Assumption of Mary (St. Märgen)

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The Assumption of Mary is the parish and pilgrimage church of St. Märgen in the Black Forest . Together with the parish of St. Peter (Upper Black Forest), it belongs to the pastoral care unit St. Märgen-St. Peter of the Archdiocese of Freiburg . Until the secularization in 1806 it was the church of the Augustinian canons of St. Märgen . Built from 1715 in the Baroque style, it was restored in the neo-baroque style after a fire in 1907 .

The Assumption of Mary is particularly famous for Matthias Faller's Rococo carvings . They were saved in 1907, but were replaced by copies from 1995 to 2002. St. Märgen also played an important role in Faller's extra-professional biography. He lived three times in St. Märgen, from 1735 to 1737 and from 1741 to 1743 in the monastery, from 1771 to 1791 in the neighboring “New House”, today's Gasthaus “Krone”.

Church from the north-west with the Lady Chapel

The history and furnishings of the church have been researched in particular by the Catholic priest and art historian Manfred Hermann , the teacher and historian Elisabeth Irtenkauf (* 1931 in Rottweil ) and the St. Märgener sacristan and local researcher Klaus Hog (* 1966 in Freiburg im Breisgau ).

Monastery around 1322 with returning monks. Painting by Franz Ludwig Hermann around 1752

history

The monastery was founded around 1118 by the Strasbourg canon Bruno von Haigerloch-Wiesneck . The first fathers came from Toul in Lorraine and, according to tradition, brought with them the miraculous image , a sculpture of Mary around which a pilgrimage developed. The monastery thrived as long as the Counts of Haigerloch-Wiesneck and their related Hohenbergers were bailiffs . From 1293, other bailiffs followed, such as the Schnewlin patrician family from Freiburg . There were endless arguments with them. The conventuals even left their monastery around 1322 and were only able to return after two years. They were helped by the abbot of the neighboring Benedictine monastery of St. Peter in the Black Forest, Gottfried von Lötschibach. In 1370 the St. Märgen Convent merged with the Augustinian Canons of All Saints in Freiburg, founded in 1302 , so that the Abbot of St. Märgen also became provost of All Saints.

Pilgrimage picture around 1760. In the foreground Ohmenkapelle , on the left beyond the ditch the Meierhof, in front of it the “New House”, today the “Krone” inn.

Five fire disasters have struck the church and monastery over the centuries, the first around 1284. It was always rebuilt. After the second fire, in 1430, the convent sold its entire property in the Black Forest to the city of Freiburg, which also took over the bailiwick, and moved to the Allerheiligen building. For decades, Holy Mass was celebrated only irregularly in St. Märgen . Although the church was restored in 1493, the third fire followed in 1560 "due to the carelessness and inattention of the vicarage servants", and the third rebuilding from 1583. When Freiburg was expanded into a French fortress on the orders of Louis XIV from 1678 , All Saints' Day was razed to the ground. The situation seemed hopeless, but energetic provosts such as Dominik Simonis (provost from 1699 to 1713) from Freiburg and Andreas Dilger from Bermatingen (provost, later abbot from 1713 to 1736) managed to save the place. In Freiburg, the Allerheiligen Abbey was rebuilt elsewhere - the current location of the Archbishop's Ordinariate - and when St. Märgen was burned for the fourth time in 1704, Abbot Dilger undertook a completely new building, the system that has largely been preserved to this day.

The builder was Johann Mathis from Mittelberg (Vorarlberg) . Work began in late 1715 or early 1716. The choir was tackled first. Holy mass could already be read there at the end of 1716. In 1719 the whole church was provisionally finished. The construction of the rest of the monastery dragged on from 1724 to 1790. The church was consecrated on April 28 and 29, 1725. In 1729 the convent returned to the Black Forest from exile in Freiburg.

