List of the abbesses of Waldsassen

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Waldsassen Collegiate Basilica

The list of abbesses of Waldsassen contains the names of the abbesses of the Waldsassen monastery from its foundation to the present day. The sequence of abbots and abbesses can be divided into three phases based on the history of the monastery. Diepold III. With the establishment of the monastery, von Vohburg succeeded in developing the land and cultivating it in the Egerland at the limits of his sphere of influence. From the free float, with some newly founded locations - e.g. B. in the Schönbacher Ländchen - gradually formed a largely closed territory with the Stiftland . With Abbot Georg III. Agmann initially ended monastic life as a result of the Reformation ; the rulers of the neighboring Upper Palatinate took over the property. With the end of the Thirty Years War and the recatholicization , the monastery began again. Significant buildings and works of art were created that have largely survived the times. Under Abbot Albert Hausner were stiftsbasilika waldsassen and the Holy Trinity Church Kappl completed. Under Abbot Eugen Schmid originated Abbey Library in its present form. The acquisition of catacomb saints continued. During the Enlightenment and with the secularization in Bavaria , monastery life came to an abrupt end in 1803. About 60 years later, the initiative of the Regensburg bishop Ignatius von Senestrey succeeded in repopulating the monastery from Seligenthal . The first abbess, Richmunda Herrnreither , elected in 1925, was committed, like her successors, to the preservation of the extensive cultural heritage. During missionary work in Bolivia , the Cistercian women set new accents with the Apolo Monastery and later with the Colegio Ave Maria in La Paz .

Abbots from the founding to the Reformation (1136–1537)

Engraving with a view of the monastery from 1687

The list is based on the work of Rudolf Langhammer , additional information has been provided with sources. In contrast to Langhammer, the census of the abbots in the Festschrift of the Stiftland Museum Waldsassen begins with Heinrich, Ulrich and Adeodat, who were probably appointed by the mother monastery of Volkenroda from 1133 , and the variants of delineating terms of office that were possible up to the beginning of the 15th century are above all dependent from the lack of clarity in the determination of months or days around the turn of the year or the different, sometimes faulty traditions. The chroniclers and abbots John III are among the sources that Langhammer used . by Elbogen and Johannes IV. Grübel . Later news comes, for example, from the humanist and historical researcher Kaspar Brusch .

There is no complete work covering all three phases of the monastery history for the chronicle of the history of the monastery and the associated sequence of abbots and abbesses. The city archivists of Cheb (Eger) Heinrich Gradl , Karl Siegl and Heribert Sturm touch on the history of Waldsassen again and again in their publications about today's German-Czech border area. Research like the Germania Sacra z. B. realized with Alfred Wendehorst via the bishops of Würzburg , does not exist for the monastery or the associated diocese of Regensburg . Rudolf Langhammer's chronicle, published in 1936, deals in detail with the first phase of the monastery history. Despite the time of National Socialism and the corresponding public position on the Sudetenland , he presented the development in a factually balanced manner. The second volume he was planning on the history of the monastery was not published.

Some of the abbots from Waldsassen were abbots from other monasteries before or after their time in Waldsassen, especially the daughter monasteries of Waldsassen. These were Sedletz with Königsaal and Skalitz , the affiliated monasteries Walderbach and Maschau and Osek with St. Bernhard (1232–1234). While Waldsassen Monastery contributed to the cultivation of the Egerland in its early days and founded numerous villages in the Schönbacher Ländchen, for example , it came to a largely separate territorial property, the Stiftland , in the course of time . The fortified town of Tirschenreuth with the town castle and the castles Falkenberg , Altneuhaus , Neuhaus , Schwarzenschwall , Waldershof , Hardeck , Liebenstein and Schönficht contributed to the preservation of the autonomy of the prince abbey and the defense of the Stiftland . Plants such as the stone house in the Free Imperial City of Eger and the Fischhof in Tirschenreuth were of sustainable economic importance .

The last abbot George III. Agmann was followed by the administrators Johannes von Weeze and Heinrich Rudolf von Weeze . The Count Palatine Reichard followed as administrator of the Stiftland in 1560, but the monastery was not yet annexed by the Palatinate. That happened in 1571, when Reichard and his brother Friedrich III. agreed on a reallocation of the property. Only now did the 50-year direct rule of the Count Palatine and Elector Palatinate begin. As a result of the Thirty Years' War , Friedrich V lost the Upper Palatinate to Maximilian I , which then belonged to the Electorate of Bavaria .

