Clarholz pen
The pin Clarholz , mostly monastery Clarholz called, is located in the municipality Herzebrock in Gütersloh in North Rhine-Westphalia . Pen Clarholz was between 1133 and the secularization in 1803 a provost of Norbertine . For 670 years it was a religious center, a place of culture and a not insignificant economic factor in the border region of the dioceses of Münster, Osnabrück and Paderborn. In the Middle Ages it maintained economic and spiritual relations in the country of Vollenhove on the Zuiderzee (Diocese of Utrecht) until the sale of its goods there in 1549.
In the 19th century it became the castle of the princes of Bentheim-Tecklenburg .
founding
In 1133 the noble Rudolf von Steinfurt donated his goods, located in Clarholz and the neighboring Lette, to which a chapel each belonged, to the Premonstratensian order "in his and his parents' eternal memory". The foundation was founded in January 1134 by Lothar III. with the participation of the founder of the order, St. Norbert von Xanten , then Archbishop of Magdeburg , confirmed. It was settled from the Cappenberg Monastery , the first Premonstratensian settlement in Germany, in the form of a double monastery typical of the early days of the order with a male convent in Clarholz and a women's convent in Lette. Bishop Werner von Münster increased the basic equipment in 1134 and transferred pastoral care to the monastery in the neighboring community of Beelen to the northwest. In 1146 Pope Eugene III. the young pen under his protection; in particular he mentioned the first provost , Ermward, who remained in office until 1184.
middle Ages
In 1175 the completed collegiate church, a flat-roofed basilica in the Romanesque style with west bar, transept and three apses, was consecrated by Bishop Arnold von Osnabrück . He also granted her parish rights and established the Clarholz parish with the Heerde farmers, which from then on belonged to the Osnabrück diocese , while Lette and Beelen remained in the Münster diocese . The collegiate church received a relic of Archbishop Thomas Becket , murdered in Canterbury in 1170 , who had been associated with the Reform Order; the reliquary - a work from Limoges - has been preserved.
The second provost, Friedrich von Tecklenburg (1187–1216), developed lively economic activities, but failed with his applications for the office of bishop in Münster and the abbot in Corvey ; he was finally deposed and was last abbot in Knechtsteden monastery . His successor, Ludger (1217–1234), who was close to the Archbishop of Cologne Engelbert von Berg (1216–1225), received from Pope Gregory IX in 1231 . a declaration of protection for the pen; 20 Meierhöfe, 45 heirs, two mills, the fishing rights on the Ems from Hüttinghausen to Warendorf , income from the salt works in Werl and much more were listed as its property . Initially, the descendants of the founder took the Bailiwick true about the pen. In 1275 the Bishop of Münster, Everhard von Diest , was elected Vogt. In 1296 Count Simon von Lippe received the bailiwick over the monastery.
Clarholz was at the intersection of the road from Münster to Paderborn with a road from Bielefeld to Hamm . The monastery hospital mentioned in 1300 was used to receive travelers, pilgrims and the sick; one of the conventuals acted as infirmary . From around 1320 the collegiate church was converted into a Gothic hall church; the vault paintings from this time, characterized by symbolic animal and plant motifs, were uncovered by Hilde Claussen (1919–2009).
In the 14th century, the decline in the number of lay brothers led to the conversion of agriculture to leasing and paid labor. The monastery was sacked in 1437 during the feud between Lippe and Mecklenburg that lasted for decades. Internally, too, the Convention found itself in a crisis.
In 1439, following the intervention of the Basel Council , two Marienfeld Cistercians took over the leading offices of provost and prior. Several times they invited the Premonstratensian abbots from Steinfeld (Eifel) and Wittewierum (Friesland) to visitations in order to emphasize their reforms in the Clarholz convent. Wittewierum was under the influence of the " Devotio moderna " and the Windesheim congregation . Under Provost Johannes Hundebeke (1456–1487) there were numerous new entrants to the monastery, the establishment of a school (1463), the construction of a rood screen in the church and the reorganization of the administration of the Dutch property around Vollenhove. In 1496 the Cistercian Abbey Marienfeld, the Premonstratensian Clarholz and since 1467 to shut Bursfelde Congregation belonging Benediktinerinnenkloster Herzebrock a bond of friendship.
Early modern age
The monasteries Marienfeld, Clarholz and Herzebrock sought the protection of Emperor Charles V against sovereign and Reformation attacks by Lord von Rheda, Count Konrad von Tecklenburg (1530–1557) . After tough negotiations at the Imperial Court of Justice , they succeeded in adopting the Catholic faith in the parishes of Lette , Clarholz and Herzebrock and to position themselves as estates of the Rheda dominion.
In the last third of the 16th century, the Clarholz convent assimilated the way of life of the landed gentry and became neglected. Female monastery life in Lette dissolved completely. It was not until around 1625 that the Westphalian Circaries of the Premonstratensian Order and its outstanding Knechtsteden and Steinfeld abbeys were gradually able to implement the reforms of the Council of Trent in Clarholz. Under Provost Bernhard von Kerckering (1666–1693) the convent found new stability. In 1679, the “Arch Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Mountains Carmel” was constituted at the Clarholz Church. From 1680 to 1685 the Steinfeld Premonstratensian Leonhard Goffiné worked as a pastor in Clarholz; Here he began working on the hand postille , his house and devotional book for Catholic families, which was published again and again into the 20th century and has been translated into many languages.