The later 18th century with the abbots Peter Glunk (abbot from 1736 to 1766) and Michael Fritz (abbot from 1766 to 1797) was a relatively happy time for St. Märgen and Allerheiligen. In 1806, however, both were secularized and all property fell to the Grand Duchy of Baden . This ended the actual history of the monastery. The last abbot, Josef Kurz (abbot from 1797 to 1806), moved to Freiburg, where he died in 1763. The Fathers mostly looked after the old monastery parishes, for example St. Märgen itself, St. Blasius in Wyhl and St. Blasius in Zähringen (Freiburg im Breisgau) . In St. Märgen, the south-eastern wing of the monastery, the “prelate south wing”, the rectory, became part of the monastery library, the parish library. All Saints' Day became the first Protestant parish church in Freiburg. On September 12, 1907, lightning ignited the fifth fire. The church burned down with all the altars, the adjoining buildings were also destroyed. The fifth restoration "in the old style" followed. The pilgrimage picture and the figures of Matthias Faller had been saved.

From 1995 to 2011 monks of the Pauline order looked after the parish, since then that is again the task of secular clergy .

The "New House" around 1900

Matthias Faller in St. Märgen

Faller lived and worked in the monastery from 1735 to 1737 and from 1741 to 1743, and from 1771 until his death in the “New House”.

Grave at the Lady Chapel

On August 6, 1735, Abbot Dilger noted in his diary: "In capitulo mecum fuerunt <...> duo Donati, nempe Mathias Dorer et Mathias Faller, sculptor egregius" - "In the chapter were with me <...> two lay brothers <-candidates>, namely Matthias Dorer and Matthias Faller, an excellent sculptor. "On August 13:" Well, I dressed the novices <... -> in the novitiate at the Capellen BV Mariae, <...> gave the Faller the name Floridus. "Faller, now "Brother Floridus", gained such a wide field of activity, the abbot an experienced artist who worked as a religious free of charge. His first works in St. Märgen include the altar sculptures of the Marienkapelle (Gnadenkapelle) and the Josephskapelle as well as the cross altar , as well as the altars of the Ohmenkapelle. Dilger never saw these altars erected. We today ought to be grateful to him, write Irtenkauf and Hog, because in the last year of his life he took on and promoted Faller, without whose work St. Märgen would be missing something very important. Dilger's successor Glunk initially stopped all construction work due to lack of money. As a result, Glunk noted on April 29, 1937, “Brother Floridus, novice, picked up his clothes and was therefore dimitted ex ordine, because he did not want to be used for other work than sculptor.” Faller probably wanted his artistic calling stay loyal and returned to their native Oberfallengrundhof in Neukirch .

On September 10, 1741, however, Glunk reported after a visit to Freiburg: “At the same time I picked up clothes in front of me and the camper servant. This camper expected to give him 50 thalers a year. If he is a good sculptor, he should work constantly in front of the house of God and do the little safekeeping for me. He can every day with his Arbeith 1  fl earn when he maketh before other something, and should this Geldt me be delivered. From 10 fl, if he works frembd, leave him 1 fl, so that he feels better. ”Faller's name is not mentioned, but it must have been he who was now the abbot's valet in addition to the sculpture. He carved the figures of the two side altars and then the high altar. In 1743 he moved back to the Fallengrundhof. Philipp Jakob Steyrer brought him to St. Peter for 1751 to 1771.

In 1771 Michael Fritz was abbot. He wrote on October 25th: “The sculptor of St. Peter Mathias Faller moved anhero into the neye house. He wants to die here after he has not wanted to stay in the monastery as a novitiate. One didn’t like to see such things at St. Peter. <...> Maybe it is not his use, then he lent the work in the Closter St. Peter. But he has to hope to work elsewhere and already live. ”The“ neye Hauß ”is today's inn“ Krone ”. Faller also worked fruitfully in the third St. Märgener period, for the monastery church the shrine of the catacomb saint Constantius acquired from Abbot Fritz . On February 3rd, 1791 he died "of exhaustion and fire". He was buried outside the Lady Chapel.

West facade
Joseph's Chapel

building

Almost nothing of the first four generations of the monastery has survived above ground. A Gothic red sandstone pointed arch and a Gothic metal grille are kept in the monastery museum, perhaps from the restoration in 1493. A monochrome yellow-brown picture under a portrait of Abbot Gottfried in St. Peter's Monastery shows St. Märgen with the monks returning around 1322. This monastery "view" is a fantasy, because Franz Ludwig Herrmann painted the picture 430 years later, around 1752. After all, he was perhaps following a tradition living in St. Märgen, according to which the monastery was built from 1322 to 1284, would have been single-tower and the convent buildings would have surrounded the church in a horseshoe-shaped and two-storey manner.

