Collegiate monastery of God's grace near Calbe

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The pin convent God's grace is a former Premonstratensian - pen in Calbe (Saale) in Saxony-Anhalt.

founding

→ History of the city of Calbe (Saale)

The colonization of the Slavs country promoting intensive, the founder of procured Prämonstratenser - Order and archbishop of Magdeburg Norbert of Xanten (around 1080-1134), at the urging of the connected him king Lothar III. the construction of a premonstratensic monastery called "Gratia Dei" (God's grace) on a hill east of the Saale near Calbe. The Magdeburg archbishops owned a " Curtis " in Calbe as a popular subsidiary. Norbert Otto von Reveningen ( Röblingen am See ) and Krottorf were able to win over as wealth donors . The foundation stone was laid in 1131 and soon the first 22 (regular) canons and 19 lay brothers ( converses ), and for a few years 17 strictly secluded conversers, moved in. The monastery complex was built where the core of the village district of Gottesgnaden is today.

Time of departure and crisis

Archbishop Norbert von Xanten died seriously ill three years later while the first monastery buildings were being built. He had previously appointed a young French comrade, Emelrich , as provost , but a few months later the Pope appointed him to a missionary post in Palestine. The newly appointed chief Evermod von Cambrai , also a young Frenchman, proceeded so eagerly and severely that there was an uproar among the canons and conversations and Otto, furious, left his own pen. After his death, however, his body was transferred to "Gratia Dei" and honored. Presumably the conflict between the welfisch -minded supporters of Norbert and the Staufer majority of the convent triggered the revolt. Only after the radically impetuous headmaster had been praised and later the Staufer-minded, prudent Canon Gunther had been elected provost, peace and quiet returned and “Gratia Dei” went culturally and economically upwards.

Count Ludwig III, revered as blessed . In 1139 von Arnstein called a group of 12 conventuals from the Monastery of God's Grace to his ancestral castle and converted it into the Arnstein Monastery , which he himself entered. In 1144 he also reactivated the Münsterdreisen monastery in the Palatinate with Premonstratensians from the Convent of God's Grace .

Heyday

Hospital Church Divine Grace

Strong Staufer politicians as Archbishop Wichmann von Seeburg , the Marquis Conrad of Wettin and Albert the Bear and the Staufer - Emperor himself, presented the significant pen Monastery, which extended its sphere of influence through the creation of ever new daughter monasteries under their protection. The monastery was placed under the protection of the Virgin Mary and Saint Victor and the other Theban martyrs . In 1164 a magnificent Romanesque basilica with two huge towers and six bells was consecrated by Archbishop Wichmann on the highest point of the hill . In addition there were commercial and residential buildings as well as sacred buildings such as the cloister and the chapels . In 1207 the Stifts hospital outside the walls received its own little church donated by a prior . The small church consecrated to the Virgin Mary and the Evangelist Johannes is today the only sacral building that has been preserved from the once imposing complex. A monastic school had existed in God's grace since the 14th century , perhaps even earlier . "Gratia Dei" soon had a number of daughter pens, so that the branches extended to the Baltic States and Palestine . The Premonstratensians of “God's grace” at Calbe were famous all over Europe.

stagnation

In the meantime, the monastery was largely able to free itself from paternalism and even acted as a money and property lending institute for nobles and citizens. The great colonization successes of the monastery from the pioneering days were already part of a glorious past in the 15th century . The Stift Gottesgnaden had acquired the reputation of a place of healing and education, but also of a " banking house ".

Decline and destruction

The social upheaval and the worries about the next generation soon let the huge facility fall into disrepair at the end of the 15th / beginning of the 16th century . "Gratia Dei" was damaged in 1524 when it came to riots and riots. While the Protestant doctrine had already prevailed in the city of Calbe in 1542, the monastery remained Roman Catholic for 11 years longer . In the Schmalkaldic War (1546/47) the complex was heavily attacked and the jewels stolen. In 1553 “God's grace” got a first and only evangelical provost. At times the abbey was only inhabited by three clergy inmates. In the constantly changing back and forth of the occupations during the Thirty Years War , the large, barren basilica and the farm buildings were badly ruined. For a short time the monastery was owned by the Swedish councilor Johannes Stallmann , who was soon deposed. Before the Swedes withdrew , Field Marshal Johan Banér had not only the monastery but also the bridge over the Saale burned down in 1636.

