Weingarten Abbey

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Weingarten Abbey 1525

Weingarten Abbey or St. Martin's Abbey (Reichsabtei Weingarten) is a Benedictine monastery on the Martinsberg (St. Martin's Mount) in Weingarten near Ravensburg in Baden-Württemberg (Germany).

1 First foundation
2 Second foundation
3 Buildings
4 Abbots of Weingarten
5 External links

[edit] First foundation

In 1056, Welf I, Duke of Bavaria, founded a Benedictine monastery on the Martinsberg, overlooking the village of Altdorf, which was an inheritance from his mother—In 1865, the village took the name of the monastery and is now the town of Weingarten. He settled it with monks from Altomünster Abbey. In 1126, Henry IX, Duke of Bavaria, withdrew here after his abdication; he died the same year and was buried in the abbey church.

The name Weingarten ("vineyard") is documented from about 1123. The monks worked among other things at manuscript illumination. Their most famous work is the Berthold Sacramentary of 1217, now in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. Also of especial note is the Welfenchronik, written and illustrated in about 1190, chronicling and glorifying the House of Welf which had its seat at Ravensburg nearby.

The monastery was elevated to the status of a "Reichsabtei" (i.e., independent of all territorial lordship except that of the monarchy) in 1274.

Ideal plan of Weingarten Abbey, 1723

It acquired territory of 306 km², stretching from the Allgäu to the Bodensee and including many forests and vineyards, and was one of the richest monasteries in southern Germany.

From 1715, the Romanesque abbey church, constructed between 1124 and 1182, was largely demolished, and replaced between 1715–1724 by a large and richly decorated baroque church, which since 1956 has been a papal basilica minor. This church was intended to stand within a monastic site built to the ideal layout, but this undertaking was only partially completed.

In 1803, during secularisation, the abbey was dissolved. At first, it became part of the possessions of the House of Orange-Nassau, and then in 1806 part of the Kingdom of Württemberg. The buildings were used inter alia as a factory and as a barracks.

[edit] Second foundation

In 1922, Weingarten was re-founded and re-settled by Benedictines from Beuron Archabbey and from the English Abbey of Erdington (in a suburb of Birmingham) which had itself been settled from Beuron. In 1940, the monks were expelled by the National Socialists, but were able to return after the end of the war.

Weingarten, showing the abbey buildings on the Martinsberg, 1917

The monks are responsible for the pilgrimage to the Reliquary of the Holy Blood in the abbey church (the Blutritt, as it is known); they also run a guesthouse.

Weingarten belongs to the Beuronese Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation. It is a monastery of two ecclesiastical traditions, or "rites". One part of the monks follow the Roman observance, the other part the Byzantine observance.

[edit] Buildings

The abbey and church are a major attraction on the tourist route known as the Oberschwäbische Barockstrasse, or the "Baroque Road of Upper Swabia".

A wing of the abbey precincts accommodates the present monastery. Other parts of the former abbey house the Pädagogische Hochschule Weingarten and the Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart.

[edit] Abbots of Weingarten

Alto c. 750-ca. 770 (in Altomünster)
Marinus
Etto c. 780
Gelzo 780-792
...
Rudolf c. 1000-1025
Eberhard c. 1025-c. 1040
Heinrich I 1040-c. 1070 (move to Weingarten 1055)
Beringer c. 1070-c. 1080
Adilhelm of Luxemburg c. 1080-c. 1088
Walicho c. 1088-c. 1108
Kuno Truchseß of Waldburg-Thann c. 1109-1132
Arnold c. 1133-c. 1140
Gerhard Truchseß of Waldburg-Thann c. 1141-c. 1149
Burkhard c. 1149-c. 1160
Dietmar of Matsch c. 1160-c. 1180
Marquard of Triberg c. 1180-c. 1181
Werner of Markdorff c. 1181-c. 1188
Saint Meingoz of Lechsgemünd c. 1188-1200
Berthold of Heimburg 1200-1232
Hugh de Montfort 1232-1242
Konrad I of Wagenbach 1242-1265
Hermann of Biechtenweiler 1265-1299
Friedrich Heller von Hellerstein 1300-1315
Konrad II von Ibach 1315-1336
Konrad III von Überlingen 1336-1346
Heinrich II von Ibach 1346-1363
Ludwig von Ibach-Heldenberg 1363-1393
Johann I von Essendorf 1393-1418
Johann II Blaarer von Guttingen und Wartensee 1418-1437
Erhard von Freybank 1437-1455 (d. 1462)
Jobst Penthelin von Ravensburg 1455-1477
Kaspar Schieck 1477-1491
Hartmann von Knorringen-Burgau 1491-1520
Gerwig Blarer von Görsperg 1520-1567
Johann III Halblizel 1567-1575
Johann Christoph Rastner von Zellersberg 1575-1586 (d. 1590)
Georg Wegelin 1586-1627
Franz Dietrich 1627-1637
Domenicus I Laumann von Liebenau 1637-1673
Alfons von Stadelmayer 1673-1683
Willibald Kobold 1683-1697
Sebastian Hyller 1697-1730
Alfons II Jobst 1730-1738
Placidus Renz 1738-1745 (d. 1748)
Domenicus II Schnitzer 1746-1784
Anselm Ritter 1784-1803

New foundation:

Ansgar Höckelmann 1922-1934 (or 1943)
Konrad Winter 1934 (or 1943)-1953
Wilfrid Fenker 1953-1975
Dr. Adalbert Metzinger 1975-1982
Dr. Lukas Weichenrieder 1982-2004
since 2004 Archabbot Theodor Hogg of Beuron has been administrator of Weingarten.