Öhringen Hospital
The Öhringen Hospital is a facility to support the poor, the infirm and the sick in Öhringen and the surrounding area. The hospital was founded in 1353 by the Hohenlohe family . The foundation still exists today.
history
With the permission of the dean of the monastery and the town pastor on July 18, 1353, Anna von Hohenlohe founded a hospital. The foundation in honor of Saint Anne and Saint Elisabeth with a chapel, chaplaincy and cemetery was confirmed in 1354 by Würzburg Bishop Albrecht II von Hohenlohe . The hospital was supposed to take in the poor, the infirm and the homeless and in spiritual terms it was directly subordinate to the bishop. The founding family received the right to appoint the clergy, the patronage right . The economic existence of the hospital was secured through numerous donations of land and income as well as donations. The hospital was able to lease several farms at a profit. The first location of the hospital was within the city walls at the site of the former synagogue, but is no longer known today. Due to the unfavorable location, a new building was planned in front of the city walls. On June 15, 1376 the new chapel of the hospital ( hospital church St. Anna and Elisabeth ) in the old town ( in antiqua civitate ) was consecrated. In 1377 all privileges were transferred to this new building. The hospital developed into an important landowner and an important social institution for Öhringen and the surrounding area.
The hospital was not a hospital, but was intended to enable the elderly and the infirm to have a secure retirement. By purchasing a beneficiary letter in which the hospital was used as a universal heir , a place in the hospital could be bought. There were rich upper benefices and poor lower benefices . These differed in terms of living comfort and food. Women and men were accepted indiscriminately, but the number of women usually predominated. The remaining mortgage letters go back to 1399. The entire hospital property, which was distributed to numerous places inside and outside Hohenlohe, was first recorded in a valid book in 1509 at the suggestion of the later farmer's leader Wendel Hipler .
Around 1710 a third class of benefices was introduced. At that time there were 28 beneficiaries living in the hospital, more could not be accommodated due to lack of space. Beneficiaries living outside the hospital also received benefits in kind with the introduction of the new class.
Mediatization
After being mediatized in 1806, the foundation was placed under state supervision. At that time, the hospital owned 151 7/8 acres of fields, 56 acres of meadows, 3 7/8 acres of gardens, 9 3/4 acres of vineyards and 198 acres of forest. The capital was 28,742 guilders . With the replacement legislation from 1848 onwards, the tithe income ceased , so the natural catering of the beneficiaries became significantly more expensive. Instead of a planned new building, arable land and forests were purchased for lease.
Hospital building
When it was inaugurated in 1376, the hospital consisted of the single-nave hospital church, the choir of which has still been preserved, the adjoining beneficiary and administration house, the bakery and butcher's house and separate stable and barn buildings. With the exception of the church, all buildings were grouped around the hospital courtyard.
Around 1900 two beneficiaries and a hospital servant still lived in the buildings. The hospital administration began with the sale of the hospital area. The hospital church was sold to the Catholic parish in 1940, the large barn to the city in 1942. This set up their building yard there. The entire complex was included in the list of architectural monuments as early as 1926 . The actual hospital buildings served as migrant workplaces and as a shelter for the homeless from 1910 to 1939 . From 1922 to 1929 the buildings served as a youth hostel and later as accommodation for prisoners of war. After the Second World War, the hospital administration furnished apartments in the buildings.
Hospital today
The hospital continues to exist as a foundation. The successors of the Prince of Hohenlohe appoint the trustees of the foundation and have the right to choose those persons to whom benefices are paid out of the foundation's assets. These people must be needy and sound and live in a place that was under the sovereignty of the Princes of Hohenlohe until 1806. In 1976, the Hohenlohe-Öhringen House awarded 87 benefices, and 29 benefices each from the Hohenlohe houses of Langenburg, Waldenburg and Bartenstein. Today recipients are mostly citizens who only receive a small pension. The income from the rental and leasing of buildings and land and the interest from capital assets as well as the net proceeds from logging and the hunting and fishing leases are available for payment.
After the Second World War, the hospital administration in Öhringen played an important role as landowners, as they owned numerous properties in and around Öhringen. Numerous companies in the city's industrial areas settled on properties owned by the hospital administration. Many of these plots have been and will be left by the foundation under the leasehold in order to remain in possession of the plots.
literature
- Gerhard Taddey : 600 years of the hospital in Öhringen-Altstadt . Öhringen 1976.
- Öhringen. City and pen. Published by the city of Öhringen. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1988, ISBN 3-7995-7631-2 (research from Württembergisch-Franken, 31).
- Wilhelm Mattes: Öhringer Heimatbuch , Öhringen 1929 (reprint 1987)
Coordinates: 49 ° 11 ′ 54.8 " N , 9 ° 29 ′ 59.8" E