Doberan Abbey

After the conversion to Christianity of the Wendish prince Pribislav, Doberan was the first monastery founded in Mecklenburg, in 1171, as a daughter house of Amelungsborn Abbey.

The abbey was refounded at Doberan in 1186 after the original community, at Althof, was killed in 1179 during the upheaval after Pribislaw's death.

Until the Reformation, during which it was secularised in 1552, the abbey possessed great estates, and was the burial place of the Princes of Mecklenburg.

The premises were badly damaged in 1637 during the Thirty Years' War, when the minster was used as a storage depot, and some buildings were destroyed.

During the French occupation of Mecklenburg under Napoleon from 1806 to 1813 more damage was sustained, and the church was again used as an ammunition dump.