In 1139 Louis (Ludwig) III, the last Count of Arnstein, transformed his castle into a Premonstratensian monastery and himself joined the order.

From 1236, a branch monastery, Keppel Abbey at Hilchenbach, was established under the patronage of the House of Nassau.

With the conversion of the Princes of Nassau to Protestantism in the 16th century, the Archbishopric of Trier assumed the patronage of the Abbey.

The Superior and Vice-Provincial of the monastery, Pater Alfons Spix, died in 1942 in the Dachau concentration camp, because he let the Polish forced laborers participate in worship and gave them breakfast.

In October 2015 the order informed the dioceses that they will leave the abbey at the end of 2018 citing personal and financial resources as the reason.