Dobrilugk Abbey
Encyclopedia
Lower Lusatia
Lower Lusatia is a historical region stretching from the southeast of the Brandenburg state of Germany to the southwest of the Lubusz Voivodeship in Poland. Important towns beside the historic capital Lübben include Calau, Cottbus, Guben , Luckau, Spremberg, Finsterwalde, Senftenberg and Żary...
in the territory of the present town of Doberlug-Kirchhain
Doberlug-Kirchhain
Doberlug-Kirchhain is a town in the district of Elbe-Elster, Brandenburg, Germany. -History:937. The town of Kirchhain was built by Margrave Gero. A document written in 1005 mentions the town Doberlug for the first time. In 1165 the Cistercian Dobrilugk Abbey was founded by Margrave Dietrich of...
, Brandenburg
Brandenburg
Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...
, Germany
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...
.
History
The abbey was legally founded on 1 May 1165 by charter of Margrave Dietrich of LandsbergMargraviate of Landsberg
The Margraviate of Landsberg was a march of the Holy Roman Empire that existed from the 12th to the 14th century. It was named after Landsberg Castle in present-day Saxony-Anhalt...
und Eilenburg and of the Ostmark
Saxon Eastern March
The Saxon Eastern March or Ostmark was a march of the Holy Roman Empire from the 10th until the 12th century. The term "eastern march" or "ostmark" comes from the Latin term marchia Orientalis and originally could refer to either a march created on the eastern frontier of the Duchy of Saxony or...
of Lusatia
Lusatia
Lusatia is a historical region in Central Europe. It stretches from the Bóbr and Kwisa rivers in the east to the Elbe valley in the west, today located within the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg as well as in the Lower Silesian and Lubusz voivodeships of western Poland...
, but because of continuing hostilities in the area the community did not make any real progress until 1184, when twelve monks from Volkenroda Abbey
Volkenroda Abbey
Volkenroda Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery in the municipality of Körner in the Unstrut-Hainich district of Thuringia, Germany.-History:...
began the settlement in earnest. By 1209 building was far enough advanced for it to be possible to bury the Margravine Elisabeth, wife of the Margrave Konrad II, in the abbey church.
Generous endowments enabled the monastery to grow very rapidly thereafter, however. In 1234 it already owned 18 villages and from 1240 it was sufficiently powerful economically to increase its land-holdings by its own purchases, rather than depending on donors. In a deed of 1370 Emperor Charles IV
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles IV , born Wenceslaus , was the second king of Bohemia from the House of Luxembourg, and the first king of Bohemia to also become Holy Roman Emperor....
confirmed the monks in possession of 40 villages and five farmyards. The abbey was also the lord of the little town of Kirchhain, to which they had granted the right to hold a market in 1235. In addition, the abbey had premises in the more important towns of Luckau
Luckau
Luckau is a city in the district of Dahme-Spreewald in the federal state of Brandenburg, Germany. Known for its beauty, it has been dubbed "the Pearl of Lower Lusatia".-Origin of the name:...
, seat of the territorial prince, and in Lübben (which between about 1301 and 1329 belonged to the abbey), in order to deal more efficiently with the sale of agricultural produce. Like all Cistercian abbeys, Dobrilugk was exempt from episcopal tithes.
The abbey was deeply involved in medieval land development in the west of Lower Lusatia
Lower Lusatia
Lower Lusatia is a historical region stretching from the southeast of the Brandenburg state of Germany to the southwest of the Lubusz Voivodeship in Poland. Important towns beside the historic capital Lübben include Calau, Cottbus, Guben , Luckau, Spremberg, Finsterwalde, Senftenberg and Żary...
. The monks recruited 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...
settlers who established several villages on abbey lands; most of the serfs however were Sorbs
Sorbs
Sorbs are a Western Slavic people of Central Europe living predominantly in Lusatia, a region on the territory of Germany and Poland. In Germany they live in the states of Brandenburg and Saxony. They speak the Sorbian languages - closely related to Polish and Czech - officially recognized and...
. The abbot of Dobrilugk had a seat and a vote in the Prelates' Curia of the Lower Lusatian Landtag
Landtag
A Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
.
At the end of the 14th century began the slow decline of the abbey. The monks no longer undertook cultivation themselves, but relied on the income from rents and taxes. There were simply no longer enough men available to enter the abbey as lay brothers (conversi) to carry out the physical tasks.
In 1431 Dobrilugk was plundered by the Hussite
Hussite
The Hussites were a Christian movement following the teachings of Czech reformer Jan Hus , who became one of the forerunners of the Protestant Reformation...
s.
Nevertheless, economically the abbey continued to prosper. In a document of 1434 the abbey is shown as the owner of no less than 65 villages.
The end came with the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
. Since the 1520s monks had been leaving and turning to the new teachings. Monastic discipline and also the economics of the abbey fell into disorder. In 1533 the abbot absconded with the abbey's portable valuables. In addition, Emperor Ferdinand I
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1558 and king of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526 until his death. Before his accession, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs in the name of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.The key events during his reign were the contest...
demanded high contributions from the Lower Lusatian abbeys to finance the Turkish wars. Finally, in 1541, Johann Friedrich I, Elector of Saxony
John Frederick, Elector of Saxony
John Frederick I of Saxony , called John the Magnanimous, was Elector of Saxony and Head of the Protestant Confederation of Germany , "Champion of the Reformation".-Early years:...
, occupied Dobrilugk, because of a financial claim he had against the King of Bohemia, in whose territory it was. The monks abandoned the monastery and the community was dissolved.
Although the Roman Catholic Ferdinand I was able to win back the abbey lordship in the Schmalkaldic War
Schmalkaldic War
The Schmalkaldic War refers to the short period of violence from 1546 until 1547 between the forces of Emperor Charles I of Spain and V of the Holy Roman Empire, commanded by Don Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba, and the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League within the domains of the Holy Roman...
and reincorporate it into Lower Lusatia, he too kept the monks from returning, and instead mortgaged the extensive territory to several members in turn of the noble families of Schlick and Gersdorff. Heinrich von Gersdorff in about 1550 had a hunting lodge built to replace the abbot's house. The last owner of the nobility, Heinrich Anselm von Promnitz, sold Dobrilugk in 1624 to Johann Georg of Saxony, who shortly before had become the mortgagee of the whole of Lower Lusatia. The Lower Lusatian parliament had however been able to bring it about that the abbatial territory remained part of the margravate. So the curious situation arose that the lordship of Dobrilugk belonged administratively both to Lower Lusatia and Kursachsen. Subjects paid their taxes into the Lower Lusatia exchequer, but answered to the justice of the officials of the Saxon Elector, appeal from which could only be made to the Chamber Court in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
and no longer to the Lower Lusatia State Court.
Under the Wettin
Wettin
Wettin is:*House of Wettin, a German Royal House*Wettin Castle, near Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, ancestral seat of the House of Wettin*Asteroid 90709 Wettin, named in the castle's and House's honour...
collateral line of Sachsen-Merseburg (1656–1738) Dobrilugk was a secondary residence of the dukes and the region enjoyed a new period of prosperity.
- For later events see main article Doberlug-KirchhainDoberlug-KirchhainDoberlug-Kirchhain is a town in the district of Elbe-Elster, Brandenburg, Germany. -History:937. The town of Kirchhain was built by Margrave Gero. A document written in 1005 mentions the town Doberlug for the first time. In 1165 the Cistercian Dobrilugk Abbey was founded by Margrave Dietrich of...
)