Charlemagne (who had recently succeeded to the Frankish royal crown) and other benefactors provided endowments, and in 775 gave it the status of a Reichsabtei (lit.

In 1005, the observance was reformed by Saint Gotthard (afterwards Bishop of Hildesheim),[4] and members of the community were sent out to other houses of the order to carry out in them the work of religious revival.

[5] In the last decade of the 11th century the abbey seems to have been fully restored to papal favour, and it continued to prosper for a long subsequent period.

According to a contemporary account, the library was in a state of ruin and decay, many precious volumes had altogether disappeared, and manuscripts containing the archives and records of the house were used in the kennels as litter for the dogs.

[2] For the rest of the century the abbey continued as a Protestant establishment under the close supervision of the rulers of Hesse, and on the death of the last abbot (Joachim Röll) in 1606, Otto, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, was elected lay administrator.

The abbey church, in the Romanesque style, was built in the early part of the 12th century, but was used as a powder magazine and then destroyed by the French in 1761 during the Seven Years' War.

The ruins are now a well-known venue for concerts and public events, and are the site of the annual Bad Hersfelder Festspiele.