St.-Marien-Kirche (St. Mary’s Church) in Bergen was one of the first places of worship to be built on Rügen after the island’s conquest and Christianization by the Danes in 1168. In 1193, Prince Jaromar I sent Danish nuns from Roskilde Marienkonvent to Rügen, endowing the new church complex with property on the island, the Rügen mainland, and in the Wusterhusen region. Although, from the outset, the nuns lived in accordance with Cistercian principles, their convent was not incorporated into the order until the thirteenth century.

The Cistercians take their name from the Cîteaux Abbey in France, where the order was founded and then spread throughout Europe in the twelfth century. The veneration of Mary, Mother of God, holds an important place in the liturgy and pious beliefs of the Cistercians. Mary is the patron saint of the order and all Cistercian monasteries and convents were consecrated to her.

The nuns sought salvation by adherence to strict life vows. The best known of these is The Rule of St. Benedict of Nursia, the saint after whom the Benedictines are named. The Cistercians strove to follow The Rule as strictly as possible and adopted corresponding statutes. Outwardly, they distinguished themselves by wearing a new religious habit: instead of the black habit of the Benedictines, Cistercians wore a greyish white habit made of undyed wool with a black scapular. Cistercian monasteries were purposely located in remote areas, far away from the secular distractions of the world. The monks and nuns had to earn their own living. A strict rule of silence applied. To communicate, they used sign language or went to the parlatory, a designated room for conversation. Simplicity and silence, work and prayer – nothing was supposed to disturb their communion with God. This was also of great importance to the laity because it was hoped the prayers of the monks and nuns would maintain the necessary equilibrium in the sinful world and thus avoid the wrath of God.

A consecrated place full of constant prayer and holy relics made the grounds a favoured burial location. Lay people made gifts to the convent to secure a grave there and the intercession of the nuns.

Convent life was under the direct control of a prioress. Important matters were first discussed between her and the senior sisters, the Olderfrouwen, before they were submitted for general approval to the other members of the convent. Both the convent and the prioress are mentioned in the documents exhibited above, and both had their own seals.

All secular matters were the responsibility of the provost. He also used a seal, either his own, as in the case of Hinrik von der Lancken from 1489, or a general official seal.

The spiritual supervision and care of the nuns was the remit of the Cistercian monastery of Eldena, an abbey that owned the Mönchgut peninsula. The abbot or a monk from Eldena travelled to Bergen to hear the nuns' confessions or to monitor their way of life. The remains of a gravestone exhibited here was once used as a step in one of the convent buildings. The incomplete inscription ‘d[omi]n[u]s wilhem[us] monach[us] i[n] hilda q[ui]’ translates into English as ‘Dom Wilhelm Monk in Hilda/Eldena’. As prior, the monk Wilhelm was the deputy to the abbot of Eldena and died after 1404, probably in Bergen, where he was then also buried.

Wax impression from the seal used by the prioress of St. Marienkloster (St. Mary’s Convent) in Bergen. The round impression shows a lamb with a halo as a symbol of Christ, holding the banner of victory in one hoof, with the chalice and wafer in front of it. Apart from two periods in its history, St. Marienkloster in Bergen was always run by a prioress and not by an abbess, which means that that it was not an abbey, but a priory.

The seal must date from before 1335 as regulations issued by Pope Benedict XII for the Cistercian Order in that year specified that seals had to bear the names of the respective abbots or priors in office.

Wax impression from the convent seal of St. Marienkloster in Bergen.

The ogival impression shows a full-length Virgin Mary in a nun’s habit with her arms bent at the sides. In her hands she carries a palm branch and a book, probably the Rule of St. Benedict. The Cistercians followed this Rule, but interpreted it more strictly than their contemporary Benedictines. The seal dates from before 1335. In that year, Pope Benedict XII decreed that each convent should have its own seal. The order this requirement and decided that the convent seal should be round and show the image of the Virgin Mary.

During the Reformation, the Bergen convent was converted into a Damenstift (a women’s collegiate foundation run like a secular convent) for unmarried women of noble birth. The new seal is based on the medieval model with two differences: Mary is given a halo and the book has a cross on its cover. This identifies it as Holy Scripture, the sole guiding light of the new faith; the Rule of St. Benedict no longer had any role to play.

Replica and wax impression from the seal of the provost of St. Marienkloster in Bergen.

The seal was found after 1800 in the ruins of Eldena Monastery near Greifswald. The abbot of this Cistercian monastery supervised the convent in Bergen. Its ogival shape identifies it as the seal of a clergyman. It shows a monk worshipping the Virgin Mary and Child standing on a base with Gothic carvings.

Wax impression from the seal of the monastery provost Hinrik von der Lancken in 1489. Hinrik von der Lancken was also an associate judge in the court of the Landvogt (bailiff/sheriff) of Rügen. The coat of arms shows a wall anchor in front of a cross. The wall anchor is the emblem used on the coat of arms of the Rügen von Gagern family. Why the motif appears on Hinrik von der Lancken's seal is unclear.

