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Diocese of Hildesheim

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Diocese of Hildesheim
Dioecesis Hildesiensis
Bistum Hildesheim
St. Mary's Cathedral, Hildesheim
St. Mary's Cathedral, Hildesheim
Location
Country Germany
Territory Hildesheim, Lower Saxony
Ecclesiastical province Hamburg
Statistics
Area 30,000 km2 (12,000 sq mi)
Population
Total
Catholics 		(as of 2013)
5,349,318
616,210 (11.5%)
Information
Denomination Catholic Church
Sui iuris church Latin Church
Rite Roman Rite
Established 815
Cathedral St. Mary's Cathedral
Patron saint St. Godehard
Mary, Mother of God
Current leadership
Pope Leo XIV
Bishop Vacant
Metropolitan Archbishop Stefan Heße
Auxiliary Bishops Hans-Georg Koitz (emeritus), Nikolaus Schwerdtfeger, Heinz-Günter Bongartz
Map
Website
bistum-hildesheim.de

The Diocese of Hildesheim (Latin: Dioecesis Hildesiensis) is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. Founded in 815 as a missionary diocese by King Louis the Pious, his son Louis the German appointed the famous former archbishop of Rheims, Ebbo, as bishop.

The modern Diocese of Hildesheim presently covers those parts of the state of Lower Saxony that are east of the River Weser, northern neighborhoods in Bremen, and the city of Bremerhaven.

The diocese has been a suffragan to the Archdiocese of Hamburg since 1994. Originally, Hildesheim was suffragan to Mainz until 1805. Then it was an exempt diocese until 1930, before it was part of the Middle German Ecclesiastical Province with Paderborn Archdiocese as metropolitan between 1930 and 1994.

Prince-bishopric

Between 1235 and 1802, the bishop of Hildesheim was also Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. His Hochstift (feudal princely territory) was the Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim. In the 16th century, most of the diocese as well as most of the state of Hildesheim switched to Protestantism, but the bishopric managed to retain its independence from the surrounding Protestant states of Brunswick-Lüneburg, mostly because its bishops were members of the powerful House of Wittelsbach from 1573 until 1761.

Diocesan ambit

Until 1824 the diocesan ambit remained unchanged, despite various changes of the political borders in history up to this date. After the Napoleonic wars the newly established Kingdom of Hanover stipulated with the Holy See to extend the Hildesheim diocesan ambit to all of the then Hanoverian territory east of the Weser river.[1] The newly included areas were Lutheran with a little Catholic diaspora and had formed part of the defunct dioceses of Bremen, of Mainz and of Verden before the Reformation.

Hannover's cession of land for Bremerhaven in 1827 to the prevailingly Reformed Bremen State did not alter the diocesan ambit. In 1834 the prevailingly Lutheran Duchy of Brunswick left the Apostolic Vicariate of Anhalt and agreed to extend Hildesheim's ambit to the ducal territory.[2] Thus the diocese covered areas in three sovereign states, with all of which and thus all the diocesan area becoming part of united Germany in 1871.

The incorporation of Hanoverian suburbs into Bremen city (Bremen North borough) in 1939 did not alter the ambit. In 1965 Hildesheim ceded that part of the then Hoya County District east of the Weser to the diocese of Osnabrück, whereas Osnabrück in return ceded Cuxhaven, Neuwerk, Scharhörn, Schaumburg-Lippe, as well as parts of the districts of Verden, Holzminden, Hameln-Pyrmont located west of the Weser, and the quarters of Nienburg upon Weser west of the river to Hildesheim.[3] In 1995 Hildesheim ceded its Harburg deanery in Hamburg south of the Elbe to the Archdiocese of Hamburg following the erection of this new see.[4]

