Rottenbuch is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the

Weilheim-Schongau Weilheim-Schongau is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the south of Bavaria, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise) Landsberg, Starnberg, Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Ostallgäu. Geography The distric ...

district, in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

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 ...

. It is the site of

Rottenbuch Abbey Rottenbuch Abbey (german: Kloster Rottenbuch) in Rottenbuch was founded as an Augustinian monastery in 1073 on land granted by Duke Welf I of Bavaria and his wife Judith of Flanders. The Abbey church was constructed between 1085 and 1125 in the ...

church. Its name stems from a beech tree clearing; it is common in Germany to find place names based on tree clearings. The first historical mention appears in 1073 when

Welf I Welf I or Welfo (died before 876) was a Swabian nobleman. He was a member of the Elder House of Welf. Welf was probably a son of Conrad I of Auxerre, and seems to have taken over his father's offices in Swabia, namely: count of Alpgau, count of ...

gifts the by then already built

Augustinian Augustinian may refer to: *Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine *Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs *Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo * Canons Regular of Sain ...

monastery large lands on both sides of the Ammer river. Supposedly, since around 950, some "Einsiedler" (hermits/ascetics) were already living in Rottenbuch together and following a

monastic Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religion, religious way of life in which one renounces world (theology), worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic ...

way of life. The Romanesque style

church was constructed between 1085 and 1125. The free-standing tower accompanied by a "crossing transept" is something unusual for a Bavarian church. It was one of the centres of papal loyalty during the

Investiture Controversy The Investiture Controversy, also called Investiture Contest (German: ''Investiturstreit''; ), was a conflict between the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops (investiture) and abbots of monast ...

. Emperor Luois the Bavarian in the 14 century was patron of the abbey, and this as well as its being on the pilgrimage route to Italy, made Rottenbuch become the most influential house of

Canons Regular Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by a ...

(community of priests) in Germany. The medieval interior of the church was redecorated in the 18th century to the very ornate High Baroque style by the painter

Matthäus Günther Matthäus Günther (also Mathäus Günther) (7 September 1705 – 30 September 1788) was an important German painter and artist of the Baroque and Rococo era. Günther, who was born in Peissenberg (at that time: Tritschengreith), helped d ...

and stuccoist Josef Schmuzer. In 1803, under the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803 (which "secularized nearly 70 ecclesiastical states and abolished 45 imperial cities"), the monastic buildings were pulled down and the noteworthy contents of the library were sent to a paper mill. What was the abbey church became a parish church, which is what remains to the present day. The village was part of the electorate of Bavaria and formed a closed "Hofmark" (a type of partnership) together with Böbing, Wildsteig, and Schönberg. Through the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803, this Hofmark arrangement was repealed, and the Rottenbuch monastery was dissolved. Nearly all men of the choir had to abandon their posts, and possibly also Rottenbuch entirely. Out of the remains of the Hofmark Rottenbuch formed, through the passing of administrative reforms in the

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...

with an edict of 1818, the political municipalities of Rottenbuch, Böbing, Wildsteig, and Schönberg. All of these are under the district court of Schöngau.

References

Weilheim-Schongau {{WeilheimSchongau-geo-stub