Elbert von Kückelsheim , elected provost in 1693 at the age of 34, developed a lively construction and art activity during his long term in office - he died on May 10, 1750 at the age of 91. He was responsible for the baroque interior of the collegiate church (altars, pulpit, organ), which was built in 1705/07 by the Lippstadt master builder Nikolaus Wurmstich according to plans by Gottfried Laurenz Pictorius , the provost, the farm and the monastery gate (1725/28). The incorporated parishes of St. Vitus in Lette and St. Johannes Baptist in Beelen received new parsonages and new organs from Beckum organ builder Heinrich Menke (1716, Beelen as early as 1713) in 1709 and 1746 respectively. Kückelsheim's successor Leopold von Rübel (1750–1763) built the Clarholz tithe barn and the gardener's house in Lette in 1759 .
The penultimate provost Franz Philipp von Meuseren (1765–1794) was close to the Catholic Enlightenment . He set up home studies (with a library) in the monastery. His cellarist Clemens August von Dücker modernized agriculture, mills and brickworks. The last provost, Jodokus van Oldeneel, who came from a Catholic aristocratic family in Overijssel , accepted numerous Premonstratensians and other clergy who had fled France from the terror of the revolution in the monastery from 1794 until they were able to return to their homeland in 1802. In 1798 he took over the sponsorship for the eldest son of his secretary and legal advisor Carl Bernhard Temme, Jodokus Temme , who became known as a straightforward champion of democracy in Germany during the revolutionary years of 1848/49 and died in exile in Switzerland in 1881.
Secularization and its consequences
Against the threat of secularization , the monastery requested legal assistance from the Reichshofrat in Vienna and obtained a corresponding mandate, which could not be enforced because the Count of Bentheim-Tecklenburg forced the evacuation of the monastery with Prussian military help on October 27, 1803 and expropriated the convent . Numerous buildings such as the chapter house, the cloisters and some farm buildings were demolished. The provost house was separated from the convent house in the 19th century and converted into a castle. A prominent resident was Prince August Ludwig zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg in 1849/52 , and from 1852 to 1866 the last leading minister of the Duchy of Nassau .
After the dissolution of the patronage of the Counts of Bentheim-Tecklenburg established in 1806, the church and convent house have been owned by the Catholic parish of St. Laurentius Clarholz since 1969. Propstei, farm building and tithe barn are the property of the princes of Bentheim-Tecklenburg in Rheda . The “Freundeskreis Propstei Clarholz” organizes concerts and cultural events in the chapter house of the Propstei, and runs a monastery museum in the cellar. The Herzebrock-Clarholz community uses the tithe barn as a meeting place. The monastery gardens were redesigned in 1999–2003 as part of the “Ostwestfalen-Lippe Garden Landscape” project based on historical guidelines.
The Prälatenweg connects the Clarholz monastery with the Herzebrock and Marienfeld monasteries .
literature
- Karl Hengst (Ed.): Westphalian monastery book. Lexicon of the monasteries and monasteries established before 1815 from their foundation to their abolition . Part 1: Ahlen - Mülheim . Aschendorff, Münster 1992, ISBN 3-402-06886-9 , pp. 185–190 ( sources and research on church and religious history 2), ( publications of the Historical Commission for Westphalia 44).
- Inga Erika Kleinknecht: The baroque monastery garden in the garden architecture of the 18th century using the example of the Westphalian Premonstratensian monastery Clarholz . Diss., University of Cologne 1999.
- Johannes Meier : Clarholz monastery and the parish church in Lette ( Westfälische Kunststätten , issue 56). Munster 1990.
- Johannes Meier: The Clarholz monastery with the parish churches of Lette and Beelen. A spiritual art and landscape guide . Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg 2005, ISBN 3-89870-235-9 .
- Johannes Meier: Searching for traces. The library of the Clarholz monastery in the light of its individual provenances . In: Reinhard Feldmann (ed.): The library of the Praemonstratenserkloster Clarholz . Elke Pophanken's inventory catalog. With contributions by Johannes Meier and Ursula Olschewski. University and State Library Münster, Münster 1996, ISBN 3-931174-01-8 , pp. 8-27 ( publications of the University and State Library Münster 15).
- Josef Mense: To the picture program of the Gothic vault of the former Premonstratensian Church in Clarholz . In: Jahrbuch bür Westfälische Kirchengeschichte , Volume 106 (2010), pp. 47–63.
Web links
- Princely at Bentheim-Tecklenburg chancellery
- Document registers from the Princely Archive of Rheda with holdings from the Clarholz Abbey / digital Westphalian document database (DWUD)
- History of the Propstei Clarholz Freundeskreis Propstei Clarholz eV
Footnotes
- ↑ Documents of the Clarholz monastery concerning the election of church bailiffs . In: General Archive for the History of the Prussian State , Vol. 3 (1830), pp. 31–39, here p. 32.
Coordinates: 51 ° 54 ′ 6 " N , 8 ° 11 ′ 28.7" E