are practically not pushed outwards. That is why they are free-standing and do not have to be stabilized laterally (as can be seen, for example, on the side aisles of Ulm Minster ). The ceiling of the church is suspended from the roof structure. This type of roof construction is probably very rare and unique in southern Germany. It is about three stories high.

organ

The organ in the Roggenburg Abbey

The organ of the monastery church is popularly called "the great Roggenburgerin", especially because of the imposing organ front , which is one of the most elegant in southern Germany. The organ case made by the Bergmüller family of altar carpenters looks like a large altar. In 1761 the Ulm organ builder Georg Friedrich Schmahl created the first organ for this case. Over the course of 250 years, the instrument was rebuilt several times and a completely new work was designed: At the end of the 18th century, Johann Nepomuk Holzhey (Ottobeuren) gave the organ a more “French touch”. In 1905 this instrument had to give way to a large late-romantic organ with a pneumatic action, built by the organ building workshop Gebrüder Hindelang (Ebenhofen im Allgäu). The organ movement prevailed in 1955/56, and the Nenninger company from Munich built a neo-baroque organ based on plans by Rudolf Quoika and Arthur Piechler.

After several years of fundamental repairs to the monastery church, the organ building workshop Gerhard Schmid (Kaufbeuren) completely redesigned this organ from 1984–1986, both technically and sonically. The result of this conversion is a versatile instrument that succeeds in filling the wide and high space of the monastery church with sound. In numerous organ concerts organized by the Friends of the Roggenburg Monastery e. V. has been organizing regular organists from Germany and abroad since 1986, it has been shown that the Roggenburg organ is particularly well suited for the presentation of romantic and symphonic organ literature. Based on this experience, various technical and tonal modifications were made again between 1996 and 2008 in order to expand the possibilities for the presentation of organ music from the 19th and 20th centuries without restricting the existing baroque sound spectrum. Among other things, charming flute parts and a powerful trumpeteria were incorporated.

In 2008, the hot organ building workshop (Vöhringen an der Iller) built a new, five-manual play system that is inserted at a historical location in the lower case of the prospectus. This further expanded the organ's spectrum of timbres by electrically connecting the choir organ of the monastery church, which was set up in 2005 behind the tabernacle of the high altar, as a remote control unit . The slider chest instrument has 63 registers (approx. 4000 pipes ). The action actions are mechanical, the stop actions are electro-pneumatic. The main organ has 56 registers on four manuals and pedal and the fourth manual can be used to play the choir organ, which serves as a remote control. The choir organ has 7 registers.

Bells

The ringing of the monastery church consists of seven bells that are distributed between the two towers. Five of them have historical value, two were cast in the 20th century.

No.	Casting year	Foundry, casting location	Dimensions	Chime	Remarks
1	1512	Jörg Kastner, Ulm	~ 2500 kg	d ′	North tower, "Big Bell", dedicated to St. Mary, St. John the Baptist and St. Augustine
2			~ 1000 kg	e ′	North tower, "Zwölferin", consecrated to the four evangelists, St. Anna and St. Mary
3	1934	Anton Gugg, Straubing	~ 550 kg	G'	North tower, "St. Norbertus ”, from Windberg Monastery , inserted in 2000
4th	1970	Karl Czudnochowsky, Erding	505 kg	a ′	South Tower, "St. Joseph ”, replacement for a bell from the 19th century that was delivered during the First World War
5	1500	anonymous	~ 500 kg	c ″	South tower, "Elferin", consecrated to the Holy Cross
6th	1665	Sartor family, Memmingen	~ 250 kg	c sharp ‴	South tower, dedicated to the Virgin and Mother of God
7th	1617	Hans Braun, Ulm	~ 180 kg	e ″	South tower, smallest bell with the inscription "Jesus Nazarenus - Rex Iudeorum"

Monastery complex

The gatehouse

After ten years of planning, renovating, restoring and refurbishing both inside and outside, the monastery complex was restored to its baroque beauty in 2015 at a cost of 18 million marks. The restored monastery garden, a joint project with rural development and community, is open to the public. In 2016, a small labyrinth was added to the garden, formed by tendrils of 300 different types of ivy. The plant collection came to Roggenburg in 2016 through the mediation of the horticultural company Dehner from Neuburg Abbey near Heidelberg. The monastery buildings are under monument protection.

