Location: Halberstadt, Saxony-Anhalt Map
Constructed: 1080
The Huysburg Monastery is a Benedictine monastery
(Benedictine priory of the Assumption of Mary) on the Huy, a wooded
ridge north of the Harz Mountains and nine kilometers northwest of
Halberstadt in the Harz district of Saxony-Anhalt.
The
Benedictine monastery Huysburg belongs to the diocese of Magdeburg
under constitutional law, but is exempt from it. The patroness is
Maria. The Huysburg is the first stop on the Way of St. James in the
Harz region and is located on the southern route of the Romanesque
Road.
After Charlemagne had subjugated the
Saxons, the Franks built a military station on the Huy around 790.
It served to secure the region against the Slavs. The remains of a
ring wall can still be seen in the forest. Ceramic finds indicate a
settlement as early as the Bronze Age.
After the expansion of
Magdeburg by Emperor Otto the Great, the Huysburg lost its strategic
importance. On April 20, 977, Emperor Otto II gave Bishop Arnulf von
Halberstadt sovereignty over the forests of Hakel, Huy, Fallstein,
Asse, Elm and Nordwand. This is also the first written mention of
the Huys. The lordship of the monastery and its possessions follows
the general history of the monastery as part of the Prince Diocese
of Halberstadt. The Huy ridge was owned by the Bishops of
Halberstadt from 977.
The small farm on the Huy, consisting
of a stone house and some half-timbered buildings, became the
bishop's court. Bishop Burchard I. von Halberstadt built a
two-storey chapel, which was consecrated in 1058 with the
participation of Archbishop Engelhard von Magdeburg. In this chapel
there was an altar of Mary and a crypt. In the following founding
process, no spiritual or secular donor appeared. Bishop Burchard II,
also known as Buko, gave permission from 1070 for hermit women to
settle near the small church. The first were the nuns Bia (Pia) and
Ida from Quedlinburg and Adelheid from Gandersheim. Dissatisfied
with the decaying monastic discipline in Gandersheim, Adelheid left
the Marienkonvent there in 1076 to help build the reform monastery
on the Huy. The Huysburg conventuals around 1070 were the monks
Thizelin and Mainzo (Meinhold) from the Johanniskloster on the
mountain in front of Magdeburg.
The Halberstadt canon
Ekkehard was entrusted by Bishop Burchard II with the care of the
Huysburg chapel and the small community. On December 24, 1080
Ekkehard was appointed head of the monastery, and on June 21, 1081
the Halberstadt bishop donated him the ordination of the abbot. He
was the first abbot of the monastery, but resigned his office on
August 18, 1083 and died on June 28, 1084.
With Ekkehard, the
founding process of the Benedictine monastery on the Huy ended.
The three female hermits, who
settled on the Huysburg in 1070 and 1076, lived in the episcopal
buildings from the time of Burchard I and used the chapel there,
which was cared for by the Halberstadt canon Ekkehard. The inclusa
Bia (Pia) came with the permission of the Abbess Luthmodis of the
Benedictine convent of St. Maria zu Quedlinburg. An ancilla Dei was
invited by Ekkehard from the monasterio in Gandersheim to the
Huysburger Klause. Apparently during the time of Ekkehard's
Abbatiates, a third clerk named Ida, also from the Quedlinburg
monastery, was accepted by him. The celibate women were not
included, not walled in, because the nuns Bia and Adelheid
personally participated in the founding of the Lippoldsberg reform
monastery in 1100.
After 1084, it was not noted whether the
female clergy helped found the Benedictine monastery on the
Huysburg. On June 11, 1156, Pope Hadrian IV asked Bishop Ulrich von
Halberstadt to abolish the women's convent on the Huysburg and to
cease care by the monks. But in 1158 the female hermits still lived
there, and Bishop Dietrich von Krosigk had a donation of two Hufen
zu Badersleben for the matron Adelheid. Further news about the
financial security of the hermits are handed down in 1314, 1316 and
1323. With the death of the last female hermit in 1411, the women's
community on the Huysburg ended. Since no women's monastery
recognized under diocesan law and no second cloister had passed on
the Huysburg, the widespread designation as a double monastery is
incorrect.
