Wichmann von Arnstein

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Wichmann von Arnstein, sandstone figure in the monastery church of St. Trinity in Neuruppin.

Wichmann von Arnstein (* around 1185 in Saxony ; † November 2, 1270 in Neuruppin , Ruppin rule ) was a mystic and, together with his brother Gebhard von Arnstein, founder of the Dominican monastery in Neuruppin.

Live and act

Wichmann was the youngest of four sons of Walther III. Born from the noble house of the Thuringian Counts of Arnstein . The Lindow-Ruppin line comes from his brother Gebhard ; another brother inherited possessions in the foothills of the Harz Mountains. In 1194 the very young Wichmann was transferred to the Magdeburg Premonstratensian Monastery , where he became canon in 1207 and provost in 1210 .

In 1220, after the death of Bishop Siegfried II, the Leitzkau Chapter, which insisted on the electoral rights that had been denied him, elected him Bishop of Brandenburg ; However, he was just as little confirmed by the Pope as Ludolf von Schwanebeck, who was appointed by the Brandenburg Convention . Instead, Gernand von Brandenburg was appointed Bishop of Brandenburg in 1222 . 1225 Wichmann were from Pope Honorius III. awarded the episcopal insignia, but without receiving a bishopric.

After Archbishop Albrecht I sent him to Paris in 1224 to bring the Dominicans to Magdeburg, he resigned his provost dignity between 1228 and 1229 and joined the Dominican Order himself between 1230 and 1233; he belonged to the convents of Magdeburg and Freiberg . It is disputed whether he was prior in Erfurt after 1236 and in Eisenach at the earliest in 1243 . After he founded the first Dominican monastery between the Elbe and Oder in 1246 with his brother Gebhard , he was its first prior until his death in 1270. At the same time, he did his best to support the expansion of the city and the rule of Ruppin. With his immense knowledge, including in herbal medicine , he assisted the citizens of the city with advice and action.

Mystical spirituality

Wichmann is important in terms of intellectual history in the area of German mysticism . Obviously, the encounter with the poverty movement of the 13th century gave his life the decisive turn, in that he said goodbye to the pursuit of a career in the church and turned to the new, mystical spirituality . The so-called “tracts” handed down by him show the influence of the love mysticism of Bernhard von Clairvaux . He was close to Mechthild von Magdeburg , who came to Magdeburg around 1230; probably he was her confessor too. The “Legende” written shortly after his death, a biographical and legendary mixed text with commentary sections, suggests some of his thoughts.

Legends

The impression of his personality that went beyond his death becomes clear in various miracle stories in which popular legends are related to his person.

Walk across the Ruppiner See

This legend describes Adalbert Kuhn :

“The co-founder and first prior of the Dominican monastery in Neu-Ruppin, Wichmann von Arnstein, led a very pious and godly life and was ultimately given the power to perform great miracles. So one day he was in his old age, doing business for his convent on the other side of the Ruppiner See, and had become very hungry from the exertion of the journey he had traveled, especially since it was very difficult for him to bear it stay sober after eating. While on the opposite side of the lake he can already hear the monastery bell giving the sign for lunch, he feels too exhausted from hunger and thirst to be able to make the long detour around the lake. In this embarrassment he strengthened himself with the sign of the cross, called to his companion: "My son, follow me courageously!" And walked straight across the lake, and see! God sent it so that the water should become firm and passable and he should arrive at the monastery happy and safe, and lead the brothers into the dining room, while his companion, preferring the safer land route, did not arrive until a good hour after him. "

- Adalbert Kuhn : Märkische sagas and fairy tales along with an appendix of customs and superstitions. Berlin 1843, pp. 160-161

The catfish

According to a further legend, a catfish is said to have voluntarily jumped out of the lake into the frying pan of the monastery cook at his command when the supplies in the monastery kitchen were insufficient. August Kopisch describes this in his poem:

The prior Wichmann von Arnstein's miracle

In the monastery of Herr zu Neu-Ruppin there
are so many guests today,
I'm afraid the food is not enough
At this great festival;
Therefore, Herr Prior, say
how Father Koch can help himself,
I don't know what to advise him. -

Since the Prior says, "Go to
At sea ohn network and Hamen,
And call down fresh and happy
and loud in my name,
there come out a big fish
to saturate the Gäst at the table,
because is already a coming".

The Father went down and shouted,
What the abbot ordered him:
Then he sees with astonishment how
the fish rajol in the lake;
A catfish rolls to the edge,
As big as it has never known anyone,
begging to take it.

The fish notices that it is getting too heavy,
There it stands as if to dance,
And hops pleasantly next to it
To the kitchen on its tail;
There he lies down on the kitchen board:
Now kill me, I'm really fat,
I want to fry myself then.

But now - who thinks this,
who can guess -
the fish turns itself on the spit,
until it is even fried;
Then jump off the skewer quickly to the
large bowl and chop
into as many pieces as guests.

The guests who sniff him
And all are in good spirits ;
The food in its sense seems
delicious, not insignificant.
You eat: everyone has had enough,
and everyone will be as wise
as he has never been before.

Adalbert Kuhn also describes this legend:

“Another time several friars from distant places came to the monastery at Neu-Ruppin, and their number was so great that there was a lack of food. Brother Nicolaus, who looked after the kitchen, complained to the prior of his troubles, and the prior ordered him to go down to the lake and order the fish there in his name that one of them should come out and serve the brothers to feed them. Brother Nicholas did as he was told, and look! Immediately a large catfish swam ashore, let the monk grab it, and now served the hungry crowd as ample food. - A picture with the signature: "Frater Nicolaus de Ruppino" which depicted him holding a large catfish in his hand was still hanging in the dining room of the Dominican monastery in Kölln on the Rhine at the beginning of the last century. "

- Adalbert Kuhn : Märkische sagas and fairy tales along with an appendix of customs and superstitions. Berlin 1843, pp. 160-161

Wichmann-Linde

Wichmannlinde

Before his death in 1270, Father Wichmann is said to have determined that he should be laid in a glass coffin and that this should be placed in a silver one. Furthermore, according to the old Germanic custom, a linden tree should be planted on his grave and when the linden tree has passed, one can open his grave, but not earlier. The winter lime tree stands near a slope on the city wall, southeast of the choir of the Neuruppin monastery church. The tree, which is over 700 years old, has now become hollow after being struck by lightning, is still in full bloom every year.

Wichmann carriage

Even after his death, he is said to have been seen several times as a ghost in a carriage drawn by white, headless horses. He should also come to it every New Year's Eve to make sure that his instructions regarding the linden tree are being followed.

literature

swell

  • MA van den Oudenrijn (Ed.): Miracula quaedam et collationes Fratris Wichmanni. In: Analecta Praemonstratensia. 6 (1930) pp. 5-53.
  • Fritz Bünger : On the mysticism and history of the Mark Dominicans. Berlin 1926, pp. 1–35 (texts pp. 15–33) (publications by the Association for the History of the Mark Brandenburg 23).
  • Fritz Winter (ed.): Legend about Wichmann von Arnstein (from a Utrecht manuscript). In: History sheets for the city and state of Magdeburg. 11 (1876), pp. 180-191.

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b quoted from www.zeno.org
  2. ↑ from August Kopisch: Gedichte. 1836, quoted from August Kopisch : All sorts of spirits in the Gutenberg-DE project
personal data
SURNAME Wichmann von Arnstein
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mystic and co-founder of the Dominican monastery in Neuruppin
DATE OF BIRTH around 1185
PLACE OF BIRTH Saxony
DATE OF DEATH November 2, 1270
Place of death Neuruppin