Martin Rifflinck has a special position among the 58 abbots from Eberbach Monastery. His term at the head of the Cistercian monks in the Rheingau only lasted eight years. However, it stands for the climax and at the same time the end of the medieval development of the monastery founded in 1136 by Bernhard von Clairvaux. Rifflinck is considered the “last big abbot of the Middle Ages” to historian Helmut Heinemann. Not only because of its clever decisions, but above all because of his diverse written estate, which gives a deep insight into the everyday monastery life for monks and laypersons. Under Abbot Rifflinck, what was planned and started under his predecessor Johannes Bode in 1485: the construction of the large barrel. On August 8 of the year 1500, the costly and structured project was finally completed. The first filling of the largest barrel in Europe, celebrated as the “Wonder of the World” is recorded for December of that year, further fillings are documented in 1503 and 1506. According to subsequent calculations, the 8.40 meter long and 2.70 meter high barrel with its 14 iron rings had a capacity of around 71,000 liters. According to a representation of the historian Hilmar Tilgner, in a detailed monograph on the monastery, the barrel in 1502 and 1506 was filled with about half (36 feet) with primarily high quality wine. It was the pride of the monastery and expression of its economic strength. Accompanying the subsequent decline was spared Abbot Rifflinck. His term of office is considered a “turn of time” in the history of the monastery. Noveling: The ground of the former largest wine barrel of the World Marcus Kaufoldenne outside of the monastery walls had started extremely restless times: the German peasant war. In historical research, a whole number of uprisings and unrest of farmers, workers and miners are referred to in 1524 and 1525, which for economic and religious reasons broke out both in southern Germany and parts of Thuringia and Saxony as well as in Franconia, in Tyrol and Switzerland. In May 1525, the disaster peaked in May 1525. The former archive director Heino Struck has meticulously summarized the events for the company to promote Rheingauer Heimatforschung. According to this, around 200 citizens teamed up in Eltville at the end of April 1525 to formulate their symptoms and demands compared to the authorities. In the meantime, 32 lay judges and councilors of all municipalities worked out a list of demands and complaints in 29 articles that were handed over to the Mainz cathedral chapter for approval. Because the cathedral chapter hesitated and asked for a thinking period, the farmers moved to the juniper heath below monastery Eberbach. The archbishop’s governor finally had to accept the demands extended to 31 items. This included a weakening of the position of the nobility in connection with more rights to your own administration, a reduction in tax load and an end to the monasteries. The monks in Eberbach monastery was obliged to provide the protesting farmers – and the large barrel was drunk to two thirds. Between 20 and 31 May 31, the monasteries Eberbach, Gottesthal, Johannisberg, Marienthal, Aulhausen and Eibingen had to enter into documentary obligations that would have resulted in their dissolution. The uprising in the Rheingau also leads to unrest in Bingen, Kastel, Hochheim and Wiesbaden. The influence of Lutherlaut Struck, the uprising in the Rheingau also had its own regional roots in addition to the external influences. The Rheingau living from viticulture and wine trade was comparatively wealthy. However, the financial obligations to the clergy were perceived as oppressive by many. According to Struck, there have been protests against “the wrong of the tenth” and the “spoiled high clergy” for decades before the peasant wars. Luther’s influence extended to the Rheingau. And according to Struck, the Rheingauers had some self -administration rights that they wanted to expand. This also resulted in significant tensions with the Mainz Elector and Archbishop. Use AI article chat with the free registration use advantages such as the notepad. This is not a subscription and not access to FAZ+ articles. You have access with your digital subscription. Thank you for registering the triumph of the farmers, however, was only short -lived. In the Rheingau, the uprising collapsed in June. The insurgents arose, and the contracts and concessions they forced were declared null and void. The damage in the Eberbach monastery, however, was considerable and they were not balanced. The monastery of Steinberg Verfandetdas has now been indebted in the following years lost part of its foreign possessions and the daughter monasteries Schönau and Otterberg. Forests and goods were sold or pledged. For 30 years, even the Steinberg, the monks’ favorite wine mountain, was leased to winemakers after 1578. Historian Heinemann describes the subsequent economic decline of the monastery, which – with a short recovery phase – lasted until the middle of the 17th century and thus after the end of the Thirty Years’ War. However, unlike the Benedictine monastery on the Johannisberg, the Cistercian monastery in the Kisselbach valley was at least preserved. According to Tilgner’s research, the large barrel remained almost empty after the uprising of 1525 for 19 years. In 1542 it was repaired again, in 1543 converted into a smaller barrel with 18,000 liters of capacity. In a recording of the member of the convention, it is said that the large barrel was of no use to the monastery, but only caused damage, a big name, but an empty financial fund. For the Mainz exhibition “Scream for justice- Life on the Middle Rhine on the eve of the Reformation”, the episcopal cathedral and diocesan museum in 2015 made a reconstruction of the Eberbacher Riesenwind Rheingau found.
