Dominican Monastery (Frankfurt am Main)

Last updated December 17, 2022

Map of Frankfurt in 1628, showing the monastery (lower left) and the Frankfurt Jewish ghetto Frankfurt-Judengasse-1628-MkII.png — Map of Frankfurt in 1628, showing the monastery (lower left) and the Frankfurt Jewish ghetto

The Dominican Monastery (German: Dominikanerkloster) is a former Christian monastery in Frankfurt am Main. It is the seat of Protestant Regional Association, a group of Protestant congregations and deaneries in the city, and serves as the convention site for the Synod of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau, held usually twice a year. The former monastery compound includes a Lutheran church building, called the Church of the Holy Spirit (German: Heiliggeistkirche).

Founded in 1233, the monastery came under the possession of the city in 1803. Completely destroyed during World War II, it was rebuilt in 1955–1957 by the architect Gustav Scheinpflug based on the old floor plan and layout, but in the architectural style of the post-war period. Of the original Gothic structure, only the late Gothic style choir of the church remains.

History

Founding

The Dominican Order initially established itself in Frankfurt in 1233. The city assigned its members a plot of land near the medieval city wall (Staufenmauer), where they built a small house which would later serve as the monastery entrance. Construction of the actual monastery began in 1238, but the pace of building was slow due to the Order's reliance on alms from abroad. In 1245 the monastery buildings were completed, but the construction of the church on the southern part of the complex lasted a few more years. From a papal bull issued on 30 May 1259, the church appears to have already been consecrated at that time.^[2]

14th century

The monastery church was, after the imperial Collegiate Church of Saint Bartholomew the largest church in the city. It attracted several prominent scholars and preachers and received numerous donations from the local citizenry. The elections of the German kings Adolf of Nassau (1292), Henry VII (1308) and Günther von Schwarzburg (1349) took place at the monastery.^[3]

The monastery was also involved in the conflict between Emperor Louis IV and Pope John XXII. After the Dominicans sided with the papacy, they were expelled from Frankfurt and other cities in 1330. They were allowed to return to Frankfurt after the city council and the citizenry appealed to the Emperor, but were obliged to not oppose the Emperor and clergymen loyal to him with either "words or works."^[4]

In 1359 the Emperor Charles IV placed the Dominicans under his protection, a privilege that was regularly confirmed by his successors.

Late Middle Ages

In the 15th century the monastery was significantly expanded. A cloister was built in 1449 and further extended in 1499 so that it was fully enclosed in all four directions. In 1470–1472 the choir of the church was rebuilt in the late Gothic style. The monastery library became the largest in Frankfurt, although its collections were later transferred to the city library.

In 1462 the Jewish residents of Frankfurt were forced to relocated to the Frankfurter Judengasse to the east of the monastery, on the opposite side of the Staufenmauer. The close proximity between the Dominicans and Jews became a source of tension, and conflicts between the two groups frequently arose.

Decline

The heyday of the monastery ended with the introduction of the Protestant Reformation in Frankfurt in 1533. The city council initially forbade the Dominicans from public preaching; it also planned to subject the property of the church to public use, and to inventory and regulate its donations. In response, the provincial chapter of the Order brought a lawsuit against the city before the Imperial Chamber Court, and the council eventually put its plans aside so as to not come into open conflict with the Emperor.

The monastery remained a Catholic enclave in the Lutheran-dominated city until its secularization in 1803. The buildings were then acquired by the city of Frankfurt. During this time, the church underwent only minor changes, the most notable being the building of a Baroque extension on the western facade in circa 1680.

In the 18th century the monastery served as the venue for most of the assemblies of both the Electoral Rhenish and the Upper Rhenish Circles of the Holy Roman Empire.^[5] In 1790 the archbishop of Mainz dissolved the Dominican monastery and converted it into a new association, the Congregatio ad Sanctum Fridericum.^[6]

Secularization

With the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803 the monastery fell to the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt. During the 19th century the monastery was used for several purposes, such as a storehouse for property taken by the city during secularization, a goods store and, after 1815, a barracks for the Linienbataillons, the military of the Free City. In 1809 eighty-two of the monastery's paintings, including works by Hans von Aachen and Philipp Uffenbach, were purchased and donated to the Frankfurt Museum; most of these pieces are now at the Historical Museum or on permanent loan at the Städel.

Plans to demolish the church were drafted in 1875, but were stopped due to the intervention of the Prussian Generalkonservator Ferdinand von Quast. Another demolition attempt in 1884 was also prevented, but renovation work was undertaken in 1885–1889 and a wall dividing the nave of the church was built. The eastern half, together with the choir, was used as a gymnasium for the Arnsburger School, which was itself housed in the monastic buildings, while the western side received the addition of an organ matroneum and several side rooms and was used as a public hall.^[7] In the 1920s these additions were removed as part of a restoration of the church.

