Franciscan monastery Regensburg

The Minorite Church, part of the Historical Museum (right)

View into the apse

The Franciscan monastery of St. Salvator Regensburg is a former monastery of the Franciscans ( ordo fratrum minorum , "Friars Minor" or "Minorites") in Regensburg in the diocese of Regensburg .

history

The monastery, consecrated to St. Salvator , was founded in 1221 by Konrad IV. Von Frontenhausen , Bishop of Regensburg, together with Count Palatine Otto VIII. Of Bavaria , King Heinrich (VII.) A. a. founded as one of the first Franciscan monasteries in Germany. The brothers of the Franciscan order, founded in Italy in 1210, reached Germany that year and settled first in Augsburg and soon also in Würzburg and Regensburg.

In place of the former Salvator Chapel, the Friars Minor built the Minorite Church as a monastery church between 1255 and 1275. The choir was renewed around 1350. The three-aisled Gothic pillar basilica is the largest church of the order in southern Germany and, after the Dominican Church in Regensburg, the largest mendicant order church in the area.

Around 1350/60 the valuable glass windows and at the end of the 15th century the frescoes in the nave and choir were created. In the middle of the choir is the grave slab of the preacher Berthold von Regensburg , who belonged to the Regensburg Minorite Convent from 1226 until his death in 1272.

The monastery belonged to the Upper German or Strasbourg Order Province ( Provincia Argentina ) and from 1625 to the Bavarian Franciscan Province ( Bavaria ) that emerged from this . In 1799 the monastery was dissolved in the course of secularization and the church was profaned. The church building and large parts of the monastery such as the cloister with the late Gothic monastery fountain have been preserved. The church served as a customs and toll hall , parade hall, building store and hotel store. The convent buildings of the monastery were used as residential buildings and barracks for the Bavarian Army .

The grave slabs on the church walls come from abandoned Regensburg cemeteries. They were installed here in the 1930s . During the Second World War, the Minorite Church was badly damaged by bombs.

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  Glass window from 1350/60

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  Stained glass window with crucifixion scene

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  15th century frescoes

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  Flat ceiling in the nave

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  Grave slabs on the side wall

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  Grave slab of Berthold von Regensburg

Organs

Steinmeyer organ

Steinmeyer organ

Eberhard Kraus at the console of the Steinmeyer organ

Inside the church is a historic organ. Shortly before the annexation of Austria , the NSDAP planned the installation of the bust of Anton Bruckner in the Walhalla through a spectacular self-presentation as part of a state act . In order to gain sufficient space for the ceremony, the NSDAP local government had the interior of the Minorite Church renovated. In order to enhance the design of the ceremony, an organ was commissioned from the Steinmeyer organ building company , but it was realized without a positive or remote control. Adolf Hitler personally approved the funds for the organ and the expansion of the church . The instrument was played for the first time on June 6, 1937 at a concert in the presence of Hitler, Siebert and other high-ranking politicians, which was broadcast live across Germany by the Reichsender Berlin .

The orphaned site was revived after the Second World War by Eberhard Kraus with the Sunday Organ Lessons, a concert series founded in 1952 in the summer months. The organ was used for over 50 years at around 1,100 concerts with varied organ literature and chamber music.

The instrument was built in 1936 as Opus 1627 based on a disposition draft by Carl Thiel . 1964 was extended with new registers in Swell by Edward Hirnschrodt , 1979, the addition of a Rückpositiv by way , each designed by Eberhard Kraus. In 2003 the organ was damaged by the intense sunlight in the hot summer. A restoration by the organ building company Hermann Eule is nearing completion (2020).

Swallow's Nest Organ

Swallow's Nest Organ

During the restoration of the church, traces such as recesses, door openings, traces of the bellows mounts, the swallow's nest contour in the plaster and the late Gothic and mannerist wall paintings were discovered on the north wall, which indicated the earlier existence of a swallow's nest organ. In 1989, with the financial help of the Siemens Art Fund, Orgelbau Bernhardt Edskes reconstructed an instrument based on a disposition draft by Caspar Sturm from 1583. The organ can be operated with three hand-drawn wedge bellows, or alternatively with an electric centrifugal fan. The disposition is:

I (Manual) C, D-c 3 1. covered double bass 8th' 2. Principal 4 ′ 3. Octava 2 ′ 4th Duodecima 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ 5. Quintadecima 1' 6th Mixture III 7th Cimbel I

