Gernrode Abbey

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Bad Suderode, Gernrode Abbey, aerial photo (2015)

The women's foundation Gernrode was founded in 959 and existed until the 17th century. It was directly imperial and equated with the status of an imperial abbey . In the early modern period, it belonged as an imperial estate to the Upper Saxon imperial circle and the Rhenish imperial prelate college .

Founding time

Depiction of the tomb of the founder Gero

In 959, the Margrave Gero founded a canon pin on his castle Geronisroth, today's town of Gernrode , on the north-eastern edge of the Harz Mountains . Since his only son died without leaving an heir, Gero bequeathed all of his own property to the monastery . The first abbess was Hathui , the widow of his son Siegfried. She came from the Billunger family and was a niece of Queen Mathilde . The pen should also serve as a burial place and the permanent prayer memory of the donor. The construction of the collegiate church probably began in 961.

→ see main article Stiftskirche St. Cyriakus (Gernrode)

Otto I placed the pen under royal protection in 961 and granted it immunity . This also applied to the subsidiary Frose in the northeast of Gernrode, whose collegiate church has been preserved to this day. Furthermore, the monastery was given the right to freely choose the abbess and the bailiff. The monastery was also subject to papal protection during this period.

Originally the monastery and church were dedicated to Mary and Peter . An arm relic of St. Cyriakus came to Gernrode via the Frose Provostry. Gero acquired this during his first trip to Rome. As a result, Gernrode became a center of veneration for Cyriacus.

History up to the High Middle Ages

From the 12th century onwards, monastery bailiffs were the Ascanians (probably first Albrecht the Bear ).

West front of the collegiate church

The second abbess was Adelheid , a sister of Otto III. During this time Gernrode was connected to the Quedlinburg Abbey in the person of the abbess . In the Ottonian period, Gernrode had a similar meaning to the Quedlinburg , Gandersheim , Essen and Vreden monasteries . There was a prayer fraternity with the Gandersheim and Vreden foundations. However, the closeness to the king and importance could only be preserved to a limited extent. Rather, the Ascanians succeeded in gradually expanding the umbrella bailiwick over the abbey and later on based on this the claim to sovereignty in the abbey area. But even in the time of Abbess Adelheid I it was not possible to obtain privileges and rights for Gernrode that Gandersheim or Quedlinburg received during this period. This stagnation period could not be compensated for later either, as the number of royal privileges had generally declined since the middle of the 11th century.

In comparison with other monasteries, only a comparatively few royal stays have come down to us. Apparently only Kunigunde , the wife of King Henry II , King Henry V and Emperor Friedrich I visited the monastery. The latter held a court day there in 1188.

Convention

Since the early days the abbesses and provosts often came from the noble families of Billung , Ascan , Wettin and comparable families. The abbess's range of duties was considerable, at least in the early years. She had to decide on the admission of new canonesses and to distribute the appropriate preambles . She also awarded the various colleges. She suggested the pastors for the numerous private churches to the Bishop of Halberstadt . The abbess was responsible for the administration of the initially large property and the judiciary.

The number of prebenders for the canonesses was initially 24. In Frose there were twelve again. The actual number decreased over time. The abbess, the provost, the dean, the waitress, the singing master, the treasurer, the sexton, the keeper and the porter are mentioned at collegiate offices. The facility in Frose was headed by a provess.

In addition to the canons , the convent consisted of a few canons . Their preambles were mostly connected to the altars of the collegiate church. Canons and canons each formed their own corporation, which together formed the convent. Besides the canons there were other simple priests.

The canonesses in Frose and Gernrode elected the abbess together in the presence of the bailiff, the canons and ministers.

Life in the monastery did not require a vow as in the monastery. There was also no separation from the outside world through the exam. It was only necessary to pledge obedience to the abbess. The pen had its own rules of coexistence. These followed the Institutiones Aquisgranenses decided on at a synod in Aachen in 816 . In the course of the church reform movement, a large part of the canonical posts had voluntarily or by force adopted the Benedictine rule or that of the Augustinian choir women in place of their previous freer constitutional form . In the East Saxon area only three monasteries were able to preserve their older, freer way of life: the Gandersheim monastery , the Quedlinburg monastery and the Gernrode monastery.

The canonesses evidently lived together for a comparatively long time. A dormitory and a refectory were first mentioned in the 14th century. But there have also been private living areas since Otto II .

Possessions

The monastery was already richly endowed by its founder. These were both old allodial possessions and donations previously received from Otto I. Ottonian and Salian rulers, but also the Margrave Ekkehard II of Meißen and the Abbess Hedwig von Seeburg, increased the property. A forged one, dated to the founder Gero, but by Pope Innocent III in 1207 . recognized, document lists 24 villages, 21 churches and 400  Hufen in scattered location.