National Socialists, destruction and rebuilding

The ruined church in the 1950s RuineDerHeiliggeistkircheFrankfurt.jpg — The ruined church in the 1950s

Prior to the Second World War, the monastery was home to the Museum of Prehistory and Early History (now the Archaeological Museum). According to some sources, the church also served as a storage facility for works of art confiscated from deported Jews.^[8]

On 18 March 1944 the then secularised church was destroyed during the Allied bombing of Frankfurt.^[9] Its ruins were removed in the postwar period, except for the remnants of the choir and north wall.

With the adoption of the Lutheran Reformation by the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt in 1533 the city had unilaterally appropriated all religious buildings within its jurisdiction, later added those which fell under its jurisdiction in 1803, such as the Dominican Convent. The status of the churches being city property but used by Lutherans (or Catholics) was statutorily fixed in 1830 by the deeds of dotation.

One of the Lutheran congregation held usufruct of the Weißfrauenkirche [ de ], likewise destroyed in 1944. After the city had decided not to reconstruct that church, in 1953 the Lutheran congregation and the city concluded to exchange the congregation's usufruct to the destroyed Weißfrauenkirche for that of the to-be-rebuilt former convent with its former abbey.

The city commissioned the architect Gustav Scheinpflug [ de ] for the project. The former Dominican abbey was rebuilt and on the second Sunday of Advent, 1961, the completed building was inaugurated as the new Lutheran Holy Spirit Church. It is now one of the city's dotation churches left for eternal usage by a Lutheran congregation. The Lutheran congregation enjoying usufruct of the Holy Spirit Church building is a member of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau, comprising Lutheran, Reformed and United Protestant congregations.

The monastery today

The monastery is now the seat of the Protestant Regional Association of Frankfurt, which provides administrative and other support to the congregations and deaneries of the city. The Synod of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau, usually held biannually, also takes place at the monastery.^[10]

Architecture

The modern interior of the church Heilig-geist-kirche-2011-dominikaner-kloster-ffm-055-a.jpg — The modern interior of the church

The old church was a three-aisled early Gothic hall without a transept, measuring 53.60 meters long and 15.60 meters wide.^[10] It was built mainly from rubble stone, with parts of ashlar also present. The nave was eight bays long; the westernmost bay featured an ornate stellar vault, while the remaining bays had simple rib vaults. The vaults of the southern and slightly narrower north aisles of the nave were about one to two meters lower than the 11.60 meter central aisle. The vaults were supported by seven pairs of simple circular pillars featuring base plates and unadorned, cup-shaped capitals. Above the eastern pair of pillars of the nave was an octagonal Gothic flèche.

During the bombing of 18 March 1944, the nave and several of the side aisle bays were destroyed and the inside of the church was burned. The chancel arch, a large portion of the pillars and several vaults of the nave initially survived, but these collapsed in 1954 before the start of rebuilding.^[11] Of the original church today only the outer walls of the nave choir, consisting of a bay with ribbed vaults, a five-eighths polygonal apse and the tracery of three of the five stained glass windows have been preserved. Of the monastery, the former sacristy (which now serves as a refectory) and the chapter house were preserved to an extent that their remains could be integrated into the new structure.

The new building of the Church of the Holy Spirit was based on the austere aesthetics of the reconstruction period. Only the choir was restored to its old model. The new nave was again divided into three aisles by two rows of pillars. The existing foundations were retained, but the load distribution has been changed so that the supporting pillars accommodate a higher load than the previous building, while the exterior walls were relieved. The new building is also more than 10 meters shorter than the old monastery church. The church today can accommodate around 700 visitors.

Related Research Articles

St. Mary's Church, or formally the Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Brick Gothic Catholic church located in central Gdańsk, Poland. With its volume between 185,000 m³ and 190,000 m³ it is currently one of the two or three largest brick churches in the world. Only San Petronio Basilica in Bologna, comprising 258,000 m³ is larger, Munich Frauenkirche and Ulm Minster also comprise 185,000 to 190,000 m³.

Ulm Minster is a Lutheran church located in Ulm, State of Baden-Württemberg (Germany). It is currently the tallest church in the world. The church is the fifth-tallest structure built before the 20th century, with a steeple measuring 161.5 metres (530 ft).

St Paul's Church is a former Protestant church in Frankfurt, Germany, used as a national assembly hall. Its important political symbolism dates back to 1848 when the Frankfurt Parliament convened there, the first publicly and freely-elected German legislative body.

The Carolingian Saint Justin's Church in Frankfurt-Höchst is the oldest building in Frankfurt/Main and one of the oldest churches still existing in Germany. It is dedicated to Saint Justin the Confessor.