Episcopal ordinaries

  • Dietmar (20 August 1038 Ordained Bishop – 14 November 1044 Died)
  • Magnus Herzog von Sachsen-Lauenburg (12 May 1424 Succeeded – 20 May 1452 Resigned)
  • Bernhard Herzog von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (20 May 1452 Appointed – 1458 Resigned)
  • Ernst Graf von Schaumberg (1458 Appointed – 22 July 1471 Died)
  • Henning von Haus (29 September 1471 Appointed – November 1480 Resigned)
  • Berthold II of Landsberg (1481 Appointed – 4 May 1502 Died)
  • Erich Herzog von Sachsen-Lauenburg (2 December 1502 Confirmed – 1504 Resigned)
  • John IV of Saxe-Lauenburg (12 July 1503 Appointed – 6 May 1527 Resigned)
  • Balthasar Merklin (6 May 1527 Appointed – 28 May 1531 Died)
  • Otto Graf von Schaumberg (28 July 1531 Appointed – 22 December 1576 Died)
  • Valentin von Tetleben (30 September 1537 Appointed – 19 April 1551 Died)
  • Friedrich Herzog von Schleswig-Holstein (3 October 1551 Appointed – 27 October 1556 Died)
  • Burchard Oberg (31 March 1557 Appointed – 23 February 1573 Died)
  • Ernst Herzog von Bayern (7 March 1573 Appointed – 17 February 1612 Died)
  • Ferdinand Herzog von Bayern (17 February 1612 Succeeded – 13 September 1650 Died)
  • Max Heinrich Herzog von Bayern (13 September 1650 Succeeded – 3 June 1688 Died)
  • Jobst Edmund Freiherr von Brabeck (19 July 1688 Appointed – 13 August 1702 Died)
  • Joseph Clemens Kajetan Herzog von Bayern (1714 Succeeded – 11 December 1723 Died)
  • Clemens August Maria Herzog von Bayern (5 February 1724 Appointed – 6 February 1761 Died)
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Westphalen (7 February 1763 Appointed – 6 January 1789 Died)
  • Franz Egon Freiherr von Fürstenberg (6 January 1789 Succeeded – 11 August 1825 Died)
  • Karl Klemens Reichsfreiherr von Gruben (11 August 1825 Appointed – 4 July 1827 Died)
  • Godehard Joseph Osthaus (26 March 1829 Appointed – 30 December 1835 Died)
  • Franz Ferdinand (Johann Franz) Fritz, O.S.B. (10 March 1836 Appointed – 6 September 1840 Died)
  • Jakob Joseph Wandt (9 December 1841 Appointed – 16 October 1849 Died)
  • Eduard Jakob Wedekin (27 November 1849 Appointed – 25 December 1870 Died)
  • Daniel Wilhelm Sommerwerk (Jacobi) (13 April 1871 Appointed – 18 December 1905 Died)
  • Adolf Bertram (26 April 1906 Appointed – 25 May 1914 Appointed, Archbishop of Breslau (Wrocław))
  • Joseph Ernst (10 February 1915 Appointed – 5 May 1928 Died)
  • Nikolaus Bares (15 January 1929 Appointed – 27 October 1933 Appointed, Bishop of Berlin)
  • Joseph Godehard Machens (22 June 1934 Appointed – 14 August 1956 Died)
  • Heinrich Maria Janssen (3 February 1957 Appointed – 28 December 1983 Retired)
  • Josef Homeyer (25 August 1983 Appointed – 20 August 2004 Retired)
  • Norbert Trelle (29 November 2005 Appointed – 9 September 2017 Retired)
  • Heiner Wilmer (7 April 2018 Appointed – 26 March 2026)

Canonical status and jurisdiction

Roman Catholic Diocese of Hildesheim is a diocese of the catholic church of the Catholic Church.[5]

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Diocese of Hildesheim (Hildesheimensis).

An exempt see, comprising the Prussian province of Hanover east of the Weser, besides the Duchy of Brunswick. It owed its foundation to Emperor Louis the Pious. His father had originally selected for an episcopal see the village of Elze (Aulica), but we are told by the legend that Louis was influenced by a miracle to choose the present cathedral site. He erected on this spot the first chapel in Germany dedicated to the Mother of God. The precise year in which this see was founded is not known; the date varies according to different accounts from 814 to 822. The first bishop was Gunthar (about 815-834). The surrounding dioceses were, on the north, Verden, on the east, Halberstadt, on the west, Minden and Paderborn, and, on the south, Mainz, of which it was suffragan. Rich donations were made to Hildesheim, some of them by the German kings themselves. Immunities and the prerogatives of independent jurisdiction, together with feudal sovereignty, soon brought it a large measure of prosperity and power. The period covered by the administrations of Bishops St. Bernward (993-1022), St. Godehard (1022-1038), and Hezilo (1045- 1079) was one of special lustre. To Bernward's artistic tastes are due the famous bronze doors of the cathedral, the Christus- column, the Bernward cross, also the beautiful church of St. Michael, still preserved, the western crypt of which contains the tomb of Bernward. The Abbey of Gandersheim, renowned as the home of Hroswitha, the famous Latin poetess, was the occasion of a dispute between Hildesheim and Mainz which lasted many years, but was finally settled in favour of the former. Hildesheim obtained its political independence by the severe feud with Henry the Lion.

