Benedictine Abbey Göttweig

Stift Göttweig

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The Benedictine Abbey Göttweig, founded in 1083 by Bishop Altmann of Passau, was subjected to reprisals by the local Nazi authorities shortly after Austria's annexation to the Nazi German Reich in March 1938 and was confronted with demands to hand over land to farmers as compensation. The primary school, which was privately run in the Abbey, and the boys' choir were closed due to the withdrawal of public rights. With the appointment of Krems as the district capital of the Lower Danube Region in July 1938, 16 surrounding communities were incorporated, including the community of Steinaweg with the Göttweig Abbey. The financing of the expansion into the new administrative center of Niederdonau (Lower Danube) was to come from various sources, one of which was the expropriation and exploitation of Göttweig Abbey’s assets. On 17 February 1939, the city of Krems placed the Abbey under provisional administration on behalf of Mayor Franz Retter. The monks were interrogated in the Gestapo headquarters in the Viennese Hotel Metropol and finally placed under house arrest in the provost's courtyard of the monastery in Unternalb near Retz. After the approval of the Reich Ministry of the Interior in Berlin and the Reich Commissioner for the Reunification of Austria with the Nazi German Reich in Vienna, Josef Bürckel, the city of Krems withdrew all movable and immovable assets as well as all rights and claims from the Gestapo Vienna State Police Control Center dated 15 August 1939, Göttweig Abbey. Only the question regarding the parish property and its separation from the monastery's assets could be delayed until the end of the war. As a result, the monastery was empty, and from 1940 onwards, the city of Krems took possession of all of its furnishings, collections and art objects. The majority of the books, manuscripts, paintings, natural history collections, the coin collection, dishes and furniture were transported away and mainly went to depots in the Steiner Minoritenkirche and the former Krems synagogue. The Krems city administration gave some of the items to the Dorotheum for auction, sold them to private individuals or to the Gau Niederdonau, or gave away individual objects as bribes. From December 1940, the Abbey served as a reception and transit camp for ethnic Germans from Bessarabia, Bukovina and Serbia, as well as a prisoner of war camp. Since this represented an ever-increasing financial burden for the city of Krems over time, on 1 January 1943, the listed building was donated to the Society for the Promotion and Care of German Cultural Monuments in order to set up a National political Educational-Institution (Napola School). This school was in operation until April 1945. Due to the approaching war front, SS units took up positions in Göttweig in March 1945, retreating across the Danube on the morning of 8 May 1945.

On 15 May 1945, Father Adalbert Lohmann, commissioned by Abbot Hartmann Strohsacker, requested the return of the monastery and its assets in Krems. On 17 May 1945, even before a legal solution for the return had been reached, Karl Suppanz, provisional mayor of the city of Krems, appointed Father Lohmann as provisional administrator of the Abbey. The monastery had been spared from immediate war damage but had been left completely desolated. In October 1945, the last Göttweig monks returned from Unternalb. It was only after the Third Restitution Act came into force in January 1947 that the monastery was able to gradually reclaim its movable and immovable property. With the exception of a few properties in Mautern, Göttweig regained most of its properties. The lost earnings continued to be disputed in court until a settlement was reached in 1954. The return of movable assets, particularly the furniture and art collections, was particularly difficult. By 1949, after a lengthy search, the majority of the monastery's furniture had been returned from the various depots and offices in Krems and Stein, but the process dragged on until 1954, due to the refusal of the state of Lower Austria to be considered the legal successor to the Reichsgau Niederdonau. This process involved the return of art and furnishings that the city of Krems had given to the Niederdonau Gauleitung to furnish offices and some private apartments. The dispute was resolved with an out-of-court settlement on 21 April 1954. In addition to the lost income, this also included the movable assets still owned by the State of Lower Austrian, although only a few furnishings and collection items could be secured in their offices and depots. The monastery's restitution efforts therefore continued over the following decades, so that from 2019 to 2022 there were further in rem restitutions by the city of Krems, the State of Lower Austria and the Republic of Austria in the areas of art and natural history.

