Hadmersleben Abbey

Hadmersleben Abbey was founded in 961. The founding charter includes the execution stroke of the six-year-old King Otto II. The copy of the founding charter of the Archdiocese of Magdeburg from 968, exhibited in the abbey, commemorates the emperor's intrigues against the founder of Hadmersleben Abbey, Bernhard of Halberstadt. He had refused to cede Magdeburg to Otto I as an archbishopric, even though Pope John XII had urged all German bishops in 962 to support the emperor's plan. The bishop's strict refusal led to his early death in 968 and the nickname "Ironhead". King Otto III's deed of gift from 994 brought Hadmersleben Abbey 24 villages in various districts of the empire.

A document from Reinhard von Blankenburg, then Bishop of Halberstadt, from the year 1120 states: "The piety of the nuns of Hadmersleben has not only slumbered, but has completely died out." Thanks to the capable abbess Sofia I, the convent soon became successful again, and in 1160, construction began on the Romanesque chapter house for the nuns. With two naves and groin vaults of six bays, it is considered one of the largest of its kind (24.5 x 10.0 m). After this, the abbey again fell into decline. This was halted with the accession of 78 nuns to the Bursfelde Congregation. Under Abbess Sancta von Meynegodessen, restoration of the chapter house began in 1505. This involved brick imitation of the transverse arches and painting of all wall surfaces. At the same time, the flat Romanesque beamed ceiling in the cloister was replaced by Gothic rib vaults in keeping with the style. In the Baroque period, to heat more effectively, the volume of the chapter house was reduced by raising the floor by 1.20 meters. The same happened in the cloister, which, instead of open arcades, now also received closed rectangular windows.

In the western part of the monastery complex, the provost's building, an elongated structure, houses the Romanesque chapter house for 15 lay monks. The originally existing round arches were removed during renovation work in 1751, the dormitory was newly built on the farmyard, and all half-timbered upper floors were renewed in stone. In the manor house stands a massive dovecote from 1717 with a dome roof and 350 pre-fabricated stone nests. The south side of the tower and the passage from the manor house to the farmyard are adorned with the coat of arms of Abbess Blume, two fields with roses and two fields with the insignia of the Apostles Peter and Paul. The residential building of the knight's court, built in 1649 in Renaissance style, has been preserved unchanged. The mother of the composer Georg Philipp Telemann, Maria Haltmeier, lived here before her marriage. Her future husband, Heinrich Telemann, was rector of the Hadmersleben city school in 1668.

By decree of the King of Westphalia Jérôme Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, on May 13, 1809, the dissolution of the monasteries of Marienstuhl near Egeln, Wöltingerode near Vienenburg, Sankt Burchardi in Halberstadt, Adersleben near Wegeleben, Teistungenburg in Eichsfeld, and Hadmersleben was ordered, and it was simultaneously stipulated that the conventuals and lay sisters should be transferred to the remaining existing nunneries. In 1885, the plant breeder Ferdinand Heine acquired the property with the exception of the church. The large building north of the manor house was built in 1888 as a distillery and in 1904 as a seed storage facility on 12th-century groin vaults. To avoid destroying the medieval impression of the monastery, Heine had the buildings constructed not from cheap brick, but from quarry stone typical for this monastery.

In 1887/88, he had a neo-Baroque stair tower built in the farmyard by the Berlin architect Hans Grisebach and a Renaissance-style loggia added to the northern cloister. Grisebach came to Hadmersleben on the recommendation of Wilhelm von Bode, the general director of the Berlin Museums and Heine's brother-in-law. In the northern upper floor, the monastic rooms were redesigned in a Neoclassical style into living quarters for the Heine family, a floor mosaic was laid in the vestibule, and a Renaissance-style and a Baroque-style bay window were added. The former bedroom now displays particularly valuable memorabilia of Ferdinand Heine, such as furniture, tools, an ornithological collection, and awards.

As late as 1965, machines were parked, harvested crops stored, and horses, cattle, and pigs kept on the farmyard of the agricultural enterprise with 6500 hectares of usable land. In 1981, restoration of the chapter house, cloister, parlatorium, abbess's room, stair tower, loggia, and wallpapered hall began.

