Berchtesgaden Provostry
Encyclopedia
Berchtesgaden Provostry or the Prince-Provostry of Berchtesgaden was an immediate (reichsunmittelbar) principality
of the Holy Roman Empire
, held by a canonry
, i.e. a collegiate
foundation, of Augustinians
led by a Prince-Provost
.
Berchtesgaden hollow, that is, the modern communities of Berchtesgaden
, Bischofswiesen
, Marktschellenberg
, Ramsau
and Schönau am Königssee, located in the present-day German
state of Bavaria
, as well as a number of estates further afield.
The location of the monastery was strategically important. Firstly, it is in an area possessing immensely valuable salt
deposits, and was situated in such a way that it was able to act as a buffer state
between its much larger neighbours, the Duchy of Bavaria
and the Archbishopric of Salzburg
, and to make this situation work to its advantage. Secondly, the Berchtesgaden valley is almost entirely enclosed by high mountains, except for a single point of access to the north, and is thus virtually impregnable.
, was founded in 1102 within the Bavarian stem duchy
as a community of Augustinian Canons by Count Berengar of Sulzbach
under the directions of the will of his mother, the late Countess Irmgard.
In view of the favorable geopolitical circumstances, the provosts had little difficulty in establishing the territorial independence of the monastery, which became an Imperial abbey
in 1194. In 1380 the provosts achieved the status of an ecclesistical Reichsfürst
and from 1559 held a direct vote in the Reichstag
assembly as "Prince-Provosts", a rank almost equivalent to that of a Prince-Bishop
. The title was nearly unique within the Empire, the only other provost who ever gained the princely title was the one at the Swabian
Imperial Ellwangen Abbey
.
The position of Prince-Provost was frequently held in conjunction with other high ecclesiastical positions, and the provosts often lived elsewhere. From 1594 until 1723, the title and territories were held by the mighty House of Wittelsbach, from 1612 in personal union
by the Prince-Archbishops of Cologne, whose cousins ruled over the neighbouring Bavarian duchy. Constant avarices of the Salzburg archbishops led to clashes of arms in 1611, when the troops of Wolf Dietrich Raitenau
occupied Berchtesgaden but were repulsed by the forces of Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria
.
In 1802/1803 the provostry and its territories were secularised
and mediatised first to the short-lived Electorate of Salzburg
, which according to the 1805 Peace of Pressburg
fell to the Austrian Empire
, and finally in 1810 to the newly established Kingdom of Bavaria
. The monastic buildings were used for a while as a barracks, but in 1818 the monastery was designated as a royal residence of the Wittelsbachs, who used it as a summer palace.
Following the end of the Bavarian monarchy, the buildings since 1923 are administrated by the Wittelsbach Compensation Fund (Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds). Some of the rooms are open to the public, while other parts of the building are still used by the Wittelsbachs. The monastic church now serves as the parish church of Berchtesgaden.
Imperial State
An Imperial State or Imperial Estate was an entity in the Holy Roman Empire with a vote in the Imperial Diet assemblies. Several territories of the Empire were not represented, while some officials were non-voting members; neither qualified as Imperial States.Rulers of Imperial States were...
of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
, held by a canonry
Canons Regular
Canons Regular are members of certain bodies of Canons living in community under the Augustinian Rule , and sharing their property in common...
, i.e. a collegiate
Collegiate church
In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons; a non-monastic, or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by a dean or provost...
foundation, of Augustinians
Augustinians
The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...
led by a Prince-Provost
Prince-Provost
Prince-Provost is a rare title for a monastic superior with the ecclesiastical style of provost who is a Prince of the Church in the sense that he also ranks as a secular 'prince' , notably a Reichsfürst of the Holy Roman Empire, holding a direct vote in the Reichstag assembly coequal to an actual...
.
Geography
The territory comprised the AlpineBerchtesgaden Alps
The Berchtesgaden Alps are a mountain range of the Northern Limestone Alps, named after the market town of Berchtesgaden located in the centre...
Berchtesgaden hollow, that is, the modern communities of Berchtesgaden
Berchtesgaden
Berchtesgaden is a municipality in the German Bavarian Alps. It is located in the south district of Berchtesgadener Land in Bavaria, near the border with Austria, some 30 km south of Salzburg and 180 km southeast of Munich...
, Bischofswiesen
Bischofswiesen
Bischofswiesen is a municipality in the district of Berchtesgadener Land in Bavaria in Germany....
, Marktschellenberg
Marktschellenberg
Marktschellenberg is a municipality in the district of Berchtesgadener Land in Bavaria in Germany....
, Ramsau
Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden
Ramsau is a German municipality in the Bavarian Alps with a population of around 1,800.It is located in the district of Berchtesgadener Land in Bavaria, close to the border with Austria, 35 km south of Salzburg and 150 km south-east of Munich....
and Schönau am Königssee, located in the present-day German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
state of Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, as well as a number of estates further afield.