The Huysburg monastery owed the basic inventory of its property to the bishops Burchard II and Reinhard. Bishop Burchard II issued a first and quite comprehensive deed of ownership on November 1, 1084. The new monastery received the buildings on Mount Huy, a large part of the forest on the Huy and the entire surrounding area with the land-cultivating owners. The document also records the donation of the chapel built by Bishop Burchard I in 1058 on the Huy. Between 1114 and 1118 further, targeted donations were made by Bishop Reinhard von Blankenburg. There were new acquisitions in 1138 by Bishop Rudolf I of Halberstadt and in 1156 by Bishop Ulrich. In 1195 there were confirmations of ownership by Bishop Gardolf von Harbke; thereafter the increase in property stagnated.
At the end of the 13th century there was a
financial crisis, but the church economy stabilized again in the
middle of the 14th century. Abbot Jasper Edler von Berwinkel created
the oldest surviving copy of the monastery in 1403. Through his
notarius publicus Sparenberg, the abbot had all documents,
agreements and events from the foundation up to his time described
and transcribed. At the beginning of the reform period around 1450,
under Abbot Dietrich Brand, a comprehensive registrum censum with
assigned documents for the individual locations was created.
In the course of the 15th and 16th centuries, the loan, interest and
lease registers were continuously improved. The focal point of the
church economy in the 15th century were the large monastery
courtyards in Eilenstedt, Dingelstedt, Badersleben, Anderbeck and
Sargstedt. The Röderhof on the northern slope of the Huys was built
in the area of the deserted Neudorf. As free courts, the large
courts could be kept from the sovereign taxes and services.
The peasant unrest in 1525 and the Schmalkaldic War in 1547 caused
economic difficulties for the monastery. The military invasions in
the semi-urban country between 1626 and 1648 severely damaged the
monastery and the monastery rule. It was not until after 1677 that
Abbot Nikolaus von Zitzewitz brought the monastery to new prosperity
and a further expansion of its property. This was very scattered in
the country. The main courtyards Röderhof and Eilenstedt were
managed by monastic provisional agents. In 1804 the monastery was
closed and converted into a state domain.
Three
mediaeval sources attest to the constructional development of the
monastery from a relatively short period of time. The Annalista Saxo
describes Huysburg as locus excelsus for the year 1070/71 and notes
that there is a capella built by Bishop Burchard I of Halberstadt.
The Gesta Episcoporum Halberstadensium name a capella in a palacium
Huiesburch Bishop Burchard I in 1046. According to the Chronicon
Hujesburgens, the two superius Quidam altars in the chapel are said
to have been consecrated between 1051 and 1059 by Archbishop
Engelhard von Magdeburg. It is also reported that the first abbot
Ekkehard had a second capella built in the eastern part of the
civitas. Under the second abbot, Alfried, the original chapel was
demolished while the sanctuarium was preserved and a new one was
built. The consecration was carried out by the Merseburg bishop
Werner von Wolkenburg. This ecclesia, a three-aisled complex with
two floors, was partially demolished under Bishop Reinhard von
Blankenburg and rebuilt as an elaborate cathedral monastery until
1121.
The monastery area, which is over six hectares in size,
is surrounded by a quarry stone wall and is located at the highest
altitude of the Huy Forest. To the west on the hill are the
monastery buildings with church and enclosure. The farm buildings
and the monastery garden are located in the area almost four meters
lower to the east. In 1967 the transformer house and the sewage
treatment plant and in 1979 the new staircase were built.
You
enter the cloister courtyard on the southwest corner through the
gatehouse, which was completed in 1786 with three arches. The
inscription in the upper arch on the courtyard side indicates this
as a sign of the worship of the Triune God:
saCra Deo trIno trIpLICI patet absIDe porta, ter trIa fata foras proVIDa Verte trIas.
“The gate is open with a triple arch and is
consecrated to the Triune God. Keep away threefold, preserving
Trinity, the three evil powers! "
What is meant are the three
Fates, the Roman goddesses of fate, who symbolize fatal calamity. It
is a chronogram whose capital letters, each representing a Roman
numerical value, add up to the year 1768. In that year the
restoration of the monastery complex was completed.