Dilger and Mathis and their successors as abbots and builders built a closed baroque complex, the east-facing church with two towers on both sides of the choir, unlike in St. Peter, where the two towers flank the facade. Two inner courtyards were located to the south and south-east of the church, separated by the "Sacristei wing", the "Konventhof" in the west with the " Refectory wing" and the "Gate wing", the "Prälatenhof" in the east with the "Prälatensüdflügel", the "Prälatenostflügel" and the "prelate north wing". To the south was the cloister garden with a fountain, to the north was the cemetery and a farm yard with outbuildings like a mill. The west facade of the church, made of stone, was crowned by a segmental arched gable with larger than life figures of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

The gable was removed in 1790 because it was dilapidated. As a result of the secularization and the fire of 1907, a single courtyard was created, which is freely accessible from the west, except through the old archway in the “Prelate's north wing” after the parts of the “gate wing” adjacent to the church were demolished.

The red sandstone facade now closes with a triangular gable. It is structured by pilaster strips . A portal flanked by Tuscan columns with a ledge and segment arch above it leads into the interior. On the segment arch sits a three-part coat of arms with a Madonna and Child for St. Märgen, crossed keys for All Saints' Day and six lilies for Abbot Dilger himself. Onions crown the two towers as well as the ridge turrets over the Marienkapelle (Gnadenkapelle) in the north and the Josephskapelle in the south. “The nine-storey towers next to the choir with sedate, elegant hoods, as well as the exterior painted in yellow, dominate the plateau around St. Märgen very impressively. Vertical pilaster strips and cornices in ox blood red add a cheerful sound. "

The interior is a light-flooded hall with arched windows, a flat ceiling over a cove and a polygonal choir with stitch caps above the windows.

Furnishing

After the fire of 1907 , Ludwig Kubanek and Hans Weißburger (1876–1951) made the stucco work of the cove in the nave and the stitch caps in the choir, partly based on what was destroyed, partly, especially in the Marienkapelle and the organ loft, freely designed. On the other hand , the apostle reliefs on the walls and the stucco around the two vestry entrances date from the time of construction, created by Franz Anton Vogel and only slightly retouched after 1907.

  • Inside with ceiling pictures

  • Visitation of the Virgin Mary

  • View towards the choir

  • Ceiling of the ship

  • View towards the entrance

  • Escape to Egypt

The ceiling pictures were painted by Waldemar Kolmsperger the Elder (1858–1943) from Berchtesgaden after 1907 . The large pictures in the ship show the “ Annunciation to Mary ”, the “ Adoration by the Shepherds ” and the “ Presentation of the Lord ” from west to east . The grisailles in the corners show Abraham and David in the west, Sarah and Elisabeth in the east, Luke 1.5  EU . This is followed by monochrome reddish images in the west of Judit and Abigail ( 1 Sam 25  EU ), in the east of Rut and Esther . To the side of the Christmas picture, monochrome-greenish pictures show the “ Visitation of Mary ” in the north and the “ Flight into Egypt ” in the south .

Kolmsperger also painted the Stations of the Cross . The last station is signed.

In 1904, Franz Xaver Kraus , who also depicts three altars, judged the altars by Matthias Faller and the altar carpenter Johann Martin Hermann from Villingen (around 1700–1782) that the high altar, with its delicate, graceful structure, appears somewhat restless in its upper parts, but is precisely because of this "a shining example of glittering decoration". The side altars, kept quieter, and the altars in the side chapels are also excellent Rococo works. After the fire, all the altars by Kubanek and Weißburger were reconstructed.

