Neusser Alexians

The Neuss Alexians were a Catholic religious order for lay brothers in nursing, which was also called the Congregation of the Brothers of St. Alexius . From the parent company in Neuss , which gave them their name, various branch monasteries were founded in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries . The religious community was a congregation under episcopal law. After a merger in 1990 with the Alexians from Aachen, it existed as an independent province “St. Josef "until 2008 and then united with the province of" St. Alexius “Aachen.

history

middle Ages

As with other Alexian monasteries, there is no clarity about the time and circumstances of the foundation. As early as 1301 there was a convent of Begarden in Oberstrasse (Neusser Hauptstrasse). In the year 1419 a document named Peter is mentioned, whose affiliation to the Neuss Begardengemeinschaft, which later relocated to Brückstrasse, cannot be proven. The monastery can probably be dated to before 1451, as a document from that year attests to a donation to the “willing poor” living here.

When a plague-like illness broke out in the city in 1483, the city ​​magistrate turned to the brothers of the Alexian monastery in Cologne and asked them to send some brothers to Neuss to care for the sick. In the following years they worked in various charitable institutions and foundations in the city; for example in the old inn and the hospital of the Quirinus monastery, in which up to 40 sick and handicapped people could be taken in and cared for on an outpatient basis.

On Thursday, August 26, 1490, the city of Neuss signed a contract with the Cellites , which were represented by their Father General Peter Vanlier . The contract, which legally secured the convention for the first time, stated that the brothers had until then lived “in a spiritual guise”, but “without rule or order”. Recognized as a convent of the Order of Cellites, the city council allowed the community to have such a "rule". It provided for a supervisory right of the city, so that the brothers were only allowed to act in "general matters" under the "knowledge, will and consensus" of the city authorities. In return, the city left the house on Brückstrasse, which it had already lived in, to the community, but which "belonged to the city and should remain hereditary".

The staff of the monastery was limited to no more than eight brothers, although over the centuries there were rarely more than seven (in 1723 ten brothers have survived). A “brother who would not be comfortable” could be “sent”, but approval from the city authorities had to be obtained. Your activities should consist in dealing with people's "needs", accompanying them on their last journey in life and burying them.

Should the brothers “fail in terms of the contract”, the city could withdraw their rights to use the house, which would have meant that they would have lost their accommodation and right of residence in the city of Neuss. The small monastery community was thus entirely subject to the municipal authority and control. This included checking income and expenses such as overseeing the monastery's asset management. The city also had to confirm the father of the house.

The contract created the necessary conditions for the viability of the community, which sought to realize its Christian perfection in voluntary poverty and active charity. They had neither their own house nor any income, but made a living by begging, alms and gifts. They could use the house assigned to them free of charge and were assigned their tasks in municipal or private welfare; for which they were rewarded in kind or money.

Fourteen years after the conclusion of the contract, the plan to build a chapel was implemented, which also had a turret with a bell and was dedicated to Saint Alexius .

16th Century

In 1531 the brothers received a foundation for the establishment of an office for the first time . The founder made a sum of money available so that a clergyman, the officiant , should celebrate Holy Mass four times a week from 7 a.m. in the monastery church . The foundation comprised a house and an annuity. If the officiant died, the mayor and city council were to fill the office with a cleric from the family of the founders. He had to be ordained a priest within a year and named the prior of the “ regulated canons ” who carried out the formal investiture . If there is no relative of the founder, the office should be given to a “qualified” citizen of Neuss or - if there is no such person - to a “stranger”.

Around this time, at least before 1535, the brothers took over the “donation house” in addition to their usual work, where they distributed bread, beer and sometimes money to 20 poor citizens of the city. There is no further evidence for the next few decades. Considerable destruction took place in 1586, when Neuss almost completely fell victim to the fire in the course of the siege of the city in the Truchsessian War .

17th century

At this point, however, they do not seem to have been so financially strong that they could have rebuilt their home without difficulty, because when the chapel still had no roof in 1604, the priest asked the city council for financial aid and on On June 22nd, 1607, since they were founded in Cologne, they were given the right to collect alms within the Cologne city area, so that at the end of 1608 their chapel could finally be re-consecrated.

