Waltger

Today's baroque Wolderus Chapel next to Herford Minster

Sign on Waltgeristraße in Herford with information about St. Waltger

The Holy Waltger even Wolderus or Walter (* 8th century at Kirchdornberg ; † 16 November 825 in Herford ), founded later to 789 Empire Herford . He is also considered the founder of the city of Herford in Westphalia . Waltger's feast day is November 16, he is depicted in a count's clothes with a church model. Other attributes in sacred art are ears of wheat, grapes and a bird that brings him a fish.

The existence of Waltger as a historical personality has long been doubted by parts of historical scholarship, such as Roger Wilmans , who saw in him merely a legendary figure who was useful for the Herford princess. The discovery of the foundations of Müdehorst in the Bielefeld district of Dornberg in 1949, however, substantiated statements made in Waltger's biography, the Vita sancti Waltgeri, which was created in the vicinity of the Reichsabbey of Herford. The ruin found there shows a church type of a rectangular hall with a square choir, which is not atypical in the Saxon mission area around 800. Waltger's historicity is generally recognized in literature today.

Life

Waltger probably came from a family of Saxon nobles who had good contacts to the Carolingian court during the integration of Saxony into the Franconian Empire , possibly even relatives there. From his mother's side, he owned an inheritance in Bielefeld-Kirchdornberg, which was to remain in the possession of the Herford Imperial Abbey until the Reformation . The building of St. Peterskirche zu Kirchdornberg must also be related to the Waltgers family. There, too, an early sacral building of the Müdehorst type has been archaeologically proven under today's Gothic church.

The Vita Waltgeri reports that Waltger initially attempted to found a canonical foundation in Müdehorst, not far from Kirchdornberg, which initially failed. Thereupon he moved his foundation to the confluence of the Werre and Aa rivers in today's Herford, where there was an important ford and crossroads. Waltger endowed the foundation with his property and finally achieved through personal intervention with Emperor Ludwig the Pious the subordination of the monastery to the ruling house and the elevation to the imperial abbey . He was supported by the founders of the Corvey Abbey , the brothers Adalhard and Wala , who expanded Herford considerably. The old imperial abbey of Soissons in the Carolingian heartland became Herford's mother monastery , after which the expansion took place as a model. According to the Herford saints' vitae, Waltger is said to have had contacts with an English royal family and thus received relics of Saint Oswald , whose veneration in Kirchdornberg and Herford has been documented for the entire Middle Ages. The historian Pape suspects that the relics could be obtained due to family ties to English Anglo-Saxons.

The so-called Wolderus Chapel next to the Herford Minster St. Marien and Pusinna was considered to be Waltger's burial place by the Herford convent. Multiple miracles at the grave of the founder of the monastery induced the abbess Swenehildis around 1051 to carry out a search excavation for the remains of Waltger. Bones found eventually in the choir were addressed as the Waltgers and at the instigation of the abbey from Paderborn bishop Imad charged . The elevation and translation of Waltger's bones by Imad into the Herford Minster were tantamount to Waltger's local canonization . However, the creation of an important Waltger cult in Herford never succeeded. The trace of the raised relics is lost in the Reformation period.

In addition to the Wolderus Chapel, Waltgeristraße still reminds of the founder of the monastery in Herford.

literature

• Daniel Bérenger: Müdehorst and Jostberg. Two monastery church ruins in Bielefeld. In: Annual report of the historical association for the county of Ravensberg. Volume 92, 2007, pp. 7-26.
• Ralf Dorn: The church of the former women's monastery St. Marien and Pusinna in Herford. Petersberg 2006.
• Caspar Ehlers: The integration of Saxony into the Frankish empire. Göttingen 2007.
• Gustav Engel: About the Vita Waltgeri. In: Ravensberger Blätter. 1954.
• Erich Forwick: Waltger von Dornberg or Saint Walther von Herford. The Latin text of his biography was translated and provided with an introduction, notes and references . In: Annual report of the Historical Association for the County of Ravensberg, Volume 72, 1979/80, pp. 7–54, digitized city archive Bielefeld . Retrieved August 20, 2019
• Klemens Honselmann: Reliquary translations to Saxony. In: Victor Elbern (ed.): The first millennium. Volume 1, Düsseldorf 1962.
• Martin Kroker: Emperors, Kings and Pious Women. The Reichsstift Herford in the Ottonian, Salian and Staufer times. In: Olaf Schirmeister (ed.): Pious women and religious men. Monasteries and monasteries in St. Herford. Bielefeld 2000, pp. 77-126.
• Rainer Pape: The Saxon Waltger. Confessor christi. In: Herford Yearbook. Volume 24, 1988, pp. 136-163.
• Carlies Maria Raddatz: Vita sancti Waltgeri. Life of St. Waltger. The history of the founding of the monastery of the Herford Imperial Abbey. Munster 1994.
• Hedwig Röckelein: Reliquary translations to Saxony in the 9th century. Stuttgart 2002.
• Ekkart Sauser :  Walter (Waltger) of Saxony. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 17, Bautz, Herzberg 2000, ISBN 3-88309-080-8 , Sp. 1525-1526.
• Hans Thümmler: New research on medieval architecture in Westphalia. In: German preservation of art and monuments. Volume 10, 1952, pp. 97-105.
• Hans Jürgen Warnecke: 789 and how it all began. In: Theodor Helmert-Corvey u. a. (Ed.): 1200 years of Herford. Traces of history. Herford 1989.
• Hans Jürgen Warnecke: Wodan and the Army Ford. The prehistory of the foundation of the Herford monastery and the church in Dornberg. In: Contributions to the history and culture of the Germania Sacra. 1989.
• Roger Wilmans: The founding of Herford and the vita Waltgeri. In: The Imperial Documents of the Province of Westphalia 777-1313. Volume 1, Münster 1867, pp. 275-318.

Remarks

1. ↑ Wilmans (1867)
2. ↑ Thümmler (1952), Bérenger (2007)
3. ↑ e.g. Ehlers (2007)
4. ↑ Engel (1954)
5. ↑ Original manuscript [Wigand]: Vita Waltgeri. Landesarchiv NRW / Westphalia Department, Mscr VII No. 5208, accessed on August 20, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Pape (1988), Warnecke (1989), Raddatz (1994)
7. ↑ Dorn (2006)