Kreuzkloster (Braunschweig)

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The Kreuzkloster in 1899 (to the left, "No. 10" , the Rennelberg prison ).

The Monastery of the Cross in Braunschweig , also called "Convent St. Crucis", the tradition arose after 1230 on the Rennelberg just outside the city, near the Peter's Gate and was the Holy Cross and the Virgin Mary consecrated. During the heavy bombing raid on Braunschweig on October 15, 1944, it was completely destroyed and not rebuilt, which ended a more than 700-year history. The last visible remains are the cemetery and the sexton's house.

history

Originally it was a Benedictine convent . Founder of the monastery should knights have been Baldwin of camping, whose brother Jordan, Steward Duke Otto the child was buried in 1230 as the first in the monastery church. In 1241 the monastery church was first mentioned in a document as "Sanct Crucis".

Cross Monastery
Braunschweig around 1400
Location of the Kreuzkloster on a map of the city of Braunschweig around 1400.

Around 1400 it was converted into a Cistercian convent and was managed and inhabited by nuns of this order until 1532 . After the Reformation in Braunschweig, in 1528, the Catholic monastery initially continued to exist. In 1532, however, the last Catholic abbess , Gertrud Holle, who had previously refused to accept the new faith, was relieved of her office and replaced by the Lutheran Adelheid von Lafferde. The Kreuzkloster was henceforth a Lutheran women's convent , which continued until the monastery was destroyed in October 1944. The main task of the canonies was nursing and running a girls' school.

Between the 16th and 17th centuries, the number of "conventual women", i.e. canonical women, fluctuated between 12 and 15, while the number of girls taught, who were housed in a monastery as in a boarding school, rose from 15 to 24 in the same period . In 1800 the convent had a dominatrix , a provost and 14 conventual women.

The entire monastery was run by two councilors or other respected citizens during the Protestant period. These were subordinate to a "provost" who, however, was no longer a clergyman as before, but a secular administrator appointed by the council.

After the city was subjugated in 1671, the conventual women no longer came from the circles of wealthy merchants and craftsmen as they had before, but were now daughters and widows of deserving ducal officials or clergy who lived there.

Economic basis

The Kreuzkloster had considerable income from various farms , the leasing of land, the tithe , the (still existing) Repturm , an economy with its own sheep farm (acquired in 1260), a brick yard, the large cloister yard in Evessen am Elm , the " Steinhof “(North of the city) and a farm in Wedtlenstedt in the west. The provost was also pastor of the Kreuzklosterkirche and the church in the nearby village of Lehndorf (a donation from 1245.)

On July 1, 1883, the monastery domain was abolished and the resulting land was sold or leased. From 1884 on, the Rennelberg prison was built on the former site within sight of the monastery . In 1940 five canonesses were still living on the property with their superior. In the last few years before the Second World War , the structure of the building fell into disrepair, which is why it was decided to renovate, which, however, was no longer carried out due to the war. On October 15, 1944, the entire former monastery complex was completely destroyed by the heavy bombing, except for parts of the cemetery and the sexton's house.

church

The half-timbered church before 1900

A first church from the 13th century was provided with a cloister and probably had three aisles . They had two side chapels (1403 to 1410 built), three altars from the early 15th century, and an organ of 1414. This, now Protestant church was founded by the Brunswickers for fear of the Catholic Guelph -Herzog Henry the Younger in 1545 on Order of the council demolished, but rebuilt from 1567 to 1571 as the only massive Renaissance church in the city. On May 16, 1571, the new building was consecrated by the Braunschweig superintendent Martin Chemnitz . In the middle of the 15th century, 30 nuns lived in the monastery , which was mostly headed by an abbess and a prioress . The provost was in each case from the old town - council appointed for life or limited in time and had to leave the Hildesheim be confirmed Bishop. During the siege of the city by Duke Heinrich Julius von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel in 1605, the church was destroyed again. The last new monastery church was consecrated in 1609. It was a simple half-timbered building with a roof turret . At the same time, a large residential building was built for the canons, which was directly adjacent to the church. In 1712 an altar wall carved by Anton Detlev Jenner was built into the baroque church . In front of this, Jenner placed a late Gothic pulpit (built around 1490) from the former Pauline monastery on Bohlweg, which was no longer used , probably to save costs . In 1944, during the Second World War, this pulpit was brought to safety by the Braunschweig state curator Kurt Seeleke together with Herman Flesche , so that it is the only part of the interior of the Kreuzklosterkirche that survived the bombing night of October 15, 1944 unscathed. Today it is in the Aegidienkirche . Other objects that have been saved are a goblet from the 14th century and some parament embroidery, which is now in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum .

List of leaders

  • Gertrud Holle (? -1532 deposed, last Catholic abbess)
  • Adelheid von Lafferde (1532–1589, first Lutheran dominatrix)
  • Clara von Assel (1589–1601)
  • Anna Lossius (1601–1640)
  • Christiane von Stapel (1642–1648)
  • Margarethe von Stapler (1648–1678)
  • Anna von Engelnstedt (1678–1705)
  • Ilse von Bobergen (1705–?)
  • Ilse Dorothea von Barner (? –1726)
  • Rebekka Magdalena von Petersdorff (1726–1743)
  • Catharine von Wittorf, b. by Merrettig (1743–1751)
  • Anna von Witzleben, b. von Bach (1753–1788)
  • Philippine Charlotte of Jerusalem (1789–1823)
  • Adolfine Henriette Albertine von Löhneysen (1826–1870)
  • Louise Olfermann (1870–1882)
  • Julie Olfermann (1882-1892)
  • Toni Wirk (1892-1940)
  • Martha Lippelt (1940-1944)

graveyard

Gravestones in the cemetery
Gravestone of Captain Carl von Rabiel
(killed in action near Ölper (1809) ) .

