Rumbeck Abbey

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Aerial photograph (2014)
Rumbeck Abbey

Rumbeck Abbey (actually Rumbeck Abbey) is located in Arnsberg in the Rumbeck district . The monastery was founded around 1190 and existed until secularization in 1806. It was a settlement of the Premonstratensian women who, like the Oelinghausen monastery, were under the ecclesiastical and secular jurisdiction of the Wedinghausen monastery in neighboring Arnsberg.

History and Development

Propsteig building

Before the founding of the Rumbeck Monastery, there was a main courtyard of Count Heinrich I from Arnsberg , who transferred it to the Wedinghausen Monastery in 1185. Like Oelinghausen, Rumbeck was a nunnery . The first residents came from the Bredelar monastery by order of the Archbishop of Cologne, Adolf I , as it was converted into a Cistercian monastery . The community in Rumbeck comprised about 20 choir ladies and 10 lay sisters. While the sister complex in Oelinghausen was only open to aristocrats, Rumbeck also accepted sisters from the upper and wealthy middle classes from Westphalia . Most, however, came from the lower nobility. After choosing between the images of saints, the elected prioresses had their gender coats of arms affixed to the choir walls of the monastery church, which allow certain conclusions to be drawn about the social structure of the monastery. While in the first centuries aristocratic heads of women, for example from the houses of Thülen or von Fürstenberg , dominated, since the 17th century the fate of the community has been predominantly directed by bourgeois women. Contemporary chroniclers and the responsible auditors from Wedinghausen reported mostly on the pious way of life and the exemplary charitable work of the sisters. After all, it was the Rumbeck sisters who reintroduced the rules of the monastery in the 16th century in Oelinghausen, which had meanwhile been converted into a secular women's monastery . Another argument for a functioning community is that after the secularization the sisters continued their life together until the death of the last members of the convent. Nevertheless, one can assume that, as in the other monasteries in the region, there have been phases of decline and subsequent renewal during the roughly 600-year history of the community.

Monastery library

The illuminator and scribe Ludovicus Scriptor was for a time prior in Rumbeck. It is not known whether he was also active there in this regard. Nothing is known about a library from the time of the existing monastery. Only in the course of secularization is there talk of a small collection of books. This directory is lost today. It is known that two works passed into the possession of the landgrave. This is a book about beekeeping and the Lexicon oeconomicum by Georg Heinrich Zincke . The monastery also owned the four-volume work on the Cologne War by Michael von Isselt . But this was for a long time in the rooms of the prior von Wedinghausen.

The economic base of the community

Parish office built after 1914 in place of the burned down nurses' wing

The monastery had its own monastery restaurant, supervised by a provost, and had hunting and fishing rights. Overall, the administrators have been successful in expanding the land holdings over time through inheritance, gifts, purchases or exchanges.

Compared to Oelinghausen, however, Rumbeck's economic basis was much more modest. This was possibly due to the different social composition and the associated less generous gifts of goods. In 1225, Count Gottfried von Arnsberg stated in a document that Dietrich I von Bilstein zu Bilstein Castle had sold his fully owned Seringhausen estate near Erwitte to the Rumbeck monastery for 94 marks.

In total, Rumbeck's holdings were only about two-fifths of that of Oelinghausen. Especially in the first decades of its existence, the convention was considered downright poor. This is supported by the taking out of loans from Cologne citizens and one from Count Gottfried III. Alms letter issued in 1244.

Partial view of a baroque picture gallery with saints and family coats of arms of the prioresses and conventuals in the apse of the monastery church

The sisters from the lower nobility or from farming families also often handed over property to the community when they entered the monastery. These possessions were scattered in the Sauerland and the Soester Börde. The provosts as administrators tried to merge these properties by swap or to sell them in order to use the money to acquire better-located farms. These were then leased. The skillful management of the provosts meant that the community had various leaseholds. At the end of the monastery period, the property was debt-free and could be sold by the new Hessian rulers for a profit.

By owning the farms, the monastery was part of the marrow cooperatives in various places. As such, the monastery could use part of the forest to cut wood or use it as a hut. In the Dinscheder Mark the provosts were mostly wood judges. The monastery also had trademark rights in the Schwiedinghauser, Hüstener and Wennemener Marks. The monastery also had its own forest. The provosts also fought for the right to hunt in the area around the monastery.

In the 17th century the provosts tried to modernize agriculture due to the narrow economic base in order to achieve a higher income by selling surplus produce. The damming of the Mühlbach not only created a number of fish ponds, but also provided the energy for an oil, a saw and a grain mill. The monastery forest was used for the production of potash. This was used in the 18th century for the briefly existing own glassworks. This produced window glass, bottles and other vessels. With regard to the hut staff, it is noteworthy that, despite the Counter-Reformation and membership of a monastery economy, the majority of foreign, Protestant specialists were recruited. The operation was soon given up due to the unprofitable demand for raw materials. Provost Arndts founded a hammer mill for the production of iron in 1748. A separate bleach was used for canvas production. A certain degree of prosperity arose on the basis of agriculture and commercial operations. In contrast to most of the other monastic communities in the region, Rumbeck was not only debt-free at the time of secularization, but also had excess money invested.

Structural form

Archive tower

The first information about the structural design of the facility is available from 1519. These concern a south wing, which was built by Provost Johann von Heyger (1516–1545) and renovated 200 years later by Adam Nackthoff (1714–1745). This part of the building bordered the monastery courtyard to the south and contained the prioress's apartment as well as the monastery’s school and clothing store. The building was completely destroyed by fire in 1914. In the same place, a new wing was built in 1916, which had been planned as a rectory from the start. The building was shortened by three window axes. The so-called Kornhaus, which was completely destroyed, was not rebuilt. Only ruins-like remains can be seen of this.

