Maria Ehrenberg
| Maria Ehrenberg | |
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| The pilgrimage church | |
| place | Kothen |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| diocese | Wurzburg |
| Patronage | Mary, Mother of Mercy |
| Construction year | 1522 wooden chapel, 1666 stone church |
| Construction type | Hall church with a large free altar on the gable side in the east |
| function | Pilgrimage church and branch church |
Maria Ehrenberg is a Marian pilgrimage site located in the Wildflecken military training area on the 674 m high Ehrenberg in the Franconian Rhön . It is part of the municipality of the Wildflecken market in the Neuwildflecken district .
historical development
On the Ehrenberg, on the western roof of the Rhön, the former community of Kothen built a Heiligenstock in 1521 , which immediately enjoyed a large influx of pilgrims from the surrounding area. In the following year, a small wooden chapel was built from donations . The miraculous image created by an unknown wood carver around 1400 depicted a late Gothic seated Madonna with the baby Jesus. The pilgrimages that began were, however, in contradiction to the emerging spirit of the Reformation , so that they almost came to a standstill after a short time. This could only be prevented with the support of the Prince Abbot of Fulda . In 1666, Prince Abbot Joachim von Gravenegg had a stone chapel built to replace the previous wooden structure. The building was completed under Prince Abbot Placidus von Droste . The current nave was built in 1721 under Adolf von Dalberg . In 1736, construction work began on the baroque staircase, which with its 254 steps was soon given the name “ Ladder to Heaven ”.
The miraculous image
With the interior and exterior renovation in 1999/2000, the choir and chancel as well as the interior of the pilgrimage church were artistically redesigned and furnished. The image of grace, until then in a simple concrete niche in the chancel, is now framed by a golden disc: "The woman, clothed by the sun, the moon under her feet, a wreath of twelve stars on her head" (Rev 12: 1) . In addition to the image of grace, the slender tabernacle column, the “tent of God among men” (Rev 21: 3), catches the eye of visitors.
The 55 cm high wooden sculpture is dressed in a pompous coat and crown again on certain occasions.
A renewed closure of the pilgrimage chapel under Prince-Bishop Heinrich von Bibra and a ban on the Fulda procession in 1787 only lasted two years.
Reorganization between the dioceses
Kothen was incorporated into the Motten parish together with Werberg . Since the Congress of Vienna in 1816, the Oberamt Motten, which had belonged to the Diocese of Fulda since 1752, came to the Diocese of Würzburg, i.e. from Hesse to Bavaria. In 1870, the Brückenau district office determined that the pilgrimage site of Maria Ehrenberg was in Bavaria.
Military training area
On May 9, 1913, a heritable building right was ordered for the church and the access road for the Maria Ehrenberg Church Foundation. 1937 was another fateful year for the pilgrimages to Maria Ehrenberg, when the Wildflecken military training area was founded and the Ehrenberg was also included in the 7400 hectare site. On the basis of the law on the procurement of land for the purposes of the Wehrmacht of March 29, 1935 (RGBl. I p. 467 ff.), A purchase agreement was signed on April 14, 1939 between the Catholic Church Foundation Maria Ehrenberg and the German Reich, Reich Treasury ( Heer), after which the property was retroactively transferred to the German Reich on April 1, 1938 and the heritable building right was replaced for 47,500 Reichsmarks.
Pilgrimages ended in 1941 and resumed in 1949
The last church celebration took place on October 10, 1937 with more than 10,000 pilgrims from Hesse and Franconia. The efforts of the pastor of Motten, Engelbert Kreuzer, to the continuation of the pilgrimages, however, met with the commandant of the military training area, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Fleischhauer and Colonel General Friedrich Dollmann , the commander of the IX. Army corps in Kassel, which was used by the Wildflecken military training area, on understanding, so that the pilgrimages could take place until 1941. At a working meeting of the clerks for church affairs at the state police headquarters in the Reich Security Main Office on September 22nd and 23rd, 1941, u. a. also stipulated to forbid the further conduct of pilgrimages. Until 1944, therefore, only individuals could get to the Ehrenberg.
After the end of the Third Reich , pilgrimages were resumed. The use of the military training area by the US Army from 1949 led to restrictions in terms of spatial and temporal access, but the use as a place of pilgrimage and pilgrimage was not questioned. The number of pilgrims increased sharply again. In 1957, over 20,000 pilgrims made the pilgrimage to the Ehrenberg for the main pilgrimage festival of the Assumption on August 14th and 15th. The use of the pilgrimage site in the military training area went largely smoothly. However, there was a scandal on August 15, 1978 when the American military police tried to force the pilgrims to leave the site prematurely. When the US Army withdrew in July 1994, the German Armed Forces took over the Wildflecken military training area. Access to the northernmost pilgrimage site in Bavaria is now possible every Sunday from May to October. The Franconian Marienweg has been running to Maria Ehrenberg since 2002 .