A few years later there were disputes between the order and the city for the first time, which in 1634 asked the community to elect a priest and appointed or confirmed him shortly afterwards. Apparently the provincial superior had been expected to be passive , but he now lodged an objection, as the named brother Hermann had been "inept" for years. After lengthy negotiations with the city council of Neuss, which asked the Cologne priest to send a headmaster and two other brothers, Brother Godert von Hittorff from Cologne was sent to Neuss as the new priest. Obviously the waves soon subsided, because a few years later, in 1637, they received the sole right to bury, but had to provide the necessary tools to the grave diggers, should the city council hire them. In the same year Brother Klaes, because he behaved "unruly", was imprisoned by a city servant at the instigation of the priest. However, he managed to break out.

From 1639, on the instructions of the city council, they had to ring the bells of the Quirinus pen on Sundays and public holidays, as well as on Wednesdays and Fridays during Lent , for which they should be compensated. Two years later it became clear that the personal situation had not changed much from 1634, since the office of priest was again filled by third parties from Cologne with the brother Hermann Student .

In November 1644, the brothers left two rooms in their monastery to the pastor of St. Quirinus, whose house had been occupied by the Hessians. This shows that their house must have been reasonably comfortable, as the high man would certainly not have moved into every establishment.

After they were able to expand their monastery by acquiring the surrounding houses and land until 1650, a fire broke out in their house on May 19, 1655, which reduced most of the monastery, as well as the chapel, to ashes. Even if their finances were not rosy, they had no choice but to build a new building, but they could only pay for it by selling twelve acres of farmland and begging. But it must have happened quickly, because the Auxiliary Bishop of Mainz Petrus von Walenburg consecrated the chapel on September 22, 1658 in honor of St. Alexius and St. Augustine. In the high altar they let the relics of the holy martyr Leodegarius and the martyrs of the Theban Legion , which they had received as a gift from the Alexian monastery in Cologne , as well as some relics of Saint Ursula and a high altar ( triptych ).

After a contractual reorganization of their income came in 1666, the city allowed them in 1676 to produce malt for the citizens to brew. However, at the urging of the brewers' guild, they had to renounce this right again in 1714, for which they were granted annual compensation.

18th century

When the city failed to fulfill its obligations to the monastery for a long time and the brothers therefore refused to perform their services, the matter came to a head that the magistrate even threatened to expel them in 1694. They then went to court against the city magistrate in front of the official in Cologne and won the process. However, when there were soon further disputes with the city, a contractual reorganization of their income was made in 1714. It wasn't long before the monastery called on the city to help again. When the monastery father, Brother Wilhelm Schwan, fled the monastery in 1727, the municipal authorities persecuted him as far as Krefeld at the instigation of the community. From there, however, he had already fled to the Netherlands and thus evaded their access.

In 1745, through the will of Mrs. Elisabeth Willems, a second office was set up at the monastery chapel. Like the first one, this one could also function as a titulus ordinationis , i.e. the title of consecration, and obliged the owner to hold the “Sunday School” in addition to the usual tasks.

Due to the growing number of mentally ill and pensioners, the monastery hospital had to be expanded again in 1754, so that there was now a rectangular monastery with a chapel, as well as a hospital with an inner courtyard and a garden.

In the First Coalition War , French troops occupied Neuss in 1794. In 1798 the occupation authorities instructed the monastery community not to accept any more novices in the future . Also, no more vows could be taken. The Convention, which has always lived on a rather modest economic basis, also suffered from religious deficiencies, which was certainly exacerbated by the turmoil of the time. During a visitation , the brothers' all too close contact with many families was criticized and denounced that they - contrary to the rule of the order - had personal property.

