St. Marien Monastery (Geringswalde)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The St. Marien Monastery in Geringswalde was a Benedictine abbey that was founded at the beginning of the 13th century and dissolved after the Reformation in the 16th century.

Origins

The noble family von Schönburg was the founder and guardian of the monastery . In 1182 Hermann I von Schönburg decided to found a Benedictine nunnery in Geringswalde . A certificate has not been received. Hermann II von Schönburg, son of the previous one, completed the construction of the monastery in 1233, which was consecrated to the Virgin Mary . The town of Geringswalde is mentioned for the first time in a document dated January 2nd, 1233. 1238 confirmed Pope Gregory IX. the foundation of the monastery. John the Baptist and John the Evangelist are named as further patron saints in documents from the late 13th century. The seal of the monastery showed the Virgin Mary standing with the baby Jesus in her arms and a crescent moon at her feet.

The villages of Altgeringswalde , Hoyersdorf , the Vorwerk Zschannewitz , the large pond of Geringswalde and several mills along the Auenbach belonged to the abbey's first possessions .

development

Over time, the monastery acquired additional villages, goods and church loans through donations and purchases and became so wealthy that it was able to lend capital to various individuals, but also to the councils of Glauchau and Colditz, for interest. Numerous members of the von Schönburg family were buried in the monastery. Frederick I (the elder) of Schönburg, with the consent of his four sons Hermann, Friedrich, Dietrich and Friedrich, gave the monastery the upper jurisdiction over the population of the surrounding places by a document from 1261. In the middle of the 15th century, Anastasia von Schönburg was the abbess of the monastery.

Around 1430 the monastery suffered damage during the Hussite campaign .

In 1498 the monastery held a provost and four preacher monks for the branch in Geringswalde, Altgeringswalde, Hermsdorf and Schönerstädt.

The last abbess was Ursula von Leutzsch (died 1554). During the Schmalkaldic War , several of the villages belonging to the now secularized monastery suffered damage.

Closure and further use

After the Reformation, the Benedictine monastery was closed in 1542, and the remaining nuns were granted the right to live until they died. The monastery buildings then fell into disrepair.

In 1566, the Schönburger set up a community school in the former monastery, which was closed again in 1568 by the Elector of Saxony due to religious differences, as the teachers were accused of Flacianism .

Former Manor house of the Klostergeringswalde manor

In 1588 Geringswalde was sold to Elector Christian I by Hugo von Schönburg . Then the former monastery became a manor. In 1598 the former monastery church was converted into a hunting arsenal and demolished after 1637. It is said to have been "51 cubits long and 20 cubits wide". The church must have had several chapels because it is said that a Friedrich von Schönburg (probably Friedrich XV., First mentioned in 1388, died after 1400) had his 16 ancestors painted on the walls of the chapel in the year 1400 in a huge giant stature.

The buildings of the manor and some well-preserved monastery buildings were dissolved with the land reform in the Soviet occupation zone , and most of the buildings were demolished for the extraction of building material.

The tombstones of the Schönburgers buried in Geringswalde, still preserved in the 18th century, were removed in 1777 and used as building material.

Only a few pictures of the last buildings of the monastery have survived. Therefore we hardly know anything about its appearance.

literature

  • Gottfried August Bernhardi: Contribution to a story of the little town of Geringswalda and especially of the St. Marien = monastery, Benedictine order, which was located there . Johann Gottfried Müller, Leipzig, 1777.
  • Reinhold Hofmann: Foundation and history of the Geringswalde Monastery, Waldenburg, 1920 (or 1929)
  • Wolf-Dieter Röber , Steffen Winkler : Geringswalde Monastery . In: Series of publications, Issue 6, Museum and Art Collection Schloss Hinterglauchau, City of Glauchau, 1986, GDR, pp. 35–39 (on the history of the rule and castle of Geringswalde, as well as the monastery and state school under the Lords of Schönburg, photograph of a fragment of a monastery on the inside cover)
  • Reiner Groß: Schönburg History, A Timeline . Editors: Britta Günther, Michael Wetzel, Tommy Schmucker, Chemnitz 2005, several entries on the Geringswalde Monastery in a chronological list, p. 7/17/18, picture of a monastery building on photo around 1930 p. 18 (the photo mentioned is certainly one of the few known pictures of monastery buildings in Geringswalde)

proof

  1. ↑ Bernhardi, pp. 6-7
  2. ↑ Bernhardi, pp. 8-14
  3. ↑ a b Bernhardi, p. 15
  4. ^ Robby Joachim Götze: Schönburgische Jurisdiction In: Author collective, u. a. Helmut Bräuer , Robby Joachim Götze, Steffen Winkler and Wolf-Dieter Röber: The Schönburger, economy, politics, culture. Brochure for the special exhibition of the same name 1990–91 in the museum and art collection of Schloss Hinterglauchau. Museum and Art Collection Schloss Hinterglauchau, Glauchau 1990, p. 60
  5. ^ Carl Gottlob Dietmann: Church and School History of the Hochreichsgräfl. Schoenburg countries in Meissen . Christian Friedrich Gutzsch, Breslau, Brieg and Leipzig, 1787.
  6. ↑ a b Bernhardi, p. 16
  7. ^ Friedrich Bode: Chronicle of the city of Rochlitz and the surrounding area . Bode, Rochlitz 1865.
  8. ^ Author collective, u. a. Helmut Bräuer, Robby Joachim Götze, Steffen Winkler and Wolf-Dieter Röber : The Schönburger, economy, politics, culture . Brochure for the special exhibition of the same name 1990–91 in the museum and art collection Schloss Hinterglauchau, Glauchau 1990, chap. “Church and Art”, p. 100, on Geringswalde Castle and Monastery
  9. ↑ Benedictine convent St. Marien Geringswalde . Ev.-Luth. Waldheim-Geringswalde parish. 2018.
  10. ↑ Dietmann pp. 25-26
  11. ^ Author collective, u. a. Helmut Bräuer, Robby Joachim Götze, Steffen Winkler and Wolf-Dieter Röber : The Schönburger, economy, politics, culture . Brochure for the special exhibition of the same name 1990–91 in the museum and art collection Schloss Hinterglauchau, Glauchau 1990, chap. “Church and Art”, p. 100, on Geringswalde Castle and Monastery
  12. ^ Author collective, u. a. Helmut Bräuer, Robby Joachim Götze, Steffen Winkler and Wolf-Dieter Röber : The Schönburger, economy, politics, culture . Brochure for the special exhibition of the same name 1990–91 in the museum and art collection Schloss Hinterglauchau, Glauchau 1990, chap. “Church and Art”, p. 100, on Geringswalde Castle and Monastery

Coordinates: 51 ° 4 '26.4 "  N , 12 ° 55' 8.4"  E