Bremen Cathedral, dedicated to St. Peter, is a church situated in the market square in the center of Bremen. The cathedral belongs to the Bremian Evangelical Church, a member of the Protestant umbrella organization named Evangelical Church in Germany. It is the previous cathedral of the former Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen. Since 1973, it is protected by the monument protection act.

Limburg Cathedral (German: Limburger Dom, also known as Georgsdom after its dedication to Saint George, is located above the old town of Limburg in Hesse, Germany. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Diocese of Limburg. Its high location on a rock above the river Lahn provides its visibility from far away. It is the result of an Early Gothic modernization of an originally Early Romanesque building and therefore shows a Romanesque-Gothic transitional style.

For almost five centuries, the German city of Frankfurt was a city-state within two major Germanic entities:

Frankfurt Cathedral, officially Imperial Cathedral of Saint Bartholomew is a Roman Catholic Gothic church located in the heart of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is dedicated to Saint Bartholomew.

St. Catherine's Church is the largest Protestant church in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is a parish church in the old city centre near one of the most famous city squares, the Hauptwache. The church is dedicated to the martyred early Christian saint Catherine of Alexandria.

The Church of the Holy Spirit is the largest church in Heidelberg, Germany. The church, located in the marketplace in the old town center, was constructed between 1398 and 1515 in the Romanesque and Gothic styles. It receives 1–3 million guests annually, making it among the most visited churches in Germany.

The Predigerkirche is a Lutheran church in Erfurt, central Germany. It is a monastic church to the Dominican friary, Predigerkloster, adjacent to the church. The name of the Preachers' Church derives from the designation of the Dominicans as "Preacher Brothers". The Predigerkirche was originally built by the Dominican Order in the 13th century, when the mystic Meister Eckhart was prior here. The original building was modified in 1340–50, and the bell tower was built between 1447 and 1488. The church became Protestant after the Reformation. Around 1806, the Predigerkirche was used as a prisoner-of-war camp, which led to damage to the interior and the equipment. Repairs were made around 1826.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kloosterkerk, The Hague</span> Church in The Hague, Netherlands

The Kloosterkerk is a church on the Lange Voorhout in The Hague, Netherlands. The church and its accompanying monastery were first built in 1397. The church is known today as the church where Beatrix of the Netherlands occasionally attended services.

The Unionskirche is the active Protestant parish church of Idstein, a town in the Rheingau-Taunus district in the German state of Hesse. Idstein was a residence of the counts of Nassau. The church building in the center of the historic Altstadt dates back to the 14th century when it was built as a collegiate church. It became Lutheran during the Reformation. Its interior was adapted in the 17th century to become a Lutheran Predigt- und Hofkirche. The most prominent decoration in the church is the series of 38 paintings by the Flemish painter Michael Angelo Immenraedt, an exponent of Flemish Baroque painting, and others. They follow a program of biblical scenes.

The Dreikönigskirche is a Lutheran Protestant church and parish in Frankfurt, the city's largest Protestant parish. It is located on the south bank of the Main in Sachsenhausen, opposite the Frankfurt Cathedral. The present church building, replacing an older church, was erected from 1875 to 1880 on designs by Franz Josef Denzinger in Gothic revival style. It features stained glass windows by Charles Crodel, installed in 1956, and an organ by Karl Schuke from Berlin completed in 1961.

St. Nicholas Church is the oldest of the three major parish churches of the Hanseatic city of Stralsund in Germany. It was dedicated in 1279 to St. Nicholas of Myra, the patron saint of sailors. Since 1524 it is an Evangelical Lutheran church. It is one of the earliest examples of the introduction of the cathedral pattern of northern France into the Brick Gothic architecture of the Baltic region. As part of the historic centre of Stralsund, St. Nicholas Church was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2002.

Predigerkirche is one of the four main churches of the old town of Zürich, Switzerland, besides Fraumünster, Grossmünster and St. Peter. First built in 1231 AD as a Romanesque church of the then Dominican Predigerkloster, the Basilica was converted in the first half of the 14th century, the choir between 1308 and 1350 rebuilt, and a for that time unusual high bell tower was built, regarded as the highest Gothic edifice in Zürich.

St. Michael's Church in Jircháře, Prague - New Town near the National Theatre, specifically the New Town street, which is called v Jirchářích. It is the seat of Czech, Slovak and English congregation of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Czech Republic. Its architectural style is not uniform due to alterations in different periods and styles. It is protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schottenkirche, Erfurt</span> Church in Thuringia, Germany

The Schottenkirche in the historical part of the city of Erfurt in Thuringia, Germany, is a Roman Catholic church building dating back to the 12th century. The Romanesque basilica belonged to a former Celtic monastery of St James. Today, it is a subsidiary church of the Catholic parish of St Lawrence's Church.

