Komturkirche Nieder-Weisel

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The Komturkirche Nieder-Weisel is a church building from the 13th century in Nieder-Weisel , town of Butzbach in the Wetterau district in Hesse . It was built as part of a commandery or commandery of the Order of St. John , of which essential parts have been preserved as a monument ensemble.

View of the Komturkirche from the southwest.
View of the manor house built in 1780 from the north.
View into the church hall
Hall upstairs
East side of the church with apse.

history

A settlement of the Johanniter in Nieder-Weisel is documented for the first time in 1245. Donations from the regional noble families, in the early days probably the Münzenbergs (presumed) and verifiably the Falkensteiner (1265 and 1297), Count von Solms (1271) and the Friedberg Burgrave Rupert von Carben (1267), the Johanniter received considerable influence and property in Nieder-Weisel and the surrounding places. This included the patronage of the local parish church and branches in Griedel and Ostheim . The property played a special role in the townscape. It was upstream to the south and protected by a wall from the adjacent country roads and the field markings. It was separated from the town center by a ditch.

The coming party lasted until 1809, when the possessions of the Order of St. John in Germany were confiscated after the Treaty of Schönbrunn . The Nieder-Weiseler Kommende came to the Grand Duchy of Hesse . As early as 1811 the estate was sold on to a baron von Wiesenhütten. He combined the fields, which had been leased to local farmers for centuries, into a large estate, which deprived the residents of the village of their livelihood. In 1861 a union of Nieder-Weisel farmers succeeded in buying back the property. In the meantime the buildings had fallen back to the Grand Duchy, in 1868 they were given to the restored Order of St. John. In 1870 he set up a hospital in the former manor house. The former church, which was used as a stable at the time, was also saved from ruin.

Today the Johanniter-Ordenshaus is located on the site as a spiritual and spiritual center with the only church owned by the order, as well as the office of the state association Hessen / Rhineland-Palatinate / Saar of the Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe and a hotel.

Entire facility for Johanniterkommende

Although some essential parts of the former entire complex, such as the tithe barn or the Kommendegarten, were destroyed, they can still be traced in the townscape thanks to the routing and parcel layout. The complex therefore enjoys ensemble protection as a cultural monument. Individual monuments worthy of protection are the church from the 14th century and the former manor house from 1780. It was later converted into a hospital and in 1913 another angular wing was added.

church

The Komturkirche is one of the few churches in Germany that was designed to be two-story. A hospital ward was located above the three-aisled and four- bay church hall. In the west of the interior there was a vestibule, the towers to the side of it were not implemented. Three apses were inserted into the eastern narrow side , of which only the middle one, which contains the altar, is visible from the outside. The smaller, outer apses are integrated into the front wall. Three circular holes in the ceilings enabled the patients to attend the service. Today they are closed with wooden lids.

The hall-shaped floor plan of the church shows it as a work of the 13th century, even if there are certain similarities to the earlier Ilbenstadt monastery church . Both were probably in a local, Romanesque building tradition. The original furnishings of the church, including wall and ceiling paintings, were lost after 1800.

The upper floor of the church was initially unfinished. In the 16th century it was supplemented with a somewhat flatter ceiling on wooden supports. The former hospital ward was expanded into a chapter house in 1961/62. Since then, chapter meetings of the general order and knight days of individual religious associations have taken place here.

In the church every year members of the order are knighted.

literature

  • Jost Kloft: Territorial history of the district Usingen. Elwert, Marburg 1971 ( Writings of the Hessian State Office for Historical Regional Studies 32 ), p. 82.
  • Ernst A. Schering: History of the Johanniter-Kommende Niederweisel. In: Wetterauer Geschichtsblätter 32, 1983, pp. 67–117.
  • Heinz Wionski: Cultural monuments in Hessen. Wetteraukreis II, Part 1, Bad Nauheim to Florstadt. Published by the State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen , Vieweg, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-528-06227-4 ( Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ), pp. 443-445.

Web links

Commons : Komturkirche Nieder-Weisel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Jan Uhlemann: Male, Protestant, knightly , Wetterauer Zeitung, July 2, 2015, number 150, page. 26th

Coordinates: 50 ° 24 ′ 50.9 "  N , 8 ° 40 ′ 51.3"  E