Nivard Schlimbach

Nivard Schlimbach, portrait by Johann Georg Herrlein

Grave of Nivard Schlimbach

Georg Nivard (us) Schlimbach SOCist (born March 25, 1747 in Althausen near Königshofen in Grabfeld as Georg Anton or Adam Schlimbach ; † May 5, 1812 at the Rindhof in Münnerstadt ) was the last abbot of the Cistercian monastery in Bildhausen .

Life

Nivard Schlimbach was the youngest son of the surgeon and mayor Johann Schlimbach von Althausen; its epitaph is on the outer facade of the local church of St. Cyriakus .

After attending elementary school in his home town, he first went to the rector's school in Königshofen im Grabfeld and, in 1758, to the grammar school in Bamberg (today: Kaiser-Heinrich-Gymnasium Bamberg ), where he took the philosophical course. 1764 enrolled him at the University of Würzburg and began with a philosophy and theology studies.

In 1767 he joined Abbot Bonifatius Geßner (1699–1710) in the Cistercian Abbey of Maria Bildhausen; he received the monastery name Nivardus and made profession on September 18, 1768 .

After the Primiz on November 3, 1771, Abbot Edmund Martin (1718–1786) sent him to Würzburg to study law ; there he lived with Professor Joseph Maria Schneidt and acquired significant knowledge in law , mathematics , geometry and Franconian history. Under the direction of Joseph Maria Schneidt, he put together a collection of copies of such documents relating to the history of Franconia; this collection, called Antiquitates herbipolenses , he continued until the end of his life.

In 1774 he returned to Bildhausen and was initially assistant to the office director, later assistant to the bailiff in Hollstadt . He received the vacant position of office director, which he kept until he was elected abbot on October 23, 1786.

After taking office, he found the monastery property over-indebted, but left them debt-free during the secularization on May 2, 1803, which earned him a substantial pension even for his final years. Deleveraging succeeded only in difficult conditions because it at the very beginning of his term due to extensive judicial arrangement a debt of 12,000 guilders had to pay off. He then sold unprofitable vineyards and reduced the number of monks to save money; he also had fallow land reclaimed. He had the Petersberg cleared and planted with fruit and hops. The newly built cattle farm soon became an economic property, the income of which increased the income of the monastery significantly. The new guest building and the gate house at the monastery are due to him as well as the beautification of the monastery gardens and the construction of the tithe barn in Unsleben .

During the coalition wars , the Austrians built a hospital in the monastery in 1795 , after which he had to move to the Rindhof. After these came the French in 1796 , so that Abbot Nivard had to flee to Coburg , Kronach and Ebersberg in the Vogtland while the monastery was looted and pillaged.

When he returned from exile , he lived in the cloister courtyard in Hollstadt for some time and after the secularization , Abbot Nivard took his retirement home on May 2, 1803 at the Rindhof; There he also took the collection of Franconian-Würzburg coins, comprising 1157 individual pieces, with him, which he had systematically built up since 1776. He received a yearly pension of 6,000 florins and Rindhof, who gave him a lifetime to lease was left; He was no longer able to buy it. The state commission that dissolved the monastery recorded the total assets of the monastery, which, including all properties, was put at 2,098,603 guilders.

In 1800 he founded the parish Seubrigshausen and in September 1811, shortly before his death, the parish Althausen, where he had a new parsonage built opposite the church.

He was buried on May 8, 1812 in the cemetery in Großwenkheim , where his tomb has been preserved to this day, which was restored on the 200th anniversary of his death in 2012.

After the abbot's death, Grand Duke Ferdinand III. von Tuscany , the then sovereign of the Grand Duchy of Würzburg , who had visited Nivard Schlimbach several times, took over the coin collection of Schlimbach's heirs and took them to Florence in 1814 .

literature

• Rost, Johann Wilhelm: History of the Franconian Cistercian Abbey Bildhausen. From handwritten documents. Wurzburg 1852.
• Schnell, Otto: Personnel status of the Cistercian Abbey of Bildhausen during the period of its existence, in: Archives of the Historical Association of Lower Franconia and Aschaffenburg, Vol. 30, Würzburg 1887, pp. 135–172.
• Heusinger, Reinhold: Nivard Schlimbach, who was born in Althäuser, was the last abbot of Bildhausen, in: Das Grabfeld (1996), pp. 12-13.
• Heusinger, Reinhold: Nivard Schlimbach, last abbot of Bildhausen, in: Numismatic Manuscripts: Annual Edition of the Numismatic Society Schweinfurt 13 (1995), pp. 3-19.
• Nivard Schlimbach . In: Archive of the Historical Association of Lower Franconia and Aschaffenburg , Volume 3. Würzburg 1848. P. 58 f.

Web links

Commons : Nivard Schlimbach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Nivard Schlimbach . In: Biographia Cisterciensis .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Martin, Edmund - Biographia Cisterciensis. Retrieved February 25, 2020 . 
2. ↑ LIS - community Unsleben - village barn of the community Unsleben. Retrieved February 25, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Reinhold Albert: The secularization 200 years ago brought radical changes. In: Das Grabfeld - Heimatblätter for culture, history and customs in the Grabfeld. Association for local history in Grabfeld e. V. and Museum Education Center Bad Königshofen i. Gr., October 2003, accessed February 25, 2020 . 
4. ↑ The abbot's tombstone restored. Retrieved February 25, 2020 . 
5. ^ Historical Association of Lower Franconia and Aschaffenburg: Archive of the Historical Association of Lower Franconia and Aschaffenburg . Stütz, 1839 ( google.de [accessed on February 25, 2020]).