7 September 2009

 Maulbronn Monastery Today

          Caroline died at approximately 3:00 a.m. on 7 September 1809 in the Ephorat, or headmaster’s residence, and was buried at 4:00 p.m. on 9 September 1809 “behind the church, close to the rear wall,” as Schelling put it in a letter to Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer on 2 October 1809,  locating the approximate gravesite presumably as marked in the aerial photo below.* This was the area traditionally reserved for monks’ burials. Some estimates would locate Caroline’s grave further from the back wall of the church and more to the right than I have indicated here. Recent excavations at the base of the arcade just above the Ephorat in these pictures, and at the adjoining arcade base of the Ephorat itself, revealed the remains of some of those earlier burials.

The obelisk Schelling had erected over her grave was moved to the side retaining wall (to the left in these aerial photos) sometime during the nineteenth century, when all evidence of graves in the cemetery area behind the church was cleared and the area landscaped, thus removing any possibility of determining the precise location of Caroline’s grave. The early photo at right presumably shows the original position of the obelisk against the retaining wall.

In 1922, to make way for a World War 1 memorial, the obelisk was moved down to the side of the church. On 6 November 1971 it was moved back to that earlier retaining wall but in a slightly different location (to the left of the church in this picture, obscured by trees).

          Early illustrations of the monastery complex:

          The Ephorat, where Caroline died, is an imposing, handsome structure located in the back of the monastery and separated from the monastery proper by an arcade structure (the Ephorat is at far right in the photo below). The resident abbot, later called a prelate (as in letters between Schelling and his brother during this period) and, for the first time during the tenure of Schelling’s father, an ephorus, traditionally had guest quarters on the second floor and his own residence on the third floor, as is, with some qualification, essentially still the case today. The rear, or garden side, is shown below:

The front or main entrance is shown below with the second and third stories:

           These two stories are of interest because Caroline almost certainly died in one of them. If she and Schelling were staying in the guest quarters on the second floor, she likely would have died there, otherwise on the third floor, in Schelling’s parents’ private residence. The rooms on the second floor have been restored to their original configuration and size, and the original, beautiful beam structure restored*:

Second-floor bay window:

           As seen in the aerial photos above, Caroline’s presumed gravesite is directly behind the church itself, viewed here from a second-floor window of the Ephorat:

Viewed from a window in the transept inside the church:

Caroline’s obelisk is now located in a secluded area against the retaining wall as shown in the aerial photos above; shown here on 7 September 2009:

Floral placements left at the obelisk on 7 September 2009:

In the Ephorat arcade looking out on the garden area behind the church: