Zwiefalten Abbey

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Zwiefalten Abbey (in German Kloster Zwiefalten, Abtei Zwiefalten or after 1750, Reichsabtei Zwiefalten) was a Benedictine monastery situated at Zwiefalten near Reutlingen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.

[edit] History

The monastery was founded in 1089 at the time of the Investiture Controversy by Counts Gero and Kuno of Achalm, advised by Bishop Adalbero of Würzburg and Abbot William of Hirsau. The first monks were also from Hirsau Abbey, home of the Hirsau Reforms (under the influence of the Cluniac Reforms), which strongly influenced the new foundation.

Although Pope Urban VI granted special privileges to it, Zwiefalten Abbey was neverthless the private monastery of the Counts of Achalm, later succeeded by the Counts of Württemberg.

The abbey was plundered in 1525 during the Peasants' War.

In 1750 it was granted the status of "Reichsabtei", which meant that it had the status of an independent power subject only to the Imperial Crown and was free of the rule of Württemberg.

On 25 November 1802 however it was secularised and dissolved, and became a lunatic asylum and later psychiatric hospital, which it is today, as well as the site of the Württemberg Psychiatry Museum.

This article is translated from that on the German Wikipedia.