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Essen Abbey
Essen Abbey (''Stift Essen'') was a community of secular canonesses for women of high nobility that formed the nucleus of modern-day Essen, Germany. It was founded about 845 by the Saxon Altfrid (died 874), later Bishop of Hildesheim and saint, near a royal estate called ''Astnidhi'', which later gave its name to the religious house and to the town. The first abbess was Altfrid's kinswoman, Gerswit. Apart from the abbess, the canonesses did not take vows of perpetual celibacy, and were able to leave the abbey to marry; they lived in some comfort in their own houses, wearing secular clothing except when performing clerical roles such as singing the Divine Office. A chapter of male priests were also attached to the abbey, under a dean. In the medieval period, the abbess exercised the functions of a bishop, except for the sacramental ones, and those of a ruler, over the very extensive estates of the abbey, and had no clerical superior except the pope.Kahnitz, 123-127 History B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imperial Abbey
Princely abbeys (german: Fürstabtei, ''Fürststift'') and Imperial abbeys (german: Reichsabtei, ''Reichskloster'', ''Reichsstift'', ''Reichsgotthaus'') were religious establishments within the Holy Roman Empire which enjoyed the status of imperial immediacy (''Reichsunmittelbarkeit'') and therefore were answerable directly to the Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor. The possession of imperial immediacy came with a unique form of territorial authority known as ''Landeshoheit'', which carried with it nearly all the attributes of sovereignty. Princely abbeys and imperial abbeys The distinction between a princely abbey and an imperial abbey was related to the status of the abbot: while both prince-abbots and the more numerous imperial abbots sat on the ecclesiastical bench of the College of ruling princes of the Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire), Imperial Diet, prince-abbots cast an individual vote while imperial abbots cast only a curial (collective) vote alongside his or her fellow impe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Altfrid
Saint Altfrid (or Altfrid of Hildesheim) (died 15 August 874) was a leading figure in Germany in the ninth century. A Benedictine monk, he became Bishop of Hildesheim, and founded Essen Abbey. He was also a close royal adviser to the East Frankish King Louis the German. He is a Roman Catholic saint. His feast day is celebrated on 15 August, the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, but also in Essen and Hildesheim on 16 August. Life There is no contemporary biography of Altfrid. He is first mentioned by name on 3 October 852, when he took part in a council in Mainz as Bishop of Hildesheim. According to the ''Hildesheim Chronicle'' Altfrid died "rich in days" in 874, from which a year of birth of around 800 is assumed. He owned land in the Harzvorland and in central Essen (''Asnithi''), which may have been inherited from his family, and it seems likely that he belonged to the Saxon nobility, and may have been connected to the Imperial family of the Liudolfings, who, howev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Free Imperial City
In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that had a certain amount of autonomy and was represented in the Imperial Diet. An imperial city held the status of Imperial immediacy, and as such, was subordinate only to the Holy Roman Emperor, as opposed to a territorial city or town (') which was subordinate to a territorial princebe it an ecclesiastical lord ( prince-bishop, prince-abbot) or a secular prince (duke ('), margrave, count ('), etc.). Origin The evolution of some German cities into self-ruling constitutional entities of the Empire was slower than that of the secular and ecclesiastical princes. In the course of the 13th and 14th centuries, some cities were promoted by the emperor to the status of Imperial Cities ('; '), essentially for fiscal reasons. Those cities, which had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruhr (river)
__NOTOC__ The Ruhr is a river in western Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia), a right tributary (east-side) of the Rhine. Description and history The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region, at an elevation of approximately . It flows into the lower Rhine at an elevation of only in the municipal area of Duisburg. Its total length is , its average discharge is at Mülheim near its mouth. Thus, its discharge is, for example, comparable to that of the river Ems in Northern Germany or the River Thames in the United Kingdom. The Ruhr first passes the towns of Meschede, Arnsberg, Wickede, Fröndenberg, Holzwickede, Iserlohn, and Schwerte. Then the river marks the southern limit of the Ruhr area, passing Hagen, Dortmund, Herdecke, Wetter, Witten, Bochum, Hattingen, Essen, Mülheim, and Duisburg. The Ruhr area was Germany's primary industrial area during the early- to mid-20th century. Most factories were located there. The occupation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emscher
The Emscher () is a river, a tributary of the Rhine, that flows through the Ruhr area in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. Its overall length is with an mean outflow near the mouth into the lower Rhine of . Description The Emscher has its wellspring in Holzwickede, east of the city of Dortmund. Towns along the Emscher are Dortmund, Castrop-Rauxel, Herne, Recklinghausen, Gelsenkirchen, Essen, Bottrop, Oberhausen and Dinslaken, where it flows into the Rhine. At the centre of a vast industrial area with 5 million inhabitants the river is biologically dead, as it was used as an open waste-water canal from the end of the 19th century. The partial collapse of many coal mines along the Emscher's route made the option of subterranean sewer pipes running alongside unworkable, as they would break too easily. Owing to the steady flow of spoil from the mining industry it has been impossible for the route of the Emscher to be maintained and its mouth into the Rhine has shifted n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Essen-Borbeck-Mitte
Borbeck-Mitte is the central borough of ''Borbeck'', the fourth suburban district of Essen, Germany. Together with the other boroughs of the district, it was incorporated on April 1, 1915. Borbeck-Mitte has a population of roughly 13,500 people and a total area of . The name Borbeck derives from ''Bor(a)thbeki'', which means either ''river in a fertile lowland'' or ''river of the Bructeri''. History Early history synopsis The first document mentioning Borbeck dates back to 869, when ''Borthbeki'', a small rural commune, was mentioned as one of nine communes around Essen Abbey which were liable to tax. In 1288, princess-abbess ''Berta von Arnsberg'' bought probably mortgaged parts of the region and built the predecessor of ''Schloss Borbeck''. By the 14th century, Schloss Borbeck had become the favorite residence of the princess-abbesses, which came along with a rise of prestige for the region. In 1339, princess-abbess ''Katharina von der Mark'' had Borbeck's old Romanesque ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Essen Cathedral