19th century

In contrast to most monasteries, the Alexian monastery in Neuss was not dissolved in the course of secularization , but classified as a "useful monastery": It was excluded from the general abolition of orders and monasteries because the Alexians were among the orders that were "the only ones." Purpose of public education and care of the sick ”. In 1802, the monastery was placed under the commission de hospices (Hospitienkommission), which was entrusted with the supervision of the hospitals and welfare institutions in the Département de la Roer . In 1813 the community received new statutes from the Bishop of Aachen. In the fall of 1826 she had no more than six brothers, four of whom were very old or sickly. The annual income of the monastery, which had only three brothers with perpetual vows , was 1,957 thalers (basic money 2 thalers, interest on capital 2,276 thalers, leases 79 thalers, boarding money 1,600 thalers). Consistorial councilor Jakob Poll informed the Archbishop of Cologne that the father of the house, Alexius Schauw, was a good-willed man, but without care and energy. The main focus of the brothers' activities was on custody of the insane at low wages, a job for which they were unqualified for lack of preparation. On the other hand, they hardly ever provide outpatient health services.

When Archbishop Ferdinand August von Spiegel visited the monastery, which he regarded as an institution, in the summer of 1826, he wrote that “it was completely out of joint” and that “it was doing almost nothing”. In order to improve the condition of the house, the archbishop considered the introduction of the Cologne Alexian Constitutions and the renewal of vows. Shortly before Spiegel contacted the government in Düsseldorf about the reorganization of the monastery , the brothers threatened to leave the monastery following an annoying incident with one of their pensioners. Even if this did not seem like a great loss to the government, the archbishop was determined to keep the monastery alive.

In 1829, the Cologne statutes were given to them in a modified form and their dependency - because officially they were still a branch of the Cologne brothers up to then - dissolved. At the request of the government, the brothers should only take over the funeral service in exceptional cases and be more active in outpatient nursing . They also committed themselves to the vows of obedience and chastity , if only for five years each, and were again given the right to decide on the admission of candidates and the appointment of head and economist themselves. The trousseau to enter the monastery should be between 100 and 200 thalers, whereby the first half had to be paid upon entry, the second half only when the vows were taken. Since the brothers were not obliged to adhere to poverty, they received a personal salary through the hospice commission. Apart from the fact that here and there they had to put up with the accusation that they were working too deeply into their own pockets, this led to various disputes within the community.

Despite all the efforts of the Archbishop, the convent hardly developed beyond its old customs and the hoped-for offspring also failed to materialize. The only further development was the self-administration of finances acquired in 1831. The hospital commission limited itself to supervising it, in which it was replaced by the archbishop in 1836.

After the hospital had been expanded again in 1837, the disputes over the superior, Father Albert Bollig, in the convent became more and more intense from 1848, so that he was replaced by Vicar Matthias Josef Schumacher at the suggestion of some brothers in October 1849. Schumacher saw the cause of the disagreements in too great a freedom, which the uneducated brothers were not equal to. Another reason was seen in the time limit of the vows, as well as in the personal possessions of the individual. After community retreats were held in the autumn of 1853 , the community decided in favor of a common fund as well as the perpetual vows and wanted a head from the ranks of the brothers instead of the non-religious Schumacher. But when Schumacher left Neuss in June 1855, one could no longer remember the reform requests, because when there was another vote on the taking of the perpetual vows in 1863, three brothers spoke out in favor and five against.

Although the hospital had been expanded to around 35 care places in 1855, Father Alexius Böcker laid the foundation stone for a new monastery in front of the Obertor on April 25, 1868. On October 8th of that year, the monastery community was able to free itself from the economic supervision of the city administration by paying 2,000 thalers, which now wanted to waive any legal claims against the monastery, but did not finally give up them until 1893. The new monastery building, which cost around 50,000 thalers and offered space for 100 to 120 sick people, was inaugurated on November 10, 1869 and was occupied by seven professed brothers , three novices, one aspirant , four pensioners and 50 mentally ill people.

Due to the turmoil of the Kulturkampf , the community was forbidden to accept new members in the same year. The convent, which had ten members in 1870, withdrew further and further from the funeral business and finally limited itself to institutional care.

