Tegernsee Abbey
Encyclopedia
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
Kloster Tegernsee, Abtei or Reichsabtei Tegernsee) is a former Benedictine monastery in the town and district of Tegernsee
Tegernsee
Tegernsee is a town in the Miesbach district of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the shore of Tegernsee lake, at an elevation of 747 m above sea level....
in 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...
. Both the abbey and the town that grew up around are named after the Tegernsee
Tegernsee (lake)
The Tegernsee is a lake in the Bavarian Alps in southern Germany. The lake is the centre of a popular recreation area south-east of Munich. Resorts on the lake include the eponymous Tegernsee, as well as Bad Wiessee, Kreuth, Gmund, and Rottach-Egern....
, the lake on the shores of which they are located. The name is from the Old High German
Old High German
The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
tegarin seo, meaning great lake.
Tegernsee Abbey was first built in the 8th century. Until 1803 it was the most important Benedictine community in Bavaria.
Today the monastery buildings are known as Schloss Tegernsee (Tegernsee Castle) and are in the possession of the Wittelsbach
Wittelsbach
The Wittelsbach family is a European royal family and a German dynasty from Bavaria.Members of the family served as Dukes, Electors and Kings of Bavaria , Counts Palatine of the Rhine , Margraves of Brandenburg , Counts of Holland, Hainaut and Zeeland , Elector-Archbishops of Cologne , Dukes of...
family. The local Catholic parish church of Saint Quirinus
Quirinus of Rome
Quirinus of Rome can refer to two saints:*Quirinus of Neuss*Quirinus of Tegernsee...
is in the former abbey church. The former abbey premises also accommodate a restaurant and Tegernsee Grammar School (Gymnasium Tegernsee).
Foundation and early history
The monastic community at Tegernsee was founded in the mid 8th century (in either 746 or around 765). Settled by monks from St. GallAbbey of St. Gall
The Abbey of Saint Gall is a religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in present-day Switzerland. The Carolingian-era Abbey has existed since 719 and became an independent principality during the 13th century, and was for many centuries one of the chief Benedictine abbeys in Europe. It was...
and dedicated to Saint Quirinus of Rome
Quirinus of Rome
Quirinus of Rome can refer to two saints:*Quirinus of Neuss*Quirinus of Tegernsee...
, whose relics were brought here from Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in 804, the monastery soon spread the message of Christianity as far as the Tyrol
County of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...
and Lower Austria
Lower Austria
Lower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...
.
The founders were the brothers Otkar or Oatkar and Adalbert, members of one of the ancient noble clans of Bavaria, although it has not proved possible to say with certainty which. There is little definite information on the early days of the monastery, as a result of a fire in about 970, which destroyed earlier evidence.
There developed however a well-known and detailed (but nevertheless entirely unverifiable) tradition about the foundation:
According to this, Otkar and Adelbert were princes of the Huosi, kin of the 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...
n ruling house of the Agilolfinger, whose principal territory was the area now known as the Huosigau in south-west Bavaria, although they had many other lands elsewhere in Bavaria and in Burgundy. They and their families lived at the court of Pippin the Younger
Pippin the Younger
Pepin , called the Short or the Younger , rarely the Great , was the first King of the Franks of the Carolingian dynasty...
, King of the Franks (714-768), whose son fell into a rage during a game of chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
and killed the son of Otkar with the chessboard. Pippin was afraid of the revenge of such a powerful family. He therefore summoned Otkar and Adalbert before they could hear of the killing, and asked them for their advice: "How would you deal with a terrible evil if there were no way to change it?" The brothers replied: "All one could do in such a case would be to accept the evil with humility and submission to the will of God." Only then did Pippin tell them of the death of Otkar's son. The brothers, bound by their own judgment, were unable to take up arms and found themselves forced to accept the murder. Instead, they decided to turn their backs on the world. They returned to their homeland in the south of Bavaria and founded a monastery on an unusually beautiful site by the shores of the Tegernsee, into which they withdrew. The scene of the princes playing chess was for many centuries to be seen depicted on a large panel in the nearby church of Egern.
After the fall of Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria (748-788) Tegernsee became a Carolingian Empire
Carolingian Empire
Carolingian Empire is a historiographical term which has been used to refer to the realm of the Franks under the Carolingian dynasty in the Early Middle Ages. This dynasty is seen as the founders of France and Germany, and its beginning date is based on the crowning of Charlemagne, or Charles the...
royal monastery during the Carolingian Renaissance
Carolingian Renaissance
In the history of ideas the Carolingian Renaissance stands out as a period of intellectual and cultural revival in Europe occurring from the late eighth century, in the generation of Alcuin, to the 9th century, and the generation of Heiric of Auxerre, with the peak of the activities coordinated...
