Werden Abbey was a Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

 monastery in Essen-Werden

Essen-Werden

Werden is a borough of the city of Essen in Germany. It belongs to the city district IX Werden/Kettwig/Bredeney and has 9,998 inhabitants as of June 30, 2006. The borough occupies a space of 4.04 km² and is situated at a median height of 58 metres above sea level.- History :The history of Werden...

 (Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

), situated on the Ruhr.

The foundation of the abbey

Near Essen Saint Ludger

Ludger

Saint Ludger was a missionary among the Frisians and Saxons, founder of Werden Abbey and first Bishop of Münster in Westphalia....

 founded a monastery in 799 and became its first abbot. The little church which Saint Ludger built here in honor of Saint Stephen

Saint Stephen

Saint Stephen The Protomartyr , the protomartyr of Christianity, is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Churches....

 was completed in 804 and dedicated by Saint Ludger himself, who had meanwhile become Bishop of Münster. Upon the death of Ludger on 26 March 809, the abbacy of Werden passed by inheritance first to his younger brother Hildigrim I (809–827), then successively to four of his nephews: Gerfried (827–839), Thiadgrim (ruled less than a year), Altfried (839–848), Hildigrim II (849–887). Under Hildigrim I, also Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne, the new monastery of Helmstedt

Helmstedt

Helmstedt is a city located at the eastern edge of the German state of Lower Saxony. It is the capital of the District of Helmstedt. Helmstedt has 26,000 inhabitants . In former times the city was also called Helmstädt....

 in the Diocese of Halberstadt was founded from Werden. It was ruled over by a provost

Provost (religion)

A provost is a senior official in a number of Christian churches.-Historical Development:The word praepositus was originally applied to any ecclesiastical ruler or dignitary...

, and remained a dependency of Werden till its secularization in 1803.

Werden was a wealthy abbey with possessions in Westphalia

Westphalia

Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...

, Frisia

Frisia

Frisia is a coastal region along the southeastern corner of the North Sea, i.e. the German Bight. Frisia is the traditional homeland of the Frisians, a Germanic people who speak Frisian, a language group closely related to the English language...

, eastern Saxony

Duchy of Saxony

The medieval Duchy of Saxony was a late Early Middle Ages "Carolingian stem duchy" covering the greater part of Northern Germany. It covered the area of the modern German states of Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saxony-Anhalt and most of Schleswig-Holstein...

 and around the abbey itself, where it had a territory of 125 km².

Under Hildigrim II the monastery, which up to that time had been the property of the family of Saint Ludger, obtained, on 22 May 877, Reichsunmittelbarkeit — the right of free abbatical election and immunity. Henceforth the abbots of Werden were imperial prince

Prince-abbot

A Prince-Abbot is a title for a cleric who is a Prince of the Church , in the sense of an ex officio temporal lord of a feudal entity, notably a State of the Holy Roman Empire. The secular territory ruled by the head of an abbey is known as Prince-Abbacy or Abbey-principality...

s and had a seat in the imperial diet

Diet (assembly)

In politics, a diet is a formal deliberative assembly. The term is mainly used historically for the Imperial Diet, the general assembly of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire, and for the legislative bodies of certain countries.-Etymology:...

s. The abbey church of Werden, destroyed by fire in 1256, was rebuilt in the late-Romanesque

Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

 style (1256–75). Thereafter the monastery began to decline to such an extent that under Abbot Conrad von Gleichen (1454–74), a married layman, the whole community consisted of but three, who had divided the possessions of the abbey among themselves. After a complete reform, instituted in 1477, by Abbot Adam von Eschweiler of the Bursfelde Congregation

Bursfelde Congregation

The Bursfelde Congregation, also called Bursfelde Union, was a union of predominantly west and central German Benedictine monasteries and nunneries working for the reform of Benedictine practice. It was named after Bursfelde Abbey.-Background:...

, Werden continued until its secularization in 1803.

Early modern times

Problems arose after the Reformation

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

 when the Vögte (lords protectors) of the abbey were the Protestant rulers of Brandenburg

Brandenburg

Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...

, who had inherited the neighbouring County of the Mark

Mark (county)

The County of Mark was a county and state of the Holy Roman Empire in the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle. It lay on both sides of the Ruhr River along the Volme and Lenne Rivers....

.

The construction of Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 abbey buildings, textile production and coal mining formed the economic basis of the territory of Werden in the 18th century.

The end of the abbey

During the secularization

German Mediatisation

The German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany between 1795 and 1814, during the latter part of the era of the French Revolution and then the Napoleonic Era....

 in 1803 the abbey and its territory became part of Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

, but three years later it was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Berg. In 1815 it became Prussian again as part of the Rhine Province

Rhine Province

The Rhine Province , also known as Rhenish Prussia or synonymous to the Rhineland , was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822-1946. It was created from the provinces of the Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg...

. The buildings are used by the Folkwang Hochschule.