All the land in Bergen belonged to the convent, and anyone who wanted to live there became a Marienkloster subject. Together with the provost and the prioress, the Klostervogt (convent bailiff/administrator) administered justice according to Wendish law. In cases of dispute between Bergen residents, the quartermasters of the overall area, which was divided into four districts, were also called in. The nuns demanded feudal services from the residents and levied various charges in kind: for housing, farmland leases, and every property transaction, plus a monetary rent from in total fourteen taverns. The convent itself managed the beer cellar, its own brewery with an adjoining tavern, and the ‘store’, which housed the cloth merchants. The nuns demanded the right of first refusal at the markets. The Cistercian nuns in Bergen also enjoyed priority over the Bruderschaften/Kalande (confraternities). The contracts of the Rügen Kaland, the Elendsbruderschaft (Confraternity of the Poor) and the two confraternities of the Holy Trinity and All Saints required an approval seal from the prioress of the Marienkloster.

The communion chalice on display may have been one of the liturgical vessels of the Kaland confraternity. After the parish church on Rugard was handed over to the nuns in 1286 and demolished by them almost 100 years later, the nuns and the parish shared the convent’s church.

In 1730, the convent relinquished ownership of the church, and it has been Bergen's main church ever since. The parish church and the ‘maiden’s’ church were separated by an iron grille. The ladies had their own pews, and the prioresses continued to enjoy the privilege of being buried in front of the altar.

This question is the direct translation of the Hebrew name Michael, the name of the patron saint of the Catholic Church and of Germans, knights, soldiers, merchants, bakers, scale makers, coopers, pharmacists, wood turners, tailors, glaziers, painters, gilders, lead and tin casters, bank employees, and radio mechanics, as well as of poor souls, the dying, and cemeteries.

The Archangel Michael overthrew Lucifer, expelled Adam and Eve from Paradise, and parted the Red Sea during the exodus of Israel from Egypt. Michael carries the Scales of Souls and welcomes the blessed into Paradise. His trumpet will awaken the dead at the Last Judgment and his sword will slay the dragon.

At the Council of Mainz in 813, King Louis the Pious decreed that the feast of the Archangel Michael should be at the beginning of autumn in the week previously dedicated to the worship of the Germanic god Wotan. Michaelmas Day is celebrated on 29 September.

The wooden sculpture of the Archangel Michael that is on display here dates from around 1700.

In 1532, the Landtag (diet) in Treptow an der Rega (Trzebiatów) declared Lutheranism to be the governing religion in Pomerania, and just two years later, most of the church treasures had already been removed from the Marienkloster in Bergen. However, the nuns fiercely resisted the full implementation of this Reformation edict. They drove the first Lutheran pastor, Johannes Hähn, from the pulpit with stones and chased the congregation out of the church, so that the service had to be held in the churchyard. Although all the monasteries in Pomerania were abolished during the Reformation, it was decided that five convents should continue to exist as a Damenstift (a women’s collegiate foundation run like a secular convent) for ‘educating maidens of noble birth’. But only the three convents of Bergen, Marienfließ, and Stolpe were able to secure their existence in this way. Johannes Bugenhagen, a close confidant of the reformer Martin Luther, wrote new rules for conventual worship. The Klosterordnung issued in 1569 were no less strict than the previous rules. A maiden who pursued a ‘dissolute lifestyle’ was to be executed by the sword, and half of her assets were to be used for church buildings and half for the care of the poor. With the confiscation of the convent’s property, the dukedom assumed responsibility for its upkeep, while the women became the responsibility of the Bergen town authorities. However, this proved insufficient, and the convent’s financial situation worsened as a result of looting during the Thirty Years’ War. In the subsequent period of Swedish rule, state secretary Andreas von Gyldenklau obtained the usufruct of the convent’s assets from Queen Christine, and subsequently the monarch herself claimed them. It was Queen Christine who presented the Damenstift with the Bible on display here.

With the support of the Swedish crown, the current Damenstift buildings were erected in 1773–36, but a third planned wing was never built. The remains of the medieval convent complex were demolished. In 1776, Queen Sophia Magdalena of Sweden presented the women with blue and white sashes bearing a Cross of Honour, which were worn by conventuals and passed on to their successors until the dissolution of the Damenstift.

Despite a brief period during which Napoleon’s troops were billeted there in the early nineteenth century, the Damenstift slowly recovered. The work of Prioress Julie von Usedom deserves special mention. She initiated the redesign of the convent grounds as gardens, and she set up a ‘nursery school’ in 1886. Under the direction of a deaconess, the ‘Julien-Stift’, named after Julie von Usedom, was opened – primarily to children “of the poorer classes free of charge.” In a 1945 entry in the ‘memorabilia book’ that goes back to 1852, a conventual wrote: “The refugees are coming in droves. Many thousands are already housed here on Rügen, and more are still arriving. [...] The Russians are advancing at an alarming rate and are getting closer and closer to us. On 4 May, they even came to Rügen. [..] We watched their arrival with trepidation, and white flags were raised everywhere. [...] One day they came to look at our convent building, and on 14 May the eviction order arrived. We had to be out by 10 a.m. on 15 May.” After the Soviet troops left, the buildings were occupied by refugees. The last conventual died in 1957.