Swan Order
The Order of the Knights of Our Lady of Swan , shortly Swan Knight Order or Order of the Swan , is the oldest religious order of knights of the Prussian house. It was donated in the city of Brandenburg on September 29, 1440 in connection with the Swan Knight days of Elector Friedrich II of Brandenburg and, under the leadership of the Hohenzollern, was intended to give the nobility there common political and social goals. In 1459 the order established a branch in southern Germany.
Order statutes
The late medieval order had set itself spiritual in starting in 1440 but above all political objectives. In addition to prayer and charitable works, he called on the aristocracy in Brandenburg to form a loyalty alliance. Women could also become members. On August 15, 1443, the order expanded its statutes to work against the moralization of the Brandenburg nobility and elsewhere and to get them used to fear of God and respectability, in particular to curb the lust for fighting and feuding.
In 1459 Margrave Albrecht Achilles set up a branch in southern Germany.
Medal badge
The image of the Mother of God on a gold chain was chosen as the religious signet , including the swan as a symbol of the purity of the heart, surrounded by a white sash entwined below .
Religious Churches
The meeting point of the Swan Order, which was spreading rapidly across northern and southern Germany, was initially the church on the Harlungerberg near Brandenburg's old town . In 1459, Margrave Albrecht Achilles donated a second religious church in the Georgskapelle of the St. Gumpertuskirche in his residence in Ansbach for the members of the order from his home countries in Franconia .
History in Modern Times
The order fell into disrepair since the Reformation . In 1843, Friedrich Wilhelm IV drew up a plan to revitalize the order, but it was never carried out. He wanted to open the order to members of all classes and denominations and give it as a goal the social and moral improvement of society. Since 1980 there has been a registered, non-profit association of the same name for culture and welfare, based in Nuremberg, which wants to continue the tradition of the order.
The sculptor Alexander Calandrelli designed monument group 16 for Berliner Siegesallee with a statue of Frederick II in the center. On the broad ermine collar of the elector's coat, the figure carries the chain of the swan order.
literature
- Theodor Däschlein, The Swan Order and the so-called Swan Order Knight's Chapel in Ansbach , Ansbach 1926.
- H. Kruse, W. Paravicini, A. Ranft (eds.), Order of knights and noble societies in late medieval Germany (Kieler Werkstücke, series D, vol. 1), Frankfurt am Main, 1991.
- M. Frankl, Würzburg vassal and servant in the Hohenzollern swan order. Aristocracy between Hochstift Würzburg and Markgraftum Ansbach , in: Mainfränkisches Jahrbuch für Geschichte und Kunst 61 (2009), pp. 94–127.
- R. Stillfried, S. Haenle (ed.), The Book of the Swan Order. A contribution to the Hohenzollern research . With 41 photolithographic images, Berlin 1881.
- Tanja Storn-Jaschkowitz: Articles of Association of Noble Oath Opinions in the Late Middle Ages - Edition and Typology. Logos Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-8325-1486-0 .
See also
Web links
- www.schwanenritter-orden.de
- Markus Frankl: Swan Order. In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria . September 20, 2010, accessed April 20, 2012 .