No. Surname Term of office annotation
01 Gerlach 1136-1165 The actual abbots were preceded by Heinrich, Ulrich and Adeodat as leaders of the preparatory work appointed by the mother monastery of Volkenroda . The monastery was founded by Diepold III. von Vohburg , who pushed the land development and cultivation at the limits of his sphere of influence.
02 Daniel 1165-1194 Fragments of individual writings from Daniel have been preserved. He made a copy called Vocabularium Papiae of works by Papia , which were still completely preserved when the Waldsassen Chronicle was written in 1507.
03 Erkenbert 1194 / 1196-1212
04th Hermann 1212-1220 After Kaspar Brusch , Hermann was not elected until 1214; he died in 1222 in the Cîteaux monastery . In 1217 he acquired the Tirschenreuth estate district (praedium) from the Ortenburgers in exchange, and in 1219 the first complex of the Fischhof near Tirschenreuth was built .
05 Eberhard 1220-1246
06th John I. 1246-1266 In 1263, the monastery acquired Waldershof Castle from the Landgraves of Leuchtenberg and in the following years also the surrounding villages.
07th Giselbert 1267-1270 Giselbert was first a monk in Waldsassen, then abbot of Osek , until he was called back as abbot in Waldsassen. He was also abbot of the Kamp monastery .
08th Lambert 1270-1274
09 John II 1274-1286
10 Theodoric 1286-1302 Theodoric was called from the Osek monastery and was an advisor to King Wenceslaus II. He supported the establishment of the Königsaal monastery from Sedletz . Between 1290 and 1314, the monastery acquired what would later become Marktredwitz and the surrounding villages. Around 1300 the Falkenberg Castle came into the possession of the monastery. As abbot he gave up prematurely.
11 Otto 1302-1304 In 1302 the monastery bought Falkenberg Castle. According to Bruschius , Otto worked differently from 1306 to 1308.
12 Heinrich Heidenreich 1304 Heinrich was abbot of Sedletz , after two months in Waldsassen he returned to this office. Sedletz Monastery had a heyday during its long period of activity, not least because of silver finds in the nearby Kuttenberg .
13 Udalrich 1304-1310 Udalrich came from the Königssaal monastery , where he took over the management of the wine cellar after his return .
14th John III 1310-1323 John III was the first abbot from the Egerland . He was friends with the Königsaaler Abbot Peter von Zittau and was one of the supporters of Johann von Böhmen . He himself was the oldest chronicler of the Waldsassen monastery. There were minor feuds with family members of the von Haslau and the Rorer family . The Nuremberg burgrave Friedrich IV devastated the monastery. The place Schönbach was raised to a city in 1319. Johannes acquired Hardeck Castle and retired there after his resignation.
15th John IV. Grübel 1323-1337 John IV was initially abbot of Osek and was called to Waldsassen after the death of his predecessor. He was in the favor of Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia , who made precious gifts to the monastery. After the language researcher Johann Andreas Schmeller , he is the author of the fundatio latinalis , a poem with rhymes in German about the history of the monastery. The second Lengenfeld feud fell during his term of office. After the arbitration by the Landgrave von Leuchtenberg, the brothers Cunrad and Heinrich von Lengenfeld were forced to sell their entire property to the Waldsassen monastery. Heinrich von Lengenfeld appears in 1335 as a judge in Leuchtenberg and in that year acknowledges Bishop Nycla of Regensburg “five half pfunt Regenspurger pfennig” for services rendered (HSTA Munchen Urk.334).
16 Franz Kübel 1337-1349 Franz's period of work was connected with a phase of decline and the monastery becoming indebted. In 1348, Rüdiger von Sparneck acquired extensive monastery property with the Schönbacher Ländchen , some places owe their first documentary mention to this purchase. Opposition monastery brothers elected Nikolaus Heckel from Eger as abbot, which a visitor from Morimond reversed, but Franz was deposed by the monastery brothers because of waste. In 1342 the monastery had to sell the later Marktredwitz to the city of Eger.
17th Heinrich I. Rulb 1349-1357 Heinrich I came from the Sedletz monastery , where he returned after his resignation. As abbot, he managed to alleviate the debt burden, which he achieved through extensive sales and pledging of estates and villages.
18th Nikolaus I. Steinkelner 1357-1360 Nicholas I came from Eger , was brought up in Waldsassen and sent to Sedletz . Heinrich I. Rulb called him back to Waldsassen as his successor. In his short term of office he improved the economic situation of the monastery further.
19th Nicholas II 1360-1362 Nicholas II came from Tachau . He died on a trip to Prague .
20th Johannes V. von Wirsberg 1363-1371 Johannes V was the only known noble abbot, the von Wirsberg family was wealthy in the Franconian-Bohemian border area.
