Huysburg Abbey (Röderhof)

Founded in 1080, Huysburg Abbey was among the earliest monasteries to join the reform movement of the Bursfelde Congregation in the late 15th century. It was one of the very few Catholic monasteries of the region which survived the Reformation under the provisions of the Treaty of Westphalia. The abbey was dissolved in 1804 as part of the secularisation process and its estates were taken by the Prussian State.

The Benedictine community which is now located within the walls of the Huysburg was founded in 1972, and was the only Benedictine monastery in the DDR.

After the establishment of the DDR, a branch seminary of the seminary in the Diocese of Paderborn was set up here for those parts of the diocese lying in the DDR. The seminary was closed in 1993 after the reunification of Germany.

Since September 2004 Huysburg Priory has been joined with St. Matthias' Abbey, Trier, and is now therefore a priory of the abbey. In August 2005 the brothers of St. Matthias' and of the Huysburg priory elected a joint abbot, Ignatius Maass, resident in Trier.

In the Romanesque abbey church is the tomb of the Blessed Ekkehard, the first abbot of Huysburg. In 2004, at his own request, the former apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Magdeburg, Bishop Johannes Braun, was also laid to rest here.

The Huysburg is one of the main places of pilgrimage in the Diocese of Magdeburg, and many Catholics come there every year, for example on the first Sunday in September for the Family Pilgrimage of the Diocese.