The Hülfensberg (called Stuffenberg in the Middle Ages) is a 448 m high, heavily wooded mountain in the Geismar municipality in the Eichsfeld district,

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The mountain has been a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

site since the late Middle Ages, and on its summit are a church containing a 12th-century

crucifix A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...

, a

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

friary, a chapel dedicated to

Saint Boniface Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictines, Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant ...

, and a large free-standing cross. The medieval name for the mountain was ''Stuffenberg'', from which the supposed Germanic god

Stuffo Stuffo is the name of a supposed Germanic god, who originates from various late medieval legends from Germany related to Saint Boniface. Origin Stuffo first appears in a few late medieval/early modern Bonifacian legends. A 1756 image of the god be ...

derives his name. According to some sources the name was changed in the 14th century (or around 1400) because of a famous crucifix in the church, the ''Hülfenskreuz''; another etymology for the modern name was given in 1575, based on the legend that Boniface had defeated an army of unbelievers on the mountain, which was subsequently named Hülfensberg (''helfen'': to help) in reference to divine help.

Pilgrimage

The Hülfensberg has been a pilgrimage site since the late Middle Ages, and at one point was one of the seven most popular such sites in Germany; the goal of these pilgrimages was a 12th-century crucifix.Ullrich 129. Today pilgrimages occur throughout the year. During the East-West division of Germany, the Hülfensberg was less than a kilometer from the

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

, on the eastern side, meaning that opportunities for pilgrimage were restricted to a small number of people. According to Father Heribert (one of the Franciscan friars, 2010), attendance dropped by two-thirds in 1953, the year after the Hülfensberg was placed inside the expanded and protected border area. Permission for visits to the mountain was usually only granted to locals; all others interested in pilgrimage had to request permission, and half were denied. As of 2010, some 250 pilgrims attend Sunday mass in the church, and 1000 to 2000 people participate in each of the four major pilgrimages per year.

''Hülfenskreuz''

The focal point of pilgrimage on the Hülfensberg is the ''Hülfenskreuz'', a 12th-century Romanesque crucifix. It is one of the most popular pieces of sacral art in the Erfurt dioceseKeppler 9. as well as one of the most important.Sucher and Wulitzer 67. The wooden sculpture is of Christ as a king looking straight ahead (in a "strong frontality"), wearing a crown. A renovation in 1850 reconnected the legs with the cross. While the 12th-century origin of the cross is oft-repeated,

Georg Dehio Georg Gottfried Julius Dehio (22 November 1850 in Reval (now Tallinn), Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire – 21 March 1932 in Tübingen), was a Baltic German art historian. In 1900, Dehio started the "''Handbuch der deutschen Kunstgesch ...

's ''Handbuch der deutschen kunstdenkmäler'' states that it may well be a later imitation. The crucifix is placed on a red background covered with gold stars. The frame bears a motto in Latin, ''Salve Crux Pretiosa'' (Hail, precious cross). According to the local Franciscans, occasionally miracles happen on the site.

St. Salvator church

On top of the Hülfensberg is the St. Salvator church, which was built circa 1360–1367 as a

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a saf ...

, on the remains of an older church (on the south side of the current church, next to the

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is usually located ...

), dated circa 1000. The oldest document pertaining to the Hülfensberg is a papal deed from 1351, which names the parish ''St. Salvator auf dem Stuffenberg''. A later deed naming the location is dated 30 May 1352; at this time the Hülfensberg belonged to the St. Martin monastery in

Heilbad Heiligenstadt Heilbad Heiligenstadt is a spa town in Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the Eichsfeld district. Geography Heiligenstadt is approximately 14 km east of the tripoint where the states of Thuringia, Hesse and Lower Saxony meet. It lies ...

, which in turn handed over the

patronage Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

to the

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

monastery of

Anrode Anrode is a former municipality in the Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis district of Thuringia, Germany. It was created in January 1997 by the merger of the former municipalities Lengefeld, Bickenriede, , Hollenbach and Zella. On 1 January 2023 it was disband ...

in 1357. Pilgrimages to the ''Hülfenskreuz'', found at the church's ''Gnadenaltar'', started from Anrode. In 1583 the area and its church were transferred to the

Archbishopric of Mainz The Electorate of Mainz (german: Kurfürstentum Mainz or ', la, Electoratus Moguntinus), previously known in English as Mentz and by its French name Mayence, was one of the most prestigious and influential states of the Holy Roman Empire. In the ...