In 1221 Bishop Conrad II, one of the strongest personalities in thirteenth-century Germany, was invested with princely authority, and in 1235 his authority as territorial lord was recognized at Mainz. But he found the exercise of his ecclesiastical and territorial sovereignty restricted by the corporate independence of the town of Hildesheim, which endured until the middle of the thirteenth century (earliest municipal constitution, 1249), and of the cathedral chapter; the latter, thanks to the "Great Privilege" of Bishop Adelog, maintained since 1170 a far-reaching right of participation in the government; the year 1216 saw the first "Wahlkapitulation"; while in 1221 all participation in the selection of a bishop was finally taken away from the great officers, or Ministeriales, of the see. The close combination of spiritual and temporal authority meant for the bishop countless sources of disorder and of violent conflict with domestic and foreign adversaries, chief among whom were the Guelphs. The victory of Gernard over Duke Magnus of Brunswick and his ally at Dinklar in 1367 is well known. These incessant wars and agitations paralysed religious growth. Bishop Magnus (1424-52) having determined to restore domestic concord, entered into various treaties with neighbouring principalities and towns for the safeguarding of peace, and took up energetically the reform of internal religious life, which popes and councils had so long advocated. Johannes Busch, Provost of the Augustinians, laboured efficiently for monastic reforms; and about this time the Benedictines of Bursfeld began their reformatory work in the diocese. Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa arrived at Hildesheim in 1451. But the reforms were not lasting. The old troubles of the see, war and internal feuds, broke out anew and with greater violence than before, until at length the once flourishing see fell a victim to what is known as the "great diocesan war" (grosse Stiftsfehde). Of its eleven districts, with twenty-seven counties and twenty-one castles, only the three districts of Peine, Steuerwald, and Marienburg, the so-called "small diocese", were left to the See of Hildesheim by the compact of Quedlinburg, in 1523; the "large diocese" fell into the hands of the victorious Guelphs and the once great power of the Bishops of Hildesheim passed away. Internal conflicts prepared the way for the Reformation.

Bishop Valentine strove to strengthen the ancient Faith among his people by calling a diocesan synod in 1539, at which he promulgated a number of decrees; but in vain. In 1542 the city of Hildesheim adopted the new doctrines, and the Protestant Dukes of Brunswick introduced the Reformation into the "large diocese". Catholicism was vigorously defended by the auxiliary bishop, Balthasar, from the pulpit of the cathedral, but the city government had recourse to measures of violence. Amid these disturbances an old man of ninety was erecting in the cathedral one of the handsomest monuments of the early German Renaissance. This was Canon Arnold Fridag, who put up the magnificent lectern (Lettner) with its rich pictorial ornament. Meanwhile the see entered on the most critical period of its history, when a Lutheran prince, Duke Friedrich of Holstein, ascended the episcopal throne in 1551. His premature death saved the see from total disaster. Thanks to his truly Catholic successor, Burchard, the ancient Faith and the few remaining properties of the Church were preserved. The cathedral chapter, after his death, resorted to the only expedient available for ensuring the stability of the see and of the Catholic religion therein, by entrusting the small diocese to a powerful ecclesiastical prince. From 1573 to 1761, with but a short interruption, the bishops were chosen from the ducal House of Bavaria, which, in order more efficiently to combat the spread of Protestantism, kept other sees constantly under its control, among them Cologne itself. They also brought the Jesuits to Hildesheim at an early date.