The monastery cemetery initially served both the monastery and the nearby Petri community for their suburb of Rennelberg with 42 houses as a burial place. The oldest tombstone still in existence today dates from 1633 and was made for Anna von Engelnstedt, domina of the monastery. In 1710 the Petri congregation still claimed the cemetery for its members. Due to a lack of space, it was decided in 1887 to bury only conventual women, monastery directors and people belonging to the monastery there. The last burial took place in April 1945. On the orders of Berthold Heilig , SA-Obersturmführer Wilhelm Ogilvie was shot in the cemetery and later buried there. The cemetery was in use for almost 700 years.

The cemetery is - like the entire original monastery complex - in the Freisestraße (until 1930 "Pflegehausstraße") and today belongs to the Braunschweigischer Kulturbesitz Foundation . The Evangelical Foundation Neuerkerode has leased it and it is used by the “Maria-Stehmann-Haus”, a facility for the disabled. The cemetery, where there are still numerous graves and tombstones, is not open to the public.

2019: Archaeological excavations on the eastern cemetery grounds

The grave with eight male skeletons found in early 2019.

The eastern area of ​​the part of the property no longer recognizable as a cemetery, which has belonged to the Georg Eckert Institute since 1982 , is to be used for the construction of a new library building. The excavation work began around the turn of 2018/2019. As it was known that it was originally a cemetery, archaeologists have been on site since construction began . In January / February 2019, several individual graves of different ages and degrees of preservation were actually found and examined. Archaeologists estimate the number of people buried there at 300. Furthermore, a mass grave was discovered that contains the completely preserved skeletons of eight men between the ages of 20 and 40 years. Due to the type of burial and other circumstances of the finds, historians and archaeologists, including Michael Geschwinde from the Lower Saxony State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Braunschweig, as well as Henning Steinführer , director of the Braunschweig city archive , suspect that they could be dead in the battle at Ölper , which took place on 1 August 1809, not far from where it is found today, the black crowd of Duke Friedrich Wilhelm of Brunswick encountered numerically superior Napoleonic troops under Jean-Jacques Reubell . In the vicinity of the mass grave, the well-preserved skull of a single man, estimated to be over 50 years old, was found, who was apparently also buried there. The artifact has three major trauma trauma; two of them were older and already healed, the last one was an unhealed and most likely fatal blow with a ( cavalry ) saber .

Tombs and burials

  • Rebecca Magdalena von Petersdorff (1669–1743)
  • Carl von Rabiel (1776–1809), killed in action at the Battle of Ölper
  • Heinrich Conrad Staffe (1752–1826), owner of the White Horse
  • Concordia Du Roi (1742-1834)
  • Catherine Friederike Brandes, b. Room (1776–1840)
  • Carl Gebhard (1811–1870), Packhof commissioner
  • Wilhelm Ogilvie (1915-1945)

literature

Web links

Commons : Kreuzkloster (Braunschweig)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Dürre: History of the city of Braunschweig in the Middle Ages. Braunschweig 1861, p. 515.
  2. ^ Reinhard Dorn: Medieval churches in Braunschweig. Hameln, 1978, p. 250.
  3. ^ A b Hermann Dürre: History of the City of Braunschweig in the Middle Ages. Braunschweig 1861, p. 516.
  4. ↑ Werner Spieß: History of the city of Braunschweig in the post-Middle Ages. From the end of the Middle Ages to the end of urban freedom 1491–1671. Volume 2, Braunschweig 1966, p. 645
  5. ↑ Werner Spieß: History of the city of Braunschweig in the post-Middle Ages. From the end of the Middle Ages to the end of urban freedom 1491–1671. Volume 2, Braunschweig 1966, p. 647.
  6. ↑ Werner Spieß: History of the city of Braunschweig in the post-Middle Ages. From the end of the Middle Ages to the end of urban freedom 1491–1671. Volume 2, Braunschweig 1966, p. 646.
  7. ^ Hermann Dürre: History of the city of Braunschweig in the Middle Ages. Braunschweig 1861, p. 519.
  8. ^ Hermann Dürre: History of the city of Braunschweig in the Middle Ages. Braunschweig 1861, p. 522.
  9. ↑ Werner Spieß: History of the city of Braunschweig in the post-Middle Ages. From the end of the Middle Ages to the end of urban freedom 1491–1671. Volume 1, Braunschweig 1966, p. 119.
  10. ^ Hermann Dürre: History of the city of Braunschweig in the Middle Ages. Braunschweig 1861, p. 518f.
  11. ↑ Wolfgang A. Jünke: Destroyed art from Braunschweig's houses of worship - inner-city churches and chapels before and after 1944. Groß Oesingen 1994, p. 188.
  12. ^ Edith Raim: Justice between dictatorship and democracy: Reconstruction and prosecution of Nazi crimes in West Germany 1945–1949. Munich, Oldenbourg 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-70411-2 , pp. 786-789.
  13. ↑ Braunschweiger Zeitung, April 24, 2008: The lonely death of Wilhelm Ogilvie
  14. ↑ The photos were taken on “ Open Monument Day ” on September 10, 2006.
  15. ↑ Skeleton find at the Georg Eckert Institute in Braunschweig: Archaeologists assume 300 deaths on news38.de
  16. ↑ 300 deaths and a sensational find on the GEI construction site on focus.de on February 28, 2019.

Coordinates: 52 ° 16 ′ 5 ″  N , 10 ° 30 ′ 32 ″  E