, and remained Catholic during the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

. In the course of time, the St. Salvator church was expanded and renovated a number of times, most notably during the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

era. In 1810, the Anrode monastery was dissolved by

Jérôme Bonaparte Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte (born Girolamo Buonaparte; 15 November 1784 – 24 June 1860) was the youngest brother of Napoleon I and reigned as Jerome Napoleon I (formally Hieronymus Napoleon in German), King of Westphalia, between 1807 and 1 ...

and sold, with all its possessions, to Franz Just Wedemeyer, of the Wedemeyer family, making the Hülfensberg private property. Eleven years later, Wedemeyer gave the top of the mountain, with its church, to the bishop. In 1890, the church was again expanded, in a

neo-Gothic style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

, by Franciscan architect Paschalis Gratze. The original Boniface chapel, adjacent to the church, was torn down and rebuilt on a different location; the foundation of the old chapel was the base for the new

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

, with

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...

and

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

. In 1984, while the church was located in East-Germany, the roof on a church tower was renovated with materials paid for in West-German money through Genex, the East-German commercial exchange.

Boniface chapel

Next to the church is a chapel dedicated to

, built in 1903 on the foundations of an earlier chapel. According to local legend, this is where Boniface cut down a

Donar Oak Donar's Oak (also Thor's Oak or, via ''interpretatio graeca, interpretatio romana'', Jove's Oak) was a Sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred tree of the Germanic pagans located in an unclear location around what is now ...

, a sacred, pagan tree, in the early 8th century. This legend is based on the proximity of the village Geismar, a place mentioned in the Boniface ''vitae''—but, scholars agree now, this is in reference to another Geismar, now a part of

Fritzlar Fritzlar () is a small town (pop. 15,000) in the Schwalm-Eder district in northern Hesse, Germany, north of Frankfurt, with a storied history. The town has a medieval center ringed by a wall with numerous watch towers. Thirty-eight meters (125& ...

in northern

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

. Another legend says that Boniface stood on the top of the Hülfensberg and said, ''Wann wird endlich Frieden schweben über dieser schönen Aue'' ("when will peace at last hover over this lovely forest?").

Folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...

derived from his supposed words the local place names

Wanfried Wanfried is a town in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in northeasternmost Hesse, Germany. It is classified as a ''Landstadt'', a designation given in Germany to a municipality that is officially a town (''Stadt''), but whose population is below 5,000. It ...

, Frieda (in Meinhard), Schwebda (likewise in Meinhard), and Aue (in Wanfried).

Franciscan monastery

Franciscans founded a monastery (the oldest in the Eichsfeld area), also named Hülfensberg, on top of the mountain; on 16 April 1860, two priests and two lay brothers dedicated the monastery—originally, these were to found a new sanctuary at Klüschen Hagis, with the Hülfensberg being nothing but a provisional church. During the

Kulturkampf (, 'culture struggle') was the conflict that took place from 1872 to 1878 between the Catholic Church led by Pope Pius IX and the government of Prussia led by Otto von Bismarck. The main issues were clerical control of education and ecclesiastic ...

, the monastery was forced to close for twelve years. When in May 1952 the East-German government strengthened the nearby border and its ''

Sperrzone An exclusion zone is a territorial division established for various, case-specific purposes. Per the United States Department of Defense, an exclusion zone is a territory where an authority prohibits specific activities in a specific geographic ...

'' (which placed the Hülfensberg inside the protected zone), the monastery and the church suffered a steep drop in attendance. As of 2011, four Franciscans live in the monastery, which belongs to the German Franciscan province of St. Elisabeth, whose seat is in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Dr. Konrad Martin Kreuz

Konrad Martin,

Bishop of Paderborn The Archdiocese of Paderborn is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany; its seat is Paderborn. and dedicated on 7 August 1933. The cross is tall. It was taken down in 1990, restored and put back up in May 1991. In March 1990, after the

Unification of Germany The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federalism, federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with ad ...

, a plaque was dedicated at the foot of the cross to remember the "victims of the fascist and stalinist dictatorship".

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Huelfensberg.de
– Website of the Franciscan Hülfensberg monastery {{DEFAULTSORT:Hulfensberg Hills of Thuringia