Wittenburg Monastery

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The monastery Wittenburg was a 1328 founded the monastery of the Augustinian Canons in Wittenburg . It stands on the Klosterberg as the southern tip of the Finie ridge in the Hildesheim district in Lower Saxony . After the decline of the monastery in the 16th century, it became the seat of the Calenberg Office in Wittenburg, and later a domain . The forerunner building of the monastery was Wittenburg Castle , which was built in the Middle Ages at a strategically favorable location and which gave it its name. The mighty Gothic monastery church from 1497, the ruins of a Gothic farm building and parts of the monastery wall have been preserved. The building ensemble is a listed building .

Monastery church of the former Wittenburg Monastery on the Klosterberg (2013)

location

The monastery mountain is the location of the former Wittenburg, the Wittenburg monastery and the later office, as well as the Wittenburg domain and today's monastery church. The mountain is a terraced, flattened extension of the Finie. This is a small chain of hills northwest of Elze and east of the Osterwald , which is overgrown with hornbeam, hazel and thorn bushes. The name Finie or Vinie could come from the Latin for finis , border; or vinea as a Roman vineyard. Wittenburg Castle, which was built in the Middle Ages, had a strategically favorable location because a north-south route connection (today's B 3 ) and the west-east running Hellweg (today's B 1 ) could be controlled. The crossing point, which was important in the Middle Ages, is five kilometers southeast of the castle.

Building description

Wittenburg Monastery Church from the East (2007)

The former monastery church is an elongated, single-nave late Gothic building made of plastered rubble , which was built between 1497 and 1498. The church building, divided roughly in the middle by a rood screen, is 44 meters long. In the eastern half is the choir with the choir stalls, some of which date from the 15th century . This half was originally reserved for the monks. After the monastery no longer existed, this area was used as the church of the local community from 1590 . The structurally somewhat older east building differs from the west half in terms of its construction by external buttresses that stand inside in the west building. The west building of the church was intended for the lay brothers who worked in the monastery. From 1590, the western part served as a barn and storage room for a long time. It has been empty since 2003 and has been used for cultural events such as concerts and exhibitions ever since.

The church building has Gothic lancet windows , but not on the south side. The cloister used to be located here as a two-storey extension, which can still be recognized from the console stones and walled-up doors. In this area, a previously existing cloister is suspected, which is said to have been accessible from the nave through an access door that has now been walled up. Instead of a steeple, the church has a hexagonal roof turret in which the bell hangs.

There are similar building types with a division of the monastery church in the monasteries Frenswegen , Dalheim and Niederwerth .

Surname

There are three possible ways of interpreting the name of the Wittenburg.

The first refers to the building material and describes a white castle, which is derived from the Latin album castrum . The castle consisted of stone material made of white shell limestone , which is found in the ridge of the Finie, so that the word Witt for white came about in connection with the castle of Wittenburg.

The second goes back to an early Billunger name: Witegowo . This became the Wittenburg via Witegeburg and Witteburg . Some references to the Billunger support this thesis:

  • the namesake of the castle chapel was St. Willehad , the first bishop of Bremen (787–789), in all likelihood from the southern German branch of the Billunger.
  • these settled at this place during the Frankish wars of conquest in the years from 772 to 804; they confiscated the site from the property of Immedinger and Riedag. The castle was built around the year 805.
  • however, the Billungers withdrew around 1000, and gave up the settlement and castle.

A third view comes from Georg Wulbrand Bock von Wülfingen . He refers the name to what, in his opinion, was the original name Wittisburg (Witwenburg), because the Wittenburg was for a time the widow's seat of the von Bock von Wülfingen family.

history

Castle

The leveled terrain with a steep slope indicates the former location of a castle (2013)

As a result of the various later uses of the site, no structural remains have been preserved from the earlier castle. Their dimensions can be seen from the leveled area on the monastery mountain, which is still partially surrounded by the monastery wall and which slopes steeply on the sides. According to tradition, the castle was built by the Billungers around the year 805. They had settled at this place during the Franconian wars of conquest from 772 to 804. They are said to have withdrawn as early as the year 1000 and given up the castle and the settlement. Robber barons are said to have made the surrounding area unsafe from the castle . With the construction of the Poppenburg , five kilometers further west and first mentioned in a document in 1251 , the Wittenburg became meaningless. At the end of the 12th century, the owner nobility, from the Esikonen / Nibelungen tribe , gave the Wittenburg, which she had moved into as a widow's seat in 1177, to the Bishop of Hildesheim .