21st Konrad I. Heidenreich 1371-1393 In 1382, the robber baron Friedrich von Neuberg also confessed to various attacks on property of the monastery. His extensive confession under torture was recorded in the Cheb Book of Ailments . After a relatively long term in office , Konrad I.
22nd Konrad II. 1393-1417 The frequent trips of Conrad II as a consultant or participant in the Council of Constance led to the appointment of Bartholomäus Ermesreither as the new abbot after complaints from monastery brothers John VI gold. At times there were three abbots for Waldsassen, Bartholomäus was supported by Eger, while Konrad was allied with the Count Palatine. In 1414, the Count Palatine were appointed by King Sigismund as bailiffs of the monastery.
23 Nicholas III Eppenreither 1417-1433 Nicholas III was in regular contact with the Cheb Council during the Hussite Wars . Initially, however, it was not the Hussites that posed a threat, but a feud with the knight Hynko Kruschina von Schwanberg , who apparently took advantage of the turmoil of the civil war. In 1430 he plundered the monastery and the associated villages.
24 John VI Helix 1433-1461 In the first year of his term in office, the Hussites had long feared attacks . Hussite leader Jakoubek von Vřesovice plundered the monastery extensively, apparently not injuring people. Nevertheless, the monastery recovered quickly, not least because of its sponsors. The humble beginnings of the Waldsassen Abbey Library go back to 1433 . John VI and his successors contributed significantly to the territorial rounding of the monastery property , which gave the name Stiftland its name. In 1442 the Hohenstein Probstei was bought by the Reichenbach Monastery.
25th Nicholas IV Peisser 1461-1479 Nikolaus IV. Peisser came from Eger . It applies to his predecessor John VI. Wendel as abbot, who contributed to the territorial rounding of the monastery property and to the formation of the Stiftland . Heinrich von Plauen ordered him to attend a wedding ceremony in Königswart , where he died.
26th Udalrich II. Birker 1479-1486 In a series of bad harvests in the monastery area, Udalrich II drew criticism when he sold the entire grain stores of the monastery and invested the proceeds in new paraments and overdue renovation measures. After his resignation, he retired to Falkenberg Castle .
27 Erhard I. Jakobi 1486-1493 Erhard I. studied in Leipzig and was previously Abbot of Sedletz . Because of his strict conduct, he drew the displeasure of the friars and was forced to give up. He initially retired to the stone house in Eger , then was abbot of the Skalitz monastery for three days and returned to Waldsassen in 1503. In 1491 he compensated the "Beidler" from Dürnkonreuth, relatives of the "Lengenfelder" for a Wismadt that was "buried and drowned" during the embankment of the Rothenbürger Weiher (STAAM, Waldsassen Abbey Urk. 889)
28 Erhard II. Spede 1493-1494
29 George I. Angel 1494-1512 The alliances of the Landshut War of Succession involved the monastery in disputes in which the neighboring Margrave Friedrich II also took sides. In 1504 the monastery and the associated villages were pillaged and devastated by the margrave captain Alexander von Lüchau and Balthasar Pybriczs. The abbot and some of his followers had fled to Tirschenreuth and returned a little later to rebuild the community.
30th Andreas Metzl 1512-1524
31 Nicholas V. Seber 1524-1526 When the Peasants' War flared up, Count Palatine Frederick II asked Nicholas V to open the monastery to Palatinate troops and to hand over treasures, documents and food supplies for safekeeping. The abbot did not comply, because it was foreseeable that the Count Palatine would use the situation to expand his influence on the monastery. Rather, Nicholas V fled on May 11, 1525 with the most important valuables to the stone house in Eger and later to Bečov , where he wanted to obtain protection from the Bohemian crown. On May 12, 2,000 insurgent farmers stormed the monastery and mainly used the pantries. On May 25, a contract was drawn up in Tirschenreuth with the mediation of Count Palatine Friedrich II , which met the demands of the peasants far. However, on September 4, 1526, Nicholas V obtained before the Imperial Court of Justice in Speyer that the monastery was restored to its original autonomy. Nicholas V had to give up and was resigned. He retired to the stone house in Eger. However, contrary to the arbitration ruling, the Count Palatine left behind Palatine officials in Falkenberg, Neuhaus, Waldershof, Liebenstein and Hardeck and future abbots recognized the Palatinate protectorate when they took office.
32 Valentin Fischer 1526-1529
33 George II Schmucker 1529-1531
34 George III Agmann 1531-1537 George, who wanted to submit to the protection of the crown of Bohemia, was taken prisoner by the Count Palatine Friedrich II . He was not allowed to return after his release, but was elected abbot of Walderbach Monastery . He died of the plague in 1547 .

