Quedlinburg Abbey

The abbey was founded in 936 at Quedlinburg intercession Mathilde, the wife of the East Frankish - German King Henry I, by her son Otto I on the castle hill of Quedlinburg. It was his character by a royal family pen and came to its founding by gifting it to speedy rich bloom. The main task was to Memoria, ie, in commemoration of the dead, who died on July 2, 936 East Frankish - German ruler Henry I

History

The " Imperial free secular realm pin Quedlinburg ," as it was until its dissolution in 1802 officially named, was a community of unmarried daughters high nobles families who wanted to live a godly life in this woman pin. The term " secular " in the name is to be understood as opposed to " monastic ".

The largest and most famous woman in pens of this kind were the pins in Essen, Gander Home, Gernrode, Cologne and Herford. In the latter pin the young Queen Mathilde was brought up by her grandmother, who was abbess there. Mathilde had 936 tried in vain to move the convent of the monastery Wendhusen completely to Quedlinburg. Over time, the compound of the two pins but designed so that the Pröpstinnen of Wendhusen from the Quedlinburg pin chapters were selected.

In the Middle Ages and the early modern period the woman pins important centers were to provide unmarried noble women and widows. The collegiate ladies were often taught, and doing the skilful handicrafts.

Following clashes between the town of Quedlinburg, the Bishop of Halberstadt one hand and abbess Hedwig of Saxony, and her brothers Ernest and Albert of Saxony on the other hand, the Bailiwick of Electoral Saxony was 1477/79 laid down over the kingdom pen. This was in 1697 sold to the Electorate of Brandenburg, which led to the occupation of the pen area by Brandenburg -Preußen on January 30, 1698.

After the secularization of 1802 and 1803, the kingdom was taken as pin Quedlinburg Principality of Prussia in possession. It belonged 1807-1814 the Kingdom of Westphalia.

Church

The Collegiate Church of St. Servatius, also St. Servatius, often referred to as Quedlinburg Cathedral, is a Saints Dionysius and Servatius consecrated church and a monument high Romanesque architecture. The flat-roofed three-aisled basilica was begun before 997 on the ruins of three earlier buildings and completed in 1021. Following the Lower Saxony supports exchange switch two columns from a pillar.

Abbesses

Queen Matilda founded and directed the pen 936-966, but was no abbess. First abbess was Mathilde, daughter of Emperor Otto I, a Liudolfingerin. Anna II, Countess of Stolberg was a 28 at the same time the last Catholic abbess. 1540 the monastery was Protestant. Last abbess was Sophie Albertine, Princess of Sweden.

→ See: List of abbesses of Quedlinburg

Donations to the convent

In the first decades after the founding of the women's pin are numerous donations, in particular, recorded by the royal house of Saxony. All desertions from the immediate environment described later part of it, but also distant places, such as the 170 km distant Soltau, the Otto I. gave 936. Here a chronological selection:

• The church, dedicated to St. Michael next to the hermitage Volkmarskeller at Blankenburg in the Harz was 956 donated by Otto I the pencil Quedlinburg.
• 974 came the Duderstadt city in southeastern Lower Saxony to the convent of Quedlinburg, the managed him 262 years. The village of Breitenfeld in Duderstadt belonged to the resolution of the ladies pin to Quedlinburg.
• The first mention of Potsdam was carried out in the deed of gift King Otto III. on July 3, 993 The diploma marks a turning point in the recovery ostelbischer areas, because due to the Slavic uprising of 983 German rule had been driven back to the Elbe.
• In the year 999 the provincia Gera came into the possession of the pin Quedlinburg, whose abbess began in 1209, the bailiffs of Weida as stewards of the area.
• Otto I gave 25 936 places 937 places two, 944 a place 946 two places 954 a place 956 locations and 961 seven eleven locations. Otto II donated 974 five places, a place 979 and 985 five places. Otto III. 992 gave three places, two places 993, 995 and 999 four places one place. Later, a total of more than 150 places were added.

→ See also: Domschatzkammer Quedlinburg