Ebstorf Abbey
Encyclopedia
Uelzen
Uelzen is a town in northeast Lower Saxony, Germany, and capital of the county of Uelzen. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, a Hanseatic town and an independent municipality....
that was founded around 1160 as monastery called Kloster St. Mauritius for the Premonstratensian
Premonstratensian
The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré, also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines, or in Britain and Ireland as the White Canons , are a Catholic religious order of canons regular founded at Prémontré near Laon in 1120 by Saint Norbert, who later became Archbishop of Magdeburg...
order of canons
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
. It is one of several Lutheran convents that is maintained by the Monastic Chamber of Hanover , an institution of the former Kingdom of Hanover
Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
founded by Prince-Regent George IV
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
in 1818, in order to manage and preserve the estates of Lutheran convents on their behalf, now continued as an institution of Hanover's successor state of Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
.
History
The monastery was founded by Volrad von Bodwede, Count of Dannenberg, and a nephew of Henry the LionHenry the Lion
Henry the Lion was a member of the Welf dynasty and Duke of Saxony, as Henry III, from 1142, and Duke of Bavaria, as Henry XII, from 1156, which duchies he held until 1180....
. In 1197 it was mentioned in the records for the first time. It belongs to the six so-called Lüneklöstern ("Lüne monasteries") that became Lutheran convents following 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...
.
After a fire in the 12th century Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
nuns from Kloster Walsrode moved to Ebstorf, and Ebstorf became a place of pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
(Marienwallfahrtsort). The monastery's buildings from the 14th century, built in a North German Brick Gothic
Brick Gothic
Brick Gothic is a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Northern Europe, especially in Northern Germany and the regions around the Baltic Sea that do not have natural rock resources. The buildings are essentially built from bricks...
style, are fully preserved today as is the hall church with raised nun's gallery. The Propstei (provostry) dates to the 15th century.
In the 15th century the life of the nuns changed following the Bursfelde monastery reform
Bursfelde Congregation
The Bursfelde Congregation, also called Bursfelde Union, was a union of predominantly west and central German Benedictine monasteries and nunneries working for the reform of Benedictine practice. It was named after Bursfelde Abbey.-Background:...
, that demanded a stricter way of life.
In 1529 the Welf duke, Ernest the Confessor
Ernest I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Ernest of Brunswick-Lüneburg , also frequently called Ernest the Confessor, was duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and a champion of the protestant cause during the early years of the Protestant Reformation...
from Celle
Celle
Celle is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the River Aller, a tributary of the Weser and has a population of about 71,000...
converted the monastery to a Lutheran nunnery, but Reformation in the monastery was not completed until 1565. Lutheran women still live here today under the authority of a Lutheran abbess
Abbess
An abbess is the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey....
.
The abbey is famous for the Ebstorf Map
Ebstorf Map
The Ebstorf Map is an example of a mappa mundi similar to the Hereford Map, made by Gervase of Ebstorf, who was possibly the same man as Gervase of Tilbury, some time in the thirteenth century....
, a mappa mundi
Mappa mundi
Mappa mundi is a general term used to describe medieval European maps of the world. These maps range in size and complexity from simple schematic maps an inch or less across to elaborate wall maps, the largest of which was 11 ft. in diameter...
from the 13th century. The original was burned during a bombing raid in 1943 on Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
. However a faithful copy of the original can be seen in the monastery.
Other points of interest are the medieval stained glass window in the Nonnenchor, the Madonna statues in the cloisters from the 13th to 15th centuries, a figure of Saint Maurice
Saint Maurice
Saint Maurice was the leader of the legendary Roman Theban Legion in the 3rd century, and one of the favorite and most widely venerated saints of that group. He was the patron saint of several professions, locales, and kingdoms...
, the font
Baptismal font
A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...
of 1310, and a renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
pulpit of 1615. In addition there a various medieval chests and cupboards.
Literature
- Ein Rundgang durch Kloster Ebstorf. Einführender Text von Michael Wolfson, Aufnahmen von Jutta Brüdern. Mit Literaturhinweisen. Königstein i. Ts. 2002 (= Die Blauen Bücher). ISBN 3-7845-2403-6
- Sibylle Appuhn-Radtke, Kloster Ebstorf, DKV-Kunstführer Nr. 176, 12. Auflage, München/Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag [2002]
- "Die mittelalterliche Baugeschichte des Langen Schlafhauses im Kloster Ebstorf." Volker Hemmerich. Schwerin: T. Helms, 2002