But despite all external progress, internal reform made little progress. In April / May 1880 the archbishop granted permission to build a new chapel, which was inaugurated on July 17, 1881 and cost no less than 46,521 marks. The monastery had been forbidden to accept new members into its ranks for 14 years when, in 1883, six aspirants were finally accepted again. After the novitiate was extended to two years in the following year , Cardinal Philipp Krementz ordered in 1885 that new brothers could only be accepted against the promise of evangelical poverty, so that the community was in favor of the renewed introduction of perpetual vows as early as 1886 decided and the Archbishop of Cologne was able to mandate the vow of poverty in 1888. In the same year they founded their first branch monastery in Berlin-Weißensee , so that twelve brothers lived in the mother house and five brothers in the branch.

In 1892 the approval of the district president to expand the institution was received, so that the construction of a south wing, which was already available in May 1893, and the expansion of the north wing began.

20th century and present

On June 21, 1902, a group of confreres was sent to Düren to establish a subsidiary monastery . Two years later the Marian Office was established. Further start-ups followed - an indication of how much the community had grown.

In the First World War , 47 brothers fought at the front. Three brothers worked in field hospitals, seven died, others did not return from captivity for two or three years.

In 1925, the motherhouse began to add floors to the central wing and to set up a cloister with thirty rooms in the attic. Before that, the brothers' rooms had been scattered around the hospital. The greatest achievements of this year, however, lay in the approval obtained to set up a nursing school and an order-owned cemetery on the monastery grounds, to which in 1953 the confreres resting in the city cemetery were transferred. As early as 1932, the central building of the motherhouse was expanded and, in addition to the refectory, a new brothers' retreat, now with 37 rooms, was built. As early as January of that year, a "continuous hour of prayer" had been set up between 4:30 am and 7:00 pm, where at least one of the brothers was supposed to hold silent adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament . In October, the recently established branch in Patschkau in Silesia had to be given up, which was now taken over by the Augustinian women from Neuss . In 1934 another branch monastery was closed, namely the one in Barmen-Rittershausen . Because the order's offspring decreased slowly but steadily. It was no longer possible to maintain all the institutions that had been established in the last few decades.

In the course of the morality trials against members of the order and priests under National Socialism , 16 Alexians from Neuss were sentenced to prison terms in 1937.

When the rectorate parish of St. Konrad was established in 1939, it was to be temporarily housed in the Alexian monastery church. The congregation was able to move to its own church in 1955.

Since the Second World War brought the community into personal problems, everyone was grateful for any help. In 1941 the Johannessisters from Leutesdorf , whose houses had been confiscated by the Gestapo , found temporary accommodation in the motherhouse of the Alexian brothers in Neuss.

On June 26, 1944, two patients found a burning stick incendiary bomb in the garden . Brother Nikolaus Rötzer came along by chance and snatched the bomb from both of them, which had already ignited when he threw it away. As a result of the splinter effect, he lost the thumb and three fingers of his right hand and died on January 6, 1945.

On the night of September 24, 1944, an air raid destroyed the church and the main portal to the ground. The east wing, the front buildings and the economy were also badly damaged. When the St. Josef Hospital of the Augustinians in Neuss was badly damaged in an air raid in November, over 130 patients found refuge. Finally, all roofs of the hospital burned down in a major attack in December. One brother and three patients were killed.

Although ten brothers died in the war and the motherhouse was almost completely destroyed at the end of the war, the reconstruction in 1946 was so advanced that 300 patients could again be looked after in the house.

In 1949/1950 the Superior General , Father Ignatius Franz, tried to raise the community to a congregation of papal law in Rome . The attempt failed. The thoughts of a union with the Aachen Alexians also came to an end with the fear of loss of self-determination.

In 1950 the Sacred Heart Sisters came to the house temporarily. They had been expelled from Wroclaw and had already sought accommodation in 16 other monasteries, but no community had accepted them. However, the brothers immediately agreed to provide them with shelter.

After moving into the new cloister in 1958, the new monastery church was inaugurated on Trinity Sunday in 1959 by Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ferche .

In 1966 there were still 42 brothers in the mother house. On November 8, 1967, the last four Alexians from Cologne, who lived in the Haus zur Mühlen in Siegburg , joined the Neuss congregation. The following year the convention in Berlin was dissolved. Only brother Bernardin Sefke stayed in the GDR until the end .

