Herbrechtingen Abbey

The Herbrechtingen Monastery, founded in 774, is located in Herbrechtingen in the district of Heidenheim. On September 7, 774, Charlemagne gifted the villa Herbrechtingen to his chief chaplain, Abbot Fulrad of Saint-Denis near Paris, who founded a monastery here. He erected the parish church dedicated to Saint Dionysius. In 777, Fulrad transferred the cell of Herbrechtingen to his abbey of Saint-Denis. In 1046, King Henry III stayed at the monastery. In the same year, the cell foundation became a collegiate church.

In 1171, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa transferred the collegiate church to the Augustinian Canons and thus endowed the monastery with extensive privileges and estates, which he handed over to monks from Hördt Monastery under Abbot Adalbert. In the same year, the monastery received market rights. Presumably, the new construction of the convent in Staufer-era ashlar masonry also began around this time.

In 1279, the people of Giengen plundered the collegiate church; in 1449, the monastery and village of Herbrechtingen were plundered again. In 1472, the provost's building was rebuilt. Around 1520, monastic discipline gradually declined, and the provosts of Ulm and Augsburg unsuccessfully attempted a reform. In 1552, Duke Ulrich of Württemberg closed the monastery and converted it into an evangelical monastic office. The Duke appointed the provosts. After some renovations of the monastery buildings in 1563, Herbrechtingen was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War after the Battle of Nördlingen. In 1666, the granary was rebuilt in half-timbered construction on the foundations of the Augustinian convent from 1200. Subsequently, some buildings were rebuilt or partially renovated.

From 1807, the monastery buildings stood empty; in 1830, the monastery was sold to Ludwig von Hartmann, who had the convent wings demolished and set up a modern spinning mill in the remaining buildings. In 1844, the Nattheim Children's Rescue Institution of the Inner Mission acquired the front part of the monastery buildings. In 1931, the Hartmann spinning mill was dissolved; in 1932, the former monastery property was sold to Otto Merz, Mössingen. In 1944, a KLV camp (Kinderlandverschickung - evacuation of children from cities at risk of bombing) was set up in the annex. In 1993, the city of Herbrechtingen acquired the former monastery and developed plans for the "Kloster Kulturzentrum" (Monastery Cultural Center) project, whose construction began in June 1997 and which was inaugurated on September 13, 2002.