Waldsassen Abbey

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Waldsassen Abbey
The collegiate basilica, the landmark of Waldsassen
The collegiate basilica , the landmark of Waldsassen
location Bavaria , Germany
Lies in the diocese regensburg
Coordinates: 50 ° 0 '13.3 "  N , 12 ° 18' 34.1"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 0 '13.3 "  N , 12 ° 18' 34.1"  E
Serial number
according to Janauschek 		71
Patronage Assumption Day
founding year 1133
Year of dissolution /
annulment 		1571
Year of repopulation 1661/1863 as a women's convent
Year of re-dissolution 1803
Mother monastery Volkenroda ; Fürstenfeld ; Seligenthal
Primary Abbey Morimond Monastery
Congregation Mehrerauer Congregation

Daughter monasteries

Sedlec Monastery (1143)
Walderbach Monastery (1143)
Osek Monastery (1194)

The ignorant, wooden figure by Karl Stilp in the monastery library

The Monastery Waldsassen (lat. Abbatia BMV Forest Sassi ) is now an abbey of Cistercian nuns in Waldsassen in the Upper Palatinate in the diocese of Regensburg in Eastern Bavaria .

history

Copper engraving of the Waldsassen Monastery by Johann Ulrich Krauß from the Churbaier Atlas by Anton Wilhelm Ertl from 1687

The monastery consecrated to the Blessed Virgin Mary was founded around 1133 by the Margrave of the Nordgau , Diepold III. von Vohburg , who brought monks from the Volkenroda monastery into the country, was founded as a Cistercian monastery . It belonged to the filiation of the Morimond Primary Abbey and was given a privilege by King Conrad III in 1147 . From the house of the Hohenstaufen the imperial immediacy , became a lordly Cistercian abbey, developed a lively colonizing and economic activity and got into conflicts with the magistrate of the neighboring imperial city of the Hohenstaufen Eger, today's Cheb in the Czech Republic, who pursued similar plans. The extensive property that came into the possession of the Waldsassen monastery was partly given to ministerials who were appointed as carers and judges and who were able to operate independently of the monastery. These settled in existing or newly built fortified residences and converted them into castle buildings in economically favorable times.

In 1142 the Waldsassen monastery founded the first Cistercian monastery in Sedletz in Bohemia with the consent of the Bohemian Duke Vladislav II , Bishop Otto in Prague and Bishop Heinrich Zdik in Olomouc . In 1179 the Regensburg bishop Kuno II inaugurated a three-aisled basilica built in the Romanesque style in the presence of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa. Pope Lucius III placed the Waldsassen monastery pro forma under the protection of the Roman curia in 1185 and confirmed its extensive manorial rule with the considerable income, because at that time it belonged to Münchenreuth, Pechtnersreuth, Hundsbach, Schloppach, Mammersreuth, Groppenheim, Pfaffenreuth, Mähring , Schönthann, Konnersreuth, Poppenreuth, Redenbach and Hofteich to the monastery. At the beginning of the 13th century, a member of the von Saaleck family from the Saaleck castle on the Saale near Bad Kösen in the area of ​​the Limes Sorabicus served as a ministerial officer in the monastery. In 1217 Tirschenreuth could be acquired, which should develop into the secular center of the Stiftland and in 1294/95 Falkenberg and Liebenstein followed with their castles. Wiesau went to the monastery in 1297, but it had to be sold again in 1348. John III From 1310 to 1323 von Elbogen was the first abbot to come from the Egerland . In 1348 Abbot Franz Kübel sold the Schönbacher Ländchen to Rüdiger von Sparneck , a reversal of this acquisition failed due to resistance from Sparneckers. In 1359, by imperial order, all Jewish creditors canceled the loans to the heavily indebted Waldsassen Monastery. After 1400 there were temporarily three abbots from Waldsassen at the same time, this schism was ended in 1415 at the Council of Constance . From 1411, the abbey was no longer under the protection of the Bohemian kings, but had chosen the Count Palatine as secular protector, which is understandable because Abbot Conrad II had previously supported King Ruprecht and for that time even Schwandorf (1407) Thanks received. In 1414 King Sigismund also recognized this under imperial law. The Waldsassen abbots continued to increase their property, especially under John VI. Wendel from Weiden, systematically to a closed domain, the so-called Stiftland on the Bavarian side, in particular the Probstei Hohenstein was bought by the Reichenbach monastery in 1442 . Neuhaus could not finally be acquired by the Leuchtenbergers until 1515.

During the Landshut War of Succession (1503/05) and by army groups of the Bohemian Hussites , the monastery was repeatedly plundered and set on fire on their retreat from Nuremberg through the Upper Palatinate to Bohemia in 1430. During the Peasants' War there was an uprising in the Stiftland in May 1525, after Abbot Nikolaus V. Seber had fled to Eger, the monastery was stormed and plundered by revolting peasants. Palatine troops marched in shortly afterwards and came to an agreement with the rebels, whereupon the abbot resigned. In 1537, Count Palatine Friedrich II , the governor of the Upper Palatinate, had the Roman Catholic abbot Georg III. Take Agmann prisoner and temporarily occupied the monastery. Emperor Charles V then appointed secular administrators to manage the monastery, which was directly under the Empire. The dominance of the Palatinate grew steadily in the years that followed. In 1569, the Waldsassen Monastery became Lutheran under the Lutheran Count Palatine and Administrator Reichard (also from the House of Wittelsbach) and was then an Electoral Palatinate nursing office from 1571 to 1669 . In 1617 the monastery buildings were for Frederick V , the so-called Winter King, and his entourage a short-term residence on his journey via Eger to Prague for his coronation as King of Bohemia. The Stiftland was evangelical-Lutheran for three generations. Partial sales reduced the extensive real estate.