Creation legend and name
According to the legend, the pilgrimage goes back to a picture of the Mother of God that a shepherd from Kothen found on the Ehrenberg, then called Orensberg. Bringing it to the local church failed, however, as the picture miraculously returned to the place where it was found. The shepherd therefore attached the picture in honor of Mary on the top of the Orensberg, from whom miraculous hearings soon made the rounds in the area.
The name Ehrenberg or Maria Ehrenberg is derived from the Old High German erin , which means something like 'brazen, firm, mighty'.
Structural development
After the completion of the first stone chapel in 1694, the nave was extended from 1731 to 1753 and the old chapel was redesigned as an elevated choir. After about 30 years, the incorrectly constructed roof of the nave had to be replaced. In 1830/31, 1844 and 1856 further extensive repair work was necessary. For example, four buttresses reaching up to the eaves were installed to statically secure the moving nave. Construction and renovation measures were also carried out on the staircase with the three baroque Madonna sculptures from 1731 in the years 1751/52, 1785, 1795, 1838 and 1857.
Renovation work was also necessary in the 20th century. In the 1950s, the church, which had not been renovated for a hundred years, was extensively examined. The typical weather conditions in the high elevations of the Rhön and above all the constant vibrations caused by the shooting and blasting operations at the military training area led to the finding that the choir could no longer be rehabilitated. It was demolished in 1958 and replaced by a new building with a square floor plan according to the plans of the Würzburg cathedral builder Hans Skull and the architect Walter Schilling. The nave had to be completely renovated, the miraculous image restored and partially supplemented. The new choir extension was built to replace the grace chapel from 1666/95, as well as a new outside altar for larger church services. A power connection was made. In 1999/2000 an interior and exterior renovation followed with an artistic redesign of the pilgrimage church. In 2002 a free-standing tower was built north of the choir building to accommodate the three existing small bells and three new bells.
The Marienborn
The spring in 1750 in front of the staircase to the pilgrimage chapel, the Marienborn, was given the still existing stone setting with a sandstone relief in 1845.
New exterior altar and bell tower
The foundation stone for the new buildings and conversions was laid on September 25, 1958. One innovation was a covered free altar east of the choir with space for 10,000 to 15,000 pilgrims. On September 6, 1959, the Würzburg bishop Josef Stangl was able to consecrate the work.
The most recent all-round renovation took place in the years 1998 to 2003 under the direction of the architect Dag Schröder, Schweinfurt. The artistic re-equipment of the choir by Friedrich Koller, Laufen, is particularly striking. Next to a slender tabernacle column , the miraculous image, which is now framed by a golden disc, catches the eye. After the ridge was omitted during the previous renovation, the existing bells could no longer be used. Only the new construction of a free-standing bell tower in 2002 now offers a six-part bell for the pilgrims and visitors of Maria Ehrenberg.
Organ of the pilgrimage church
The organ of the pilgrimage church is a neo-baroque slider chest instrument from the organ building company Gebr. Mann (Marktbreit) and was installed towards the end of the 20th century. It replaced the organ built by the Würzburg organ builder Baltasar Schlimbach in 1857 and has the following disposition:
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Coupling: II / I, I / P, II / P.
Entry in the list of architectural monuments in Bavaria
Ground monument:
- Underground parts of the early modern Catholic pilgrimage church Maria Ehrenberg as well as the foundations of early modern predecessor buildings.
Individual monuments:
- Pilgrimage church, hall church, Catholic church Maria-Ehrenberg, barrel-vaulted hall building, 1731–52, choir extension 1958–59 Hans Skull; Remains of historical furnishings; Image of grace, 14th century
- Stairway to the pilgrimage church with three statues of the Virgin Mary on intermediate platforms, 1731.
- "Marienborn", grotto fountain, 1845; before the staircase to the pilgrimage church.
literature
- Katharina Möller: Maria Ehrenberg - A place of pilgrimage in the middle of the restricted area. Self-published, Kothen 2009.
- Alfred Saam: The place of pilgrimage Maria Ehrenberg in the Rhön. Self-published by Burkardroth-Zahlbach.
- Paul Burkhardt: The military training areas Grafenwoehr, Hohenfels, Wildflecken. Willows 1989.
- Michael Mott : The Princess of Peace between Schießbahnen / The pilgrimage church on the Maria Ehrenberg has existed since 1522/56 years of “imprisonment” in a restricted military area , in: Fuldaer Zeitung , November 11, 1993, p. 13 (series: DENK-mal! ).
Web links
- Website of Maria Ehrenberg
- Alfred Saam: The place of pilgrimage Maria Ehrenberg in the Rhön . In: Rhoenline.de
- Alfred Saam: The bells of the pilgrimage church Maria Ehrenberg . In: Rhoenline.de
- Alfred Saam: Beginnings of the pilgrimage to the Ehrenberg ( Memento from April 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 62 kB)
- Maria Ehrenberg . In: Pilgrimage portal of the Diocese of Würzburg
- Maria-Ehrenberg in the location database of the Bavarian State Library Online . Bavarian State Library
Footnotes
Coordinates: 50 ° 23 '8.8 " N , 9 ° 48' 38.8" E