After the Aachen Elisabethinnen had to give up their branch in Düren due to the lack of young people, they came to Neuss in 1975 at the request of the brothers. They still work here today and after their death they are also buried in the monastery cemetery of the brothers.

At the end of the 1960s, significant tensions seem to have arisen within the religious community, because in 1969 the superior general, Brother Ignatius Franz, felt compelled to resign so that "peace and quiet" could return. His successor, brother Erhard Flotzinger, traveled to America in 1974 as an observer to the general chapter of the Aachen Alexians. A first step towards establishing closer relationships with the Congregation, which was relatively old at the time and which had eighteen professed brothers in 1984 and fifteen in 1987. Probably due to the age structure, the congregation of the Neuss Alexian Brothers, which was a congregation under episcopal law, merged with the papal congregation of the Aachen Alexians in 1990. Since then, the houses of the former Alexians from Neuss have formed the Order of St. Joseph's Province. As a result, the Superior General, Father Wunibald Gillhaus CFA, had to complete his regular term of office as "Brother Provincial Superior". The former superior general was assigned two general assistants, the current superior provincial three provincial councilors. The novitiate of the Neuss Alexians, which had been in Siegburg since the 1980s, was combined with the novitiate of the Aachen province in 1994 to form a joint novitiate .

In 1996 the religious community opened a kitchen for the poor, and a year later the construction of a new cloister building began. It was available twelve months later. At that time none of the brothers was active in nursing. Nevertheless, the province of St. Josef took over sponsorship of hospitals in the new federal states. B. in Dessau-Roßlau , Wittenberg and Potsdam .

After a continuous decline in personnel - there were no new entrants during the 1970s - the community experienced a further increase in admissions in the last years of the 20th century. With the ordination of one of the brothers to the priesthood in 1999, the brothers of the Neuss Province broke with a centuries-old tradition which stated that clerics should be rejected as members of the congregation.

On the threshold of the third millennium, the province of St. Joseph had eight brothers and three novices, in 2003 only seven brothers. In 2004 the general chapter of the congregation decided to unify the Alexian provinces of Aachen and Neuss for 2008. Since 2008, the convent in Neuss has been a branch of the German St. Alexius province, whose seat is in the Alexian monastery in Aachen .

In 2018, the Alexian convent in Neuss was abolished and the last two brothers were transferred to other convents. With this the 500 year old monastery had come to an end.

Branch monasteries of the Neuss Alexians

Berlin

On February 13, 1888, the congregation bought a farm in Berlin-Weissensee for 135,000 marks , whereby 67,500 marks had to be paid directly when the purchase was made. Even if the house had no furniture, they took over eight horses and four cows with the purchase. But when the first three brothers moved into the house in April of the same year, they found that their horses were malnourished and had to be sold as soon as possible. They were able to cover their livelihood, at least for the time being, from the proceeds from the sale of the horses and through the sale of milk, because their work in outpatient nursing did not provide sufficient subsistence for the time being, as they mostly did this with the poorest of the poor and so their labor mainly for God's wages give away. But finally on November 23, 1888, in addition to the ecclesiastical and state approval for the establishment of a new branch, they began planning the establishment of an institution. By December 31, 1888, they also had a cost estimate in their hands, the construction cost of which amounted to 390,000 marks, a sum that they could only obtain through mortgages. After a large part of her farm was destroyed in a fire in 1890, the foundation stone for a new hospital was laid on July 17, 1891, which was then inaugurated on December 17, 1892 and could be occupied in January of the following year. When they received state approval on June 22, 1893 to establish a nursing home for the mentally ill, various regulations for the management of the house were connected with this. These were shown, among other things, in the statistical recording of the sick, regulated admissions and discharges and stipulated that at least one licensed doctor had to live in the institution. After the latter had already taken up his position on January 1, 1894, the head of the house applied for the concession as a sanatorium and nursing home, which was granted on March 28, 1894, but required the separation of curable and incurable patients. Since the brothers lived with the patients day and night at that time, church visitations repeatedly criticized the fact that the spiritual life was neglected under the workload. So it is not surprising that a separate chapel was not planned until 1908, i.e. relatively late. Completed two years later, it was dedicated to St. Joseph. The house, which was modernized again and again in the course of the 1920s, was originally intended for 95 patients, but had grown to 126 by 1926. Between 1929 and 1931 the number of patients was increased to 400, who were cared for by 28 brothers. But even in the 1930s there was no standstill, the house was constantly renovated and adapted to the most modern treatment options. And just as the house grew in size, so did the Brethren Convention, growing to 42 Brothers by 1934. With the onset of National Socialism, the community suffered quite a bit from smear campaigns. When they were supposed to defend themselves for moral misconduct in July 1936, however, the Hitler regime suffered a defeat. Just three years later, the air raid police confiscated the ground floor and the basement of the house. In a two-year construction period, the basement of the north wing was converted into an emergency hospital and the refectory into a medical hospital. 2/3 of the 420 patients were relocated in 1940 under pressure from the Main Health Office and thus belonged to the more than 30,000 mentally ill who were killed in an extermination camp. Since numerous brothers were drafted to the front and the admission of new candidates had been banned since 1941, patient care became increasingly problematic.