In total, the monastery owned over 1000 hooves in the High Middle Ages . Since the 11th century, the property was divided between the abbess, the canonesses and the other members of the monastery. Much of the land was given to Ministeriale fiefs .

Only the town of Gernrode, the Vorwerk Stammefeld, the Lusthaus Stubenberg and the Wirtshaus Haberfeld belonged to the later office of Gernrode of the Princes of Anhalt-Bernburg, but no villages.

Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Times

Over the course of time, especially since the 13th century, the monastery lost considerable influence. The mismanagement among some abbesses, the general economic development, but also the politics of the archbishops of Magdeburg and the bishops of Halberstadt played a role.

At least the abbesses managed to enforce the exemption from the Diocese of Halberstadt by 1381 . Against the background of the aspirations of the Ascanians and of the House of Anhalt, who descended from them, to incorporate the monastery into their own domain, in the 15th and 16th centuries they tried to get the imperial confirmation of the old rights. These were from Sigismund , Friedrich III. , Charles V , Maximilian II. And Rudolf II. Granted.

In 1525, in connection with the Peasants' War, the serfs revolted in vain against the taxes raised by Abbess Elisabeth von Weida . In 1544 the property consisted only of the small town of Gernrode (town charter since 1539/49) and five villages. The pen covered 2 square miles in the early 17th century.

Already with the abbess Elisabeth von Weida (1504–1532) the turn to the Reformation began . Protestant worship was introduced to the public in 1545. The pen was converted into a Protestant women's monastery. The abbess remained imperial class, continued to have a seat and vote in the Reichstag and on the Upper Saxon district assemblies.

The House of Anhalt incorporated the monastery into its territory in 1610/1614; the last abbess, Sophie Elisabeth von Anhalt-Dessau , left the monastery in 1614 and married. The remaining monastery property was intended to equip the senior of the House of Anhalt until 1669, ie to finance the entire Anhalt region. In 1669 these senior estates were distributed over the four lines that existed at that time. The city and the monastery buildings fell to Prince Friedrich von Harzgerode, other monastery estates to the Dessau and Bernburg lines. The voting right remained communal. At that time, among other things, the Gernrode office was established. Since the House of Anhalt was owned by Gernrode on January 1, 1624, the monastery was finally awarded to him in the Peace of Westphalia.

See also

literature

  • Hermann Bannasch: Reichsabtei Gernrode . In: Gerhard Taddey (Hrsg.): Lexicon of German history . People, events, institutions. From the turn of the times to the end of the 2nd World War. 2nd, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-520-80002-0 , pp. 448f.
  • Gerhard Köbler : Historical lexicon of the German countries. The German territories from the Middle Ages to the present. 4th, completely revised edition. CH Beck, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-406-35865-9 , p. 196.
  • Charlotte Warnke: The canonical monastery St. Cyriakus in the field of tension between high nobility, emperor, bishop and pope . In: Irene Crusius (Ed.): Studies on the Kanonissenstift. Göttingen, 2001. pp. 201-274
  • Matthias Friske, The find in the Holy Sepulcher in Gernrode - a fixed point for the dating of a medieval work of art . In: Quedlinburger Annalen 2014/2015, pp. 46–60.
  • Nicole Schröter: The Holy Sepulcher of St. Cyriacus zu Gernrode - expression of the piety of the Gernröder canons in Jerusalem. Volume 11, Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2017, ISBN 978-3-95462-774-5 .

Web links

Wikisource: Gerenroda in the Topographia Superioris Saxoniae (Matthäus Merian)  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ More recent studies by Charlotte Warnke ( Kanonissenstift , p. 204) come to the conclusion that the foundation did not take place until the summer of 961.
  2. ^ Warnke, Kanonissenstift , p. 214
  3. ↑ Ulrich Löer: The noble Kanonissenstift St. Cyriakus zu Geseke , ( Germania Sacra New Part 50: The Dioceses of the Church Province of Cologne. The Archdiocese of Cologne 6), Berlin / New York, 2007 p. 66
  4. ^ Warnke, Kanonissenstift , p. 247
  5. ↑ a b Warnke, Kanonissenstift , p. 226
  6. ↑ Warnke, Kanonissenstift , p. 225
  7. ^ O. von Heinemann: The collegiate church of Gernrode and its restoration . Bernburg, 1865 pp. 8-10
  8. ^ Warnke, Kanonissenstift , p. 201
  9. ^ Warnke, Kanonissenstift , p. 216

Coordinates: 51 ° 43 ′ 27 ″  N , 11 ° 8 ′ 10 ″  E