When the country was recatholicized after the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) from 1661, the Cistercian Waldsassen was resettled by the Cistercian monastery Fürstenfeld . In 1690 the monastery was raised again to the status of an abbey, received the existing property and its considerable income back, but not its imperial immediacy, since the sovereign was the Bavarian elector. A second heyday of the monastery and the village of Waldsassen began. The monastery complex had been desolate since 1647 after being pillaged by Swedish Protestant troops. A new building was started in 1681, and important church builders such as Abraham Leuthner and the Dientzenhofer brothers created one of the great baroque churches in Bavaria. In 1704 the solemn consecration took place.Waldsassen Abbey Basilica ( discussion ▪ Version history ▪ Page protection logbook ) In 1727 the monastery library was completed.

The Waldsassen monastery was dissolved again in 1803 in the course of secularization in Bavaria . At that time, the property of the Stiftland comprised 715 square kilometers with 20,000 subjects, the city of Tirschenreuth , Hardeck Castle , six market towns (including Waldsassen and Konnersreuth ) and more than 150 other localities. The monastery buildings passed into Bavarian state ownership, the monastery church became the parish church of Waldsassen. In 1828 the merchant Wilhelm Rother acquired parts of the monastery complex from an Eger patrician family and built a calico factory , which was based on the production of felt and cloth with footwear made from them in the monastery buildings. It was in operation until 1863 and alleviated the economic hardship of the residents of Waldsassen and in the surrounding areas.

During this time, the market town of Waldsassen and the diocese of Regensburg campaigned for members of the order to repopulate the monastery. On December 18, 1863, the monastery was re-established as the priory of the Cistercian women by Bishop Ignatius von Senestrey in Regensburg and settled as a colony of Landshut-Seligenthal . In addition to Superior Cäcilia Schmid (1824 to 1895), monastery administrator Michael Lorenz played a decisive role. In 1925 the Waldsassen monastery became an independent abbey .

Since 1949, the desecrated Christ von Wies has been particularly venerated by supplicants from the Egerland . It comes from the former pilgrimage church in Wies in Bohemia. The mutilated figure of Christ carved out of wood was found on the barrier near the border when the church and the town of Wies were torn down and razed to the ground in the course of the border fortifications against Bavaria.

In 1969 the collegiate church received the papal honorary title Basilica minor .

  • Interior of the collegiate basilica

  • Longhouse, view of the altar

  • Longhouse, view of the entrance

  • Main organ

present

Since the mid-1990s, the Waldsassen monastery has experienced a new departure. In the course of the first general renovation since the baroque period , the buildings threatened with decay could be renovated. A guest house for a culture and meeting center was built. Since September 2008 there is a foundation Kloster Waldsassen GmbH & Co KG, which operates the culture and meeting center Abbey Waldsassen and a private, Roman-Catholic secondary school for girls, in which sisters of the order of the Cistercian women also work as teachers.

The convent , which is temporarily out of date, is growing by young sisters and earns an extra income by taking in and caring for the guests in the St. Joseph guest house, making handicrafts such as parament , designing candles and selling their own products in the monastery shop .

Abbesses and Abbots

Imperial sabers of Waldsassen

Abbots of the Mediatkloster Waldsassen

Abbesses of the Waldsassen convent

Pen library

The magnificent abbey library of Waldsassen Abbey was redesigned under Abbot Eugen Schmid (r. 1724–1764) by artists such as the sculptor Karl Stilp , the fresco painter Karl Hofreiter and the wood carver Andreas Witt. The inventory of approx. 19,000 volumes was brought to Munich after the secularization in Bavaria and some of them were sold. The library is a popular tourist destination in the Upper Palatinate.

Panoramic picture of the Waldsassen Abbey Library

literature

  • Edgar Baumgartl and Wolf-Christian von der Mülbe: Waldsassen Abbey Library. Cistercian spirituality at the beginning of the Enlightenment . Munich 1989, ISBN 3795406811 .
  • Franz Binhack: The Abbots of the Cistercian Abbey and the Waldsassen Monastery , Eichstädt 1887.
  • Karl Hausberger: The monasteries of the Cistercian order in the diocese of Regensburg. A foray through their history , in: Contributions to the history of the Diocese of Regensburg 38 (2004), pp. 7–22.
  • Rudolf Langhammer: Waldsassen. Monastery and city. Vol. 1: From the history of the Cistercian Abbey, which was formerly a prince and imperial abbey until the Reformation , Waldsassen 1936.
  • Alkuin Schachenmayr : Waldsassen Monastery: a historical overview , in: SMGB 129 (2018), pp. 149–169.
  • Georg Schrott: The immeasurable treasure of their books . Literature and history in the Cistercian monastery Waldsassen (studies on the history, art and culture of the Cistercians 18) Berlin 2003, ISBN 978-3-936872-04-0 .
  • Jakob Ignaz Sendtner , Georg Schrott (ed.): The origin of the Waldsassen monastery . Laßleben, Kallmünz 2008, ISBN 978-3-7847-1206-2 .
  • Stiftsbasilika Waldsassen, Peda-Kunstführer Nr. 102 , 1995, Kunstverlag Peda Passau, ISBN 3-927296-62-7 .

See also

Web links

Commons : Kloster Waldsassen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Kloster Waldsassen  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ House of Bavarian History, database, http://www.hdbg.eu/kloster/index.php/detail/geschichte?id=KS0423
  2. ↑ Document Eger June 10, 1218, in: Berthold Schmidt: Document book of the Vögte von Weida , Jena 1885, No. 42.
  3. ↑ https://www.monasterium.net/mom/DE-StAAm/Waldsassen/fond?block=5
  4. ↑ Josef Weinmann: "Egerländer as Abbots of the Waldsassen Monastery", in: Yearbook of the Egerländer , 1978.