Roman Giel from Gielsberg

Copper printing plate from the 17th century with a depiction of the Kempten prince abbot Roman Giel von Gielsberg. Since the plate is designed for printing, it is mirror-inverted.

Roman Giel von Gielsberg (* 1612 in what is now Thurgau as Christoph Bernhard Giel von Gielsberg , † 1673 in Rome ) was prince abbot in the Kempten monastery from 1639 to 1673 .

Origin and life

Roman Giel von Gielsberg came from the Swiss aristocratic family of Messrs. Giel von Gielsberg, who were originally ministerials of the St. Gallen Monastery and had their headquarters at Gielsberg Castle (destroyed around 1600) near Wolfertswil and Glattburg Castle (fell into disrepair around 1800) near Flawil . had. He was a son of Joachim Christoph Giel von Gielsberg and his wife Ursula von Castelmaur.

In 1630 he made his profession in the Benedictine Abbey of Kempten , was given the name "Romanus" when he entered the monastery and stayed in Rome until he was elected prince abbot , where he studied at the Collegium Germanicum . At the age of 27, in May 1639, in the midst of the chaos of the Thirty Years' War , he was appointed prince abbot. Since the monastery in Kempten had been destroyed by Swedish troops and citizens of the Protestant imperial city of Kempten, the election of Romans had to take place in Unterthingau .

Roman Giel von Gielsberg died in Rome in 1673 and was buried there in front of the Marian altar in the Church of Santa Maria dell'Anima .

Act

Roman Giel von Gielsberg rearranged the territorial administration of the dominion in 1642 by abolishing the office of bailiff and in 1642 established seven care offices and other central authorities. In 1654 he acquired the small Letten Castle near Letten and lived in it from 1655 to 1669 during the construction of the abbot's residence in Kempten.

Construction activity

From 1648 the prince had been working on plans to rebuild the monastery complex in Kempten, which had been destroyed in the Thirty Years War. He played through several variants, including the relocation of the monastery to the Reichelsberg in Kempten (today's clinic location ) or to Liebenthann Castle near Obergünzburg . When he decided to rebuild the place where it was founded ("in loco fundationis"), Gielsberg commissioned the Vorarlberg master builder Michael Beer to design and build a new princely residence and the St. Lorenz collegiate church , which also serve as the parish church should. The foundation stone was laid in 1651. After a few years, Beer was replaced by the Graubünden master builder Johann Serro . Gielsberg did not live to see the completion of the ambitious large-scale construction project, which suffered several setbacks. After exceeding the previously planned construction costs, he was called to Rome and stayed there until his death. One year after his death, the convent moved into the new residence in 1674. The construction of the Kempten residence with the collegiate church was the first major church building project in Germany after the Thirty Years' War.

Afterlife

The Archbishop of Bamberg, Karl Braun (* 1930), who was born in Kempten, adopted the red and white chess pattern from Gielsberg's coat of arms in his coat of arms as well as in his coat of arms as archbishop. He thus expressed his solidarity with the Kempten collegiate church of St. Lorenz , where he was baptized, received his first communion and was confirmed.

literature

• Thomas Eser: The Princely Monastery of Kempten under Abbot Roman Giel von Gielsberg (1639 to 1673). In: Allgäu history friend . 91, 1991, pp. 5-33.
• Hans Gurski: The reform efforts of the Kempten abbot Roman Giel von Gielsberg and the "Historia Monasterii Campidonensis" of the Kempten collegiate capital Bonifacius von Danketschweil. In: Allgäu history friend. 96, 1996, pp. 5-68.
• Volker Laube, Markus Naumann: Prince Abbot Roman Giel von Gielsberg (1639–1673) in the judgment of historiography. In: Allgäu history friend. 100, 2000, pp. 19-42.
• Hugo Naumann: Prince Abbot Roman Giel von Gielsberg (1639–1673) and his picture program in the collegiate church of St. Lorenz in Kempten. In: Allgäu history friend. 96, 1996, pp. 69-118.
• Eduard Zimmermann, Friedrich Zollhoefer (ed.): Kempter coat of arms and symbols encompassing the city and district of Kempten with the adjacent areas of the upper Allgäu. (= Old Allgäu families. XXXVIII; = Allgäu homeland books. Volume 60). Verlag für Heimatpflege, Kempten 1963, p. 130.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Hugo Naumann: Prince Abbot Roman Giel von Gielsberg (1639–1673) and his image program in the St. Lorenz Collegiate Church in Kempten. In: Allgäu history friend . 96, 1996, pp. 69-118, here p. 71.
2. ^ Carl Wegelin: History of the Toggenburg landscape. 1830, first part, p. 148.
3. ↑ Eduard Zimmermann, Friedrich Zollhoefer (ed.): Kempter coat of arms and symbols encompassing the city and district of Kempten with the adjacent areas of the Upper Allgäu. (= Old Allgäu families. XXXVIII; = Allgäu homeland books. Volume 60). Verlag für Heimatpflege, Kempten 1963, p. 130.
4. ^ Johann Baptist Haggenmüller: History of the city and the princes of Kempten . Volume 2: From the end of the peasant war to the incorporation into the Bavarian state . Publishing house Tobias Dannheimer , Kempten 1847, p. 177.
5. ↑ Historisches Lexikon Bayerns - Kempten, Fürstabtei: Territorium und Verwaltung , accessed on March 4, 2013.
6. ↑ Max Spindler (founder), Christoph Bauer, Andreas Kraus (ed.): History of Swabia up to the end of the 18th century. (= Handbook of Bavarian History. Volume 3.2). Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-39452-3 , p. 313.
7. ↑ Werner Scharrer: Kempten - Bamberg. The coat of arms of Bamberg's Archbishop Dr. Karl Braun . In Allgäu history friend. 100, 2000, pp. 117-120.

predecessor	Office	successor
Johann Willibald Schenk von Castell	Prince Abbot of Kempten 1639 - 1673	Bernhard Gustav of Baden-Durlach