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Brunswick Cathedral | |
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Collegiate Church of Saint Blaise and Saint John the Baptist | |
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Location | Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, Germany |
Denomination | Lutheran |
Previous denomination | Roman Catholic |
History | |
Dedication | Saint Blaise, John the Baptist and Thomas Becket |
Consecrated | 29 December 1226 |
Architecture | |
Style | Romanesque |
Years built | 1173–1195 |
Brunswick Cathedral (German : Dom St. Blasii (et Johannis), lit. in English: Collegiate Church of Ss. Blaise and John the Baptist ) is a large Lutheran church in the City of Braunschweig (Brunswick), Germany.
The church is termed Dom , in German a synecdoche - pars pro toto - used for cathedrals and collegiate churches alike, and much like the Italian duomo . It is currently owned and used by a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Brunswick.
Henry the Lion established the original foundation as a collegiate church, built between 1173 and 1195. Among the most important pieces on display in the church are a wooden crucifix by Master Imervard dating from the second half of the 12th century and one of very few huge bronze candlesticks with seven arms, dating from around the 1170s.
The construction of the church was disrupted several times during the various exiles of Henry the Lion, so that he and his consort Matilda, Duchess of Saxony, were both buried in an unfinished church. The limestone statues of them on their tomb in the nave are an idealised representation made a generation after their death, between 1230 and 1240. The cathedral was consecrated on 29 December 1226, dedicated to Saints Blaise, John the Baptist and Thomas Becket. In 1543, at the time of the Protestant Reformation, the City of Brunswick, in opposition to Duke Henry V of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, joined the Schmalkaldic League, and the church came into Lutheran use. Its college was dissolved.
Until 1671, the cathedral held a medieval collection of ecclesiastical relics that later became known as the Welfenschatz. In 2015, Germany declared 42 pieces of the Welfenschatz a national treasure, designating them as the Guelph Treasure. These relics are maintained by a foundation known as the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SPK), and displayed at the Bode-Museum in Berlin. The cathedral lost possession of the collection in 1671 when the relics were removed by John Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Prince of Calenberg. Until 1803, a portion was housed at the court chapel at Hanover. In 1929, 82 relics were sold by Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick to a consortium of German-Jewish art dealers. They in turn sold 40 pieces to mostly private collectors, except for nine that went to the Cleveland Museum of Art. The remaining 42 pieces were sold as a group in 1935. After the collection's designation as a national treasure in 2015, heirs of the art dealers brought common law suit(s) against Germany in U.S. courts in an attempt to recover perceived losses resulting from the 1935 sale. Germany's motion to dismiss on the basis of jurisdiction and conflicts with the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act was denied once, then again in an appeal. Germany sought intervention by the US Supreme Court. The Supreme Court heard the case (FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY ET AL. v. PHILIPP ET AL) in October 2020 and issued on 3 February 2021, an order that vacated and remanded the case back to US District Court. [1]
The cathedral is the burial place of Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor (1175/76-1218) and Caroline of Brunswick, Queen Consort of George IV of the United Kingdom.
Wolfenbüttel is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the largest concentration of timber-framed buildings in Germany, around 1000. It is an episcopal see of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick. It is also home to the Jägermeister distillery, houses a campus of the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, and the Landesmusikakademie of Lower Saxony.
The Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, or more properly the Duchy of Brunswick and Lüneburg, was a historical duchy that existed from the late Middle Ages to the Late Modern era within the Holy Roman Empire, until the year of its dissolution. The duchy was located in what is now northwestern Germany. Its name came from the two largest cities in the territory: Brunswick and Lüneburg.
The House of Welf is a European dynasty that has included many German and British monarchs from the 11th to 20th century and Emperor Ivan VI of Russia in the 18th century. The originally Franconian family from the Meuse-Moselle area was closely related to the imperial family of the Carolingians.
Charles William Ferdinand was the prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and a military leader. His titles are usually shortened to Duke of Brunswick in English-language sources.
The Duchy of Brunswick was a historical German state. Its capital was the city of Brunswick . It was established as the successor state of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. In the course of the 19th-century history of Germany, the duchy was part of the German Confederation, the North German Confederation and from 1871 the German Empire. It was disestablished after the end of World War I, its territory incorporated into the Weimar Republic as the Free State of Brunswick.
Augustus II, called the Younger, a member of the House of Welf was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. In the estate division of the House of Welf of 1635, he received the Principality of Wolfenbüttel which he ruled until his death. Considered one of the most literate princes of his time, he is known for founding the Herzog August Library at his Wolfenbüttel residence, then the largest collection of books and manuscripts north of the Alps.
Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, was a German prince and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Oels. Nicknamed "The Black Duke", he was a military officer who led the Black Brunswickers against French domination in Germany. He briefly ruled the state of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1806 to 1807 and again from 1813 to 1815.
Anthony Ulrich, a member of the House of Welf, was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and ruling Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1685 until 1702 jointly with his elder brother Rudolph Augustus, and solely from 1704 until his death. He was one of the main proponents of enlightened absolutism among the Brunswick dukes.
Louis Rudolph, a member of the House of Welf, was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and ruling Prince of Wolfenbüttel from 1731 until his death. Since 1707, he ruled as an immediate Prince of Blankenburg.
Ferdinand Albert, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, was an officer in the army of the Holy Roman Empire. He was prince of Wolfenbüttel during 1735.
Charles, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, reigned as Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1735 until his death.
Ferdinand Albert I, a member of the House of Welf, was a Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. After a 1667 inheritance agreement in the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, he received the secundogeniture of Brunswick-Bevern, which he ruled until his death.
Julius of Brunswick-Lüneburg, a member of the House of Welf, was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and ruling Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1568 until his death. From 1584, he also ruled over the Principality of Calenberg. By embracing the Protestant Reformation, establishing the University of Helmstedt, and introducing a series of administrative reforms, Julius was one of the most important Brunswick dukes in the early modern era.
Henry Julius, a member of the House of Welf, was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and ruling Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1589 until his death. He also served as administrator of the Prince-Bishopric of Halberstadt from 1566 and of the Prince-Bishopric of Minden between 1582 and 1585.
Frederick, a member of the House of Welf, was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and ruling Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1373 until his death. In May 1400, he unsuccessfully stood as a candidate for the election as German king-elect at Frankfurt, in opposition to Wenceslaus of Luxembourg, and was murdered on his way home.
Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen was Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg. She was the maternal grandmother of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa, Emperor Peter II of Russia and also Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
Gandersheim Abbey is a former house of secular canonesses (Frauenstift) in the present town of Bad Gandersheim in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was founded in 852 by Duke Liudolf of Saxony, progenitor of the Liudolfing or Ottonian dynasty, whose rich endowments ensured its stability and prosperity.
The Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was a subdivision of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, whose history was characterised by numerous divisions and reunifications. It had an area of 3,828 square kilometres in the mid 17th century. Various dynastic lines of the House of Welf ruled Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. As a result of the Congress of Vienna, its successor state, the Duchy of Brunswick, was created in 1815.
Antoinette Amalie of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was a Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel by marriage to Ferdinand Albert II of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. She was the mother of the Queen of Prussia, the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and the Queen of Denmark and Norway.
The Guelph Treasure is a collection of medieval ecclesiastical art originally housed at Brunswick Cathedral in Braunschweig, Germany. The Treasure takes its name from the princely House of Guelph of Brunswick-Lüneburg.