Guide to Bach Tour
Heiligengrabe [V]

Contents

Description | History
J.S. Bach: Connection | Events in Life History | Performance Dates of Vocal Works | Festivals & Cantata Series
Features of Interest | Information & Links
Photos | Maps

Description

Heiligengrabe is a municipality in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, in Brandenburg, Germany.

Country: Germany | State: Brandenburg | District: Ostprignitz-Ruppin | Area: 206,31 km² | Population: 4,900 (December 2008) (December 2006)

History

Heiligengrabe Abbey (formerly also known as Techow) was founded here as a Cistercian nunnery in 1289 by Heinrich, Bishop of Havelberg and the Margrave Otto of Brandenburg, initially for 12 nuns. It held an important relic in the form of a Bleeding Host which, so it was said, had been violated by a Jew.

The nunnery acquired considerable wealth and estates in the area, partly through the revenue from pilgrims to the Bleeding Host, and partly through donations from the noble families round about, especially when one of their daughters entered the convent. Among the nuns of local great houses were members of the families Gans zu Puttlitz, von Quitzow, von Rohr, von Winterfeld and von Blumenthal. Some of the abbesses were great characters. One had a quarrel with the Duke of Mecklenburg, who refused to pay a debt to the abbey. So she borrowed a large artillery piece and declared war on Mecklenburg, bombarding it across the nearby frontier. At the time of the Reformation, Abbess Anna von Quitzow would have nothing to do with the new religion, and refused to pay tax.

After the Reformation the nunnery became a Lutheran collegiate foundation for secular canonesses (Stiftsdamen) of the nobility, who were obliged to show sixteen quarterings in their arms before being permitted to enter.

Bach Connection

According to tradition, which can no longer be verified, J.S. Bach said to have played the then still relatively new organ in the Klosterkirche, when he visited Heiligengrabe in 1747. This could be done in the context of J.S. Bach's visit at the court of Friedrich the Great (1712-1786), on May 7, 1747 held in Potsdam. We know that J.S. Bach himself then was still in Berlin. On Thursday, May 18, 1747, he was back in Leipzig, taking part with two of his sons at the Last Supper in Thomaskirche. At the latest, May 10, J.S. Bach might have been on his onward journey, which may have led him to Heiligengrabe.

Source: Martin Petzoldt: Bachstäten Ein Reiseführer zu Johann Sebastian Bach (Insel Verlag, 2000), p. 109, English translation by Aryeh Oron (December 2009)

Events in Life History of J.S. Bach

Date/Year

Event

Leipzig (1741-1750)

May 1747

Visit to Heiligengrabe

Performance Dates of J.S. Bach’s Vocal Works: None.

Bach Festivals & Cantata Series: None.

Kloster Heiligengrabe

Features of Interest

Videos

Information & Links

Heiligengrabe (Official Website) [German]
Heiligengrabe (Wikipedia) [English] | Heiligengrabe (Wikipedia) [German]
Heiligengrabe (Wikimedia) [Photos]
Kloster Heiligengrabe [German]

Prepared by Aryeh Oron (December 2009)