On the
north side of the courtyard is the cross-shaped, around
48-meter-long monastery church. It is not exactly geosted, but has
an alignment of the choir to the southeast. To the east of the
church is the two-storey, elongated, baroque convent building, the
former dormitory, from the 16th century. In front of it is the
monastery square. In its single-storey west wing, built in 2005,
there is the consulting room and the sacristy next to the monastery
gate.
The Romanesque refectory has been preserved from the
south wing of the monastery square, the so-called central building.
The library was set up in this hall during the Baroque period.
Archaeological and architectural studies in the years 1994 to 1996
and 2006 and 2007 prove that this is an important testimony to
Romanesque monastery architecture. Because in the north wall remains
of a first building around 1130 have been preserved and the remains
of a cloister can be seen. Around 1160 a larger and wider,
two-storey building was erected with two large halls with two
aisles, one above the other, and six bays in length.
After
the nursing home had been relocated, the gutting of the partition
walls in the so-called library in the south wing of the cloister,
which was drawn in in 1953, began in 1993. In 1994 extensive
construction work began on the northern wing of the enclosure. The
magnificent hall on the upper floor of the south wing from the
Romanesque period, which was restored in 2008, suggests a high phase
in the history of the monastery. The Romanesque hall is accessible
again by adding a staircase. The subsequent new building for the
administration and guest rooms, completed in 2008, completed the
cloister-like structure of a claustrum in 2009.
Today's wide
cloister courtyard is flanked in the south by the representative
baroque buildings of the former guest house from 1746, also called
the abbey guest house, and by the farm building from 1748 with a
bakery and butchery. The art-savvy abbot Arnold Brickwedde had the
guest house built by Heinrich Beyer from Halberstadt with the cellar
clerk Conrad Nolten. The elaborate, two-storey building has a
three-axis central projection with a curved gable. Under the main
portal there are coats of arms and inscriptions in the front gable.
The Latin inscription See the building listed here under the victory
of the Prussian armies. According to the Friedensbund you, oh God,
only deserve the honor relates to the Dresden Peace of December 1745
- the chronogram of the inscription is 1746. The house is
characterized by a generous room layout. In the ballroom, the
so-called Imperial Hall, on the ceiling paintings, which the
Halberstadt painter Schape made, Emperor Franz I and Emperor Joseph
II, the kings Frederick the Great and Frederick William II, as well
as their wives, including Empress Maria Theresa see. The first
restoration work in the imperial hall, on the central picture and
stucco additions were carried out in 1965. The bronze plate of the
first abbot Ekkehard, who died in 1084, is now on the west side of
the staircase. In the narrow field of view, surrounded by an
inscription, the abbot can be seen in full regalia.
The
renovation and restoration of the buildings and the furnishing of
the conference and guest house with the name Ekkehard-Haus cost
around 17 million euros up to 2008, to which the EU made a
substantial contribution with funding.
Like the church
itself, the cloister courtyard with its buildings is a successful
mixture of architectural styles from the 12th century to the late
18th century. The stately Baroque seems to particularly emphasize
the grandeur of the earlier monastic buildings of the Benedictine
monks.
Behind the two-storey present-day convent house in the
north-western corner of the courtyard there is a small cemetery on
the cloister wall up to the west towers of the church.
The St. Maria monastery church, consecrated in 1121, is an important monument of Lower Saxon architecture between early and high Romanesque architecture. The building history of the church stretches from the Romanesque building phase of the 12th century to a late Gothic building phase at the end of the 15th century and to a baroque building phase in the 18th century. However, there still seems to be a need for research for some time periods. The construction phases from 1083 to 1088 and from 1106 to 1123 are occupied.
After the destruction during the wars in the 17th
and 18th centuries, the church was given a late baroque interior.
The architectural changes included the new aisle walls with enlarged
arched windows. The main entrance was redesigned in 1756 with a
rectangular vestibule. In the west, a projecting organ gallery was
built inside the church in 1767. In 1727 the choir was given a
doorway on its north and south wall and the Lady Chapel received a
new portal.