The Liebfrauenkirche in the Thuringian town of Arnstadt, Germany, is a Lutheran parish church. The basilica, which was essentially erected in the 12th and 13th centuries, is considered, along with Naumburg Cathedral, to be the most important church building of the transitional phase from Romanesque to Gothic architecture in Thuringia.

The Barfüßerkirche in the historical city centre of Erfurt in Thuringia, Germany, belonged to the most important church buildings of the city and was one of the most elaborate mendicant churches in Germany until its extensive destruction by bombing in 1944. It was mainly built in the 14th century as a monastery church of the Franciscans, who were also called Barfüßer. The choir was restored in the 1950s; besides the nave's ruin, it is situated west of the Schlösserbrücke bridge on the right bank of the Breitstrom, a branch of the Gera river.

References

↑ Andrea Bubenik, Reframing Albrecht Dürer: The Appropriation of Art, 1528–1700, Farnham 2013, p. 64
↑ Franz Henel, Die Frankfurter Dominikanerkirche. Aus ihrer Bau- und Kulturgeschichte, in: Frankfurter Kirchliches Jahrbuch 1959, pp. 9ff.
↑ Anton Horne, Geschichte von Frankfurt am Main in gedrängter darstellung, Frankfurt 1893, p. 84
↑ H. H. Koch, Das Dominikanerkloster zu Frankfurt am Main. 13. bis 16. Jahrhundert, Freiburg 1892, p. 44
↑ Michael Müller, Die Entwicklung des Kurrheinischen Kreises in seiner Verbindung mit dem Oberrheinischen Kreis im 18. Jahrhundert, Frankfurt am Main 2008, p. 61
↑ Ernst Georg Gerhard, Geschichte der säkularisation in Frankfurt a. M., Stuttgart 1935, p. 18
↑ Anton Horne, Geschichte von Frankfurt am Main in gedrängter darstellung, Frankfurt 1893, p. 95
↑ Adolph Meurer, Die kunstgeschichtliche und reichsgeschichtliche Bedeutung des wiederaufgebauten Dominikanerklosters, in : Frankfurter Kirchliches Jahrbuch 1958, pp. 149ff.
↑ Städtebombardements Zweiter Weltkrieg: 22.3.1944: Frankfurt am Main. Feuerorkan Archived 5 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine
1 2 Unsere Stadtkirchen im Zentrum: Die Dotationskirchen der Stadt Frankfurt am Main – Auf einen Blick
↑ G. Edelmann, Zur Baugeschichte der Dominikanerkirche in Frankfurt am Main. in: Schriften des Historischen Museums XI, Frankfurt am Main 1958, S. 46

External links

Coordinates: 50°6′42″N8°41′16″E / 50.11167°N 8.68778°E / 50.11167; 8.68778

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Andrea Bubenik, Reframing Albrecht Dürer: The Appropriation of Art, 1528–1700, Farnham 2013, p. 64

[2] Franz Henel, Die Frankfurter Dominikanerkirche. Aus ihrer Bau- und Kulturgeschichte, in: Frankfurter Kirchliches Jahrbuch 1959, pp. 9ff.

[3] Anton Horne, Geschichte von Frankfurt am Main in gedrängter darstellung, Frankfurt 1893, p. 84

[4] H. H. Koch, Das Dominikanerkloster zu Frankfurt am Main. 13. bis 16. Jahrhundert, Freiburg 1892, p. 44

[5] Michael Müller, Die Entwicklung des Kurrheinischen Kreises in seiner Verbindung mit dem Oberrheinischen Kreis im 18. Jahrhundert, Frankfurt am Main 2008, p. 61

[6] Ernst Georg Gerhard, Geschichte der säkularisation in Frankfurt a. M., Stuttgart 1935, p. 18

[7] Anton Horne, Geschichte von Frankfurt am Main in gedrängter darstellung, Frankfurt 1893, p. 95

[8] Adolph Meurer, Die kunstgeschichtliche und reichsgeschichtliche Bedeutung des wiederaufgebauten Dominikanerklosters, in : Frankfurter Kirchliches Jahrbuch 1958, pp. 149ff.

[9] Städtebombardements Zweiter Weltkrieg: 22.3.1944: Frankfurt am Main. Feuerorkan Archived 5 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine

[Zentrum-10] 1 2 Unsere Stadtkirchen im Zentrum: Die Dotationskirchen der Stadt Frankfurt am Main – Auf einen Blick

[11] G. Edelmann, Zur Baugeschichte der Dominikanerkirche in Frankfurt am Main. in: Schriften des Historischen Museums XI, Frankfurt am Main 1958, S. 46

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

Authority control
General	VIAF 1 WorldCat
National libraries	Germany