Abbots after the Thirty Years' War up to secularization in Bavaria (1690–1803)

The ignoramus, wooden figure from the Waldsassen Abbey Library

After the Thirty Years War , in the course of recatholicization, the monastery was repopulated from the Fürstenfeld monastery . The monastery had long since lost its imperial immediacy and was subject to the Bavarian elector . Nevertheless, it experienced a second heyday, in which well-known artists such as the builders Abraham Leuthner or Georg Dientzenhofer were involved in the reconstruction and the collegiate church was built. Artists such as the sculptor Karl Stilp , the painter Karl Hofreiter and the plasterer Jacopo Appiani created the Waldsassen Abbey Library from 1724 to 1726 . The secularization in Bavaria in 1803 meant the abrupt end of monastic life. The information on the abbots is taken from the Festschrift of the Stiftlandmuseum on the occasion of the 875th anniversary of the monastery.

No. Surname Term of office annotation
01 Martin Dallmayr (Dallmayer) approx. 1670-1690 Martin Dallmayr was abbot of the Fürstenfeld monastery since 1640 . In 1661 the Cisterze Waldsassen was repopulated under his supervision. From 1670 Abbot Martin appears in documents both as Abbot of Fürstenfeld and of Waldsassen. In 1681 he began building the new baroque collegiate church , the previous Romanesque building from the 12th century was completely demolished beforehand.
02 Albert Hausner 1690-1710 Albert Hausner took his religious vows in the Fürstenfeld monastery in 1665. He studied theology at the University of Ingolstadt and was ordained a priest in 1674. As parish vicar from 1676 to 1690, he was President of the local Rosary Society . During his time as abbot, the collegiate church was completed, as was the Trinity Church in Kappl . During the War of the Spanish Succession , troops of Count Hermann Otto II of Limburg-Styrum stayed in the Stiftland in 1703/1704 and caused high costs for the monastery. The collegiate church was consecrated in 1704 by Auxiliary Bishop Franz Ferdinand von Rummel .
03 Anselm Schnaus 1710-1724 Anselm Schnaus came from the Fürstenfeld monastery to Waldsassen, where he was also Kastner and construction director and was ordained abbot of Waldsassen by the abbot of Aldersbach in 1711 . Through negotiations he won back several former monastery parishes. Various construction works were carried out and the number of novices increased.
04th Eugene Schmid 1724-1744 Eugen Schmid had been the city pastor of Tirschenreuth since 1714 , as abbot, unlike his predecessors, he took over a lively and well-equipped monastery so that he could concentrate on economic and pastoral aspects. From 1724 to 1726 he had the abbey library expanded. In 1734 he was appointed Vicar General and Visitator of the Province of Bavaria and in 1738 attended the General Chapter of the Cistercian Order in the Cîteaux Monastery .
05 Alexander Vogel 1744-1756 Alexander Vogel came from Sagan, today Żagań , in Silesia. In negotiations with Rome, he provided the Gnadenkapelle in Tirschenreuth and the Waldsassen Collegiate Basilica with additional catacomb saints . In the last years of his life, he was in poor health and retired to Wondreb , where he had already worked as a parish vicar. He died there too.
06th Wigand Deltsch 1756-1792 Wigand Deltsch was the first abbot who was born in the Stiftland after the re-establishment of the monastery . As a client, he implemented several construction measures, e.g. B. the rectory Wurz and St. Laurentius in Stein. The emerging enlightenment , anti-church thinking and the pressure that the state exerted on the monasteries became apparent at the end of his term of office.
07th Athanasius Hettenkofer 1793-1803 Athanasius Hettenkofer found himself exposed to anti-church tendencies in the course of the Enlightenment and with the new Bavarian Elector Maximilian I Joseph , the pressure of the state on the monastery increased from 1799 onwards. Minister Maximilian von Montgelas increasingly restricted the freedoms of the monastery and dissolved it in the course of secularization in Bavaria in 1803, the property was confiscated.