1974–1977 the church was repainted on the basis
of the repairs carried out in 1929. The wall surfaces became white,
the architectural parts were kept stone-transparent. Ceiling
paintings from 1729 have been cleaned. In 1979 the floor was renewed
with red and white sandstone slabs. 1978–1979 a new sacristy was
built on the south wall of the choir and the north cloister wing was
extended to the transept.
In its current form, the
monastery church is a three-aisled, cruciform basilica with a
flat-roofed central nave and aisles with ribbed vaults. It was built
from yellowish shell limestone that is available on the building
site. While the nave wall, the crossing, the two choir apses are
made in excellent house stone technology, the other parts of the
building are made of rough, hammer-right hand block masonry.
1975–1976 the masonry was re-grouting.
The two towers of the
massive west building with the steep Gothic spiers were added in
1487. The copper weather vanes have the representations of the
Mother of God and St. Benedict. Both west towers and the crossing
tower were re-covered with copper sheet in 1975–1976. The gable roof
and the gable were raised in 1492 and provided with a roof turret.
The main entrance of the church opens into a wide
vestibule in the western yoke of the southern aisle. A semicircular
apse forms the west choir. An organ loft with an inwardly curved
parapet protrudes to the west into the second nave yoke. The
elevation of the nave of the monastery church is divided into two
floors. The arcature consists of three large round arches, each
stretched from pillar to pillar. Between the pillars, a column is
set in the middle, which in turn carries two round arches that are
recessed in the wall thickness. The resulting differentiated,
six-part row of arches gives the church space its lightness and
tranquility as a Rhenish column change. The only ornamentation is on
the capitals of the pillars of the blind arcades. The six capitals
of the nave in Corinthian shapes can still be experienced in situ.
There are similarities to capitals in Corvey's westwork. The
capitals in the Marienkapelle are also similar to those in the
Ilsenburg monastery church and those in the Michaelstein refectory.
The Marienkapelle was originally the prayer room for the hermits
at the service. The statue of Our Lady is a copy of the Romanesque
Madonna from the paradise portal of the cathedral in Paderborn. This
figure was donated by Cardinal Lorenz Jaeger in 1952 as a sign of
solidarity across the border at the time.
The room is filled
with light through the large cliff windows. The arched windows in
the north aisle are walled up. The eastern parts of the church
consist of a very long, rectangular choir and a semicircular apse.
To the north, in the original side choir, is today's Marienkapelle.
The baroque porch as today's church entrance has replaced the
Romanesque portal. The year of construction ANNO MDCCLVI, i.e. 1756,
is written above the door.
The church
furnishings include important pieces from all epochs of the monastic
period. The flat ceiling of the church bears a large, baroque
ceiling painting by an unknown master from 1729 and was painted over
in 1815. During a comprehensive restoration of the church in
1930–1931 and 1933–1934 by Fritz Lewecke, the paintings were also
partially restored. The scenes refer to the work of God through
Jesus Christ with the sequence of images seen from the high altar:
Revelation of the Triune God, whose presence is experienced and
venerated in the sacrament of the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper
Annunciation of the birth of Jesus through the angel appearing to
Mary.
The angels announce to the shepherds in a field near
Bethlehem that the Savior of the world has been born.
Bodily
acceptance of Mary into heaven.
Adoration of the baby Jesus by
the three wise men from the east.
Overcoming Satan, evil will be
finally destroyed. Battle of the Archangel Michael with the dragon
according to the Revelation of John.
At the same time as the ceiling and wall painting,
the church received a new high altar in the east apse. It consists
of a six-column colonnade of Corinthian order and magnificent
entablature. The high altar with the life-size figure decoration was
created under Abbot Engelbert Engemann 1777–1787 by the Halberstadt
sculptor Stubenitzki. On the north side, the Holy Pope Gregory the
Great appear as the patron saint of the monastery, Stephen as the
saint of the former diocese of Halberstadt and the abbot Ekkehard.