When the government also referred people with lung disease to the house for care, it became completely impossible for the small group of brothers to maintain the care. One had to look for help. After an interlude by the Essen Franciscan Sisters, almost forty Elisabeth Sisters from Aachen, who had to leave their mother house, began their active support on October 1, 1941. They did not leave Berlin until September 1945. Soon after the war, the damage caused was repaired. But the time was difficult and should not be easier. In 1947, the Allies decided that the department for lung patients had to be dissolved and the X-ray department could only be left in-house at the request of the doctors. The community had shrunk considerably and this year only had 18 brothers and one novice. But they could not hold that position much longer. Age and resignation reduced the community to nine members by 1953, but the number of employees rose to 92. Since an exchange of brothers between the mother house in Neuss and Berlin was no longer possible due to political circumstances, the convention increasingly found itself in an exceptional situation, so that the Bishop of Berlin turned to Rome and there an extraordinary extension of the term of office of the house superior, Brother Gregor Zündorf, obtained. It was of particular importance to the Bishop of Berlin that the only Catholic psychiatry in the GDR should be preserved. Due to the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 and the lack of willingness to cooperate on the part of the Neuss Superior General, Father Ignatius Franz, who, despite repeated requests from the bishop, did not intend to deal with the matter in more detail, the hospital was handed over to the Diocese of Berlin in 1968 and the convention was established deducted. Only brother Bernardin Sefke stayed behind in Berlin because he was not yet 65 years old and was not allowed to leave the GDR. Since the brothers were forbidden from dealing with the diocesan instructions by the superior general - the auxiliary bishop was not received when he was in the house - a contract was negotiated by the Cologne prelate Johannes Daniels and the diocese of Berlin, through which the management of the hospital was negotiated a board of trustees was handed over. On behalf of the Superior General, the Superior of the Maidservants of Mary, who had worked in the house since May 1946, signed the said contract on November 28, 1968. It was not until 1990 that the Alexians, due to the fall of the Berlin Wall, were able to take responsibility for the St. Joseph Hospital again and adapt it to the circumstances of the time. In the 1970s, a retirement home called the Bischof-Kettler-Haus was built next to the hospital. At this time there were also new religious admissions in Berlin. After a novitiate could be established under the direction of a world priest as a spiritual director in the 1980s, Brother Leander Rogge, already of retirement age, was transferred to Berlin in 1985, so that the community again had two brothers of perpetual profession. But despite all the beautiful approaches, the blooming did not last long, as most of the novices left the community. If the convent still had three brothers in 1995, death reduced it to just one brother by 1997. The late 1990s were a time of building and modernization. After a new Bischof-Kettler-Haus was inaugurated by the Archbishop of Berlin, Georg Cardinal Sterzinsky , the hospital began to be redesigned, so that the patients could move into the pavilion buildings erected in the garden area in 1998 and the actual hospital area was loosened up could.