Furnishings

The monastery's farmyard consists of the Great and Small Chapter House, the Refectory, Parlatorium, and a wall with Neoclassical crowning vases. On the upper floors are the Dormitory, the Abbess's rooms, the Watchman's room, and guest rooms. The monastery's manor house is enclosed by buildings in a square and has the extraordinary expanse of almost one hectare.

In the vestibule of the upper floor are two valuable pieces of furniture from the monastery, a Danzig Baroque cabinet made of walnut with allegories and masks, and a chest from the turn of the 17th to the 18th century. The abbess's reception room is furnished with an opulent Baroque stucco ceiling from 1693. Here, a copy of the founding charter of Hadmersleben Abbey from 961 is exhibited. Of particular significance are original neumes (notes) according to which the nuns of the monastery sang in the 13th century.

On a table-shaped enlargement of Merian's copperplate engraving of Hadmersleben in the abbess's room, the monastery can be seen faithfully depicted on the marshy bank of the Bode to the west, and the Renaissance castle of the Archbishops of Magdeburg on the steep bank to the east.

Remarkable is the hall with a valuable Neoclassical panoramic wallpaper from France dating from 1827/28. The wallpaper, a masterpiece of French printing art, is considered the best-preserved of only five existing copies in total. It depicts the Greek War of Independence against the Turks from 1821 to 1829, in which Lord Byron lost his life. The events were designed on an area of 60 square meters by the French portrait and history painter Jean Julien Deltil (1791–1863) according to the war diary of Colonel Voutier. A painting of the same name by Eugène Delacroix from 1824 is in the Louvre. The wallpaper, originating from the Neuwegersleben manor house, was transferred in 1965 to the conference room of the "Institute for Cereal Research," which took over Heine's breeding and cultural legacy in 1946.

The pioneer of Neoclassicism, Johann Joachim Winckelmann from Stendal, worked as a private tutor at Hadmersleben Castle in 1742/43. The ballroom with its stucco ceiling was later used to document his career. Display panels show, among other things, Winckelmann's contributions to modern art history and classical archaeology, his main work The History of Ancient Art, and his influence on the Greek struggle for freedom, as well as Goethe's book Winckelmann and His Century.

Picture Gallery

As a contribution of modern art to the cultural heritage of the monastery, a picture gallery with large-format paintings by the artists M. Emig and R. Pötzsch, students of Professors Werner Tübke, Rolf Kuhrt, and Hans Mayer-Foreyt, was created in the dormitory between 1982 and 1989. The paintings depict the founder of the monastery, Bishop Bernhard of Halberstadt, scenes from the Peasants' War of 1525, and the history of the monastery. A painting with an SS man, a prisoner, and a visionary Justitia commemorates the suffering of the inmates of the Buchenwald concentration camp's sub-camp in the Hadmersleben potash mine, where parts of warplanes were manufactured. The triptych "Harvest Work on the Monastery Grounds" shows Heine transported into modern times.

Monastery Garden

The area, still enclosed by the partially well-preserved old stone wall and covering over four (approx. 4.3) hectares, was formerly the nuns' flower, herb, vegetable, and fruit garden. Ferdinand Heine transformed it into an English landscape park with two swan ponds, winding paths, and impressive sightlines.

Ferdinand Heine also had 68 deciduous tree species and 13 conifers planted. Most of them are exotics such as the Ginkgo tree, the Canadian swamp cypress, or the Siberian foxtail pine. The park is home to the black, green, and great spotted woodpeckers, as well as the Eurasian jay, the common wood pigeon, and many songbirds.

The Romanesque-Gothic Catholic church "St. Peter and Paul" dates essentially from the 12th century, with the oldest parts probably from the monastery's founding period in the 10th century. These include the Ottonian capitals in the south nave of the crypt and a wall impost.

In the 13th and 14th centuries, the nave was renovated in two construction phases, and a large gallery for the nuns was erected above the much older crypt. During the Thirty Years' War, the church was plundered and partially destroyed. From 1696 to 1710, the interior of the church was Baroque-ized. Today, the large Baroque high altar and some side altars are particularly worth seeing. The statues were created by Gertrud Gröninger between 1695 and 1698. The Baroque organ and the pulpit built in the same style complete the picture of the furnishings.

In 1954, the abbey church served as a backdrop for a DEFA film adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffmann's novella "Das Fräulein von Scuderi" starring Willy A. Kleinau and Henny Porten.

Today, the church belongs to the parish of St. Marien, based in Oschersleben.