. The community was greatly weakened by Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
raids and by repeated attempts at secularisation during the reign of Arnulf I, Duke of Bavaria (907-937) and in the course of the 10th century suffered a sustained decline, culminating in the fire of around 970.
Middle Ages
Restored and re-founded however under Emperor Otto IIOtto II, Holy Roman Emperor
Otto II , called the Red, was the third ruler of the Saxon or Ottonian dynasty, the son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Italy.-Early years and co-ruler with Otto I:...
(973-983) as an Imperial Abbey in 978, and re-settled by monks from St. Maximin's Abbey, Trier
St. Maximin's Abbey, Trier
St. Maximin's Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Trier in the Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.-History:The abbey, traditionally considered one of the oldest monasteries in western Europe, was held to have been founded by Saint Maximin of Trier in the 4th century. Maximin St. Maximin's Abbey was a...
, Tegernsee entered a new period of growth. With the activities of the monk Froumund (1006-1012) and Abbot Ellinger (1017-1026 and 1031-1041) the abbey became a centre of literature, manuscript production and learning, and was also active in the resettlement of other Benedictine houses in Bavaria, including the newly-founded abbey of Saints Ulrich and Afra
St. Ulrich's and St. Afra's Abbey, Augsburg
St. Ulrich's and St. Afra's Abbey, Augsburg is a former Benedictine abbey dedicated to Saint Ulrich and Saint Afra in the south of the old city in Augsburg, Bavaria.- History :...
in Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
in c. 1012.
This golden age of the abbey lasted almost to the end of the 12th century. Among the literary and scientific works produced at that time were: "Ruodlieb
Ruodlieb
Ruodlieb is a fragmentary romance in Latin verse written by an unknown southern German poet who flourished about 1030. He was almost certainly a monk of the Bavarian abbey of Tegernsee....
" (considered the first German novel; last third of the 11th century); the Quirinals (12th century); "Game of the Antichrist
Ludus de Antichristo
The Ludus de Antichristo is a liturgical drama from the 12th century whose original author is unknown. Its origins are almost certainly from southern Germany, possibly from someone writing in the town of Regensburg...
" (1155?); and the Tegernsee Letter Collection (1178 to 1186). The well-known Tegernseespruch of Walther von der Vogelweide
Walther von der Vogelweide
Walther von der Vogelweide is the most celebrated of the Middle High German lyric poets.-Life history:For all his fame, Walther's name is not found in contemporary records, with the exception of a solitary mention in the travelling accounts of Bishop Wolfger of Erla of the Passau diocese:...
dates either from a little before 1206 or from c. 1212, and thus belongs, not to this period, but to the beginning of the period of decline that followed. Tegernsee was largely spared the political and ecclesiastical confusions arising from the conflict between Pope Alexander III
Pope Alexander III
Pope Alexander III , born Rolando of Siena, was Pope from 1159 to 1181. He is noted in history for laying the foundation stone for the Notre Dame de Paris.-Church career:...
(1159-1177) and Emperor Frederick II
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...
, and even managed to acquire substantial privileges from both pope and emperor.
The shape of the future however was made plain with the appointment to this Bavarian abbey in 1189 of Abbot Manegold of Berg
Manegold of Berg
Manegold of Berg was abbot of St. George's Abbey in the Black Forest, Kremsmünster Abbey and Tegernsee Abbey, and Bishop of Passau....
, son of the Count of Berg, as the result of political intrigue by the Counts of Andechs
Andechs
The Benedictine abbey of Andechs is a place of pilgrimage on a hill east of the Ammersee in the Landkreis of Starnberg in Germany, in the municipality Andechs. Andechs Abbey is famed for its flamboyant Baroque church and its brewery...
, Vögte
Vogt
A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...
(lords protectors) of Tegernsee, and Bishop Otto of Freising
Otto of Freising
Otto von Freising was a German bishop and chronicler.-Life:He was the fifth son of Leopold III, margrave of Austria, by his wife Agnes, daughter of the emperor Henry IV...
