Klingenmünster Abbey

Klingenmünster Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in the village of Klingenmünster in Bad Bergzabern, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.HistoryAll the abbey's documents were destroyed in the fire of 840, leaving its foundation and earlier history obscure. It seems likely that it began as a foundation of Dagobert I for monks under the Rule of Saint Columbanus. It was certainly in existence by 780 under Fleido as abbot, later Bishop of Speyer. In 840 the monastery burnt down and the request of the monks for funds for its re-building, addressed to Otkar, Archbishop of Mainz, previously abbot of Klingenmünster, constitutes the first direct documentary evidence.It was an Imperial abbey by the time of Hatto I, in the 9th century.In the 11th century a monk of Klingenmünster, Gottschalk, brought the abbey to prominence by his appointment as notary to Emperor Henry IV in the Imperial chancery between 1071 and 1084.In the 12th century Abbot Stephan (in office from 1094 to 1114), originally from Ebersheim Abbey and also abbot of Weissenburg, Selz and Limburg Abbeys before in addition becoming abbot of Klingenmünster, significantly increased the abbey's possessions by attracting donations and grants of land and by advantageous land purchases, which in turn increased the abbey's standing and influence.