Oswald Loschert

Portrait of the Abbot Oswald Loschert, attributed to Johann Christoph Fesel

Oswald Loschert (real name Johann Oswald Loschert ; * December 21, 1704 in Rothenfels ; † August 27, 1785 in Oberzell ) was the penultimate abbot of the Premonstratensian monastery in Zell am Main from 1747 to 1785 .

Oberzell before Loschert

The Oberzell monastery experienced a new boom under the predecessors of Oswald Loschert, after the frequent armed conflicts in the previous centuries had ensured a steady decline of the abbey. Sigmund Hauck , Oswald Loschert's predecessor, had succeeded in establishing a dependent priory in Gerlachsheim . Gerlachsheim soon became one of the most important possessions in Oberzell. The priory was soon rebuilt in the Baroque style.

At the same time, scientific life in the abbey also reached a high point. With Johann Zahn, an important mathematician and optician came from the monastery school, and Oberzell also produced influential scientists and rhetoricians. Under the predecessor of Loschert, Abbot Georg Fasel , the mother monastery of Oberzell began to be baroque . The abbot started to renovate the buildings of the monastery.

Life

Oswald Loschert was born on December 21, 1704 as Johann Oswald in Rothenfels in Spessart . The place was part of the Hochstift Würzburg and was oriented towards the metropolis. Loschert's father, Andreas Loschert, was an ensign and came from the village ofzimmer . The grandfather of the future abbot still worked here as a fisherman on the Main. The mother Maria Katharina, on the other hand, was a native of Rothenfels. Nothing is known about the school education of the young Oswald, he probably attended a Latin school .

At the age of fifteen Loschert left Rothenfels to enroll at the University of Würzburg . On December 2, 1719, he appeared in the register as a philosophy student. On December 30, 1721, Loschert entered the Premonstratensian monastery in Oberzell in front of Würzburg. In 1724 he graduated with his doctorate to the doctor of theology from. After graduating, Loschert initially ran the abbey in Würzburg, but continued to study.

In the following years Oswald Loschert pursued philosophical studies at the university and got to know both rights, so that he finally received his doctorate in these fields on September 3, 1732. At the same time, the young clergyman's first literary works appeared. In 1738, at the age of thirty-three, the convent appointed him Prior of Gerlachsheim, an office which he would hold until he was elected abbot.

After the death of Abbot Georg Fasel in September 1747, the monks had to elect a new monastery head. In the election on October 3 of the same year, Oswald Loschert was finally able to prevail. Just two years after his election, the trial of the Unterzell nun Maria Renata shook the monastery. Maria Renata was called a witch by her sisters. Loschert finally allowed a secular trial against her. The nun was the last witch to be executed in Franconia .

Despite this seemingly archaic condemnation, Oswald Loschert was consistently assessed positively in the historiographical work on the Oberzell monastery. In Würzburg he further promoted the study opportunities for the Oberzeller monks. In addition, Abbot Oswald continued the construction work of his predecessors in the monastery itself. In 1749 a wing of the abbey had already been rebuilt, in 1753 the convent building was built under the supervision of Balthasar Neumann. In 1760 the stairwell was completed.

In 1760, however, the Seven Years War also reached the area of ​​the abbey and delayed the continuation of the construction work. In 1761 the monastery village of Waldbrunn was plundered by French cavalry, so that in March 1761 Abbot Oswald saw no other way out than to have the archive and the monastery repository moved to Würzburg. On November 28, the prelate even thought about fleeing to Mainz , but stayed in Oberzell. Oswald Loschert died in Oberzell on August 27, 1785.

coat of arms

The coat of arms of Oswald Loschert

The personal coat of arms of Abbot Oswald Loschert refers to the first name "Ostwald" as a talking coat of arms. Description : At the top right a sun, underneath three deciduous trees. A bone can be seen as a crest . The coat of arms has been preserved today as part of the monastery coat of arms above the convent building of the former monastery. It can also be found on an ex-library from the 18th century. Instead of three trees, a total of seven are shown here. The tinging of the coat of arms is unclear.

Works (selection)

• Mystery of the divine word accepted by human nature . Wurzburg 1734.
• Most useful veneration of the gracious incarnation and birth of our soul maker Jesus Christ: consisting in divine reflections ...; described in three parts . Wurzburg 1737.
• A previous attempt to obtain a contract between the scholars involved in the previous witch's war, as well as useful instruction on how to believe neither too little nor too much of sorcery and witchcraft . Wurzburg 1767.
• Stirpis liligero-norbertinae solo Franciae eoo supra sex aeva insitae ... quando ... Oswaldus ... solenne jubilaeum sacerdotale celebrabat . Wurzburg 1779.
• The always victorious Christian in the inevitable struggle with the invisible enemies of his temporal and eternal prosperity: provided by Christ and his Church with insurmountable weapons, and instructed in the effective use of them. Posthumously . Augsburg ² 1787.

literature

• Helmut Flachenecker , Stefan Petersen: Personnel lists for upper and lower cell . In: Helmut Flachenecker, Wolfgang Weiß (ed.): Oberzell - From the Premonstratensian Monastery (until 1803) to the motherhouse of the Congregation of the Servants of the Holy Childhood of Jesus (= sources and research on the history of the diocese and bishopric of Würzburg, Volume LXII). Würzburg 2006, pp. 521-570.
• Leo Günther: Oberzell Monastery. From foundation to secularization 1128–1802 . In: Festschrift for the 800th anniversary of the Norbertus monastery in Oberzell . Würzburg 1928. pp. 5-55.
• Ludwig Weiß: Oswald Loschert, Abbot of Oberzell 1747–1785 . In: Ludwig Weiß (ed.): Rothenfels 1148–1948 . Aschaffenburg 1949. pp. 243-246.
• Wolfgang Weiß: The secularization of the Premonstratensian Abbey of Oberzell . In: Helmut Flachenecker, Wolfgang Weiß (ed.): Oberzell - From the Premonstratensian Monastery (until 1803) to the motherhouse of the Congregation of the Servants of the Holy Childhood of Jesus (= sources and research on the history of the diocese and bishopric of Würzburg, volume LXII) . Würzburg 2006. pp. 481-520.

Web links

Commons : Oswald Loschert  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• WürzburgWiki: Oswald Loschert

Individual evidence

1. ^ Günther, Leo: Oberzell Abbey . P. 36.
2. ↑ Weiß, Ludwig: Oswald Loschert, Abbot of Oberzell 1747–1785 . P. 243.
3. ↑ Flachenecker, Helmut (among others): Personal lists for Ober- and Unterzell . P. 530 (footnotes).
4. ↑ Weiß, Wolfgang: The secularization of the Premonstratensian Abbey Oberzell . P. 485.
5. ^ Günther, Leo: Oberzell Abbey. P. 43.

predecessor	Office	successor
Georg Fasel	Abbot of Oberzell 1747–1785	Christoph Kroh