. The political and economic interests of the noble families of Berg, Andechs and Hohenstaufen
Hohenstaufen
The House of Hohenstaufen was a dynasty of German kings in the High Middle Ages, lasting from 1138 to 1254. Three of these kings were also crowned Holy Roman Emperor. In 1194 the Hohenstaufens also became Kings of Sicily...
now came to dominate the abbey, and as a result it declined during the 13th and 14th centuries into little more than a private monastery dependent on a small number of noble families. To make matters worse, it burnt down in 1410.
Later history to dissolution
However, in 1426, Tegernsee received a Visitation from the Vicar-General Johannes Grünwalder which marked a new beginning. Over the next decades, with the support of the Papal LegatePapal legate
A papal legate – from the Latin, authentic Roman title Legatus – is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic Church. He is empowered on matters of Catholic Faith and for the settlement of ecclesiastical matters....
Cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
Nikolaus von Kues, it became a focus of the Reforms of Melk Abbey
Melk Abbey
Melk Abbey or Stift Melk is an Austrian Benedictine abbey, and one of the world's most famous monastic sites. It is located above the town of Melk on a rocky outcrop overlooking the river Danube in Lower Austria, adjoining the Wachau valley....
, which opened Benedictine houses hitherto restricted to the nobility to a wider range of social classes. In 1455 monks of Tegernsee settled Andechs Abbey
Andechs
The Benedictine abbey of Andechs is a place of pilgrimage on a hill east of the Ammersee in the Landkreis of Starnberg in Germany, in the municipality Andechs. Andechs Abbey is famed for its flamboyant Baroque church and its brewery...
and were appointed abbots at Benediktbeuern
Benediktbeuern Abbey
Benediktbeuern Abbey is a monastery of the Salesians of Don Bosco, originally a monastery of the Benedictine Order, in Benediktbeuern in Bavaria, near the Kochelsee, 64 km south-south-west of Munich...
, Oberalteich
Oberalteich Abbey
Oberalteich Abbey or Monastery was a house of the Benedictine Order in Bogen in Bavaria.-History:...
, Wessobrunn
Wessobrunn Abbey
Wessobrunn Abbey was a Benedictine monastery near Weilheim in Bavaria, Germany.It is celebrated as the home of the famous Wessobrunn Prayer and also of a Baroque school of stucco workers and plasterers in the 18th century....
and others. In 1446 a Passion altar was dedicated, Johannes Keck (who was the Tegernsee delegate at the Council of Basle and died in 1450) wrote a work on music, and the Prior of Tegernsee, Bernhard von Waging (d. 1472) composed his mystical writings.
This second flowering continued into the Early Modern period. From 1573 the monastery had its own printing press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
, which thanks to Imperial privileges was allowed to print many books on theology, liturgy and the theory of music. The community survived the confusion of the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
(1618-1648), when the abbey was raided by Swedish soldiers. Tegernsee Abbey was also a prominent member of the Benedictine Bavarian Congregation
Bavarian Congregation
The Bavarian Congregation is a congregation of the Benedictine Confederation consisting of monasteries in Bavaria, Germany.It was founded on 26 August 1684 by the Blessed Pope Innocent XI .-First Congregation:...
, established in 1684.
Architecture
The former Carolingian styleCarolingian architecture
Carolingian architecture is the style of north European Pre-Romanesque architecture belonging to the period of the Carolingian Renaissance of the late 8th and 9th centuries, when the Carolingian family dominated west European politics...
abbey church built at the end of the 10th century had been converted in the 11th to a Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
, which in its turn had been re-fashioned between 1455 and 1460 into a Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
church. The monastic buildings and the church were refurbished in the Baroque style
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
between 1684 and 1688.
Secularisation
During the abbacy of Abbot Benedikt Schwarz (to 1787) the first signs began to show of the secularisationGerman 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....
which eventually took place on 17 March 1803, thus bringing the abbey to an end. Gregor Rottenkolber, the last Abbot of Tegernsee, died on 13 February 1810. The greater part of the site was bought by Baron Drechsel for his brewery, but he later sold a small part back to an unofficial monastic community, who remained until 1861.
The buildings of the monastery itself were acquired in 1817 by the ruling Wittelsbach family of Bavaria, attracted by the unusually beautiful location, and turned into a summer residence, Schloss Tegernsee, still the property of the family.
Abbots of Tegernsee
- Adalbert (762-800)
- Zaccho (800-804)
- Maginhart (804-, 823)
- Isker (826, 829)
- [gap]
- Megilo (866, -880?)
