Monastery Wennigsen am Deister

Kloster Wennigsen stands in the village of Wennigsen am Deister, fifteen kilometres southwest of Hannover. It is one of five Calenberger monasteries managed today by the Klosterkammer Hannover. The site includes a medieval monastery church whose oldest part, a Romanesque defence tower, dates from about 1150. The monastery was founded around 1200 by local nobles who donated land and rights. In 1224 Bishop Konrad I of Minden secured the community’s status, and later the counts of Schaumburg became its advocates. After the Reformation the site became an evangelical women’s convent, surviving destruction in the Thirty Years War before being rebuilt in the early 18th century. In 1920 it served as an arms depot, and after 1945 it sheltered more than a hundred refugees. Inside the church visitors see a Gothic nave and a northern transept with the nuns’ choir. The tower’s lower walls are of sandstone, while the upper part is held together by mortar. Fifteen stained-glass windows by Franz Lauterbach were added in 1911. Today the monastery also houses Via Cordis, a centre for quiet reflection offering courses and retreats.