Neue Folge

For the first time, Germania Sacra is able to present the complete history of a diocese from its foundation in the early Middle Ages up to its secularization. Munster is thus in the exceptional position in having the whole of a many-facetted history stretching back over a thousand years presented here. The volume presents the development of ecclesiastical rule and its administrative influence in the interplay between Bishop and Cathedral Chapter and in the relationhips and conflicts with Emperor, Pope and neighbouring princes, and thus provides an inestimable contribution to the composite history of spiritual territories in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age. This comprehensiveness forms the particular attraction of the handbook.

The author has already produced a number of volumes in the Germania Sacra series dealing with individual institutions in Munster, and was thus predestined for this work, which presents a comprehensive overview which will be of lasting significance for research in the field. The first volume contains a review of the literature and sources, together with a detailed historical overview coupled with an intensive treatment of the constitutional and administrative structures; it will be followed shortly by the second volume with biographies of the bishops. Both volumes contain separate indexes.

In Vol. 37,2, Wilhelm Kohl, who must be the leading authority on the history of the Diocese of Münster, deals with the chapters 'Religious and spiritual life' and 'Property'. The diocese displays a variety of religious observance, which could not even be subdued by Papal efforts at standardization, and which shows itself in the books used for services (ordos, missals etc.) and in the Church's yearly festivals, for example on the Feast of the Diocesan Saint Liudger (who however only became popular in early modern times). Also in a class of its own is the broad listing of the episcopal properties and the many rights attached to them. With this volume, Wilhelm Kohl once again makes a major contribution to basic research in Church History, which is also of supreme interest for other disciplines.

Mit dem dritten Band der "Diözese Münster" legt Wilhelm Kohl einen weiteren Band zu "seiner" Diözese vor. In diesem widmet er sich ausschließlich den Münsteraner Bischöfen von Liudger (805-809) bis Anton Victor (1801). Innerhalb der Germania Sacra wird damit erstmals eine Bischofsreihe vorgelegt, die von der Gründung des Bistums in karolingischer Zeit bis zur Säkularisation zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts reicht. Schon alleine deswegen ist die Leistung Wilhelm Kohls singulär. Zudem kann der Leser hier die Entwicklung des Bistums an seiner Personalstruktur verfolgen, vor allem da der Autor das Domkapitel bereits behandelt hat (GS NF 17,1-3) und die bischöflichen Beamten des Bistums im nächsten Band folgen werden (GS NF 37,4).

Die einzelnen Biographien sind nach den Richtlinien der Germania Sacra aufgebaut und umfassen Herkunft, Ausbildung, Tätigkeit als Ordinarius und Landesherr, Aktivitäten außerhalb der Diözese Münster, Tod, literarische Veröffentlichungen, Nachleben und Verehrung, Siegel, Münzen, Bilder. Viele Beiträge zeichnen sich durch ausführliche Kennzeichnung und Würdigung der Familie der Bischöfe aus, zusätzlich erhellen Stammtafeln die Verwandtschaftsbeziehungen. Ergänzt wird der Band durch ein detailliertes Register und eine Karte, auf der die Herkunftsorte der Diözesanleiter vermerkt sind.

The volumes in the Germania Sacra series dealing with the diocese of Münster present an extraordinary and complete example for the work of this project. With the publication of this book the the first complete description of a diocese (in this case Münster) from its foundation right through to its dissolution in the secularisation of 1803 is available. Wilhelm Kohl describes the episcopal officials of the diocese of Münster, starting with the suffragan bishops.  These are followed by the vicars-general, chancellors, notaries, secretaries, archivists and the bailiffs and treasurers of the individual Münster offices.

This study now presents the early modern episcopal biographies from the diocese of Bamberg, over fifty years after the publication of the corresponding medieval series, and for the first time in the series Germania Sacra.

In a first volume, the author describes the bishops from 1522 to 1693. Intensive research in the archives has produced an important contribution to the understanding of the early modern Imperial Church, in which Bamberg played a significant role.

Keeping to the proven format of Germania Sacra, the book comprises the following sections: Sources and literature review; bases of the episcopal office in its position between Pope, Emperor and Empire; biographies of the individual bishops from Weigand von Redwitz (1522-1556) to Marquard Sebastian Schenk von Stauffenberg (1683-1693). It closes with a study of the most important figures in the central administration (Suffragan Bishops, Vicars-General, treasury officials, chancellors). The author is at present working on the continuation volume up to secularisation.

