Location: Saxony-Anhalt
Halberstadt is a town in Saxony-Anhalt. It is located on the
Holtemme in the northern Harz foreland and borders on the Magdeburg
Börde in the east.
Charlemagne made Halberstadt the episcopal
seat, which it remained until the Thirty Years' War. This is why
Halberstadt has other magnificently furnished churches in addition
to the cathedral. The Halberstadt cathedral treasury is one of the
most valuable relics of the Middle Ages in Germany. Later annexed to
Prussia, Halberstadt became a thriving industrial town with numerous
valuable buildings.
In the last days of the Second World War,
Halberstadt was badly damaged by an air raid. This destruction and
the subsequent neglect of old buildings in the GDR have massively
changed the cityscape and not always to the advantage of the city.
At least the cathedral square with the cathedral and
Liebfrauenkirche gives an impression of the original beauty of the
cityscape.
Cathedral of Saint Stephans or Saint Stephen was built in the center of Halberstadt. It is fourth and largest church on this location. In the medieval times city cathedral was a sign of prestige so it took years to construct the main house of worship of any large town. Saint Stephans is no exception. Its construction began in the 13th century and it was finally consecrated in 1491. The font of the building is the oldest part of the cathedral and it dates back to the 12th century. Romanesque crucifixion with two saints and two angels on each side were carved in 1220. Today it stands over central altar.
Domschatz in an adjacent chapter of the cathedral serves as a treasury. It contains one of the richest collection of medieval religious art. This includes 12th century tapestries, sculptures of saints and many other items that were used in religious services.
Early farming settlement (around 5000 BC)
In 2013 a mass grave was
discovered in Halberstadt that dates from the same period - from the
Linear Pottery Culture - as other known sites where massacres or
executions took place, of which i.a. the Herxheim mines, the Talheim
massacre, the Kilianstädten massacre and the Schletz massacre bear
witness. Apparently young men were killed in Halberstadt and then buried
in a mass grave. According to the excavators, it is conceivable that the
men who came from some distance from the village were themselves
attackers, but who had failed in their raid.
9th to 16th
centuries
The origin of the name Halwerstidde (or Halverstidde)
"requires a thorough investigation yet to be carried out". A relation to
halba (ahd. side, half) or a river section name Halver der Holtemme is
assumed.
Charlemagne made the mission base 804 the episcopal
seat. The Bishop Hildeward of Halberstadt (968-996) was 989 by King Otto
III. awarded market, coin and customs rights. He also received the blood
and army ban, i.e. the secular power in the Harzgau and thus over the
inhabitants of the town of Halberstadt. In addition, the construction of
the first cathedral in Halberstadt began at this time; it was
inaugurated in 992. In 1005 the construction of the Church of Our Lady
began. In 1036, Bishop Burchard, who was also politically active, laid
the foundation stone for the chapel of St. Thomas, which was later to
become part of the Buchard monastery.
In 1068 there was already
an aspiring merchant class in Halberstadt, under which the city began to
emancipate itself from the control of the bishopric around 1105. In 1134
the Reichstag took place in Halberstadt, at which Albrecht the Bear was
enfeoffed with the Nordmark. In 1146 the first Jews came to Halberstadt
from Halle. In 1189, during the third crusade, persecuted Jews reached
the city. In 1261 the first episcopal letter of protection is documented
for her.
In 1179, in the course of a feud, Henry the Lion
destroyed the city, cathedral and Domburg by setting a major fire. In
1192 the Templars came to Halberstadt and founded a command in the
Burchardi monastery. The construction of the city wall is mentioned for
the first time in 1199 and lasted until 1236. In 1223 the Siechenhof was
set up, the first facility for the sick in the city, although the
building was more of a quarantine station than a hospital. Between 1236
and 1239 work began on the new construction of the cathedral, which was
consecrated in 1491. A town hall for the city is mentioned for the first
time in 1241; In addition, the city already had its own seal at that
time. A few years before 1297 the mendicant order of the Servite came to
Halberstadt and founded a monastery in the new town in front of the
water gate. In 1343 the Jews were attacked by the Counts of Mansfeld and
Regenstein and fled, a decade later the new so-called "Judendorf" became
the first closed Jewish settlement in the city.
In 1326 the town
merged with Aschersleben and Quedlinburg until 1477 to form the
Halberstadt Tricity League. The date of Halberstadt's accession to the
Hanseatic League cannot be determined with certainty. It is believed to
be between 1235 and 1358, but no later than 1387. In 1363 the city
acquired the adjacent Klusberge mountains from Quedlinburg Abbey. For
1408 the city chronicle records an earthquake. The Halberstadt shift
began in 1423: the town was controlled by the “upstarts” of the craft
guilds around Matthias von Hadeber (“Langer Matz”). In 1425 Bishop
Johann von Hoym succeeded in restoring the old order in the city; A new
city constitution was then passed. In 1433 the city Roland was erected.
In 1486, however, the city was subdued by Ernst II of Saxony, and the
council and city lost the freedoms they had enjoyed up to then.
From 1521 the first sermons by reformatory forces began in Halberstadt,
but they were driven out again in 1523. The Protestant doctrine was then
introduced in 1591 at the Halberstadt Cathedral by the first Protestant
Bishop of Halberstadt, Heinrich Julius. He drove out the Jews again.
Until the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648, a mixed-denominational
cathedral chapter survived.
In the years 1577, 1597 and 1611
there were outbreaks of the plague in Halberstadt.
From
Wallenstein to industrialization
In 1606 Heinrich Julius took the
Jews back into his protection, they were allowed to build a first
synagogue, which was destroyed in 1621 during a revolt against Jewish
and Christian money changers.
In 1625 and 1629 Wallenstein had
his troops occupy the city. With the help of the restitution edict, the
imperial commander-in-chief made the cathedral and Liebfrauenstift
catholic again at short notice. On January 18, 1630, Wallenstein was
personally in town.
In the course of the peace agreement in 1648,
the Prince-Bishopric of Halberstadt became a Protestant duchy and part
of Brandenburg-Prussia. Elector Friedrich Wilhelm issued a “privilege”
for the Jews of Halberstadt in 1650, according to which they could
remain in the city for an annual “escort fee” of eight thalers.
During the witch hunts, around 24 people in Halberstadt were sentenced
to death in witch trials. During this time, the Protestant lawyer and
diplomat Justus Oldekop (1597–1667) worked in Halberstadt from 1650 to
1660 as syndic for the estates. He was an early enlightener and, two
years after Friedrich Spee, spoke in German (and not anonymously in
Latin) for a much more humane penal system. He also referred to witch
trials.
In the years 1681/82 the plague raged again in the city;
2197 people died from it. After the Edict of Fontainebleau, Huguenots
settled in Halberstadt in 1685 and founded a glove industry. In 1712
they inaugurated their own "French Church".