Imperial Abbey of Memleben Reichskloster Memleben | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| late 10th century – 1015 | |||||||||
 Ruins of St. Mary's Church | |||||||||
| Status | Imperial Abbey | ||||||||
| Capital | Memleben Abbey | ||||||||
| Government | Theocracy | ||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||
• Founded byOtto II | c. 979 | ||||||||
• GainedReichsfreiheit | Uncertain 10th century | ||||||||
994 | |||||||||
• Privileges confirmed byHenry II | 1002 | ||||||||
• Dispossessed in favour ofHersfeld | 1015 | ||||||||
• Abbey dissolved | 1548 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Germany | ||||||||
Memleben Abbey (German:Kloster Memleben) was aBenedictine monastery inMemleben on theUnstrut river, today part of theKaiserpfalz municipality inSaxony-Anhalt,Germany. The convent, now ruined, was established by EmperorOtto II and his consortTheophanu about 979.
The settlement ofMimilebo was already mentioned in anurbarium register ofHersfeld Abbey under the rule of ArchbishopLullus of Mainz (died 786). AHersfeld tithe register, compiled between 881 and 899, again documents the locality ofMimileba in theSaxon shire (Gau) ofFriesenfeld, west of theHassegau.
Memleben acquired considerable importance under the Saxon dukes of theOttonian dynasty about 900. DukeOtto the Illustrious (d. 912) served as Hersfeld abbot, his sonHenry the Fowler marriedHatheburg of Merseburg, a daughter of Count Erwin ofMerseburg and heiress of large estates in Hassegau und Friesenfeld. Her brother-in-law, CountThietmar of Merseburg was one of Henry's tutors. In 909 the couple separated and Hatheburg again took the veil, nevertheless, Henry retained herEastphalian estates. He spent much time in this area; when he succeededConrad I asKing of East Francia in 919, he had a royalvilla in Memleben. Later greatly enlarged, thisRoyal Palace (villa regia orKönigspfalz) became his favourite residence next only toQuedlinburg.
In 935, while hunting near the royal palace ofBodfeld in theHarz mountains, King Henry seriously fell ill (presumably from a stroke). According to the reports by BishopLiutprand of Cremona, he assembled the East Frankish princes inErfurt the next year, to arrange the succession of his sonOtto I, and afterwards retired to thecastellum of Memleben, where he died after another stroke on 2 July 936. His mortal remains were transferred to the Quedlinburg abbey church.
Otto I, like his father, often stayed in Memleben and issued a number of documents from here. However, no festive ceremonies or diets are documented and parts of the Memleben estates were granted to the newly establishedBishops of Zeitz. CrownedHoly Roman Emperor in 962, Otto apparently planned to celebrate the feast of Pentecost at Memleben in 973. The sixty-year-old may have felt his end drawing near when he arrived at his father's place of death. According to the Saxon chronicles byWidukind of Corvey andThietmar of Merseburg, he died here on 7 May 973 and was buried inMagdeburg Cathedral alongside his first wifeEadgyth. Legend has it, that although his body was buried in Magdeburg, his heart was buried in Memleben.
Otto's son and successor, EmperorOtto II, also issued several documents from Memleben. In his father's memory, and perhaps as an intended site of dynastic memorial,[1] his son and successorOtto II with his consortTheophanu founded about 979 aBenedictine monastery near hisKaiserpfalz, which within a short time had become one of the richest and most influential of theImperial abbeys.
Otto II endowed Memleben with large estates and privileges in present-dayThuringia,Saxony-Anhalt andHesse, several of them formerly held by Hersfeld Abbey, and also tithe privileges in the Friesenfeld and Hassegau counties. The abbey also receivedHevelli lands in theNorthern March (present-dayBrandenburg), which however were lost in theGreat Slav Rising of 983, and further territories in theSaxon Eastern March. After the early death of Otto II, his son,Otto III, stayed at the abbey several times. He granted market, mint and customs rights in the Memleben territory in 994 and donated the ThuringianWiehe estates to the abbey four years later. He even had plans to make it the centre of a projected See of Thuringia, but died aged 22 in Italy before he was able to act on his intention.
In 1015 the golden age of Memleben Abbey ended. On his accession in 1002,Henry II, the successor of Otto III, initially had confirmed to Abbot Reinhold of Memleben the privileges and possessions of his predecessors, on par with the Imperial abbeys ofFulda,Corvey andReichenau. However, thirteen years later, he substantially disempowered and dispossessed the Memleben community in favour of Hersfeld Abbey, to whom he subordinated it, in return for estates for his pet project, the newly createdBishopric of Bamberg. The decline of Memleben Abbey, and its Ottonianmemoria, was thus ensured.
TheSalian emperorConrad II was the last documented German monarch who stayed at Memleben in 1033. The Memleben convent existed until in 1525 the abbey was plundered during theGerman Peasants' War and after a steadily worsening decline in the wake of theProtestant Reformation it was finally dissolved in 1548. The abbey's estates were taken over by theElectors of Saxony in 1551 and given to the school atPforta, which had just been re-founded, and which retained possession of them until the end ofWorld War II.
Since the roof of the former abbey church was struck by lightning and destroyed in 1722, several attempts were made later to demolish the rest of the building. Nevertheless, the remaining ruins are still of interest, particularly theLate Romanesque crypt. Of the first monumental church building erected in the 10th century, some walls and foundations are preserved, particularly the southwestern transept and crossing piers, as well as the southern side of the nave.
The former monastic buildings were given during theEast German period after World War II to an agricultural collective, who made considerable alterations to them. They now house a museum with a permanent exhibition relating to the royal and monastic history of the abbey and the town, directly perceptible also in an extended monastery garden and a medievalscriptorium. Memleben is a stop on the scenicRomanesque Road. Since 2011, the premises are temporarily attended by Benedictine monks fromMünsterschwarzach Abbey.
| Imperial abbeys and colleges (Reichsabteien, Reichsklöster und Reichsstifte) |  | |
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| Imperial provostries and priories (Reichspropsteien) | ||
| Imperial charterhouse (Reichskartause) | ||
* Also aPrince of the Empire † Also inSwabian College | ||
51°17′00″N11°34′00″E / 51.2833333333°N 11.5666666667°E /51.2833333333; 11.5666666667
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