Altars in the nave and choir

  • Choir and high altar figures

  • Augustine

  • John the Baptist

  • Choir

  • John the Evangelist

  • Petrus Forerius

Martin von Feuerstein painted the "Assumption of Mary" as the new high altar picture . Of fallers rescued life-size figures, the left the holy Bishop Augustine of Hippo is with a burning heart as his personal Holy attribute in hand, on the one cherub Mitra and bishop's staff holds. The second from the left is St. John the Baptist , who points with his right hand to Jesus in the tabernacle . John the Evangelist corresponds to him on the other side of the tabernacle . “The still young apostle and evangelist is about to write the divine message with the goose feather in his right hand in the book placed on his left knee. His upturned face is fully opened to the heavenly revelation, his eyes are sunk into a divine vision. The robe, which reaches down to the ground, is covered over and over with flower petals and flower patterns. <…> The figure <…> pleases with its inspired liveliness. ”On the far right stands the Augustinian Canon Petrus Forerius , beatified in 1730 , also holding a burning heart, over which a putto is holding a biretta . The tabernacle was reworked from Mathias Faller's cross altar tabernacle. The crucifixion group of this altar with Mary and John hangs today on the north wall of the choir.

  • Predella of the left side altar

  • Dominic

  • overall view

  • Rosary Madonna

  • Catherine of Siena

The left side altar, rosary altar, shows in the main picture an “Adoration of the Magi” by Gabriel von Hackl , in the upper picture a “ Heart of Mary ” from Feuerstein. Faller's large figures (currently, February 2014, relocated) depict on the left St. Blaise with a bishop's staff and a candle in his left hand, on the right St. Sebastian as a Roman soldier with a club in his left hand and arrows in his right hand. “A special one Faller's showpiece is the predella group with the rosary queen and the child as well as with Dominic and Catherine of Siena , who receive the rosary. "

  • Predella of the right side altar

  • Aloisius

  • John the Evangelist

  • Johannes Nepomuk, Ubald von Gubbio and Herz Jesu

  • Therese of Avila

  • Francis de Sales

The right side altar was originally to St. Augustine, but was consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Peter Glunk in 1760 . The old altarpiece by Joseph Fiertmayer (1702–1738) was replaced and stored elsewhere. It thus escaped the fire of 1907. Used again today, it shows St. Augustine in heavenly glory. The abbot at the bottom right refers to Andreas Dilger. Feuerstein's upper picture shows the "Heart of Jesus". Faller's large figures are St. John Nepomuk on the left with Rochett , Mozetta , Birett and in the left hand a cross, on the right St. Augustinian Canon and Bishop Ubald von Gubbio , how he heals a man possessed from whom a black demon is fleeing. In the predella, St. Aloisius in a Rochett and John the Evangelist turn to the left , St. Teresa of Ávila and Franz von Sales in Rochett and Mozetta to the right, where the thorn-wrapped, golden flamed and crowned "Heart of Jesus" is enthroned . Manfred Hermann writes that these small sculptures revealed a deep fervor peculiar to Rococo art. The saints seemed to lose themselves, overwhelmed by the power of the divine. Your worship of the divine heart leads to ecstasy. "Under the master hand of Faller, it surges and foams around the canon tablets and reliquaries like stucco."

Mary and Joseph Chapel

  • Altar of grace

  • Passage to the Temple of Mary

  • Joseph Altar 1904

  • Joseph Altar today

  • Joseph

On the restored altar of the Marienkapelle in the north, two winged angels of brother Floridus carry the 53 cm high miraculous image surrounded by a halo, which was probably carved around 1100 in Lorraine. The seated Madonna offers the child on her left knee to the prayer. During the church year she is dressed in six different robes. Kolmsperger's ceiling painting shows the apocryphal passage to the temple of Mary: Her parents escort the three-year-old Maria up the stairs to the high priest . Four oval murals by Martin von Feuerstein show holy devotees of Mary, for example Bernhard von Clairvaux .

Originally, St. Joseph, brother of Floridus, was also surrounded by rays on the altar of his chapel in the south. Since the restoration it has been in a niche. Faller's Constantius Shrine stands on the altar. The ceiling painting shows Kolmsperger's "Death of St. Joseph".

organ

View of the organ

A Silbermann organ acquired in 1777 burned in 1907. Today's organ is the work of the organ building company EF Walcker & Cie. (Ludwigsburg), from 1967. It has three manuals and a pedal with a total of 32  registers .

