Kaufungen Abbey

Kaufungen Abbey ( _de. Kloster Kaufungen) was a Benedictine nunnery founded in 1017 by the Empress Kunigunde, located in Kaufungen in Hessen, Germany.

In 1532, during the Reformation, Count Philip I of Hesse appropriated it and gave it, together with Wetter Abbey, to the "Hessische Ritterschaft" ("Hessian Knighthood", an association of noble families for the purpose of mutual help) for the care and shelter of female members of those families belonging to it.

As the Ritterschaftliches Stift Kaufungen it still exists today.

History

In May 1017, the Empress Kunigunde was staying on the imperial estate of Kaufungen, when, according to Thietmar of Merseburg she became seriously ill and vowed to found a monastery if she recovered. She did so and her husband, Emperor Henry II, endowed the new foundation in 1019. After the death of Henry in 1024, Kunigunde, who was later canonized, retired to the new Benedictine nunnery, where she died in 1040.

The foundation was an Imperial abbey (territorially and judicially independent, subject only to the Emperor).

The "Vögte" (advocates, or lords protectors) of Kaufungen Abbey were the Counts of Maden.

Church

The abbey church, now known as the "Stiftskirche", was dedicated on 13 July 1025. It is now used as the parish church and is counted as the most significant structure of the late Ottonian period in north Hesse. In the substantial westwork the Imperial gallery ("Kaiserempore") was re-discovered in 1938.

References

* Baumgärtner, Ingrid, 2004. "Fürsprache, Rat und Tat". "Erinnerung: Kunigundes Aufgaben als Kaiserin". In: "Mittelalterstudien des Instituts zur Interdisziplinären Erforschung des Mittelalters und seines Nachwirkens", Paderborn, 5, (2004), pp. 47-69. ISBN 3-7705-3923-0
* Brödner, Petra, 1997. "Eck kan mek nycht toffrede geven, eck mot to Koffungen". "Kloster und Damenstift Kaufungen im Mittelalter". In: "Kunigunde: Eine Kaiserin an der Jahrtausendwende", pp. 77-112. Kassel. ISBN 3-927327-41-7

External links

* [http://www.akademie-im-stiftshof.de/kloster.htm History and pictures of the abbey]
* [http://www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/cgi-bin/neubutton.cgi?pfad=/diglib/aufkl/journdeut/029882&seite=00000227.TIF University of Bielefeld: 1788 article on the Ritterstift]