Beginning of the monastery and heyday

Farm building of the monastery with Gothic gate entrance at the foot of the monastery mountain (2017)
The monastery wall, partially cordoned off because of dilapidation (2013)

In the 13th century Wittenburg was an abandoned castle in possession of the Hildesheim Cathedral Chapter , 1297 more in the Klausner as hermits settled. From 1316, Heinrich II. As Bishop of Hildesheim granted the small convent special privileges because of its good reputation. Bishop Otto II of Hildesheim made the six hermits regular canons according to the Augustine rule in 1328 ; thereby the hermitage became an Augustinian monastery .

The Wittenburg Monastery, which is heavily influenced by agriculture, gradually acquired land ownership. In 1330 it acquired four Hufen land in Quickborn, a desolate village near Elze, from Loccum Monastery . Since the monastery had suffered from robbery and fire, Bishop Gerhard von Hildesheim gave him in 1387 the tithe of Osede, a desert near Elze. In 1387 the number of canons increased from six to eight people. In 1389 and 1415, the Brunswick dukes Bernhard I and Heinrich I respectively promised the monastery their protection. The monastery also received various foundations from the Bock von Wülfingen family because of its religious significance. Around 1423, the Wittenburg monastery joined the Windesheim congregation as the 29th reform monastery .

The heyday of the monastery prevailed towards the end of the 15th century and coincided with the construction of the monastery church that still exists today, which was completed in 1497 under Prior Stephan von Möllenbeck . The year 1497 can be found as MCCCCXCVII carved in the keystone above the western church entrance door .

Reformation and decline

Merian engraving from Wittenburg Abbey around 1654, at that time: seat of the Wittenburg Office

The reformation of the monastery took place in 1543, with the monks embracing the Protestant faith in accordance with the expectations of the Brunswick Duchess Elisabeth of Brandenburg . Already in 1552 the economic decline of the monastery was indicated. In 1553 the monks were forced to have a ducal bailiff as economic manager, who soon ran the monastery down, so that the monks left it. In 1564 Duke Erich II pledged the monastery, in which only the prior and a monk lived, to a private citizen. The church was closed that year. In 1580 Duke Julius secularized the monastery and converted it into the seat of the Wittenburg Office, which was part of the Grand Bailiwick of Calenberg . The resulting 1654 Merian - engraving of the former monastery complex is a series of residential and commercial buildings as well as the monastery church. The attached two-storey convent house , of which console stones still testify today, no longer exists. Merian described the complex as a princely Calenberg administrative building, which is located on a hill and therefore has a good view. In 1590 a parish church was set up in the choir in the eastern area of ​​the monastery church, which is still there today. In 1884 Conrad Wilhelm Hase redesigned the choir in the eastern part of the church building in the neo-Gothic style. The western part of the church, which is now vacant, was used as a sheepfold and barn from 1590 and was restored in 1889 after a visit by Kaiser Wilhelm II .

domain

After the dissolution of the monastery, the land was leased as a domain. Under King George III. from Hanover , the Wittenburg developed into a model estate and from 1795 it was the seat of the Calenberg Agricultural Society . At that time, half of the country was already settled. With the settlement of the rest of the land in the domain in 1908, the domain operation was finally over.

Recent history

The windowless south side of the monastery church with sacristy on the right (2013)
Monastery church illuminated at night (2013)

The Loccum Treaty resulted in the transfer of the Wittenburg monastery church back to the local parish in 1955. Afterwards, the eastern part of the building was only used on special holidays, while the Sunday services took place in the attached sacristy ; today they take place again in the choir of the eastern part. The western part of the church was used by the Evangelical Church until 2003 as a storage room for church inventory and was then cleared.