The end of the pen

The plan to turn the remains of the facility into a state school, for which school regulations had already been drawn up in 1653, failed because of the politicians. When a new Saale lock was built at the Mönchsheger in 1695 , King Frederick I received the order to remove the basilica ruins from the east and to use the stone blocks and sculptures to build the lock. In 1726 the church was completely demolished in order to use the stones for a planned canal construction from Calbe to Schönebeck -Frohse. When the project failed, the stones were sold for various purposes. The great bell of the collegiate church was to cast two bells for the church in the bohemian - Reformed congregation in Berlin - the Bethlehem Church uses, one of which still exists -.

Domain time

Building of the former domain of Gottesgnaden

After 1680, the rebuilt farm wing of the former monastery was converted into a Prussian state domain . It remained much changed as such until the land reform after the end of the Second World War. In the GDR the domain became part of an LPG .

today

Parts of the tower of the hospital church standing in front of the remains of the eastern monastery walls (see above) are still Romanesque. Inside the small church, which was largely Gothic in 1710 and enlarged, the tombstones of Johann de Pusco , the last Catholic and the first and only Protestant provost of "Gratia Dei", Lambert Werner , are worth seeing.

swell

  • Chronicon Gratae Dei , in: Winter, Franz, T he Premonstratensians of the twelfth century , Berlin 1865.
  • Leuckfeld, Johann Georg, Antiquitates Praemonstratenses or historical message from two formerly famous Praemonstratensian clusters of S. Marien in Magdeburg, and God's = grace bey Calbe , Magdeburg / Leipzig 1721.
  • Mülverstedt, George Albert von (Ed.), Regesta Archiepiscopatus Magdeburgensis. Collection of excerpts from documents and annalists on the history of the archbishopric and duchy of Magdeburg , 3 volumes and register volume, Magdeburg 1876–1899.

literature

  • Dietrich, Max, Calbenser Resting Places , (Calbe) 1894.
  • Hävecker, Johann Heinrich, Chronica and description of the towns of Calbe, Acken and Wantzleben as well as the Closter of God's grace ... , Halberstadt 1720.
  • Hertel, Gustav, History of the City of Calbe on the Saale , Berlin / Leipzig 1904.
  • The same, The foundation of the monastery of God's grace [Fundatio monasterii Gratiae-Dei ], Leipzig 1895, in: The historians of the German prehistoric times . 2. Complete edition XII. Century vol. 16 (= vol. 64).
  • Reccius, Adolf, Chronik der Heimat (documented news about the history of the district town of Calbe and its immediate surroundings ), Calbe / Saale 1936.
  • Despite, Andreas, Late Middle Ages desertions in the former Jüterbog region (attempt at an interdisciplinary localization of previously mentioned places of the 12th century ), in: Yearbook for Brandenburg State History (edited by Escher, Felix and Henning, Eckart), vol. 54.
  • Steinmetz, Dieter H., The monastery “God's grace” , in: “Calbenser Blatt” 1 - 3/2006
  • The same, Stiftskloster Gottes Grace started with obstacles, in: "Schönebecker Volksstimme" from April 24, 2006.
  • The same, In search of historical traces - a city tour in Calbe an der Saale (see web links).
  • The same, history of the city of Calbe an der Saale (a summary - from the beginnings to 1918) (see web links).
  • The same, from the royal court Caluo 936 to the district town of Calbe 1919 - history of a central German city from the beginnings to the foundation of the Weimar Republic, Magdeburg / Calbe / S. 2010.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Zais:  Arnstein, Ludwig III. Count v. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 597 f.
  2. ^ Johann Heinrich Hennes: History of the Counts of Nassau , Part 1: Up to the year 1255 , page 70, Cologne, 1842; (Digital scan)

Coordinates: 51 ° 54 ′ 7 ″  N , 11 ° 47 ′ 1.7 ″  E