To the south are St. Mary Magdalene as the patroness of the hermit
women, the hermit Pia von Quedlinburg and Bishop Burchard I. von
Halberstadt as the builder of the first church on the Huy. Saint
Benedict and Saint Scholastica can be seen above. The high altar is
crowned by the representation of the Triune God in symbols: God the
Father with a scepter, Jesus (Son of God) with a cross and the Holy
Spirit represented as a dove.
The altar painting of the
Assumption of Mary with floating angels and apostles was created by
the Paderborn painter Anton Joseph Stratmann in 1781–1796. His son
Anton Ferdinand designed the two side altars as a painter, later he
became police commissioner, together with the carpenter Eilenkötter
from Hildesheim and the wood sculptor Hinse from Söder near
Hildesheim in 1793. The northern altar painting shows Mary trampling
the serpent, the southern Christ on the cross with Mary, John and
Mary Magdalene. They were painted by Anton Joseph Stratmann. The two
side carved figures of the two side altars represent (unknown) holy
abbots.
The carved Baroque pulpit on the north-eastern nave
wall dates from 1767. Maria and Mauritius are depicted on the pulpit
cage, the coat of arms is assigned to Abbot Matthias Hempelmann
(1723–1733) and Abbot Conrad Nolten (1756–1781). The main altar in
the crossing was designed in 2006 by Werner Nickel from Nienburg and
made in sandstone by Frithjof Meussling from Pretzien. The four
bases are found objects from the east wing of the enclosure. The
column shafts come from the old foundation walls. Only the
cafeteria, the tabletop, was made new.
The tomb of Abbot
Ekkehard in the north transept has been preserved from the Gothic
interior. It was redesigned in 2004 and is adorned with the word of
St. Ambrose: Christ is everything to us. Next to it is the grave of
the Magdeburg bishop (from 1970 to 1990) Johannes Braun from 2004.
The inscription reads: I believed, that's why I talked. In the
southern transept is the grave of Abbot Nikolaus von Zitzewitz
(1676–1704), the second founder of the monastery. He had rebuilt the
monastery after the turmoil of the Thirty Years War. The large
epitaph shows Lazarus being raised from the dead by Jesus. The
family coat of arms with the double-headed eagle can be seen at the
bottom.
In the west apse is an early baroque sandstone
baptism in the shape of a chalice. Its cup is decorated with angels
and fruit festoons in high relief. The scene on the high wooden lid
depicts the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the Jordan.
The only rosary bell from 1695, 44 inches and 900 kg, still
preserved from the baroque bells, was created by Wolfenbüttel caster
Heiso Meyer.
Near the exit and the organ staircase there is a
Romanesque lintel fragment with an angel holding a banner and
announcing a message. It probably comes from the stone choir screens
from the Romanesque period that were destroyed around 1170.
The organ on the west gallery was built in 1760 by the master organ builder Adolar Papenius. The Halberstadt sculptor Bartholdi made the organ front with Rococo sculptures of angels playing music on a gallery that was curved several times and also carved at the bottom. Badly damaged by improper restoration in the 19th century, the organ was replaced in 1983 by a new one with 27 registers and mechanical action from the organ building company Eule from Bautzen.
Bishop
Burchard II certified on November 1, 1084 that the monastery was his
personal foundation and an episcopal own monastery. Under Abbot
Alfried, the monastery was elevated to the status of an abbey with
the right to freely elect a abbot. He had the old monastery
buildings demolished and houses built better suited to the monk's
class. The enlarged, today's monastery church was consecrated on
August 1st, 1121 and the abbey was completed in 1133. From 1290 the
monastery suffered more and more from financial hardship, but it was
not until 1398 under Abbot Jasper Edler von Berwinkel that it was
able to increase its holdings again.
During the reform of
Benedictine monasticism, the Huysburg Monastery was accepted as the
third monastery in the Bursfeld Congregation on March 14, 1444 and
remained in the papacy. Under Abbot Dietrich Brand, the Huysburg
Convent grew strongly in 1470 with 31 new monks, which can also be
seen in the structural changes in the Gothic style.
