Unterhospital Foundation
The Unterhospitalstiftung of the formerly free imperial city of Memmingen has been running hospitals , old people's homes , kindergartens , etc. since the 13th century and gives donations to needy citizens of the city. Today's annual financial budget is several million euros, and assets include around 460 hectares of forest, land, buildings and securities.
history
Emergence
Probably as early as the 12th century the citizens of Memmingen had run a hospital as a fraternity. It was built in front of the Kalchtor at that time, i.e. outside the city (on the already important Salt Road) and first looked after pilgrims and then served poor needy people , while there were already two hospitals within the city walls for the citizens of Memmingen. Since the entire Kalchviertel was walled around the middle of the 13th century when the city was first expanded, the new hospital was soon located within the city.
The exact origin can no longer be determined, partly because of the forgery of the foundation deed. In 1210, Count Heinrich von Neuffen (later also Heinrich von Weißenhorn), who was close to the Hohenstaufen royal family, gave it a donation and thus received its formal justification. He furnished it with sufficient property and also donated an altar and a mass benefice to the hospital - to honor his family, to calm his soul - and handed the hospital over to the Order of the Holy Spirit . Because of the cross with two crossbars, which the friars also wore on their black robes, they were soon known in Memmingen as the "Lords of the Cross".
They acted so successfully and received so many donations that they soon became powerful landlords and competitors of the city. What followed now can no longer be precisely traced today. While one historian wrote:
... in any case, in the 13th century, the monastery lords devoted themselves to their hospital work and did not forget the increase in their monastery property. But the administration seems to have grown over their heads, so that in the first half of the 14th century things went more and more downwards. Mismanagement, indebtedness, “atrophy”, which was specifically charged with a hospital master, brought the danger of squandering the monastery property close, and so the city council took action and offered ...
we read next:
... the councils thus had an increased interest in the economic position of the hospitals, and they succeeded in taking almost all of the possessions of the Order of the Cross. The council issued a statute that no citizen was allowed to bequeath anything to the monastery. The conventuals were harassed in such a way that they chose the lesser evil and consented to the complete separation of the hospital from their order ... ... as in many other imperial cities, in Memmingen the hospital master was pushed out of the administration of the hospital and the hospital property from the two imperial cities Administrators and the "Hofmeister".
The Memmingen historian Julius Miedel wrote:
... and so a contract came about first in 1353 and in an expanded form in 1365, according to which the city covered the debts, but the brothers agreed to a division of tasks: they renounced the care of the “poor needy” and only kept their spiritual care and in addition that which was necessary for their livelihood, especially the church locations whose patronage they held (Holzgünz since 1296, Unser Frauen since 1341, Volkratshofen 1349, Breitenbrunn 1351), including their use. The council was supposed to administer the property of the needy through 2 nurses, who had to file accounts annually from him and the hospital master. This regulation was also approved by the General Order Master in Rome in 1367.
Because the monks lived in the upper part of the monastery building while the actual hospital was in the lower part, a distinction was made between an upper and a lower hospital .
Free imperial city
The officials appointed by the council administered the lower hospital so well that in 1448 the hospital received income from 47 locations:
Albishofen, Amadingen, Berg, Beningen, Büren, Buchsach, Bleß, Boos, Dietratsried, Dickenreishausen, Eck, Engishausen, Erkheim, Eichstetten, Eichholz, Fellheim, Holzgünz, Herbishofen, zum Hetzels (Wucherts), Hitzenhofen, Hart, Heimertingen, Kempten, Kardorf, Kirchdorf, Kellmünz, Meyerhof zum Käfer, Moosmühle, Musbach, Memmingen, Meersburg, Ober Opfingen, Osterberg, Rieden, Schulgau, Schöneck, Sontheim, Spitalhof, Steinheim, Teisselberg, Ungarhausen, Volkratshofen, Westerheim, Wolfartschwenden, Westerhart, Weiler and Winterrieden .
In 1472 the Unterhospital bought the village of Dickenreishausen completely, in 1547 it was bought by the Lords of Woringen and Frickenhausen (with Arlesried) from the city of Memmingen. (see foundation purpose - foundation obligations).
