Hildesheim Seminary

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Facade of the seminary church; in front of it the former main gate of the Lüchtenhof am Brühl
The Capuchin Monastery 1675
The conference house 2005

The seminary of Hildesheim was the seminary of the diocese of Hildesheim and is today as a seminary conference center a diocesan educational institution. It is located on the Lüchtenhof , a historic monastery property at the Brühl - Neue Strasse intersection in the southern old town of Hildesheim .

Lüchtenhof

The first written mention of the Lüchtenhof ("Lichterhof") in the originally swampy southeast corner of the walled old town comes from the year 1321. The respective owner had the duty to provide the cathedral with the candles for the Marian festival processions . The patronage of the seminary church of Mariä Candlemas reminds of this to this day . In 1440 the property belonged to the community of cathedral vicars and cathedral provost Eckhard von Hahnensee.

Fraternal Lords (1443–1604)

Since the 1430s, the young movement of the Brothers of Living Together (later called "Fraterherren"), under the leadership of Gottfried Borninck, was planning a branch in Hildesheim. After two provisional arrangements, they were able to move into the Lüchtenhof in 1443 and buy land and buildings in 1444/46. They adapted the property to their needs through various construction measures, including the construction of a church with a crypt and a scriptorium .

The first rector in Hildesheim was Bernhard von Büderich († 1457); One of the most important conventuals was Peter Dieburg († 1494), who wrote a remarkable chronicle . Here, as everywhere, the fraternal lords worked primarily through the production and distribution of books as well as through preaching and pastoral care in the spirit of the Devotio moderna . The Hildesheim convent turned against the tendency existing in other settlements of the brothers to shape life more and more according to the monastic model.

In the 16th century, the fraternal lords were deprived of their economic basis by printing . At the same time, the Reformation reduced its influence in the surrounding area and in the city of Hildesheim, even if the monasteries and convents in the episcopal city were not abolished. In 1604 the Lüchtenhof was given to the episcopal see in return for right of residence and maintenance for the last two brothers. Ernst II set up an alumnate for needy students of the Jesuit high school in the buildings .

Capuchin (1631-1812)

Against the will of the cathedral chapter , Bishop Ferdinand handed the Lüchtenhof over to the Franciscan Capuchin order in 1631/38 . Again there were extensive building maintenance and construction measures. In 1662 the new monastery church was built, the floor plan of which corresponds to that of today's seminary church. The construction manager was the chronicler of the monastery Pater Polycarp († 1684), from whom the oldest surviving picture of the Lüchtenhof comes from 1675. The Capuchins devoted themselves to popular sermons and pastoral care.

In May 1761 a fire broke out on the monastery grounds, which severely damaged the church and its extensions. Among other things, a large part of the library was destroyed. A new baroque church was built on the old foundations by 1772 .

In 1812 - relatively late due to the pastoral care of the Capuchins - the monastery was closed by the royal Westphalian government.

Seminary

In execution of the agreements between the Holy See and the young Kingdom of Hanover ( Impensa Romanorum Pontificum 1824), the seminary and the philosophical-theological training institute for the new generation of priests of the newly circumscribed diocese of Hildesheim were set up at Lüchtenhof . In Bismarck's Kulturkampf , the seminar was closed in 1873 and only reopened in 1887 without the faculty.

During the air raid on Hildesheim on March 22, 1945, the seminary church burned down. The remaining buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries have largely been preserved.

In the 1960s, the seminary was expanded to include a new building east of the monastery building on Neue Straße. The old and new buildings were extensively redesigned in the 1990s and expanded into a modern conference center. Since then, the buildings have also housed the diocesan office for pastoral training and advice .

The theological training of candidates for the priesthood of the diocese of Hildesheim no longer takes place in Hildesheim, but at the Philosophical-Theological University of Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt am Main. The pastoral training of the seminarians is in the Hamburg seminary. The rain and the spiritual of the students still live in Hildesheim. Today, the building is used exclusively for conferences and training courses.

church

Baroque building

The seminar church presents itself from the outside in the forms of the high baroque. It is a hall church with a retracted rectangular choir . The reddish plastered wall surfaces are structured by white pilaster strips , reveals and architraves , especially on the two-storey, gable-topped portal facade . In three semicircular niches above the portal there is a statue of Mary as Immaculate , on the sides the Saints Francis of Assisi and Anthony of Padua .

Interior design

Seminary Church, Interior 2013

The baroque interior of the seminary church was destroyed in 1945. During the reconstruction, the room was designed in the style of the 1960s. The choir was separated and converted into a sacrament chapel . When a thorough renovation became necessary in the 2000s, plans began for a redesign that accommodates the liturgical celebration with groups and makes liturgical accents of the Second Vatican Council tangible. The work was carried out from November 2009 according to plans by the diocesan and cathedral builder Norbert Kesseler and Dipl.-Ing. Martin Spatz executed by the architects Pape & Kost GbR from Hiddestorf and completed in 2010 with the consecration of the new altar.

The seminary church was conceived as a path-space along an axis, on which the holy water basin, ambo and altar on the same level form the stations of an event. Instead of fixed benches, there are a limited number of movable seats. The dark floor contrasts with the white of the wall surfaces. Apart from the cross, Easter candlesticks , the old Pietà and a gate-like design on the east wall, the room does not contain any images or symbols. Only the stained glass windows bring a color accent when light falls. The signs and gestures of the liturgy and the presence of the assembled people speak all the more strongly in him.

literature

  • Jochen Bepler : The Hildesheimer Brotherhood. In: The Diocese of Hildesheim in the past and present , 64th year, Hildesheim 1996, pp. 107–125.
  • Egbert Ballhorn: A room opened to celebrate the Word of God. The redesigned seminary church in Hildesheim. In: Bible and Liturgy. Issue 1/2012, Klosterneuburg 2012, pp. 49–53.
  • Norbert Kesseler: Architecture projects in the Diocese of Hildesheim. Bernward Mediengesellschaft, Hildesheim 2012.

Web links

Commons : Priesterseminar Hildesheim  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ hence the name Brühl
  2. ↑ Internet presence of the conference center ( Memento of the original dated December 7, 2013 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tagungshaus-priesterseminar.de
  3. ↑ a b Bepler p. 114.
  4. ↑ Art. Hildesheim . In: Erwin Gatz (Hrsg.): Priest training centers in the German-speaking countries between the Enlightenment and the Second Vatican Council . Herder, Freiburg 1994, ISBN 3-451-22567-0 , p. 100.
  5. ↑ http://www.pape-kost.de/proj-details/proj-09162/projekt.html

Coordinates: 52 ° 8 '49.4 "  N , 9 ° 57' 3.9"  E