Reifenstein Abbey

Reifenstein Abbey was a Cistercian abbey near the present village of Kleinbartloff in the Eichsfeld in Thuringia, Germany.First buildingIt was founded on 1 August 1162 by Count Ernst of Tonna-Gleichen, on a site then known as Albolderode, and was settled by monks from Volkenroda Abbey near Mühlhausen.The abbey was economically successful and by the end of the thirteenth century had acquired about fifty estates in the neighbourhood. Little is known however of its internal affairs: even the sequence of the abbots is uncertain.In 1521 Heinrich Pfeifer, a monk at Reifenstein, left the abbey to become a Lutheran. He preached rebellion in his native town of Mühlhausen, shared the leadership in the German Peasants' War in Thuringia with Thomas Münzer, and in May 1525, burnt Reifenstein Abbey to the ground. After the Battle of Frankenhausen he was captured near Eisenach and executed, dying impenitent. In 1524 there had only been six monks left in Reifenstein, which after the fire underwent a complete decline: in 1539 only one remained in the ruins, and shortly afterwards the site was completely deserted. In 1575 there was again a single monk, and in 1579, five or six, but they led so lawless a life that Reifenstein, according to a contemporary report, resembled a robbers' cave.