It consists of a building complex, the core of which is the historic Hegne Castle. In addition to the monastery, this building complex also houses the Marianum schools, the Maria Hilf nursing home, the Hotel St. Elisabeth and the Theodosius Academy. The monastery is also the seat of the religious province of Baden-Württemberg of this Swiss congregation.
Development and expansion years
In 1892, the Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross acquired the 16th-century Hegne Castle and set up a convent there; In 1895 it also became the seat of the religious province of Baden-Hohenzollern (today the religious province of Baden-Württemberg) of this congregation.
In order to meet the growing space requirements of the numerically rapidly growing monastic community, numerous building projects were quickly necessary:
1893: A barrack belonging to Hegne Castle was converted into a vicarage.
1894: The "Hirschen" inn, which also belongs to the castle, was converted into a "pension and prebendary house".
1888: According to the plans of the architect Clemens Steiner from Schwyz, the provincial house of the order and the monastery church dedicated to Saint Konrad were attached directly to Hegne Castle and inaugurated in 1899.
1902: The "Pensions- und Pfründnerhaus" became a nurses' hospital, "St. called Elizabeth”, expanded. A new “Hirschen” inn was built and leased in the immediate vicinity (today “Haus Franziskus”).
1907: On the occasion of the feast of St. Joseph, the north-south wing of the monastery building, the "Josefbau", was inaugurated on March 19th.
1913: The construction of a new nurses' hospital, "Maria Hilf", was tackled and opened on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 1914, despite the outbreak of World War I.
Starting from the growing Hegne monastery, the nuns founded numerous branches in the province of Baden-Hohenzollern, mostly private nursing stations, children's schools, work schools and sewing and mending schools. The sisters were also used in numerous hospitals.
World War I and the Weimar Republic
As early as September 1914, the nuns took in the first 50 war wounded in the rooms of the Provincial House. In January 1915, one floor of the new house "Maria Hilf" was converted into a war hospital. A total of 250 sisters served in military hospitals during World War I.
In addition, from 1915 to 1918 in the house "St. Elisabeth” admitted 145 patients and their nurses to the “Insane Asylum Sennheim” (Upper Alsace) after their home had been destroyed in the war. After the end of the war in 1918, the now empty house “St. Elisabeth" for several years as a convalescent home for children whose health had suffered as a result of the war.
Despite the war and the post-war years marked by material hardship, the Hegne monastery and the province of Baden-Hohenzollern, which was governed from there, continued to grow. In 1920 the province had 1,027 professed sisters, 46 novices and 192 candidates, more than three times as many sisters as when it was founded in 1895.
In addition to the opening or takeover of further social stations in the entire province of the order, the Hegne monastery was also further expanded. In 1925, a home economics school with a boarding school was opened, which was temporarily housed in Hegne Castle. In 1927, the school was able to move to the "Marianum" building that was specially built for this purpose. In 1929 the construction of a building for a laundry room, an ironing room and accommodation for lay employees of the monastery followed.
Nazism and World War II
The National Socialist period made the work of the nuns in educational institutions and schools increasingly difficult, until their work was finally banned entirely. Under the strictest surveillance of the NSDAP, the sisters were soon only able to work in nursing homes and hospitals.
With the beginning of the Second World War, many sisters have to take care of forced evacuees and serve in military hospitals. Throughout the war, mothers and children who had been evacuated from the industrial regions of north-west Germany and sent by the Caritas Association were taken in in Hegne Castle, in the provincial house, in the St. Elisabeth house and in the "Hirschen" inn (today's house "Franziskus").
Half of the Marianum was confiscated by the National Socialists in 1941 as a resettlement camp for 200 German expatriates. The sisters lived in constant fear that the convent, too, might be confiscated for party purposes. For this emergency, the order distributed civilian clothing and an “emergency penny” to the sisters.
The fact that the Hegne monastery survived the invasion of French troops at the end of April 1945 unscathed is thanks to the Superior General, Mother M. Diomira Brandenberg. This brokered a letter of protection which placed the Hegne monastery and its facilities under the protection of the Swiss government as belonging to a Swiss congregation of religious orders. The letter of protection arrived at the monastery on April 25, 1945, just one day before the occupation by the French army.
The first post-war years were characterized by great material deprivation. The decline in the number of nuns that had begun during the Second World War also continued. The new entrants to the monastery were less and less able to compensate for the deaths. Branches in the religious province increasingly had to be closed due to the shortage of sisters.
After a kindergarten had been opened in the village of Hegne near the monastery in 1953, the monastery church “St. Konrad". The choir wall was equipped with an 80 m2 mosaic by the church artist Wilfrid Perraudin and the room was fitted with new windows. The coffered ceiling and the choir vault with the papal coat of arms of the first church can still be seen today. The church underwent its most recent transformation from 1988 to 1991 with the construction of the crypt. A cross and a statue of Mary to the left and right of the chancel arch date from this phase, as do the windows in the crypt, made of amber onyx and glass by Clemens Hillebrand. As with the conversion of the monastery church in the early 1960s, the artistic design of the crypt was in the hands of Elmar Hillebrand.
After the Hegner sister Ulrika von Hegne (1882-1913) was beatified by Pope John Paul II in Rome on November 1, 1987, the Hegne monastery became a place of pilgrimage for numerous people who visited Ulrika's grave in the new crypt of the monastery church visit.
In the post-war period, the sisters of the Hegne monastery also continued to expand the care facilities on the monastery grounds. After 1965 to 1966 a new house "St. Elisabeth" was built as a conference and guest house, followed by an extension for the Marianum school from 1966 to 1967. Its educational offer was continuously expanded in the following decades and will include the following educational institutions in 2022:
a junior high school
a social science high school (SG)
a vocational college for interns (1BKSP)
a technical school for social pedagogy (2BKSP)
a technical school for organization and leadership (FOF)
a vocational school to acquire additional qualifications (BFQ) for children under the age of 3
Training and further education offers
In addition to the Marianum school, other childcare facilities were expanded or newly established, including:
1993: a new Haus Ulrika to look after the growing number of pilgrims (today the seat of the Theodosius Academy)
1995: the Theodosiusstube, a day meeting place for people in need
from 1998 to 2000: Total renovation and structural expansion of the Maria Hilf Nursing Hospital. Since then it has served as a nursing home not only for nuns, but also for people in need of care from the area.
2009 Extension of the Marianum school
2013: The newly built Haus Josef becomes the seat of the entire administration and apartments for rent.
In 2018, a new supporting structure was created with the founding of the “Foundation Kloster Hegne”. The Marianum school has been sponsored by the foundation since 2019, and the Hotel St. Elisabeth since 2020. In 2020, the Theodosius Academy was founded within the foundation.
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