Abbesses to this day (since 1925)

The Regensburg bishop Ignatius von Senestrey promoted the new beginning, which took place with a new settlement by Cistercian women from the Seligenthal monastery . The information on the abbesses is taken from the Festschrift of the Stiftland Museum on the occasion of the 875th anniversary of the monastery.

No. Surname Term of office annotation
01 Richmunda Herrnreither 1925-1951 Richmunda Herrnreither came to Waldsassen in 1881. She worked as a teacher and prioress. In 1916 she was awarded the King Ludwig Cross for “home earnings during wartime” . In 1925, the Regensburg bishop Anton von Henle elevated the two monasteries Seligenthal and Waldsassen to independent abbeys, and Richmunda Herrnreither was elected first abbess on January 26, 1925. Together with Cistercian women from the Thyrnau Monastery , she traveled to the Apolo Monastery in Bolivia and later to the Colegio Ave Maria in La Paz on a missionary assignment . During the Nazi dictatorship, the monastery was forced to close down the girls' middle school in 1941, and schools were only resumed after the war. In 1951 Richmunda Herrnreither resigned from her position and died very old in 1959.
02 Raphaela Beck 1951-1974 Raphaela Beck was trained by the Ursulines in Würzburg . During the Second World War she worked in a military hospital in Marienbad . The economic situation made it necessary to stop operations at the monastery brewery and monastery mill. The order's offspring also declined, so that the girls' elementary school could no longer be filled with a religious woman. Reforms were initiated under the sign of the Second Vatican Council . Beck was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit in the 1960s .
03 Immaculata Baumann 1974-1992 During the Nazi dictatorship, she had to interrupt her work as a teacher at the girls' elementary school. She was then administrator of the monastery mill, prefect of the boarding school, prioress and cellaress. The Benediction was carried out by the Regensburg Bishop Rudolf Graber and in the presence of Abbot General Sighard Kleiner . She received various high-ranking awards for her cultural commitment, including the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon, the medal for exemplary homeland care, the Bavarian Order of Merit and the honorary citizenship of the city of Waldsassen . Her immediate successors were the administrators Columba Baumgartner (1992/1993) and Benedikta Schedl (1994/1995).
04th Laetitia Fech since 1995 Laetitia Fech joined the Cistercian Abbey of Lichtenthal in 1979 . She worked as a master in parament embroidery . The monument medal was awarded to her as abbess because she had succeeded in the repair work to preserve the viability of the monastery, school and public access areas in consideration of preservation. A special achievement was the establishment of the meeting place Haus St. Josef in the until then unfinished Westhof with its late medieval elements. In 2010 the Via Porta pilgrimage route was inaugurated.

Web links

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

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Langhammer, Waldsassen - Kloster und Stadt , pp. 209–213.
  2. ↑ Stiftlandmuseum, Ora et labora , p. 18f.
  3. ^ Stiftlandmuseum, Ora et labora , p. 14.
  4. ↑ Langhammer, Waldsassen - Kloster und Stadt , pp. 189–196.
  5. ↑ Franz Binhack: annual stories of the pin and monastery Waldsassen by Johann Georg Ruprecht . Regensburg 1903.
  6. ↑ Langhammer, Waldsassen - Kloster und Stadt , p. 46f.
  7. ↑ Langhammer, Waldsassen - Kloster und Stadt , pp. 47f.
  8. ↑ Peter Braun: The Lords of Sparneck. Family tree, distribution, brief inventory . In: Archive for the history of Upper Franconia . Volume 82, Bayreuth 2002. p. 86.
  9. ↑ a b Langhammer, Waldsassen - Kloster und Stadt , pp. 171–175.
  10. ↑ Langhammer, Waldsassen - Kloster und Stadt , pp. 177–181.
  11. ↑ Langhammer, Waldsassen - Kloster und Stadt , pp. 184–189.
  12. ↑ Stiftlandmuseum: Ora et labora , pp. 25–30.
  13. ↑ https://www.monasterium.net/mom/DE-StAAm/Waldsassen/fond?block=50
  14. ↑ Stiftlandmuseum, Ora et labora , pp. 34–37.
This version was added to the selection of informative lists and portals on October 16, 2013 .