Hauptwerk C–
Pommer 16 ′
Principal 08th'
Reed flute 08th'
octave 04 ′
recorder 04 ′
Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
Field flute 02 ′
Mixture V-VI
bassoon 16 ′
Trumpet 08th'
Swell C–
Coupling flute 8th'
Willow pipe 8th'
Principal 4 ′
Schwiegel 2 ′
Sesquialter II
Scharff V
Rohrschalmey 8th'
tremolo
Rückpositiv C–
Covered 08th'
Night horn 04 ′
Principal 02 ′
Fifth 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
Pointed flute 01'
Zimbel III
Krummhorn 08th'
tremolo
Pedals C–
Sub bass 16 ′
octave 08th'
Gemshorn 08th'
Choral bass 4 ′ + 2 ′
Mixture IV
trombone 16 ′
Trumpet 08th'
Clairon 04 ′

Bells

In 1749 St. Märgen received six bells, four of which were still there in 1904. Six bells from the Grüninger bell foundry from 1908 were confiscated in 1941. Steel bells from 1947 did not appeal in the long term because of their harsh sound; the largest is now in the former convent courtyard. Today's ringing of seven bells was cast in 1988 under the artistic supervision of the Freiburg cathedral master craftsman Sepp Jakob (* 1925) in the Metz bell foundry in Karlsruhe. The quarter-hour strike occurs via bells 6–4–5, the hour strike on bell 3 and the hourly postpone on bell 1. According to the bell expert Kurt Kramer , St. Märgen has one of the most sonorous bells in the German bell landscape.

No.
  		Surname
  		Diameter
(mm) 		Mass
(kg) 		Percussive
( HT - 1 / 16 ) 		tower
 
1 Trinity 1,783 3,004 b 0 −1 North
2 Maria 1,586 2,106 c 1 −1 south
3 1,421 1,560 d 1 −1 south
4th 1,172 1,080 f 1 ± 0 south
5 1,033 740 g 1 +2 south
6th 973 672 a 1 +2 south
7th 813 365 c 2 +4 south

meaning

According to Manfred Hermann, St. Märgen has never been able to compete with the neighboring St. Peter. In addition, it had to suffer from fires, wars and bad governors like no other monastery. The most beautiful legacy it left behind was "a church interior that is reserved in its baroque splendor, but light and borne by the joy of life". Faller's works of art here were among the best in the Baroque era. The church is also an excellent example of a high quality neo-baroque, the value of which is becoming more and more clear in the present.

literature

Web links

Commons : Mariä Himmelfahrt (St. Märgen)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermann 2006. The copies were made from plaster of paris according to the principle of the “lost form” .
  2. ↑ The complete picture in: Hans-Otto Mühleisen (Ed.): The legacy of the abbey. 900 years of St. Peter in the Black Forest . Badenia Verlag, Karlsruhe 1993. ISBN 3-7617-0297-3 , p. 287.
  3. ↑ Colored copper engraving based on a design by Matthias Faller
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Hermann 2003.
  5. ↑ Irtenkauf's edition of Dilger's diary, p. 236.
  6. ↑ Irtenkauf and Hog 2010, p. 203.
  7. ↑ Irtenkauf's edition of Glunks Diary, p. 98.
  8. ↑ Irtenkauf's edition of Glunks Diary, p. 125.
  9. ↑ Kern's edition of Fritz's diary, p. 253
  10. ↑ Irtenkauf and Hog 2010, pp. 28 and 64.
  11. ↑ Irtenkauf and Hog 2010, p. 123.
  12. ↑ a b Kraus 1904.
  13. ↑ Hermann 2006, p. 41.
  14. ↑ Irtenkauf and Hog 2010, p. 301.
  15. ↑ The organ on the Orgelsite.nl website. Retrieved February 19, 2014.
  16. ↑ Irtenkauf and Hog 2010.
  17. ↑ Bells with acoustic recording of the ringing on the website of the Archdiocese of Freiburg. Retrieved February 19, 2010.

Coordinates: 48 ° 0 '22.3 "  N , 8 ° 5' 30.8"  E