Düren

After the community had acquired a plot of land on Lendersdorferweg in Düren in 1901, they received the archbishop's approval in November of the same year to set up a branch with the purpose of outpatient nursing and the management of a men's hospice. After the state approval was received in May 1902, one floor was rented in a house at Kaiserstraße 42. The first three brothers of the convent left Neuss on June 21, 1902. More soon followed, so that the outpatient care practiced here could initially be practiced by six to ten brothers. In the spring of 1903 they finally began building their own house, which was inaugurated on August 28, 1904 and whose chapel was dedicated to Saint Joachim. Shortly after it was built, people wanted to take in some retirees and applied for the relevant permits. While the archiepiscopal authority arrived on September 6, 1904, the government had to wait until 1906, so that it remained with outpatient nursing for the time being. The house, whose convent consisted of five brothers in 1934, was destroyed in a bomb attack on November 16, 1944. The brothers managed to escape from the air raid shelter and returned to the mother house. The convent could not be re-established after the war due to a lack of personnel.

Barmen

At the request of the pastor of the parish of St. Johann Baptist in Barmen-Rittershausen and the archbishop's approval, the superior general sent three brothers to the parish mentioned for outpatient nursing and sexton service in 1925. Without a house of their own, the brothers lived here in an apartment in the rectory at Jägerstrasse 73. When the superior general canceled the contract with the parish and wanted to close the branch, the pastor tried to dissuade the superior general. His arguments were of no avail. On November 8, 1934, the contract was officially terminated by the superior general, who possibly needed the brothers more urgently in a hospital of the cooperative.

Rome

In the spring of 1928 the Abbot Primate of the Benedictines, Father von Stotzingen, turned to the Superior General to send some brothers who were to run the household of the Papal Greek College of S. Athanasio. After a treaty was signed between the Congregation and the College and the Vatican had given its consent to the establishment of the convent, four brothers left for Rome on May 8, 1928, where they arrived on May 10 at 149 Via del Babuino. Here they lived in some of the seminarians' rooms until their accommodation was completed. While the head of the small convent had his own room, the other brothers shared a dormitory. In addition, the community had its own refectory, recreation and a chapel in the Roman rite. In 1930 they were offered a house for sale in Via Aurelia 17, for which they soon received the approval of the Archbishop of Cologne and that of the Cardinal Vicar in Rome. However, due to the political situation in Germany, the superior general could not decide to move the community's fifth branch monastery into their own house, so they kept their apartment in the college. Like the seminarians, the brothers also left town during the summer months and went to the college's holiday home. When there were difficulties in filling the convent superior in 1935, an application was made for the owner, Brother Eligius Ackermann, for an extension. He was to remain the first and last head of the convent. The convention, the members of which had probably largely adopted the Italian way of life and generally also led a lighter life like their confreres in Germany, was dissolved in 1951 and the brothers returned to the mother house.

Bonn

With their fourth branch, the brothers acquired a famous sanatorium and nursing home in Bonn-Endenich on March 17, 1927. In 1844 the doctor F. Richarz had opened his own institution after he had left the Siegburg hospital. In this he dispensed with mechanical means of restraint and only temporarily accommodated restless patients in isolation in specially designed rooms. The most famous patient in the house was the composer Robert Schumann, who was treated here from 1854 until his death in 1856. In the purchase contract, the purchase price of 275,000 gold marks and the transfer of the patients by the seller to other houses were agreed. After several years of structural renovation and redesign of the house, which cost a further 262,000 gold marks by May 1929, the St. Paulus Home was able to accept around 100 patients in 1933, whose care was provided by 38 brothers. The chapel and enclosure were housed in the so-called Schumann House, which is opposite the main building and is now owned by the city of Bonn. The Bonn community did not last long, because the shortage of young people became more and more depressing for the congregation at the end of the 1930s, so that the convention was dissolved in 1937 and the brothers were transferred back to Neuss in 1937. Shortly afterwards, in the same year, the Franciscan Sisters of Family Care from Essen-Frintrop started their work in the St. Paulus Home. After the Second World War the cloister and rectorate buildings were destroyed and had to be rebuilt. In 1981 the Franciscan Sisters also left the house and a convent of three brothers was built again, but it only lasted for a short time. In 1994 the last brother of the house died, who was here alone for over ten years. In the years from 1989 to 1993 the Paulus Home was fundamentally rebuilt and rebuilt. Indian Sacred Heart Sisters have been working in the old people's home, which has around 120 beds, since April 1985.

