Scholars in the study year 2020-2021
Excursion to Höxter: The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Corvey and the Coptic Monastery of Brenkhausen
In order to know more about the Catholic Church in Germany, the learning journey of the new scholars started on the 15th of September 2020, as they participated in their first excursion, accompanied by Dr. Johannes Oeldemann and Ruth Nefiodow.
The excursion to Höxter started with the visit to the wonderful Princely Abbey of Corvey (Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey). Not only did the world heritage site offer to observe the fascinating former monastery/baroque castle, but also it was a place to explore the medieval period of North Rhine-Westphalia and the historical social and cultural impact of the Catholic Church within that time.
The next and final stop was the Coptic Monastery of Brenkhausen - a former Cistercian monastery. The group was warmly welcomed by His Eminence Bishop Anba Damian and invited to a delightful lunch. The tour at the monastery, guided by Father Ikladius, introduced the group to the Coptic Orthodox Church and its long-standing tradition. Remarkably, the fact that the monastery complex includes an active Catholic Church could let the scholars experience directly the ecumenical witness and the brotherly coexistence of both Churches in Germany.
by Antranik Manoukian
At the Hermann monument and the open air museum Detmold
Somewere in the North-Estern of Paderborn, after a 30 minutes drive you can find the city of Detmold, wich is modest but on the other hand very impressive at preserving an important part of the history of the passed centuries in the land of Nordrhein-Westfalen.
Our day began from early morning, when the sun was still very shy. After we arrived at the first destination, we walked for several minutes to the top of the hill where a metalic 53 meters giant called Hermann waited for us only to tell us his glorious story about defeating the romans at the Teoutoburg forrest ( year 9 AC).
From this hill you could easily see a great part of Ostwestfalen. There where also many trails trough the forest wich converged all in the same point: the statue of Hermann. While walking on one of this trails we found an outdoor amphitheatre in the middle of natrure.
Our second destination was Freilichtmuseum Detmold LWL, an outdoor museum. Here we had the great oportunity to see and to learn how the people form NRW lived in the last five centuries. There were houses of a large variety: from the clasic clay and reed roof to the ones made from brick and tile roof.
In the begining we were visiting the "Lippischer Meierhof", where the houses had at least 300 years old, and were built out of clay on a wooden structure.
Not less worth to montion the fact that at that time people used to live in their houses together with the animals. The reason was a practical one, because in the cold season it would be easier to heat the entire house.
The „Paderborner Dorf” had by far the most similarities to the nowadays village. In this village the profession and the social category of the inhabitants could be determined more than the rest of the villages by the type of the houses.
Our next destination in the outdoor museum was the "Sauerländer Hof". Here the houses had an interesting specific: they are all in black and white. Altough they look very old, they were representative for the historical period of the year 1900 because we could find inside the houses some of first electricity consumer such as the light bulb.
Our last stop in the LWL Museum was the "Gräftenhof", a village surrounded by water. These houses were builted from brick on a wooden structure but with a tile roof. Even though the brick is considerd to be a better material when it comes to insulation, the houses were also designed for living with the animals.
After the museum visit we decided to end this great day with a walk in the city center of Detmold, which was not less impressive at all.
by Florin Nicolaie
