The municipal area stretches from the eastern slopes of the Oderwald hills down to the Oker river, about halfway between Wolfenbüttel and Schladen.

The settlement was first mentioned in an 1110 deed, when Bishop Udo of Bishopric of Hildesheim granted the episcopal fortress at Schladen to the Saxon noble Eiko of Dorstadt.

For several decades the monastery prospered, nevertheless first land sales were documented in the early 14th century, and in 1438 large parts of the premises were devastated by fire.

Dorstadt was restored to Hildesheim in 1643, however, the premises decayed and had to be resettled with Catholic nuns after the Thirty Years' War.

The Wittelsbach prince-bishop Maximilian Henry of Bavaria initiated the reconstruction of the monastery in a Baroque style from 1680 onwards.