It was founded in 955 by the noblewoman Helmburgis, a relation of the powerful family of the Ecbertiner, on land that had been given to her for the purpose by King Otto I, and is still a house of canonesses today, although now Lutheran women's convent rather than a Roman Catholic monastery.
Despite later repairs and refurbishments, the cloisters and the church, built mostly in the 12th and 13th centuries, are still basically Romanesque.
In the abbey church is a tapestry made in 1583, which portrays the foundation of the abbey in six panels. In the 1950s the author Manfred Hausmann was inspired by the tapestry to write the dramatic piece "Der Fischbecker Wandteppich" (The Tapestry of Fischbeck), which has been performed in the abbey church at Fischbeck several times.
The term Stift is derived from the verb stiften and originally meant 'a donation'. Such donations usually comprised earning assets, originally landed estates with serfs defraying dues or with vassal tenants of noble rank providing military services and forwarding dues collected from serfs. In modern times the earning assets could also be financial assets donated to form a fund to maintain an endowment, especially a charitable foundation. When landed estates, donated as a Stift to maintain the college of a monastery, the chapter of a collegiate church or the cathedral chapter of a diocese, formed a territory enjoying the status of an imperial state within the Holy Roman Empire then the term Stift often also denotes the territory itself. In order to specify this territorial meaning the term Stift is then composed with hoch as the compound Hochstift, denoting a prince-bishopric, or Erzstift for a prince-archbishopric.
Gerresheim is one of the City of Düsseldorf, Germany's fifty quarters. Part of Borough 7, it is located in the eastern part of the municipality. Gerresheim is much older than Düsseldorf itself, having been an independent city with a rich history for over 1,000 years. Gerresheim merged voluntarily with Düsseldorf in 1909.
St. Stephen's Abbey, Augsburg is a Benedictine monastery, formerly a house of Augustinian canonesses, in Augsburg in Bavaria, Germany.
Garsten Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery located in Garsten near Steyr in Upper Austria. Since 1851, the former monastery buildings have accommodated a prison.
Buchau Abbey, otherwise the Imperial Abbey of Buchau, was a self-ruling Imperial Estate and its abbess had a seat and vote at the Imperial Diet.
Heiligengrabe is a municipality in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, in Brandenburg, Germany.
Lamspringe Abbey is a former religious house of the English Benedictines in exile, at Lamspringe near Hildesheim in Germany.
Heiningen is a municipality in the district of Wolfenbüttel, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is part of the Samtgemeinde Oderwald.
Kaufungen Abbey was a Benedictine nunnery founded in 1017 by the Empress Cunigunde of Luxembourg, wife of Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor, located in Kaufungen in Hessen, Germany.
Quedlinburg Abbey was a house of secular canonesses (Frauenstift) in Quedlinburg in what is now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was founded in 936 on the initiative of Saint Mathilda, the widow of the East Frankish King Henry the Fowler, as his memorial. For many centuries it and its abbesses enjoyed great prestige and influence. Quedlinburg Abbey was an Imperial Estate and one of the approximately forty self-ruling Imperial Abbeys of the Holy Roman Empire. It was disestablished in 1802/3. The church, known as Stiftskirche St Servatius, is now used by the Lutheran Evangelical Church in Germany.
Gandersheim Abbey is a former house of secular canonesses (Frauenstift) in the present town of Bad Gandersheim in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was founded in 852 by Count Liudolf of Saxony and his wife, Oda, progenitors of the Liudolfing or Ottonian dynasty, whose rich endowments ensured its stability and prosperity.
Gernrode Abbey was a house of secular canonesses (Frauenstift) in Gernrode in what is now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Gernrode was founded in 959 and was disestablished in the seventeenth century. In the Middle Ages the abbey was an Imperial abbey, which had the status of imperial immediacy, and an Imperial State. In the early modern period, the abbey was part of the Upper Saxon Circle.
Herford Abbey was the oldest women's religious house in the Duchy of Saxony. It was founded as a house of secular canonesses in 789, initially in Müdehorst by a nobleman called Waltger, who moved it in about 800 onto the lands of his estate Herivurth which stood at the crossing of a number of important roads and fords over the Aa and the Werre. The present city of Herford grew up on this site around the abbey.
Wienhausen Abbey or Convent near Celle in Lower Saxony, Germany, is a community of Evangelical Lutheran women, which until the Reformation was a Cistercian Catholic nunnery. The abbey owns significant artworks and artifacts, including a collection of tapestries and the earliest surviving example of a type of eyeglasses.
Walsrode Abbey in Walsrode, Germany, is one of the historic monasteries of Benedictine nuns on the Lüneburg Heath in North Germany which are collectively known as the Lüneklöster. Today it is a Lutheran women's convent that is maintained by the Hanover monastic chamber.
Isenhagen Abbey is a convent in Hankensbüttel in the district of Gifhorn in the German state of Lower Saxony. It was a nunnery founded by the Cistercian order but is now a Lutheran women's convent. It is managed by the monastic chamber in Hanover.
The Vilich Abbey is a former monastery located in North Rhine-Westphalia. It is named after the canonized Adelaide of Vilich, who lived from 970 to 1015. After her death, a cult formed around her and the convent. The convent was terminated in 1804 due to secularization. It was destroyed during the Thirty Years´ war and rebuilt. The Franciscans took over the abbey as a hospital in 1865, followed by many different charitable institutions. The church was destroyed in World War II and once again restored, and is now used as a retirement home.
The Hanover Monastic Chamber, based in Hanover, is a special authority within the scope of the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony. It administers former ecclesiastical, mediatized property and maintains churches and convents. In addition, as a foundation body, it administers four independent foundations under public law.
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