St Augustine's Monastery

In 1266 Augustinian monks settled in the then flourishing and most populous city of Thuringia, Erfurt. After several disagreements with the city fathers they were driven out of the city, but returned soon afterwards in 1276.

They were allocated the parish church of St Philip and St Jakob, which was in a very bad state of repair. In 1277 they began repairing the ruins and building a new church. By the year 1518, St Catherine's Chapel,  chapter room, cloisters, long house, church tower, priory, library and woad houses had all been erected.

Even as early as the beginning of the 14^th century, a significant and valuable monastery library existed, which grew rapidly as a result of donations and subscriptions. At the beginning of the 16^th century a substantial donation of books triggered the construction of a separate library building, which housed the entire collection from 1516 onwards.

From 1505 until 1511 Martin Luther lived here as a monk and he read his first mass in St Augustine's church on 2^nd May 1507. According to his own words, he experienced the most influential years of his life here at St Augustine's in Erfurt. Today you can see valuable documents relating to this in the permanent exhibition called “BIBLE-MONASTERY-LUTHER”.

In 1522 after returning from Wittenberg, Johannes Lang, a very good friend of Martin Luther, became the  prior at St Augustine's and smoothed the way for Luther's teachings in Erfurt and the surrounding area. Later that same year he renounced his vows as did many other monks. Three years later St Augustine's church was handed over to the the local parish. In 1556 the last monk died and in 1559 the monastery was secularised.

In order to prevent the monastery falling into ruin or being demolished, the west wing and the priory were used as the protestant city grammar/high school (Evangelisches Ratsgymnasium). The former dormitory of the monks was used by the pupils as a living-area for a time. The school was an educational institution with the the spirit of the Reformation and its purpose was to educate the next generations of priests, teachers and local government officials. However the number of pupils eventually fell and the school had to be closed in 1820.

In 1646 the “Library of the Evangelical Ministry” (Bibliothek des Evangelischen Ministeriums) moved into the monastery, because the former monastery library had been largely destroyed after the Reformation. The very dilapidated east wing of the monastery, the arbour house and the guest has could be repaired or rebuilt through donations, and grants from the city council and the elector so that the newly founded Evangelical orphanage could use these buildings from 1669 onwards.

1821 The New Priory was demolished because of structural problems. The western side of the monastery, (west wing, old priory, intermediate building, library and woad storehouses) were used, henceforth by the Martin Foundation. The purpose of the institution was to care for orphaned and neglected children. However, the buildings of the Augustinian monastery were not in good condition, however, with the assistance of the Prussian king, Frederick Wilhelm IV it was possible to rebuild or renovate the west wing and the priory according to designs by Karl Frederick Schinkel. The passage linking the west wing with the library was constructed at this time.

After the the church had been renovated and given a Baroque interior in 1617 it was a long time before any further maintenance or repair work was done. By the beginning of the nineteenth century the building was in a very poor condition and despite some repairs it had to be closed in 1844 because it was structurally unsafe. A petition to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV brought about the turning point and resulted in the restoration of the church with state funding as a conference centre in the neo-Gothic style in 1848. From March to May 1850, St Augustine's church hosted the German Union Parliament, in which 91 representatives of the upper house and 223 members of the lower house met to draw up a draft constitution for the unification of Germany. However this was later rejected by the congress of princes. Among the participants was Otto von Bismarck, who began his political career in St Augustine's church.

In 1852 the building was converted for church use and reconsecrated in 1854. In 1935 the tower was damaged by lightening which presented the opportunity to carry out the long-planned renovation of the church. The aim was to restore the simple character of the fourteenth century. Under the direction of Theo Kellner, the pulpit, organ and roof acquired their present day look.

The 25^th February 1945 was a terrible day in the history of the monastery. In an air raid, two bombs fell on the woad houses and the library, where local people were sheltering. 267 people lost their lives in this tragic event. Only a young girl and a dog were pulled alive out of the rubble. In the following year rebuilding work began on the rebuilding of the other monastery buildings which had been damaged by the shock waves of the explosion. The orphanage moved out after the war and was eventually closed in 1958. Once the east wing had been rebuilt and the guest rooms had been modernised, the Evangelical Theological School (Evangelische Predigerschule) moved here from Wittenberg in 1960. Until its closure in 1993 over 500 young people lived and studied in St Augustine's monastery.

The west wing, the priory and the land they stand on has belonged to the City of Erfurt since their secularisation. When the city donated the east wing and the guest house in the Renaissance Court to the Evangelical orphanage in 1669, this in effect created a boundary line (with respect to the ownership) through the middle of the monastery. With the acquisition of the west wing in 1980 it was then possible to renovate it. During this decade the Luther exhibition was created and the Library of the Evangelical Ministry moved into  a newly renovated room. In 1988 the church conference centre was opened and 2 years later the old priory was completed and the Provost of Erfurt could move in.

During the years 2000 - 2003 extensive restoration and modernisation works were carried out in the monastery so that it is now a fully equipped meeting and conference centre.