II (upper positive) C, D – c 3 8th. Chrumbhorn 8th' 9. Lull 4 ′ 10. Gemshorn 2 ′

Pedal C, D, E, F, G, A, B – b 0 11. trombone 8th'

• Coupling : manual coupling, pedal coupling (pulling)
• Effect register: tremulant , Cimbelstern , birdsong , "Heerpaucken"

Cuntz organ

Cuntz positive

There is a positive from Stephan Cuntz from 1627 in the room, which is not stationary. It was originally built for a Nuremberg patrician house and is the oldest surviving organ in the Upper Palatinate. The movement is housed in the upper part of the two-part Renaissance case and is crowned by a volute cartridge . The broken octave keyboard and the prospect pipes , which are framed by richly carved and gilded veil boards, are located behind a double door. The instrument was extensively restored in 2015 by the organ builder Hermann Eule . Above all, the historical bellows was reconstructed. The disposition of the mechanical slide organ with piercing mechanism is:

Manual C, D, E – e 3 1. Copula 8th' 2. Flauto 4 ′ 3. Copula 4 ′ 4th Principal 2 ′ (prospectus) 5. Octav 1' 6th shelf 8th'

Todays use

Today the buildings are integrated into the Regensburg Historical Museum . The Minorite Church is also used for concerts and exhibitions, for example in 2014 for the Bavarian State Exhibition . Norbert Düchtel has been curator of the organs since 2010. There he founded the concert series Sunday Organ Matinee, in which the organs are regularly played.

Once a year, on December 14th, on the feast day of the blessed Franciscan preacher Berthold von Regensburg, there is a service with the Bishop of Regensburg in the Minoritenkirche. Due to the lack of technology, this fair must be celebrated without electric lights and microphone systems.

literature

• Anneliese Hilz: The Friars Minor of St. Salvator in Regensburg 1226-1810. (= Contributions to the history of the diocese of Regensburg. 25). Regensburg 1991, DNB 920705561 .
• Wilhelm Weber: Regensburg. Minorite Church of St. Salvator. Former Monastery church. (= Small art guide. No. 2819). Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2012, DNB 1036634493 .

Web links

Commons : Minoritenkirche Regensburg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Franciscan monastery Regensburg , basic data and history:  The Franciscans in Regensburg: Barefoot monastery - barracks - historical museum in the database of monasteries in Bavaria in the House of Bavarian History

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.bavariathek.bayern/ Wiederaufbau/orte/detail/regensburg/ 38
2. ^ History of the organ in detail in the music magazine Mälzels Magazin. 1/2005, accessed on May 10, 2017.
3. ↑ OKB / H [eike] N [asritdinova]:  Sunday organ lessons . Entry in the database of the Oberpfälzer Kulturbund (currently not available)
4. ↑ The Steinmeyer Organ ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the musicology website of the University of Regensburg , accessed on May 11, 2017 (PDF)  
5. ↑ Eberhard Kraus: Organs and Organ Music. Pustet, Regensburg 1972, ISBN 3-7917-0291-2 , p. 166.
6. ↑ Reprint in the full annual program of the Sunday organ lessons
7. ↑ The Swallow's Nest Organ ( Memento of the original from July 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on an annual program of the city of Regensburg from 2008, accessed on May 10, 2017. 
8. ↑ The Swallow's Nest Organ ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the musicology website of the University of Regensburg , accessed on May 11, 2017 (PDF)  
9. ↑ Hans Scherrer: The Cuntz organ is being completely renovated in Bautzen. In: Mittelbayerische Zeitung . December 5, 2013, accessed June 23, 2016.
10. ↑ Davina Lang: Cuntz organ enchants the Minorite Church. In: Mittelbayerische Zeitung. June 8, 2015, accessed June 23, 2016.
11. ↑ Peter Germann − Bauer and Klemens Unger: "I want to praise the Lord all the time:" Festschrift on the occasion of the restoration of the Cuntz organ from 1627. Kulturreferat, Regensburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-943222-21-0 .
12. ↑ The Cuntz Organ ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (before restoration) on the musicology website of the University of Regensburg , accessed on May 11, 2017 (PDF)  
13. ↑ Norbert Düchtel in a report in the Mittelbayerische Zeitung , accessed on May 10, 2017 (PDF)

Coordinates: 49 ° 1 ′ 5 ″  N , 12 ° 6 ′ 7 ″  E