In addition to the church, one of the preserved parts of the monastery complex is an archive tower, which today serves as a bell tower. There are also some former farm buildings. The provosts lived in their own representative provost building, which was built in the 17th century and renovated again in the 18th century. This now serves as a residential building. Today the former guest house of the monastery, built in 1695, also serves as a residential building.

The church, the rectory and the stable building are patronage buildings of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The construction load obligations are one hundred percent with the state.

Monastery church

The outside of the church is simply built from rubble stones and consists of a rectangular pillar hall with five bays and unusually narrow aisles. There is no separate choir room. Until the renovation in the 19th century, there was a nun's gallery for the members of the community. This probably originally extended to the penultimate pair of pillars to the east. They were built back to the last yoke in 1825.

It is a rectangular, straight, closed five-bay pillar hall with a groined vault in the central nave and barrel vaults with stitch caps in the narrow aisles. There is no separate east choir. So far it has been assumed that the monastery church is essentially a Gothic building with older roots. According to more recent findings, it is a late Romanesque hall church. The building was completed at the beginning of the 13th century and is considered one of the first hall churches with a brick vault in Westphalia. Dendrological investigations suggest that it was built around 1200. Under the provosts Friedrich Bigeleben and Eberhard Cöbinghof, the church was redesigned in the Baroque style in the late 17th and early 18th centuries .

Since then, the interior has been almost exclusively baroque. The uniform interior, created by an unknown artist, includes the high altar, two side altars, the confessional, the pulpit and parts of the organ case. This includes the figural decoration of the high altar or a relief of St. Francis Xaverius in India. The organ comes from the Herford closed workshop and is dated to the year 1700. It was expanded by Engelbert Ahmer in 1830 and restored in 2005/2006. The nuns' pews, which are now located next to the high altar, date from the second half of the 16th century and were probably supplemented by Heinrich Stratmann in the first half of the 17th century with paintings of saints and family coats of arms of the prioresses and conventuals.

literature

  • Uwe Haltaufderheide (ed.): The architectural monuments of the city of Arnsberg. Collection period 1980–1990. City of Arnsberg - The City Director - Lower Monument Authority, Arnsberg 1990, ISBN 3-928394-01-0 , pp. 283–288.
  • Fritz Timmermann: The new altarpiece in the Church of St. Nikolaus in Rumbeck. In: Heimatblätter. 27, 2006, ISSN  1612-538X , pp. 62-64.
  • Julia von Ditfurth: On the baroqueization of the Premonstratensian churches in Rumbeck and Oelinghausen. In: Origin with a future. Insights into the Arnsberg monastery landscape. Arnsberg, 2019 pp. 88-97

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermann-Josef Schmalor: Prämonstratensiche monastery libraries in the area of today's city Arnsberg Wedinghausen, Oelinghausen, Rumbeck. In: Origin with a future. Insights into the Arnsberg monastery landscape. Arnsberg, 2019 p. 80f.
  2. ↑ Günther Becker, Hans Mieles: The first documentary mention of Bilstein Castle, from Bilstein Land, Burg and Ort, p. 35, Lennestadt, 1975 and Münster State Archives, Rumbeck Abbey, document 14
  3. ↑ Gerd Dethlefs: The glassworks in the Rumbeck Forest 1750-1759 and in the Arnsberg Forest 1767-1786. In: Sauerland. Zs. D. Sauerländer Heimatbundes 1/2017 p. 37–42
  4. ↑ Wolfgang Becker: A glassworks of the Rumbeck monastery: broken glass testify to old craftsmanship. In: Heimatblätter des Arnsberger Heimatbund 37/2016 p. 58f.
  5. ^ Fritz Timmermann: The economic activities of the Premonstratensian Foundation Rumbeck. In: Heimatblätter des Arnsberger Heimatbund 34/2013 p. 15-20
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Becker: 102 years ago: Fire laid large parts of the new Rumbeck monastery in ruins. In: Heimatblätter des Arnsberger Heimatbund 37/2016 pp. 60–63
  7. ↑ Patronage buildings. Documentation of the architectural monuments in North Rhine-Westphalia. Düsseldorf, 1991 pp. 41-43
  8. ^ Julia von Ditfurth: On the baroqueization of the Premonstratensian churches in Rumbeck and Oelinghausen. In: Origin with a future. Insights into the Arnsberg monastery landscape. Arnsberg, 2019 p. 88
  9. ^ Julia von Ditfurth: On the baroqueization of the Premonstratensian churches in Rumbeck and Oelinghausen. In: Origin with a future. Insights into the Arnsberg monastery landscape. Arnsberg, 2019 p. 88
  10. ^ Julia von Ditfurth: On the baroqueization of the Premonstratensian churches in Rumbeck and Oelinghausen. In: Origin with a future. Insights into the Arnsberg monastery landscape. Arnsberg, 2019 p. 88
  11. ^ Julia von Ditfurth: On the baroqueization of the Premonstratensian churches in Rumbeck and Oelinghausen. In: Origin with a future. Insights into the Arnsberg monastery landscape. Arnsberg, 2019 p. 89
  12. ^ Julia von Ditfurth: On the baroqueization of the Premonstratensian churches in Rumbeck and Oelinghausen. In: Origin with a future. Insights into the Arnsberg monastery landscape. Arnsberg, 2019 pp. 88-90
  13. ^ Julia von Ditfurth: On the baroqueization of the Premonstratensian churches in Rumbeck and Oelinghausen. In: Origin with a future. Insights into the Arnsberg monastery landscape. Arnsberg, 2019 p. 88

Coordinates: 51 ° 23 ′ 19.2 "  N , 8 ° 6 ′ 27.6"  E