Walsrode Monastery

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Entrance gate with monastery wall, on the left the roof turret of the monastery chapel

The Walsrode monastery in Walsrode is one of the historic Lüne monasteries . Today it is an evangelical women's foundation in the Lüneburg Heath , administered by the Hanover monastery chamber.

history

Floor plan of the monastery complex in 1755
The neo-Gothic remter was donated by Empress Auguste Viktoria in 1910

The monastery was founded in the tenth century by Count Walo and his wife Odelint as a canonical foundation, the exact year of foundation is not known. The first documentary mention was made in a deed of gift from King Otto III. from the year 986. It is by far the oldest women's monastery in the former Principality of Lüneburg . Its patron saint is John the Baptist . Although the monastery was not part of the order, the Rule of St. Benedict was introduced in 1255.

In 1482, large parts of the monastery burned down in a lightning strike. Parts of the brick masonry and the stained glass windows of the chapel come from the subsequent late Gothic reconstruction. From 1528 the conversion to the Lutheran faith began in the course of the Lutheran confession , which - like in the other five Lüneburg monasteries - stretched over several decades and was not completed until 1570 after opposition from the convent. From then on, the monastery was run as a Protestant women's monastery, which from then on was occupied by a maximum of 11 residents. In 1699, under pressure from the nobility, the Guelph Duke Georg Wilhelm ordered that all positions in the monastery should be reserved for noble ladies. In 1626, during the Thirty Years' War , the monastery was sacked by Tilly's soldiers . From 1700 the heavily dilapidated monastery buildings were demolished and replaced by new buildings on the original foundation walls.

Gothic south window of the monastery chapel, on the right behind the choir of the town church built in 1850

In the period from 1812 to 1815 the convent was abolished and the monastery was occupied by Napoleon for three years . As a result, the convent and its members campaigned strongly for social issues in Walsrode and the surrounding area. In 1835 the independent Walsrode office was abolished and incorporated into the Fallingbostel-Soltau District Bailiwick . In 1842 the Abbess von Marschalck founded a school for the poor in Walsrode, and in 1875 the first hospital was built by the Prioress Amalie von Stoltzenberg. In 1890, Therese von Plato set up a waiting school for children.

In 1980 the restriction of the convention to the admission of aristocrats ended, and from now on bourgeois women were also admitted as members.

The eventful history ensured that many art treasures and the old buildings were destroyed, so that today mainly buildings from the 18th century can be seen, such as the famous Long House from 1720. The remarkable Remter is a foundation of the last German Emperor Wilhelm II . and his wife. The windows of the chapel in the version after the fire in 1482, an almost life-size figure of the monastery founder Walo from around 1300 and an approximately 500-year-old clothed wooden figure of the Christ child ( Bambino ) have also been preserved.

literature

  • Christian prayer so common in the monastery in Walszrode. Prayer book of the Walsrode monastery from 1649. Reprinted with a comment by Renate Oldermann-Meier (= series of publications of the Association of Friends of the Heidemuseum Walsrode. Volume 9). Walsrode 1995. ISBN 3-9803242-2-2 .
  • Renate Oldermann-Meier: Christian prayer so common in the monastery at Walszrode . In: Yearbook of the Society for Lower Saxony Church History. No. 94 (1996), pp. 211-219.
  • Renate Oldermann : Walsrode Monastery - From the canon monastery to the Protestant women's monastery. Monastic women's life in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period . Edition Temmen, Bremen 2004. ISBN 3-86108-045-1 .
  • Renate Oldermann, Christian Prayer As used in the Walszrode monastery , in: Wolfgang Brandis, Hans-Walter Stork (ed.), Weltbild und Lebensreallichkeit in den Lüneburg Monasteries, Berlin 2015 , pp. 183–193. ISBN 978-3-86732-221-8 .

Web links

Commons : Kloster Walsrode  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 52 ° 51 ′ 37.8 "  N , 9 ° 35 ′ 47.7"  E