- [gap]
- Hartwic (978-982)
- Gozpert (982-1001)
- Godehard of Hildesheim (Saint Gotthard)(1001-1002)
- Eberhard I (1002-1003)
- Beringer (1003-1013)
- Burchard (1013-1017)
- Ellinger (1017-1026)
- Albin (1026-1031)
- Ellinger (2nd abbacy, 1031-1041)
- Altmann (1041)
- Udalrich I (1041/42-1042)
- Herrand (1042-1046)
- Egbert (1046-1048)
- Siegfried (1048-1068)
- Eberhard II of Eppenstein (1068-1091)
- Odalschalk of Hohenburg (1092-1113)
- Aribo of Neuburg-Falkenstein (1113-1126)
- Konrad I (1126-1155)
- Rupert of Neuburg-Falkenstein (1155-1186)
- Alban (1186-1187)
- Konrad II (1187-1189)
- Manegold of BergManegold of BergManegold of Berg was abbot of St. George's Abbey in the Black Forest, Kremsmünster Abbey and Tegernsee Abbey, and Bishop of Passau....
(also Abbot of KremsmünsterKremsmünster AbbeyKremsmünster Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Kremsmünster in Upper Austria.-History:The monastery was founded in 777 by Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria...
and Bishop of PassauPassauPassau is a town in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the Dreiflüssestadt or "City of Three Rivers," because the Danube is joined at Passau by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north....
) (1189-1206) - Berthold I (1206-1217)
- Heinrich I (1217-1242)
- Berthold II Schneck (1242-1248)
- Ulrich II Portenhauser (1248-1261)
- Rudolf (1261-1266)
- Heinrich II (1266-1273)
- Ludwig of Graisbach (1273-1286)
- Heinrich III (1286-1287)
- Marquard of Veringen (1287-1324)
- Heinrich IV of Rain (1324-1339)
- Sigibrand Geltinger (1339-1347)
- Carl Hauzendorfer (1347-1349)
- Konrad III Kazbeck (1349-1363)
- Konrad IV Eglinger (1363-1372)
- Gerhard of Taufkirchen (1372-1393)
- Oswald Torer (1393-1418)
- Georg Türndl (1418-1423)
- Hildebrand Kastner (1424-1426)
- Kaspar Ayndorffer (1426-1461)
- Konrad V Ayrenschmalz (1461-1492)
- Quirin I Regler (1492-1500)
- Heinrich V Kintzner (1500-1512)
- Maurus Leyrer (1512-1528)
- Heinrich V Kintzner (2. Mal, 1528-1543)
- Quirin II ( - )
- Paulus Widmann (1594-1624)
- Quirin III Ponschab (1624-)
- Bernhard Wenzl (1673-1700)
- Quirin IV Millon (1700-1715)
- Petrus von Guetrater (1715-1725)
- Gregor I Plaichshirn (1726-1762)
- Benedikt Schwarz (1762-1787)
- Gregor II Rottenkolber (1787 to 1803; last abbot; d. 1810)
Burials
- Quirinus of RomeQuirinus of RomeQuirinus of Rome can refer to two saints:*Quirinus of Neuss*Quirinus of Tegernsee...
- Maximilian Joseph, Duke in BavariaMaximilian Joseph, Duke in BavariaDuke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria , known informally as Max in Bayern, was a member of a junior branch of the House of Wittelsbach and a promoter of Bavarian folk-music...
- Princess Ludovika of Bavaria
- Duke Karl-Theodor in BavariaDuke Karl-Theodor in BavariaDuke Karl-Theodor in Bavaria was a member of the House of Wittelsbach and a well-known ophthalmologist. He was the brother of the Empress Elisabeth of Austria.-Life:...
- Infanta Maria Josepha of PortugalInfanta Maria Josepha of PortugalInfanta Maria José of Portugal , sometimes known in English as Maria Josepha, was a Portuguese infanta, later Duchess in Bavaria by marriage...
See also
- List of Carolingian monasteries
- Carolingian architectureCarolingian architectureCarolingian architecture is the style of north European Pre-Romanesque architecture belonging to the period of the Carolingian Renaissance of the late 8th and 9th centuries, when the Carolingian family dominated west European politics...
- Carolingian dynasty
- Regional characteristics of Romanesque architectureRegional characteristics of Romanesque architectureRomanesque architecture is the term that is used to describe the architecture of Europe which emerged in the late 10th century and evolved into the Gothic style during the 12th century...
Sources
- Hemmerle, Josef, 1970. Die Benediktinerklöster in Bayern (= Germania Benedictina, Bd.2), pp.297ff. Ottobeuren.