Steterburg Monastery

The location of Steterburg Monastery in the Principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel

Steterburg Abbey around 1654/1658, engraving by Matthäus Merian

Steterburg Abbey (2012)

The Steterburg monastery was a canonical monastery , later an Augustinian choir womens monastery and, from the Reformation until its abolition in 1939, an Evangelical Lutheran women's monastery in Steterburg , a current residential area of Salzgitter-Thiede in Lower Saxony .

history

Around the year 1000 Frederunda von Oelsburg († March 16, 1020), daughter of Count Altmann von Oelsburg († 1000/03), built the Steterburg Abbey on the site of the Stederburg , a ruined castle complex from the early 10th century. Count Altmann had remained without a male heir and ordered that a "virgin monastery" should be set up on the castle grounds. St. Christopher was chosen as the patron saint .

Frederunda endowed the monastery with her inheritance and entered the monastery as the first abbess herself. The property included about 36 villages, including Dannenbüttel , Eickhorst , Harxbüttel , Küblingen , Meine , Melverode , Nortenhof , Rötgesbüttel , Rühme , Salzdahlum , Salzgitter-Thiede , Stiddien Klein Stöckheim and Waggum . Otto III. granted the monastery a letter of protection even before 1002. The founding deed of Steterburg, which is no longer preserved, was confirmed by King Heinrich II on January 21 or 24, 1007.

Initially, the canons did not live in seclusion . The women did not wear religious habit and dressed securely. Private property was allowed, and a return to worldly life and marriage were possible.

In the 12th century the monastery was converted into an Augustinian choir monastery. The abbess was appointed a provost to head the monastery. The provosts Gerhard von Riechenberg († 1150), provost since 1142, and Gerhard von Steterburg († 1209), who was introduced into his office in 1164 by Bishop Hermann von Hildesheim , enforced the rules of the Augustinian order . The retreat was introduced and personal property abolished.

Gerhard was the author of the Steterburger Annalen , a property history of the Steterburg monastery. As a diplomat, Gerhard probably belonged to the embassy that Heinrich the Lion gave to Heinrich VI in 1191 . sent.

During the 14th and 15th centuries, the majority of the convent consisted of middle-class women, many of whom came from patrician families in the city of Braunschweig . The convention was based on the Windesheimer reform ideas . In 1515, women choirs came to Lübeck from the Steterburg Monastery to form the founding convention together with Lübeck conventuals when the newly founded St. Anne's Monastery was being built. After the Reformation was introduced in Lübeck and the monastery was dissolved, they returned in 1532.

In 1519 Nikolaus Decius (* around 1485, † after 1546), hymn poet and later reformer in Prussia , was appointed provost of the monastery.

reformation

The conversion of the monastery into a Protestant women's monastery took place in 1568. Again, the vow of celibacy was waived. Catholic books and cult items were removed and services were held in German. The Lord's Supper and baptismal implements, candlesticks, and trimmings remained in use. A large part of the church's treasure was lost during the Thirty Years' War .

At the end of 1627 the monastery facilities were destroyed by the imperial troops under General Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim during the battle for Wolfenbüttel . The canonesses fled to Braunschweig. In 1641, Steterburg was again the scene of war during battles between imperial troops and Sweden. It was not until the middle of the 17th century that the reconstruction of the monastery buildings began, and from 1667 onwards they were inhabited by women again.

In 1676 there were still bourgeois canons in the monastery. Later only aristocrats were accepted. In 1691 the dukes Rudolf August and Anton Ulrich elevated the monastery to a noble women's monastery.

At the end of the 18th century, the monastery chapter consisted of an abbess, the provost and eleven canonesses, which, according to an acceptance criterion, had to have eight noble ancestors. The provost was elected by the chapter by a majority of votes and proposed to the Braunschweig sovereign for confirmation. The position of abbess could be filled by the duchess with one of the canonesses or a princess from the ruling house at will. Up until the 19th century there were no more commoners in the convent.

Dissolution of the pen

After 1918 the Steterburg Abbey was only an institution for the care of unmarried women from the lower land nobility. In 1938 the Steterburg Jungfrauenstift was dissolved and the building was used by the Reichswerke Hermann Göring .

Todays use

In 1955, parts of the building were handed over to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Braunschweig by Salzgitter AG , the successor to the Reichswerke . The collegiate church Steterburg serves today as the parish church of the local Protestant community.

There is no historical connection to the Redemptorist Monastery of Steterburg , which was built elsewhere in Salzgitter-Thiede from 1954 .

Buildings

Collegiate church

Collegiate Church : The first church was completed and consecrated in 1070. It had to be demolished as early as 1160 because it was dilapidated. The second church was built from 1165 under Provost Gerhard in the Romanesque style. After the destruction of the Thirty Years' War,the current baroque church was not built until 1751 to 1758 by Duke Karl I (1735–1780), based on designs by the Brunswick colonel and architect Anton Ulrich von Blum . Today the collegiate church is one of the most important sacred buildings in Salzgitter.

Residence of the abbess from 1691

Residence of the abbess : The house was built in 1691. A barrel vaulted corridor connects the abbess house with the church and the convent buildings.

literature

Annales Stederburgenses , in: Georg Heinrich Pertz u. a. (Ed.): Scriptores (in Folio) 16: Annales aevi Suevici. Hannover 1859, p. 197 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )

Wolfgang Billig: Die Stiftskirche zu Steterburg , in: Sources and research on Braunschweigischen Geschichte , Volume 25, self-published by the Braunschweigischer Geschichtsverein, Braunschweig 1982

Silvia Bunselmeyer: The Steterburg Monastery in the Middle Ages , in: Supplements to the Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch , Volume 2, self-published by the Braunschweigisches Geschichtsverein, Braunschweig 1983

Ernst Andreas Friedrich : The Steterburg in Salzgitter-Thiede . In: If stones could talk , Volume III, Landbuch-Verlag, Hannover 1995, pp. 61–62, ISBN 3-7842-0515-1 .

Monika Geschermann-Scharff: The Steterburg certificate from 1007 . Braunschweigische Landschaft (ed. And publisher), Braunschweig 2007

Georg Hassel : Geographical-statistical description of the principalities of Wolfenbüttel and Blankenburg . Friedrich Bernhard Culemann, Braunschweig 1802 ( digitized ).

Margot Ruhlender: The ladies from Steterburg Abbey - 1000 years of Steterburg Abbey , publications by the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum, Volume 100, Verlag Meyer, 2003, ISBN 3-926701-54-4