During
the Peasants' War, the Huysburg was plundered and set on fire on May
5, 1525 by a peasant army passing by. The church was not destroyed
and the convent remained largely together.
It was not until
the Thirty Years War that there was great destruction and
devastation in the monastery. With the victory of the Swedes at
Breitenfeld in 1631, the great flight from Sweden began among the
Catholic priests and religious. The Huysburg monks mostly went to
Hildesheim. In 1648 the Peace of Westphalia guaranteed the existence
of the Huysburg and ten other monasteries in the area around
Halberstadt. The Halberstadt diocese was converted into a
principality, and the Huysburg became the center for the Catholic
minority in the Magdeburg area.
There was a new upswing in
the monastery from 1677 onwards from the abbot Nikolaus von
Zitzewitz, who was born in Bessnitz in Pomerania. As a law graduate,
he was distinguished by an excellent ecumenical disposition. Under
his guidance, the annual dues rose considerably and he was able to
introduce 37 confreres to the monastery. His grave and epitaph are
in the south transept of the monastery church.
Today's
baroque buildings such as the guest house, the farm buildings with
the gatehouse and the interior of the church were built under his
successors.
In medieval times the Huysburg monastery did not maintain any provosts. But on September 5, 1696, at the instigation of Abbot Nikolaus von Zitzewitz, the impoverished Minden Benedictine monastery St. Mauritius was incorporated into the abbey on the Huy with the consent of the Bursfeld Union. After 1690 the Minden monastery no longer had an abbot, consisted only of seven monks and was in great financial difficulties. The incorporation into the Huysburg monastery was confirmed by the Brandenburg Elector Friedrich III. on February 14, 1697. From then on, the management of this monastery was incumbent on a prior appointed by the Huysburg abbot. This Huysburg priory lasted until 1810 after the monastery was abolished. In 1801 the Huysburg-Minden monastery had 15 monks in Huysburg and six in Minden.
Huysburg Abbey was looted in 1525. The library was also destroyed in the process, but there is evidence that several books, such as manuscripts and prints, survived the fire and robbery, including some that were bound on the Huysburg. During the Abbatiates (term of office) of Abbot Nikolaus von Zitzewitz, the library expanded again in 1693. Even after the abolition of the monastery in 1804, a considerable number of books and manuscripts reflected the heyday of the monastery and its library. The Huysburg library had about 4,000 printed books and several hundred manuscripts. By far the largest part of the Huysburg book inventory that has been preserved and known so far comes from the end of the Middle Ages. After the abolition of the monastery, the university in Halle (Saale) received its first access in 1810. Six boxes with prints from Huysburg arrived there in 1810, often with the notation Monasterii B: M: V. quod est diocoesis Halberstadensis in Huissburgk. A larger part of over 50 manuscripts and early prints ended up in the hands of the former Benedictine priest (pastor, priest), theology professor, Bible translator and book collector Leander van Ess, a cousin of Huysburg prior Carl van Ess. A large part of it later found its way to the English Sir Thomas Philipps, the greatest manuscript collector of all time.
In the course of secularization, the Huysburg Monastery was opened
on October 2, 1804 in the name of the Prussian King Friedrich
Wilhelm III. declared by the war council Krieger as dissolved and
converted into a Prussian domain. When the monastery was dissolved,
the parish of Huysburg was assigned the abbey church and the west
wing of the farm buildings from the gate to the church. The prior of
the abbey, Carl van Ess, was appointed pastor of the new Huysburg
parish, and the remaining monks were given living space in the west
wing. From 1851 the parish was able to set up a Catholic school in
the former north wing of the enclosure.
King Friedrich
Wilhelm III. In 1823 he gave the Huysburg domain and the Röderhof
estate with 342 hectares of arable land to his future general and
field marshal Karl Friedrich von dem Knesebeck. With this donation,
the King of Prussia recognized Knesebeck's outstanding achievements
in the wars against Napoleon. From 1826, large parts of the
monastery square were demolished by the new owner. Some of the
building material was used to build a country house, the Röderhof
Castle in the Röderhof community. The former cloister of the
monastery as well as Romanesque windows and portals can be found
there. Some of the Romanesque capitals of the cloister later came to
Berlin museums and has been on display in the Bode Museum since
2007. Gut, the brewery and castle in Röderhof were owned by the Hahn
family in 1878 and then finally by the Schliephake family.
From 1929 on, Caritas Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis who
were involved in family work, nursing and youth work. The school was
closed in 1939 and then used as a training and military training
camp for the Hitler Youth.
During the years of Soviet
occupation 1945–1949, a commandant's office was housed in the
baroque farm buildings. The Schliephake and von dem Knesebeck
families were expropriated. The Huysburg buildings, which had been
owned by the von dem Knesebeck family, were occupied in 1949 by a
care home for the district of Oschersleben and then for the district
of Halberstadt. This area was bought by the Magdeburg Episcopal
Office in 1992 and the St. Pia Caritas Home was built in Dingelstedt
in 1998 for the care facility.
On May 11, 1952, the
Archdiocese of Paderborn set up a branch seminar of the Paderborn
seminary for the parts of the diocese in the GDR. It served the
pastoral training of theology students. The former school was used
as a living and teaching area for the alumni. The seminary became
the focal point of the Huysburg as a church location. Since July 2,
1951, there have been pilgrimages by the communities of the
Paderborn Commissariat Magdeburg to Huysburg. The seminary was
closed after the reunification in 1993 and the training of priests
was concentrated in Erfurt. The baroque buildings were expanded into
a family education center and a church center.
With the
support of the Polish Benedictine Abbey of Tyniec near Krakow, a
Benedictine cella was built on the Huysburg on September 14, 1972
under the title Assumption of Mary in Heaven. The Tyniec Abbey was
monastically responsible for it and the Bishops' Office in Magdeburg
was responsible for the organization. The former Görlitz pastor and
Father Alfred Goebel was appointed as subprior of the cella. The
first interested in religious life there were sent to the novitiate
in Tyniec. It was the only Benedictine monastery in the GDR
alongside the Alexanderdorf Benedictine monastery. During the
Solidarność movement in Poland there were difficult contact
conditions with the Tyniec Abbey. Therefore the Huysburg became an
independent priory on September 8, 1984 with Paulus M. Hauke as
its first prior.
In the Romanesque monastery church of the
Assumption of Mary with baroque furnishings is the grave of the
first abbot of Huysburg, Ekkehards von Huysburg († 1084). The
monastery guest house was named after him as the Ekkehard House. At
his own request, in July 2004 the former apostolic administrator of
Magdeburg, Bishop Johannes Braun, who helped to re-establish the
Benedictine community on the Huysburg in 1972, found his final
resting place in the monastery church. After the diocese of
Magdeburg was elevated to an independent diocese in 1994, the
Huysburg developed into one of the central pilgrimage sites thanks
to the annual family pilgrimage of the diocese of Magdeburg on the
first Sunday in September.
The reunification in 1990 brought new
opportunities, because now the isolation of the priory was also
over. After intensive negotiations, on June 1, 1992, all buildings
and parcels within the monastery walls that were not owned by the
church were acquired by the Episcopal Office in Magdeburg.
Associated with this was the development of an overall plan for the
Huysburg and the commission of the episcopal office (since 1994
diocese of Magdeburg) to the Benedictine priory to look after the
Huysburg as a church site of the diocese. As early as May 13, 1991,
Abbot Ansgar Schmidt from the Benedictine Abbey of St. Matthias in
Trier took over the management of the Huysburg Priory as
administrator. On September 8, 2004, the general chapter of the
congregation approved the merger of the convent of the Benedictine
Abbey of St. Matthias in Trier and the convent on the Huysburg to
form a monastic community. Since then, the monastery on the Huysburg
has had the status of a dependent priory.
The
Klosterverwaltung Huysburg GmbH was founded for the monastery
administration, which also carries out renovation and expansion work
and, as a commercial enterprise, is entitled to receive appropriate
EU subsidies.
The building projects on the Huysburg as well
as the church and cultural work of the monks and the diocese of
Magdeburg are financially supported by the Förderverein Huysburg.