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Beiratsbeschluss Stift Göttweig, 25.06.2020, URL: www.provenienzforschung.gv.at/beiratsbeschluesse/Stift_Goettweig_2020-09-25.pdf (16.09.2024).

Helmut Engelbrecht, Göttweig zur Zeit der Ersten Republik und der NS-Herrschaft, in: Bayrische Benediktinerakademie (Hg.), Geschichte des Stiftes Göttweig 1083–1983, Festschrift zum 900-Jahr Jubiläum, St. Ottilien 1983, 386–429.

Hans Frühwirth, Die Doppelstadt Krems-Stein, Krems 2000.

Maximilian Krenn OSB, Stift Göttweig von 1938 bis 1945, in: Gedenkschrift zur Jahresausstellung 1998, 1938–1998. Aus Zerstörung auferstanden, Zum Gedenken an Abt Wilhelm Zedinek 1898–1971, Furth bei Göttweig 1998, 7–13.

Clemens Lashofer, Jüngste Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, in: Bayrische Benediktinerakademie (Hg.), Geschichte des Stiftes Göttweig 1083–1983, Festschrift zum 900-Jahr Jubiläum, St. Ottilien 1983, 430–451.

Kurt Preiß, Von der Befreiung zur Freiheit, Krems 1945–1955, Krems 1997.

Stefan Spevak, NS-Vermögensentzug, Restitutionen und Entschädigung in der Diözese St. Pölten (= Veröffentlichungen der Österreichischen Historikerkommission. Vermögensentzug während der NS-Zeit sowie Rückstellungen und Entschädigungen seit 1945 in Österreich 22), Wien/München 2004.

Andreas Liška-Birk, Göttweiger Spurensuche, in: Armin Laussegger/Sandra Sam (Hg.), Tätigkeitsbericht 2019 der Landessammlungen Niederösterreich und des Zentrums für Museale Sammlungswissenschaften, St. Pölten 2020, 164–167.

Bernhard Rameder, Göttweiger Bücher im Salzberg. Die Bergung der Göttweiger Handschriftenammlung während des Zweiten Weltkrieges im Salzbergwerk Altaussee, in: Vom Schreiben und Sammeln. Einblicke in die Göttweiger Bibliotheksgeschichte, Astrid Breith (Hg.), Studien und Forschungen aus dem Niederösterreichischen Institut für Landeskunde 74, St. Pölten 2021, 195–215.

Andreas Liška-Birk/Thomas Mayer, Enteignete katholische Pflanzen. Das Herbar des Stiftes Göttweig, in: Birgit Kirchmayr/Pia Schölnberger (Hg.), Restituiert. 25 Jahre Kunstrückgabegesetz in Österreich (=Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung 9), Wien 2023, 368–375.

Susanne Hehenberger, Der Sonderauftrag Münzen. Quellen im Archiv des Kunsthistorischen Museums Wien, in: RETOUR Freier Blog für Provenienzforschende, Wien 2023, URL: retour.hypotheses.org/2425 (23.10.2024).

Archives

BDA-Archiv, Restitutionsmaterialien, M. 11, Z. 671, Stift Göttweig.

OeStA/AdR, Finanzen, BMF, Zl. 183.179-34/53.

Stiftsarchiv Göttweig, Nachlass Zedinek, Gedächtnisprotokoll, 14.4.1950 ;  Vergleichsausfertigung zu 63 RK 328/52, 1.4.1954.

NÖLA, RStH ND,  Dez. IIA-1-410/1940, Ankaufsakt Herbarium Stift Göttweig.

Landessammlungen Niederösterreich, Kulturdepot St. Pölten, Karteikarte zu Landschaft mit Hirten und Herde, Cajetan Roos,1735, Inv.Nr. KS-3662.
Landessammlungen Niederösterreich, unveröffentlichtes Dossier zu Stift Göttweig (Herbariensammlung, Cajetan Roos: Landschaft mit Hirten und Herde, 1735), St. Pölten 2019.