The places / communities Amendingen , Breitenbrunn , Holzgünz , Pleß , Westerheim and Woringen therefore still have the notched double cross in their coat of arms.
Over the centuries, several hundred other donations were made by the citizens of Memmingen.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Unterhospitalstiftung became a large commercial enterprise that was almost in competition with the city. They employed their own artisans, employees and, of course, agricultural workers who cultivated a large number of fields and meadows, cattle in various stables, various warehouses, their own brewery, mills, etc. The own administration also required some employees. The main tasks were not neglected either. In addition to the “poor parlor”, a “child's house”, a “Seelhaus” (later old age ), the “children's bed room” , a “fool's house” and a “leafy house” (for contagious diseases) were built. The imperial city itself had a great interest in an independent and economically strong sub-hospital, as it was relieved of many social tasks. As a result of the separation, the own financial budget was also smaller and the budget of the sub-hospital could not be used for foreign policy payment obligations.
The Reformation , which otherwise had a strong impact in Memmingen (the imperial city became Protestant), had no weakening influence on the Unterhospital. Only Protestant pastors took over the duties of the Lords of the Cross.
Due to its wealth, the hospital developed into a popular lender for craftsmen and farmers as early as the late Middle Ages. In the late 17th and 18th centuries, many savers invested their small and medium sums of money at the Unterhospital. In those days it was the common people's bank.
The hospital experienced its first major crisis at the turn of the 17th century:
Of course, it remains unclear whether this negative economic development was caused by the irregularities of the hospital caretaker discovered at the turn of the century, or whether these irregularities were a consequence of the general economic development. In any case, facts are both the ruinous economic development of the sub-hospital in the last year of the 16th century and the fraudulent machinations of the hospital caretaker Hans Keller.
Continue with Thomas Wolf:
After the crisis at the turn of the century, which led to the sale of the Eisenburg estate , the Unterhospital initially showed positive economic development. However, the period of the Thirty Years' War then brought severe economic losses. In these years, however, the city always tried to help the Unterhospital out of economic difficulties as a result of the war. In other words, it was not the hospital that was used to support the urban economy, but, conversely, the hospital economy was relieved and partially supported by the city. This happened even in times when the war strains for the city and the population were enormous. In this way, the city of Memmingen was able to save its “Unterhospital business enterprise” relatively safely over the war. Nevertheless, the Unterhospital suffered economic losses from the Thirty Years' War. However, it was largely able to recover by the end of the century.
The next big crisis had to come from the middle of the 18th century. The foundation's assets and the city had grown closer and closer together over time, so that the city also made use of them. And it was precisely in these troubled and economically difficult times that there was also considerable mismanagement of the foundation administration, so that the Unterhospital had to declare its bankruptcy in the 1780s. Now, however, money flowed again from the city treasury and the foundation was saved by selling real estate, especially forests. By 1836, however, the foundations had lost 85 percent of their forest holdings.
Mediatization and modern times
Through the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803, which finally incorporated the imperial city of Memmingen into the Electorate of Bavaria ( mediatization ), city assets and foundation assets were placed under state administration. In Memmingen the Kgl. General commissioner of the Illerkreis .
In 1807 all foundations were reclassified and merged according to their foundation purposes. As a result, the Unterhospital was run as a public Protestant charity foundation from 1809 and was administratively combined with six others (Dreikönigskapellenstiftung, Vöhlin'sche Foundation, St. Leonhardspflege, Spitälinspflege, penitentiary care, lake house care) to form the United Charity Foundations in Memmingen . The assets were not mixed up, however, and the foundations continued to exist as separate legal entities.
By ordinance of March 6, 1817, the foundations were returned to the municipal administrations. Since then, the foundations in Memmingen have been administered by the city again, but the merger to form the United Charitable Foundations was retained.
In the following, economically difficult times, the city was able to fall back on foundation funds. From 1820 onwards, grain from charities was stored for times of need. Until 1852, the city repeatedly gave cheap grain from stocks of charitable foundations to needy residents in order to avoid social unrest. In 1862 the magistrate even decided to finance the entire deficit in poor relief from the foundation's income. The Unterhospital Foundation had already recovered economically well since 1860, among other things through increased forest use. Forest purchases were made again around 1900.