Essen Minster (German: ), since 1958 also Essen Cathedral () is the seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Essen, the "Diocese of the Ruhr", founded in 1958. The church, dedicated to Saints Cosmas and Damian and the Blessed Virgin Mary, stands on the Burgplatz in the centre of the city of Essen, Germany. The minster was formerly the collegiate church of Essen Abbey, founded in about 845 by Altfrid, Bishop of Hildesheim, around which the city of Essen grew up. The present building, which was reconstructed after its destruction in World War II, is a Gothic hall church, built after 1275 in light-coloured sandstone. The octagonal westwork and the crypt are survivors of the Ottonian pre-Romanesque building that once stood here. The separate Church of St. Johann Baptist stands at the west end of the minster, connected to the westwork by a short atrium – it was formerly the parish church of the abbey's subjects. To the north of the minster is a cloister that once served the abbey. E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor
Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), traditionally known as Otto the Great (german: Otto der Große, it, Ottone il Grande), was East Francia, East Frankish king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973. He was the oldest son of Henry the Fowler and Matilda of Ringelheim. Otto inherited the Duchy of Saxony and the kingship of the Germans upon his father's death in 936. He continued his father's work of unifying all Germans, German tribes into a single kingdom and greatly expanded the king's powers at the expense of the aristocracy. Through strategic marriages and personal appointments, Otto installed members of his family in the kingdom's most important duchies. This reduced the various dukes, who had previously been co-equals with the king, to royal subjects under his authority. Otto transformed the church in Germany to strengthen royal authority and subjected its clergy to his personal control. After putting down a brief civil war among the rebellious ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathilde, Abbess Of Essen
Mathilde (also Mahthild or Matilda; 949 – 5 November 1011) was Abbess of Essen Abbey from 973 to her death. She was one of the most important abbesses in the history of Essen. She was responsible for the abbey, for its buildings, its precious relics, liturgical vessels and manuscripts, its political contacts, and for commissioning translations and overseeing education. In the unreliable list of Essen Abbesses from 1672, she is listed as the second Abbess Mathilde and as a result, she is sometimes called "Mathilde II" to distinguish her from the earlier abbess of the same name, who is meant to have governed Essen Abbey from 907 to 910 but whose existence is disputed. Sources Written sources on Mathilde's life and especially on her works are few. Concerning the history of Essen Abbey from 845 to 1150 there exist only some twenty documents in total, not one of which is a contemporary chronicle or biography. While information about Mathilde's life is known on account of her membershi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imperial Abbey
Princely abbeys (german: Fürstabtei, ''Fürststift'') and Imperial abbeys (german: Reichsabtei, ''Reichskloster'', ''Reichsstift'', ''Reichsgotthaus'') were religious establishments within the Holy Roman Empire which enjoyed the status of imperial immediacy (''Reichsunmittelbarkeit'') and therefore were answerable directly to the Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor. The possession of imperial immediacy came with a unique form of territorial authority known as ''Landeshoheit'', which carried with it nearly all the attributes of sovereignty. Princely abbeys and imperial abbeys The distinction between a princely abbey and an imperial abbey was related to the status of the abbot: while both prince-abbots and the more numerous imperial abbots sat on the ecclesiastical bench of the College of ruling princes of the Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire), Imperial Diet, prince-abbots cast an individual vote while imperial abbots cast only a curial (collective) vote alongside his or her fellow impe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reichsunmittelbar
Imperial immediacy (german: Reichsfreiheit or ') was a privileged constitutional and political status rooted in German feudal law under which the Imperial estates of the Holy Roman Empire such as Imperial cities, prince-bishoprics and secular principalities, and individuals such as the Imperial knights, were declared free from the authority of any local lord and placed under the direct ("immediate", in the sense of "without an intermediary") authority of the Holy Roman Emperor, and later of the institutions of the Empire such as the Diet ('), the Imperial Chamber of Justice and the Aulic Council. The granting of immediacy began in the Early Middle Ages, and for the immediate bishops, abbots, and cities, then the main beneficiaries of that status, immediacy could be exacting and often meant being subjected to the fiscal, military, and hospitality demands of their overlord, the Emperor. However, with the gradual exit of the Emperor from the centre stage from the mid-13th century onw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ottonian Emperors
The Ottonian dynasty (german: Ottonen) was a Saxon dynasty of German monarchs (919–1024), named after three of its kings and Holy Roman Emperors named Otto, especially its first Emperor Otto I. It is also known as the Saxon dynasty after the family's origin in the German stem duchy of Saxony. The family itself is also sometimes known as the Liudolfings (), after its earliest known member Count Liudolf (d. 866) and one of its most common given names. The Ottonian rulers were successors of the Germanic king Conrad I, who was the only Germanic king to rule in East Francia after the Carolingian dynasty and before this dynasty. The Ottonians are associated with the notable military success that transformed the political situation in contemporary Western Europe: "It was the success of the Ottonians in molding the raw materials bequeathed to them into a formidable military machine that made possible the establishment of Germany as the preeminent kingdom in Europe from the tenth th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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