Patschkau

In 1929 the Caritas Association of the Diocese of Wroclaw built a house for alcoholics. After the religious orders entrusted with the care had already changed several times, the house came into the possession of the Neuss Alexian Brothers on October 28, 1934, who set up their sixth branch here. In view of the political circumstances, the care of the mentally ill became more and more difficult for the religious order, so it was decided to set up a treatment center for tuberculosis sufferers. However, since the order's offspring declined and the staff of the congregation continued to decline, the house was handed over to the congregation of the Neuss Augustinians in 1937. In 1938 with the name "Landesheilstätte Oberschlesien, St.-Johannes-Heim Patschkau Department ", after the Second World War, in 1945, the sisters were expelled by the state authorities of the house and returned to Neuss. The last to return to the mother house in 1947 was Brother Bartholomew, who until then had been the only brother in the house. The institution was converted into a treatment center for tuberculous children and later into a children's home.

Gey

In order to create a place for the brothers to relax, the superior general, Father Aegidius Völlmecke, bought a house in the municipality of Hürtgenward in 1963. This was located on a hill a little away from the village and was set up within a very short time, so that the inauguration could be celebrated on September 12 of the same year. The branch was named St. Augustinus-Heim, was maintained by a small convent and for many years was a popular holiday destination for the Neuss brothers. In 1969 the convent consisted of five brothers, three years later it was continued by only two brothers, and with the death of the first and last head of the house, Brother Joachim Schock, it was dissolved in 1972. In the same year, the Elisabethinnen from Aachen took over the property, but they also gave it up again in 1978. On March 21, 1997 the house was sold.

Monastery commissioners

• v. 1786 to 1794 J. Franziskus J. Kolvenbach, provost of the reg. Choir women
• v. 1829 to 1832 Jakob Poll, Konsistorialrat
• until 1846 Villvoye, pastor at the Quirinusmünster
• 1847–1877 Peter Josef Buschmann, pastor at the Quirinusmünster
• v. 1888 Tilmann Joseph Hubert Heimbach, Rev. St. Michael, Dormagen
• until 1919 Harf, pastor at the Quirinusmünster
• 1919–1921 Engels, senior pastor at the Quirinusmünster
• 1921–1944 August Höller, prelate and canon
• 1944–1965 Prelate Adenäuer, Canon
• 1965–1969 Theodor Schnitzler, prelate and pastor to St. Aposteln, Cologne
• 1969–1988 Johannes Daniels, Apostolic Protonotary and Canon
• 1988–1990 Walter Jansen , auxiliary bishop and canon

literature

• 500 years of the Alexian Brothers in Neuss 1490–1990. Anniversary commemorative publication on the occasion of the conclusion of the contract on August 26, 1490 between the city of Neuss and the Alexian brothers. Congregation of the Brothers of Saint Alexius, Neuss 1990

Individual evidence

1. ^ Eduard Hegel : History of the Archdiocese of Cologne , Vol. 4: The Archdiocese of Cologne between the Baroque and Enlightenment from the Palatinate War to the end of the French period, 1688–1814 . Bachem, Cologne 1979, ISBN 3-7616-0389-4 , p. 499.
2. ^ Hans Günter Hockerts: The morality trials against Catholic religious and priests 1936-1937. Mainz 1971, p. 48.
3. ↑ Alexianer Brothers leave Neuss , Rheinische Post , Neuss edition, January 28, 2017, accessed on July 2, 2002.

Coordinates: 51 ° 11 ′ 19.7 "  N , 6 ° 42 ′ 16.7"  E