Steinfeld Abbey

The historical beginnings go back to the time of Henry I (919-936), but are lost in the historical darkness. 1069 we find the first documented mention of the name Steinfeld for an estate owned by Bishop Udos von Toul in the Cologne diocese. In 1121, regular canons from Springiersbach (Wittlich district) came to Steinfeld. A deed of donation from the Archbishop of Cologne at the time, Frederick I, to these regular canons dates from the same year, documenting the founding of Steinfeld Monastery. Around 1138 they took over the rule of the still young Premonstratensian order, which was only founded in 1120 by St. Norbert von Xanten, who later became Bishop of Magdeburg. Steinfeld was one of the most important monasteries in the German Empire. Subsidiaries were founded in Ireland, Holland and Germany as well as in Eastern Europe. The Strahov Monastery (1140) near Prague is of particular importance. In 1184 the provost becomes Steinfeld Abbey, in which 44 abbots ruled in uninterrupted succession until secularization (1802). After secularization in 1802, the monastery served various secular purposes until it was taken over and revived by the Salvatorian order in 1923. The Salvatorians took over the former monastery church and today’s basilica as well as pastoral care in the parish, founded a grammar school and a boys’ boarding school that has since been closed. Today, in addition to a monastery shop with a monastery café, they run the Steinfeld Monastery Academy and run the guest house. The monastery comes into the possession of the Prussian state and becomes an educational institution in 1853. The abbey is dissolved by Napoleon: the monastery church becomes a parish church, St.Andrew´s Church is demolished, the monastery buildings are sold and art objects are disposed of. Abbot Evermodus Claessen from Gangelt gives the monastery complex it present form. The extensive monastery wall with the large entrance gate follows in 1789. After the difficult years (including the plague): Beginning of a new golden age for Steinfeld. First documented mention of the name Steinfeld for an estate owned by Bishop Udos von Toul in the Cologne diocese.