The present volume follows the proven handbook format of the Germania Sacra series and records and evaluates all the available sources. The work provides information on the hierarchy within the monastery, the history of its possessions, and its general historical status.

For many centuries, the monks of Wessobrunn dedicated themselves equally to economic and cultural activity. The foundation dates back to the 8th century, and among other distinctions was home to the "Wessobrunner Prayer", the earliest Old High German alliterative poem. Building work in the monastery reached its climax in the 17th and 18th centuries through sponsorship of local stuccoists and the scholarly activities of the monastic community.

Secularization put a sudden end to this thriving institution; the monastery church was demolished and the important works of art in it were either sold or destroyed.

The history of the former Benedictine monastery encourages us to reflect on the conditions in the nearly thousand years of the life and survival of an ecclesiastical institution. Here for the first time is traced the history and development of a noble monastery which is of such eminent significance for the history of Würzburg. The monastery/abbey on the left bank of the River Main was founded as a cathedral monastery by Burghard, the first Bishop of Würzburg. In its long existence, it lived through crises and changes before finally being dissolved in 1803. Following the usual pattern, the internal structures of the institution are analysed in detail, as are its external relations and its property. The volume is completed with exhaustive lists of names.

This is the first complete account of the history of this foundation, which existed from 1036/41 until 1802. Using numerous illustrations, the author elucidates the complex history of this double-apsed church integrated into the Roman Porta Nigra with the cell of St. Simeon. This church was almost totally destroyed in the 19th century. The capitular buildings, which are still largely standing, belong to the oldest in Germany. The volume contains detailed documentation of the internal structure of a secular chapter and its property, with special emphasis on its liturgical functions. Numerous individual biographies of the canons give a colourful picture of the life and work of the old chapter. Light is also thrown on the involvement of individual canons in the service of the diocesan bishop.

Mit dem Band "Die Konstanzer Bischöfe vom Ende des 6. Jahrhunderts bis 1206" beginnt die Germania Sacra die Bischofsreihe, die am weitesten in die Vergangenheit zurückreicht. Gleichzeitig kann dieses Buch neben die früh- und hochmittelalterlichen Bischofsreihen Bamberg, Würzburg, Hildesheim, Naumburg und Münster gestellt werden. So bieten sich hier für die Forschung große Möglichkeiten aus verschiedenen Regionen des Reiches die Entwicklung und personelle Auswahl des Episkopates zu be-trachten. Die enorme Bedeutung von Konstanz für das Herzogtum Schwaben und seine zentrale Lage auf dem Weg nach bzw. von Oberitalien ließ den Bischofssitz immer wieder auf königliches Interesse treffen.

Gleichzeitig standen die Bischöfe im Frühmittelalter in großen Auseinandersetzungen, aber auch fruchtbaren Verbindungen mit den bedeutenden Reichsklöstern St. Gallen und Reichenau. Beeindruckend ist der Aufbau des Bischofssitzes nach der Kirchenanlage Roms. Geographisch umfasste die alte Diözese Konstanz das heutige Baden-Württemberg sowie die Nordschweiz. An die Biographien der frühen Bischöfe schließt sich ein Kapitel über ihr Münzwesen - von dem Stuttgarter Numismatiker Ulrich Klein - an. Seine Ausführungen werden durch fünf Tafeln mit Abbildungen der Münzen der Konstanzer Bischöfe ergänzt. Ferner sind dem Band zwei Tafeln mit Siegeln der Bischöfe und eine Karte der Topographie der Stadt Konstanz im 10. Jahrhundert sowie ein ausführliches Register beigelegt.

With the present volume, the series Germania Sacra continues its publications from the Archdiocese of Trier. Following St. Paulin (GS New Series 6) and St. Simeon (GS New Series 41), the St. Marien-Stift in Trier-Pfalzel is the third abbey church in Trier.

In Trier, the Germania Sacra discovers the oldest Christian monuments in Germany. This becomes evident in the Abbey of St. Maria, which was built within a Roman palatiolum, to which it owes its name. The Roman walls are preserved within the abbey grounds up to a height of 12 metres. The historian Franz-Josef Heyen presents the history of the abbey – from its foundation up to the secularisation, together with an account of its possessions and detailed prosopographic studies of the canons. Thus the volume provides a further reference work for the ecclesiastical history of this region.