By this time the Thirty Years War had brought manifold burdens and afflictions on the see. Even the cathedral was for a short time, in 1634, given over to the Lutheran worship by victorious enemies. The see continued to exist, however, though surrounded by Protestant territory. In 1643 the "large diocese", which had been lost in 1523, was regained, though all attempts to win back the population to the Catholic Faith was frustrated by the "Normal Year" article of the Treaty of Westphalia, i.e. what had been Protestant down to 1624 was in the future to remain so. The "large diocese" remained united to Hildesheim until, in 1803, "secularization" severed the prince's crown from the bishop's mitre, and suppressed the Catholic chapter and numerous monasteries and convents. In 1803 the see was given to Prussia as a secular principality. In 1807 it became part of the Kingdom of Westphalia under Jerome Bonaparte, and in 1813 it was incorporated with the Kingdom of Hanover. In 1824 the Bull "Impensa Romanorum Pontificum" gave its present form to this diocese, henceforth deprived of all temporal power, and brought within its jurisdiction all the scattered Catholics of the Kingdom of Hanover east of the Weser. In 1834 the Duchy of Brunswick was added. The new see has an area of about 540 square miles. The true restorer of the see was Bishop Edward Jacob, who by his apostolic zeal and self-sacrifice accomplished great results. He was aided by the personal goodwill of King George V of Hanover, as well as by the general upward movement of the Catholic Faith in Germany. He introduced the Franciscans and the Augustinians into the diocese, also the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, whom he summoned from Paderborn. The present bishop (since 1906) is Dr. Adolf Bertram. The diocese numbers (1908) 201,914 Catholics (without counting soldiers or the inmates of prisons). It is divided into 15 deaneries and contains 109 parishes, 25 Kuratien, 174 churches and chapels; the clergy numbers 233 secular priests, and 4 Augustinian, and 8 Franciscan monks. There are Ursuline nuns at Duderstadt, with 37 professed and 18 lay nuns, besides 8 novices; also Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul at Hildesheim (mother-house), with 35 establishments, numbering 308 professed nuns and 33 novices.

BERTRAM, Die Bischöfe von Hildesheim (Hildesheim, 1896); IDEM, Geschichte des Bistums Hildesheim, I (Hildesheim, 1899); IDEM, Die katholische Kirche unserer Zeit herausgegeben von der österr. Leogesellschaft, II (Munich, 1899-1902), 192 sq.; NEHER, in Kirchenlex., s. v.; DÖBNER, Studien zur hildesheim'schen Geschichte (1902); IDEM, Urkundenbuch der Stadt Hildesheim (Hanover, 1880-1901); JANICKE AND HOOGEWEG, Urkundenbuch des Hochstifts Hildesheim und seiner Bishöfe 4 vols. have already appeared (Hanover, 1896-1905); MARING, Diözesansynoden und Domherrn-General kapitel des Stifts Hildesheim (Hanover, 1905); IDEM, Die Kongregation der barmherzigen Schwestern vom hl. Vincenz von Paul in Hildesheim (Hildesheim, 1908); HILLING, Die römische Rota und das Bistum Hildesheim am Ausgange des Mittelalters, supplement VI of the Reformationsgeschichtliche Studien und Texte (Münster, 1908).

References

  1. Back to citation Cf. Papal Bull Impensa Romanorum Pontificum of 26 March 1824, see Conventio inter Apostolicam Sedem et Saxoniam Inferiorem / Konkordat zwischen dem Heiligen Stuhle und dem Land Niedersachsen, 26 February 1965, Article 2 (1).
  2. Back to citation Cf. Consistorial Decree of 2 July 1834, see Conventio inter Apostolicam Sedem et Saxoniam Inferiorem / Konkordat zwischen dem Heiligen Stuhle und dem Land Niedersachsen, 26 February 1965, Article 2 (1).
  3. Back to citation Cf. Conventio inter Apostolicam Sedem et Saxoniam Inferiorem / Konkordat zwischen dem Heiligen Stuhle und dem Land Niedersachsen, 26 February 1965, Article 2 (2).
  4. Back to citation Cf. Conventiones inter Apostolicam Sedem et Liberam et Hanseaticam Civitatem Hamburgi necnon Foederatam Civitatem Megaloburgi-Pomeraniae Anterioris atque Foederatam Civitatem Slesviciae-Holsatiae: De erectione Archidioecesis et Ecclesiasticae Provinciae Hamburgensis / Vertrag zwischen dem Heiligen Stuhl und der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg, dem Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern und dem Land Schleswig-Holstein über die Errichtung von Erzbistum und Kirchenprovinz Hamburg, 22 September 1994, article 2 (1) and (2).
  5. Back to citation Roman Catholic Diocese of Hildesheim, official website

52°08′56″N 9°56′47″E / 52.1489°N 9.9465°E

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