Then came the 20th century with two world wars and two inflations . In 1918 the foundations had to subscribe to war bonds ( RM 163,500 in total , sub-hospital foundation RM 10,000), the money was known to be lost. The subsequent inflation of the 1920s was even worse, when the foundations lost all of their financial assets. Only those who owned forests and land were able to recover, although in 1920 of all places a storm destroyed almost all of the foundation's forests.
The next danger for the foundation was the ideological change in the foundation statutes in 1942, which, as is well known, ended relatively soon afterwards. But then came the next inflation.
Due to the impossibility of fulfilling the purpose of the foundation as a result of the loss of assets through inflation and currency conversion in accordance with § 87 BGB and Art. 17 Foundation Act with the resolution of the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior and with the approval of the foundation supervision, 1960 with the exception of the Unterhospital Foundation, the Dreikönigskapellenstiftung and the Vöhlin All the remaining foundations and sub-foundations were dissolved. The remaining assets were transferred to the Unterhospitalstiftung, which received the hospital, benefice and orphanage as institutions to be operated.
In the 1960s and 70s, the foundation ran high deficits and ran into major economic difficulties again. At the daycare center, people had overdone, personnel costs rose enormously, and the timber business brought deficits. So a change in purpose and activity had to take place. The Unterhospitalstiftung ran the city hospital itself until 1870, after which it was still responsible for the new hospital at Kempter Tor and, from 1956, in the newly built city hospital in the west. In 1971 the hospital had to be taken over by the city (which had already made up for the annual deficits). The proceeds were u. a. the daycare center was built in Wartburgweg. 1974 to 1980 benefice and community home were rebuilt.
From now on, the new name Bürgerstift is intended to reflect the centuries-old tradition of the Unterhospitalstiftung as the sponsor of the facility for exclusively Memmingen citizens.
A renewed renovation and expansion of the community monastery, which now houses around 200 home places, was carried out from 2004 to 2008.
Foundation purpose and statutes
Originally the purpose arose from the activities of the order: poor and sick care , later a foundation statute was drawn up, the last version of which is from 2006:
- 1. Maintenance and operation of the following facilities: Altenheim Bürgerstift, the Kindergartens Stadtweiherstraße and Wartburgweg and the Kindergartens Wartburgweg, Zollergarten and Edith Stein School,
- 2. Donations to old, disabled, needy residents of the city of Memmingen as well as for needy families with many children in kindergartens and crèches,
- 3. Nursing and nursing.
Foundation obligations: The foundation has to fulfill the following obligations, which were established in earlier incorporations and which continue to exist in the current scope:
- a) Salaries for the sacristan's position in Frickenhausen,
- b) Covering the deficit of the Church Foundation Arlesried and Frickenhausen, for the needs of the local church,
- c) Obligation to build the rectory in Dickenreishausen, Frickenhausen and Woringen and the churches in Arlesried and Frickenhausen.
See also
literature
- Helmut Börner: The Foundations of the City of Memmingen , Speech by Dipl.-Ing. Helmut Börner, city councilor and curator of the city of Memmingen
- Hannes Lambacher: Monasteries and hospitals in the history of the city of Memmingen - ISBN 3-8062-1315-1
- Matthias Stroeher: Memmingen Foundations - Published by the Memmingen City Archives - ISSN 1438-7336
- Hannes Lambacher: The hospital of the imperial city of Memmingen - ISBN 3-927003-02-6
Individual evidence
- ^ Julius Miedel - Guide through Memmingen and the surrounding area, 1900/1910/1929 Publishing and Printing Cooperative Memmingen
- ^ Matthias Stroeher: Memminger Foundations. Published by the Memmingen City Archives.
- ^ Peter Blickle : Historical Atlas of Bavaria, part of Swabia. Munich 1967.
- ↑ Thomas Wolf - Memmingen in the 17th century in The History of the City of Memmingen
- ↑ StadtA MM, minutes of the Foundation Advisory Board of October 8, 1974