Romuald Weltin

Abbot Romuald Weltin (painting by Stephan Bildstein , 18th century)

Romuald Weltin OSB (* 26 January 1723 in upper cell ; † 19th January 1805 in Lower Church ) was the 26th and last Reichsabt the Imperial Abbey Benedictine in Ochsenhausen in Upper Swabia . He was President of the Upper Swabian Benedictine Congregation , from 1778 condirector, six years later director of the Swabian Imperial Prelate College . He was buried within " the Niederkirch " in Untersulmetingen, today a part of Laupheim .

Life

Weltin grew up in Oberzell on the island of Reichenau . His father's name was Markus and was a fisherman by trade . The anchor in his abbot's coat of arms indicates the descent from a fishing family . His mother Theresia was born in Staad . On May 14, 1743, he took his religious vows in the Ochsenhausen monastery. The first Mass was followed four years later on 20 October 1747. Five years he was a teacher of philosophy and after four years teaching degree in theology . During this time he was appointed subprior and supervised the administration ( large cellar ) of the monastery. On January 6, 1767, he was elected prior of the monastery and nine months later, in September 1767, in the second ballot to abbot . The opposing candidate was confrere Nikolaus Avancin. Romuald Weltin led the convent until its dissolution in the year of secularization 1803.

The Benedictine monastery, which was also an agricultural and forestry enterprise, was able to export its generated grain surpluses to Northern Italy without restriction from 1766 to 1769 . The monastery and the population benefited from this. But already in the winter of 1769/1770 the situation was quite different. The snowy winter lasted well into spring. As a result, two thirds of the winter fruit was destroyed. There was an unusual rise in food prices in southern Germany. However, Abbot Weltin had ensured that the people in his territory hardly had to suffer hardship by setting up grain stocks . Not only did he give presents to his subjects, on July 23, 1768, he donated 1,000 guilders to the burned-down St. Blasien . The impoverished and almost dilapidated Mehrerau Abbey also received 1,000 guilders in 1773 . In the same year, Elchingen Monastery lost its church due to lightning and fire. Weltin donated 1000 guilders for the reconstruction. In 1791 he had the parish church of Mittelbuch built from scratch for 10,000 guilders . On June 11, 1771 he became President of the Swabian Benedictine Congregation and, in 1772, assistant to the University of Salzburg . On April 20, 1784 he was elected director of the Imperial Prelate College.

His official address was now: Abbot of the immediate free imperial monastery and church in Ochsenhausen, Lord of the free imperial rule of Tannheim, Ummendorf , Ober- and Untersulmetingen, also Horn and Fischbach, director of the Swabian Imperial Prelate College and President of the Swabian Benedictine Congregation.

Secretary Romuald Weltins

From 1785 to 1789 he had the book hall, the armarium (collection of instruments) and the chapter house rebuilt for 30,000 guilders. In 1789, with the consent of the chapter, he bought the 9,000 volume library of Prince-Bishop Sigmund Christoph von Zeil and Trauchburg for 5,000 guilders. Every year 200 guilders were spent on buying new books. 80 students were taught at the monastery Latin school. Clergymen were sent to the four trivial schools of Ochsenhausen to instruct the subjects . Weltin's confrere Basilius Perger built an observatory in the south corner tower of the east wing of the convent in 1793 . The monastic observatory was on the same technical level as the Gotha observatory .

Duke Karl Eugen reports on his visit to Ochsenhausen Monastery in 1785: We arrived at Ochsenhaußen Monastery around one o'clock in the afternoon and were received as usual. A clergyman gave a short speech by Basil Perger, but it was of no importance. The church was shown before dinner, but it is narrow and not at all beautiful. After dinner, you soon took leave because you couldn't even see the Bibliotheque. The location of the stift in beautiful and from time to time one promises a lot to the interior, which looks physically and morally very dark. The Prelat Romuald Weltin is a mean, haughty man, without knowledge and among the 50 clergymen who make up the monastery is not one who deserves. to be noted.

As early as 1792, a large number of expelled conventuals from the abolished monasteries came from France. In 1796 French revolutionary troops occupied the territory for the first time and confiscated all supplies of money, fruit and wine. Fear and horror spread everywhere. The immediate imperial spiritual territory did not have its own Landwehr . With its 255 square kilometers and 8,665 inhabitants and an annual income of 120,000 guilders, it took second place after the also Benedictine Weingarten monastery in Upper Swabia. Augsburg, the largest imperial city in terms of population in the Swabian Empire , had 35,000 inhabitants at the time, and nearby Memmingen 11,500.

Epitaph Romuald Weltins in the Niederkirch

In the course of secularization , the monastery was also designated an extinction monastery and dissolved in 1803. Imperial Count Franz Georg Karl von Metternich received it as compensation for his possessions on the left bank of the Rhine in Winneburg , Schaesberg - Kerpen and Sinzendorf-Rheineck . Imperial Count Franz Georg Karl was the father of Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich , who later became one of the most powerful and famous statesmen in Europe of his time. Thanks to a skilfully negotiated contract, the count was able to dispose of the monastery's movable objects, books and liturgical equipment relatively freely. Abbot Romuald was instructed to take up residence in Obersulmetingen Castle . He received an annual pension of 7,500 guilders. He only came back to Ochsenhausen once, when his new subjects paid homage to Count Metternich. He died on January 19, 1805. He was buried in the Niederkirch in Untersulmetingen, now part of Laupheim.

The property fell to the Kingdom of Württemberg in 1806 . In 1807 the convent was finally dissolved. In 1825, Prince Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich sold his possessions to the Kingdom of Württemberg for 1.2 million guilders. The monastery stood empty and was left to decay. Count Metternich had already had most of the inventory removed or sold. Anything that could still be saved was brought to the court in Stuttgart or Ludwigsburg . For the population of the former spiritual territory, the new situation in the Kingdom of Württemberg initially meant a deterioration in their situation.

Other structures

• Lady Chapel in Erlenmoos 1769
• Chapel of St. Michael in Oberstetten 1770
• Chapel of St. Michael in Edenbachen 1773

literature

• Georg Geisenhof : Brief history of the former Reichsstift Ochsenhausen in Swabia. Ganser, Ottobeuren 1829 ( digitized version ).
• Volker Himmelein (ed.): Old monasteries, new masters. The secularization in the German southwest 1803. Large state exhibition Baden-Württemberg 2003. Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2003, ISBN 3-7995-0212-2 (exhibition catalog and essay volume).
• H.-J. Reiff, G. Spahr, D. Hauffe: Ochsenhausen monastery. History, art, present. Biberach 1985.

Web links

Commons : Klostermuseum Ochsenhausen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Reichsabtei Ochsenhausen, History and Art, Ed. Stadt Ochsenhausen, 1984, page 143
2. ↑ elib.uni-stuttgart.de PDF Franz Quarthal , Living under the crook is good . P. 275

predecessor	Office	successor
Benedikt Denzel OSB	Abbot of Ochsenhausen 1767–1803	-