Mariental Abbey (German : Kloster Mariental), in the present-day municipality of Mariental in Lower Saxony, Germany, is a former Cistercian monastery founded in 1138, now used and owned by a Lutheran congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick.
The monastery was founded by Friedrich II von Sommerschenburg (c. 1100 – 1162), Count palatine (Pfalzgraf) of Saxony. It then was a daughter house of Altenberg Abbey of the filiation of Morimond. The initial complement consisted of twelve monks from Altenberg under an abbot (Bodo) from Amelungsborn Abbey. The Augustinian nunnery of Marienberg in nearby Helmstedt was subsequently established in 1176. When the Sommerschenburg family became extinct in 1179, Mariental Abbey with its possessions were seized by the Welf duke Henry the Lion.
The abbey soon achieved great prosperity: its estates extended as far as Magdeburg, Jüterbog and Braunschweig. In 1232 it established a daughter house of its own, Hude Abbey . However, at the end of the 14th century it entered a phase of steady decline.
The monastery was dissolved in 1569 as a consequence of the Protestant Reformation. A Lutheran school had been set up in the premises in 1542, operating until 1745. A seminary for the training of teachers was also established here, and this continued until 1773, when it was transferred to Helmstedt.
The buildings today belong to the Braunschweigische Vereinigte Kloster- und Studienfonds, while the church has become the Protestant parish church of Mariental.
Werden Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Essen-Werden (Germany), situated on the Ruhr.
The University of Helmstedt, was a university in Helmstedt in the Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel that existed from 1576 until 1810.
Bursfelde Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery located in Bursfelde, a hamlet which for administrative purposes is included in the municipality of nearby Hannoversch Münden in Lower Saxony, Germany. Today the abbey church and its estate cover a site of approximately 300 hectares which is administered by the Klosterkammer Hannover, a body that operates under the auspices of the Lower Saxony Ministry for Arts and the Sciences to look after reassigned or disused ecclesiastical buildings and other heritage properties in the region. The legal owner of the Bursfelde Monastery Complex is the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover.
Ilsenburg Abbey was a monastery of the Benedictine Order located at Ilsenburg near Wernigerode, in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. The former abbey is a stop on the Romanesque Road.
St. Ludger's Abbey was a former monastery of the Benedictine Order in Helmstedt, Lower Saxony, founded by Saint Ludger around 800. Until it was secularised in 1802 it was an Imperial Abbey, with sovereignty over the whole town of Helmstedt until the 15th century.
Volkenroda Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery in the municipality of Körner in the district Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis of Thuringia, Germany.
Loccum Abbey is a Lutheran monastery in the town of Rehburg-Loccum, Lower Saxony, near Steinhude Lake.
Zinna Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery, the site of which is now occupied by a village also called Kloster Zinna, today part of Jüterbog in Brandenburg, Germany, about 60 km (37 mi) south of Berlin.
Lehnin Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery in Lehnin in Brandenburg, Germany. Founded in 1180 and secularized during the Protestant Reformation in 1542, it has accommodated the Luise-Henrietten-Stift, a Protestant deaconesses' house since 1911. The foundation of the monastery in the newly established Margraviate of Brandenburg was an important step in the high medieval German Ostsiedlung; today the extended Romanesque and Gothic brickstone buildings, largely restored in the 1870s, are a significant part of Brandenburg's cultural heritage.
Walkenried Abbey was a Cistercian abbey located in the village of Walkenried in Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1127 on the southern rim of the Harz mountain range, the remnants of the monastic complex since 2010 are part of the Upper Harz Water Regale World Heritage Site.
Herrevad Abbey was a Cistercian monastery near Ljungbyhed in Klippan Municipality, Scania, in the south of present-day Sweden, but formerly in Denmark until 1658. It is now a country house known as Herrevad Castle.
Riddagshausen Abbey was a Cistercian monastery just outside the city of Brunswick 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 Duke Liudolf of Saxony, progenitor of the Liudolfing or Ottonian dynasty, whose rich endowments ensured its stability and prosperity.
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.
Amelungsborn Abbey, also Amelunxborn Abbey, is a Lutheran monastery in Germany. It is located near Negenborn and Stadtoldendorf, in the Landkreis of Holzminden in the Weserbergland. It was the second oldest Cistercian foundation in Lower Saxony, Germany, after Walkenried Abbey. It survived the Reformation by becoming Lutheran, and with Loccum Abbey, also previously Cistercian, is one of the only two Lutheran monasteries in Germany with an uninterrupted tradition. The abbey church, St. Mary's, is also the parish church of the abbey's former estate villages Negenborn and Holenberg.
Michaelstein Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery, now the home of the Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein - Musikinstitut für Aufführungspraxis, near the town of Blankenburg in the Harz in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany.
Ebstorf Abbey is a Lutheran convent of nuns that is located near the Lower Saxon town of Uelzen, in Germany.
Countess Anna of Stolberg-Wernigerode was a German noblewoman who reigned as Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg from 1516 until her death. She was elected princess-abbess under the name Anna II at the age of twelve, succeeding Magdalena of Anhalt.
Altenberg Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery in Altenberg, now a part of the municipality of Odenthal in the Bergisches Land, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Buch Abbey, in German Kloster Buch, is a former Cistercian monastery near Leisnig in Saxony.