In 2000 the Friends of the Wittenburg Church was founded , the aim of which is to preserve the church. Since then the monastery church has developed into the spiritual and cultural center of the region. In the vacant western part, which has the character of a high Gothic hall, events such as music concerts, theater performances, readings and art exhibitions take place regularly.

In 2010, indoor and outdoor lighting was installed, which was created in cooperation with the University of Applied Science and Art (HAWK).

In 2011, the association acquired the monastery garden to the south of the church, on which originally the castle and then the monastery, official and domain buildings stood. The already heavily overgrown area was exposed and is now open to the public as a meadow. A meadow orchard, which is important for nature conservation , was then created . In 2012, a foundation acquired the entire area of ​​the monastery mountain and left it to the Friends of the Wittenburg Church , which allows sheep to graze on it. From the monastery garden there is a wide view to the south into the valley of the Leine and to the east into the Hildesheimer Land. The area is still partly surrounded by the monastery wall, which is in a dilapidated condition. A restoration is planned for 2013.

literature

  • Roland Webersinn: Thoughts on the importance of the Wittenburg on the Middle Leine in the early Middle Ages. In: Alt-Hildesheim. Vol. 52 (1981) pp. 7-10.
  • Ernst Andreas Friedrich : The Church of Wittenburg , pp. 90–92, in: If stones could talk. Volume IV, Landbuch-Verlag, Hannover 1998, ISBN 3-7842-0558-5 .
  • Document book of the Wittenburg monastery : ( Calenberger document book , section 12), rev. by Brigitte Flug. Lax, Hildesheim 1990. (Sources and studies on the history of Lower Saxony in the Middle Ages, Vol. 13), ISBN 3-7848-3022-6 (Also contains: Peter Bardehle: Goods directory of the Wittenburg monastery from 1462/78. )
  • Hans-Wilhelm Heine : The prehistoric and early historical castle walls in the administrative district of Hanover. Hannover 2000, ISBN 3-7752-5645-8 , pp. 122-124.
  • Margret Zimmermann, Hans Kensche: Castles and palaces in Hildesheimer Land . Hildesheim, 2001, pp. 190–191
  • Nicolaus Heutger: The Wittenburg Monastery near Elze: a little-known Lower Saxony monastery. In: home country. 2002, pp. 52-56.
  • Sascha Aust u. a .: Churches, monasteries and chapels in the Hanover region. Hanover 2005, ISBN 3-7859-0924-1 .

Web links

Commons : Wittenburg Monastery  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Ernst Andreas Friedrich: The Church of Wittenburg , in: If stones could talk, Volume IV, p. 90
  2. a b c d Nicolaus Heutger: The Wittenburg Monastery near Elze: a little-known Lower Saxony monastery , p. 52
  3. Nicolaus Heutger: The Wittenburg Monastery near Elze: a little-known Lower Saxony monastery , p. 55
  4. ^ Nicolaus Heutger: Lower Saxon religious houses and monasteries - The Wittenburg Abbey near Elze, p. 203
  5. Nicolaus Heutger: The Wittenburg Monastery near Elze: a little-known Lower Saxony monastery , p. 56
  6. Nicolaus Heutger: Lower Saxony religious houses and monasteries - The Wittenburg Monastery near Elze, p. 194
  7. a b Nicolaus Heutger: The Wittenburg Monastery near Elze: a little-known Lower Saxony monastery , p. 53
  8. Nicolaus Heutger: The Wittenburg Monastery near Elze: a little-known Lower Saxony monastery , p. 54
  9. 2010 lighting of the church ( Memento of the original from January 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.freundewittenburgerkirche.de
  10. 2009 - 2012 Der Klosterberg ( Memento of the original from January 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.freundewittenburgerkirche.de
  11. Construction project 2013 - The natural stone wall ( Memento of the original from January 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.freundewittenburgerkirche.de

Coordinates: 52 ° 8 ′ 29.7 "  N , 9 ° 42 ′ 22.1"  E