In this volume, Wilhelm Kohl turns his attention to the ladies’ secular abbey west of Münster. After covering the standard Germania Sacra aspects – archive, library, and memorials – Kohl focuses on the abbey’s origins, its foundation as an early medieval cloister, as well as, its founding patrons. What follows is an exposition on the transformation of the cloister into a Kanonissenstift (canoness residence), leading to a history of the almost 1000 year old home up to its secularisation. Constitution, religious life, and above all, detailed lists of important names are further notable characteristics of this volume. With this, Wilhelm Kohl’s volume not only is a fitting addition to the Germania Sacra volumes covering Saxonian Homes (GS NF 7: Gandersheim, GS NF 10: Freckenhorst, GS NF 21: Herzebrock, and GS NF 23: Liesborn), but also deepens the history of the Munster Diocese (thus far GS NF 3, 5, 10, 17, 23, 33, 37).

With this volume the Erlangen historian Alfred Wendehorst presents a new volume in the Germania Sacra series. After his successful account of the succession of Bishops of Wurzburg in the Middle Ages (GS NS 1,4 and 13), which can be regarded as the foundation for a new concept of "episcopal succession", Alfred Wendehorst turns his attention to the next Franconian medieval diocese for Germania Sacra. Here, the Bishops of Eichstätt are presented in the tried and tested manner, starting with St. Willibald and going up to Gabriel von Eyb. This represents a first step towards a fuller understanding of the Diocese of Eichstätt.

The current volume continues Hans Goetting’s 1984 volume on the Hildesheim bishops (GS NF 20). The work covers the bishops from Conrad II, who was the last to work at empire level, to Gerhard von Schalksberge, whose long reign from 1365 to 1398 stabilized the diocese. In this period, the convent in Hildesheim was built and structured, and numerous conflicts with the local powers took place, especially with the Guelphic Dukes of Braunschweig-Lüneburg.

With this work, the Munster historian Wilhelm Kohl presents an additional volume about “his” diocese. After concentrating on the dioceses and the succession of bishops (GS Neue Folgen 37, 1–4), in the current volume Kohl focuses on the city of Munster’s collegiate foundation ‘St. Mauritz vor der Stadt’. In doing so, Kohl competently addresses one of the main foci of the Germania Sacra, the collegiate foundation. The study presents the history of the foundation and its personnel from its creation to its dissolve during secularization.

This volume presents a further sacred community within the Archdiocese of Trier. We are dealing here with the small collegiate church at Kyllburg, near Trier, which was founded in the late 13^th century. Apart from an account of the history of the church, its buildings and archive material, the volume provides a comprehensive prosopographic survey of the canons. A distinguishing feature of the foundation is its property, because the church derived most of its income from incorporated parishes. This volume includes numerous illustrations, some of them available to the wider public for the first time.

The present volume continues the work carried out by Germania Sacra on the collegiate foundations. Stendal Abbey, founded at the end of the 12th century and dissolved in the middle of the 16th century, is also the first religious institution in the Diocese of Halberstadt to be processed as part of the Germania Sacra project. Thus, this continues the efforts to research other communities apart from the Diocese of Naumburg in the new German federal states. The author, an expert on the church history of the Markgrafschaft of Brandenburg and thus also of the Altmark, proceeds according to the well-established pattern to describe the history, constitution, spiritual life, property and prosopography of the foundation. Thus the volume continues research into collegiate foundations and opens up a new geographical area.

Geseke was one of the early medieval Saxon-Westphalian communities of canonesses and should be seen in relation to the previously published books on communities of canonesses such as Gandersheim (GS NF 7), Freckenhorst (GS NF 10), Herzebrock (GS NF 21), Liesborn (GS NF 23), and Nottuln (GS NF 44). Ulrich Löer presents the history, constitution, spiritual life, property and prosopography of the community that began as an independent aristocratic foundation and was then incorporated into the Archdiocese of Cologne for over 600 years until its dissolution. Thus, it is possible to undertake comparative studies of the aforementioned foundations and their development. The volume also presents the first data on the region which has not yet been featured in the Germania Sacra series.