→ Main article : "Roggenburg" in the article List of architectural monuments in Roggenburg (Bavaria)

Management of the monastery

The abbot of the Windberg Monastery, to which the Roggenburg Priory is assigned, is Hermann Josef Kugler , and the Prior in Roggenburg is Stefan Kling.

literature

• Horst Gaiser: Demutha "von Zollern", co-founder of Roggenburg, was a Countess Diemuth von Abenberg . In: Geschichte im Landkreis Neu-Ulm, Volume 10, Yearbook of the Landkreis Neu-Ulm, 2004, pp. 14–24
• Elisabeth Groll: The Premonstratensian Monastery of Roggenburg in the beginning of modern times (1450–1600) . Augsburg 1944 (also dissertation, University of Munich 1939)
• Sarah Hadry: Monastery Regiment at the End of the Middle Ages: The "Domestic Policy" of the Reichsstift Roggenburg . In: Yearbook of the Historical Association Dillingen an der Donau, 106th year 2005, pp. 57–86
• Sarah Hadry, Roggenburg (1573) , in: Wolfgang Wüst (Hg.): The "good" Policey in the Reichskreis : Volume 4: The local Policey: Standard setting and regulatory policy in the country. A source work , Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2008, pp. 81–119 (regarding Roggenburg court and village regulations from 1573), ISBN 978-3-05-004396-8 .
• Sarah Hadry, Neu-Ulm. The Altlandkreis (Historical Atlas of Bavaria, Part Swabia I / 18), Munich 2011, pp. 384–427.
• Sarah Hadry, On the history of Buch and its surroundings (online text; 2010)
• Michael Probst: Carmen epicum de morte Sifridi (Latin / German edition as: Roggenburg Monastery. The song of its founding and its founding family . Translation by Hans Wieland. Konrad, Weißenhorn around 1989, ISBN 3-87437-291-X )
• Franz Josef Ratte: The organ in the Premonstratensian Monastery of Roggenburg and its builder Georg Friedrich Schmahl . In: Orgelkunst und Orgelforschung, 1990, pp. 113–127
• Martin Stankowski: Land monastery - monastery landscape 1650-1800. About building in Roggenburg and in East and Upper Swabia . Fink, Lindenberg 2003, ISBN 3-89870-134-4
• Franz Tuscher: The Reichsstift Roggenburg in the 18th century . 2nd, improved edition. Konrad, Weißenhorn 1991, ISBN 3-87437-315-0
• Franz Bader: News on the Peasant War of 1525 in the area of ​​the former Reichsstift Roggenburg In: Journal of the Historical Association for Swabia and Neuburg, Volume 43 (1917), pp. 57–84
• Eugen Wohlhaupter: The Roggenburgische renewed court and village order from 1573 In: Journal for Bavarian State History (ZBLG), Volume 10 (1937), pp. 395-434

Recordings

• "Sound the trumpets!" Festive music from the Roggenburg Abbey , with Friedrich Fröschle on the Roggenburg organ as well as Claude Rippas (trumpet) and Johann Konnerth (trumpet) - (recordings from 2007, drrb audio production rgb 2007); Works by Giuseppe Torelli, Jean Philippe Rameau, Georg Philipp Telemann, Georg Friedrich Händel and Johann Sebastian Bach.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ German Efeugesellschaft , accessed on 23 September 2016
2. ↑ Augsburger Allgemeine of July 21, 2016 on the relocation of the ivy collection , accessed on September 23, 2016

Web links

Commons : Roggenburg Abbey  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Homepage of the monastery
• Roggenburg Monastery , basic data in the database of monasteries in Bavaria in the House of Bavarian History

Coordinates: 48 ° 16 ′ 28.7 ″  N , 10 ° 13 ′ 41.1 ″  E