Edible salt
Salt, also known as table salt, or rock salt, is a mineral that is composed primarily of sodium chloride , a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of ionic salts. It is essential for animal life in small quantities, but is harmful to animals and plants in excess...
deposits, and was situated in such a way that it was able to act as a buffer state
Buffer state
A buffer state is a country lying between two rival or potentially hostile greater powers, which by its sheer existence is thought to prevent conflict between them. Buffer states, when authentically independent, typically pursue a neutralist foreign policy, which distinguishes them from satellite...
between its much larger neighbours, the Duchy of Bavaria
History of Bavaria
The history of Bavaria stretches from its earliest settlement and its formation as a stem duchy in the 6th century through its inclusion in the Holy Roman Empires to its status as an independent kingdom and, finally, as a large and significant Bundesland of the modern Federal Republic of...
and the Archbishopric of Salzburg
Archbishopric of Salzburg
The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical State of the Holy Roman Empire, its territory roughly congruent with the present-day Austrian state of Salzburg....
, and to make this situation work to its advantage. Secondly, the Berchtesgaden valley is almost entirely enclosed by high mountains, except for a single point of access to the north, and is thus virtually impregnable.
History
The Berchtesgaden monastery, dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint John the BaptistJohn the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
, was founded in 1102 within the Bavarian stem duchy
Stem duchy
Stem duchies were essentially the domains of the old German tribes of the area, associated with the Frankish Kingdom, especially the East, in the Early Middle Ages. These tribes were originally the Franks, the Saxons, the Alamanni, the Burgundians, the Thuringii, and the Rugii...
as a community of Augustinian Canons by Count Berengar of Sulzbach
Sulzbach-Rosenberg
Sulzbach-Rosenberg is a municipality in the Amberg-Sulzbach district, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated approx. 14 km northwest of Amberg, and 50 km east of Nuremberg. The town consists of two parts: Sulzbach in the west, and Rosenberg in the east. Archeological evidence tells, that...
under the directions of the will of his mother, the late Countess Irmgard.
In view of the favorable geopolitical circumstances, the provosts had little difficulty in establishing the territorial independence of the monastery, which became an Imperial abbey
Prince-abbot
A Prince-Abbot is a title for a cleric who is a Prince of the Church , in the sense of an ex officio temporal lord of a feudal entity, notably a State of the Holy Roman Empire. The secular territory ruled by the head of an abbey is known as Prince-Abbacy or Abbey-principality...
in 1194. In 1380 the provosts achieved the status of an ecclesistical Reichsfürst
Princes of the Holy Roman Empire
The term Prince of the Holy Roman Empire denoted a secular or ecclesiastical Imperial State, who ruled over an immediate fief directly assigned by the Holy Roman Emperor...
and from 1559 held a direct vote in the Reichstag
Reichstag (Holy Roman Empire)
The Imperial Diet was the Diet, or general assembly, of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire.During the period of the Empire, which lasted formally until 1806, the Diet was not a parliament in today's sense; instead, it was an assembly of the various estates of the realm...
assembly as "Prince-Provosts", a rank almost equivalent to that of a Prince-Bishop
Prince-Bishop
A Prince-Bishop is a bishop who is a territorial Prince of the Church on account of one or more secular principalities, usually pre-existent titles of nobility held concurrently with their inherent clerical office...
. The title was nearly unique within the Empire, the only other provost who ever gained the princely title was the one at the Swabian
Swabian Circle
The Swabian Circle was an Imperial Circle of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1500 on the territory of the former German stem-duchy of Swabia. However, it did not include the Habsburg home territories of Swabian Austria, the member states of the Swiss Confederacy nor the lands of the Alsace...
Imperial Ellwangen Abbey
Ellwangen Abbey
Ellwangen Abbey was the earliest Benedictine monastery established in the Duchy of Swabia, at the present-day town of Ellwangen an der Jagst, Baden-Württemberg about 100 km north-east of Stuttgart.-Imperial abbey:...
.
Personal union
A personal union is the combination by which two or more different states have the same monarch while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct. It should not be confused with a federation which is internationally considered a single state...
by the Prince-Archbishops of Cologne, whose cousins ruled over the neighbouring Bavarian duchy. Constant avarices of the Salzburg archbishops led to clashes of arms in 1611, when the troops of Wolf Dietrich Raitenau
Wolf Dietrich Raitenau
Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau was Prince-Bishop of Salzburg from 1587 to 1612.-Biography:Raitenau was born at Hofen Castle in Lochau near Bregenz in Further Austria, the son of the Habsburg colonel Hans Werner von Raitenau and Helene von Hohenems, a niece of Pope Pius IV, sister of Markus Sitticus...
occupied Berchtesgaden but were repulsed by the forces of Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria
Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria
Maximilian I, Duke/Elector of Bavaria , called "the Great", was a Wittelsbach ruler of Bavaria and a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire. His reign was marked by the Thirty Years' War ....
.
In 1802/1803 the provostry and its territories were secularised
German Mediatisation
The German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany between 1795 and 1814, during the latter part of the era of the French Revolution and then the Napoleonic Era....
and mediatised first to the short-lived Electorate of Salzburg
Electorate of Salzburg
The Electorate of Salzburg , occasionally known as the Grand Duchy of Salzburg, was an electoral principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1803–05. Its capital was Salzburg.- History :...
, which according to the 1805 Peace of Pressburg
Peace of Pressburg
The Peace of Pressburg refers to four peace treaties concluded in Pressburg . The fourth Peace of Pressburg of 1805 during the Napoleonic Wars is the best-known.-First:...
fell to the Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
, and finally in 1810 to the newly established Kingdom of Bavaria
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...
. The monastic buildings were used for a while as a barracks, but in 1818 the monastery was designated as a royal residence of the Wittelsbachs, who used it as a summer palace.
Following the end of the Bavarian monarchy, the buildings since 1923 are administrated by the Wittelsbach Compensation Fund (Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds). Some of the rooms are open to the public, while other parts of the building are still used by the Wittelsbachs. The monastic church now serves as the parish church of Berchtesgaden.
Provosts and Prince-Provosts of Berchtesgaden
- Eberwin 1111-1142
- Hugo I 1142-1148
- Heinrich I 1148-1174, Anti-Archbishop of Salzburg 1174-1177, Bishop of BrixenBishopric of BrixenThe Bishopric of Brixen is a former Roman Catholic diocese and also a former ecclesiastical state of the Holy Roman Empire in the present province of South Tyrol. The bishopric in the Eisack/Isarco valley was established in the 6th century and gradually received more secular powers...
1177-1195 - Dietrich 1174-1178
- Friedrich I 1178-1188
- Bernhard I of Schönstätten 1188-1201
- Gerhard 1201
- Hugo II 1201-1210
- Konrad Garrer 1210-1211
- Friedrich II Ellinger 1211-1217
- Heinrich II 1217-1231
- Friedrich III of Ortenburg 1231-1239
- Bernhard II 1239-1252
- Konrad II 1252
- Heinrich III 1252-1257
- Konrad III von Medling 1257-1283
- Johann I Sachs von Sachsenau 1283-1303, Prince-Bishop of Brixen 1302-1306
- Hartung von Wildon 1303-1306
- Eberhard Sachs von Sachsenau 1306-1316
- Konrad IV Tanner 1316-1333
- Heinrich IV von Inzing 1333-1351
- Reinhold Zeller 1351-1355
- Otto Tanner 1355-1357
- Peter I Pfaffinger 1357-1362
- Jakob I von Vansdorf 1362-1368
- Greimold Wulp 1368-1377
- Ulrich I Wulp 1377-1384 concurrently with
- Sieghard Waller 1381-1384
- Konrad V Thorer von Thörlein 1384-1393, Bishop of LavantLavantLavant was a prince-bishopric, suffragan of the Prince-archbishop of Salzburg, then in the southern part of imperial Austria's Styria. Later the area was re-assigned to presentday Slovenia. It became the Slovenian bishopric of Maribor, a suffragan of the Archbishop of Ljubljana, on 5 March 1962...
1397-1406 - Pilgrim von Puchheim 1393-1396, also Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg since 1365
- Gregorius Schenk von Osterwitz 1396-1403, also Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg
- Berthold von Wehingen 1404, Anti-Archbishop of Salzburg 1404-1406
- Peter II Pienzenauer 1404-1432
- Johann II Praun 1432-1446
- Bernhard III Leuprechtinger 1446-1473
- Erasmus Pretschlaiffer 1473-1486
- Ulrich II Pernauer 1486-1496
- Balthasar Hirschauer 1496-1508
- Gregor Rainer 1508-1522
- Wolfgang I Lenberger 1523-1541
- Wolfgang II Griestätter 1541-1567 (created Prince-Provost in 1559)
- Jakob II Putrich 1567-1594
- Ferdinand of Bavaria 1594-1650, also Archbishop of Cologne from 1612
- Maximilian Heinrich of Bavaria 1650-1688, also Archbishop of Cologne
- Joseph Clemens of BavariaJoseph Clemens of BavariaJoseph Clemens of Bavaria was a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty of Bavaria and Archbishop-Elector of Cologne from 1688 to 1723.-Biography:...
1688-1723, also Archbishop of Cologne - Julius Heinrich von Rehlingen-Radau 1723-1732
- Cajetan Anton von Notthaft 1732-1752
- Michael Balthasar von Christalnigg 1752-1768
- Franz Anton Joseph von Hausen-Gleichenstorff 1768-1780
- Joseph Konrad von Schroffenberg-Mös 1780-1803, also Prince-Bishop of FreisingRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Munich and FreisingThe Archdiocese of Munich and Freising is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Bavaria, Germany. It is led by the prelature of the Archbishop of Munich, who administers the see from the mother church in Munich, the Frauenkirche, also known as Munich Cathedral...
1789-1803, resigned