Our current projects
3D projections
Using state-of-the-art 3D projections - without interfering with the historical substance - we will bring the counts Philipp von Nassau-Weilburg, Johann II and Philipp von Katzenelnbogen to life in the basilica by letting them shine in their original colors and telling the historical connections to the monastery, the Rheingau and cultural history. With the realization of this project, we want to inspire people with new ideas and formats for our cultural monument and make the monastery a place of cultural and knowledge transfer for all generations.
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Bee house
Following the successful establishment of the apiary in Eberbach Monastery, which was achieved with the courageous support of many donors, we are delighted to be expanding this project further and starting the construction of an apiary. We have been able to recruit the sculptor and artist Marten Schech for this project. The “honeycomb house” made of half-timbering is intended to be a place of teaching and learning for everyone, but especially for children and schools, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of the great importance of pollinators in our ecosystem.
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Stone sponsorship
With a stone sponsorship, you immortalize yourself in the cloister and at the same time support the preservation of the almost 900-year-old monastery complex. Whether large, small, with engraved initials or a good wish on the website: with your very own personal stone in the cloister, you can write monastery history - for eternity!
Eberbacher KlosterKids
Eberbach makes school
Eberbach Monastery is a place of experience and adventure for guests of all ages! With the educational program “Eberbach makes school”, the foundation has begun to create exciting, extracurricular learning opportunities for schools with interactive content and pedagogical offers that match the respective teaching content of the classes. As a private individual, company, association or sponsoring foundation, such as the Rotary Club Wiesbaden-Rheingau, which is currently funding the program for three schools, you can give children the opportunity to experience “hands-on history” on a one-off or long-term basis and give school classes an extraordinary day at the monastery.
Children's tours & “Hortus Ludi” playground
We regularly offer age-appropriate discovery tours through the former abbey. The world of bees and bats can be expertly experienced by arrangement.
Our “Hortus Ludi” play garden, a cross-generational adventure world on the monastery grounds, is also located right on the edge of the forest, for which we would like to thank our supporters.
Natural area
A boar that jumped out of a hedge over a stream in front of Bernhard von Clairvaux and Archbishop Adalbert of Mainz - this is the story of the monastery's founding legend.
Today, Eberbach Monastery is part of the Rhine-Taunus Nature Park. The natural area surrounding the monastery is both varied and exciting. In order to preserve and promote the wildlife, the non-profit Eberbach Monastery Foundation relies on the support of donations, because only with outside help can this special natural area be preserved for future generations and thus for at least another 900 years.
Apiary
The tradition of beekeeping is back in Eberbach Monastery! In spring 2023, five bee colonies from nearby Taunusstein moved to the meadows of the nursery and orangery. In the meantime, the small, donation-funded project with five beehives in the spirit of the monastery's founder Bernhard von Clairvaux has grown into a monastic apiary with 18 colonies - and has even found its first bee sponsor in the Star-Apart Hansa Hotel. Your donation will help us to look after our colonies.
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Animal enclosure
Despite a ban on meat, the Cistercian monks practiced intensive livestock farming. In particular, they needed the secondary products of the animals, such as the milk from the cows for cheese production, the wool from the sheep for making clothes and horses, oxen and donkeys as draught and pack animals. Livestock was also not to be underestimated as a source of manure. There is evidence of more than 2,000 sheep in Eberbach in the year 1500 - and even today, in addition to alpacas, some Cameroon sheep can be found on the monastery meadow in Eberbach. With your donation, you actively support us in the species-appropriate keeping and feeding of our animals.
Species protection
The Eberbach Monastery Foundation has been committed to species conservation for many years and has been awarded the “Swallow-friendly house” and “Church tower habitat” plaque by the German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU). But Eberbach Monastery is not only a valuable habitat for wild bees, swallows, dippers, bats, kestrels and Aesculapian snakes: thanks to intensive cooperation with NABU, the toad migration is also successfully accompanied every year.
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Our donation account at the Rheingauer Volksbank eG:
IBAN: DE12 5109 1500 1136 0000 00
BIC: GENODE51RGG
Successfully completed projects
PLAYMOBIL world tour
Around the globe - for tolerance and charity! Over 5,000 small play figures and 100,000 colorful pieces: The next interactive family exhibition is currently running at Eberbach Monastery. From November 25, 2023 to January 12, 2025, the cultural monument in the Rheingau invites visitors on a PLAYMOBIL world tour, staged by Hamburg artist and “Diorama Artist” Oliver Schaffer and rounded off with a specially developed monk figure.
We would like to thank Hit Radio FFH, Fraport, RMV, Rheingauer Volksbank, Baumstark and PLAYMOBIL for their support!
VERTRICKST!
Inclined planes, rooms of mirrors, bizarre birds: from September 24, 2022 to September 3, 2023, the Abbey Museum at Eberbach Monastery was all about “optical illusions”! For one year, the varied illusions exhibition “VERTRICKST!” showed the beginnings of perception research with moving images and kaleidoscopes through to innovative augmented reality techniques.
We would like to thank Hit Radio FFH, Rheingauer Volksbank, vertical, Baumstark and Hachenburger for their support!
Jewish life in dialog
Under the title “Jewish Life in Dialogue”, the foundation exhibited over 100 photographs by Rafael Herlich, some of them large-format, from November 10, 2021 to February 28, 2022. They depicted Jews living in Germany today - how they celebrate, preserve traditions and culture and how the memory of the Shoah shapes them. The event was part of the nationwide #2021JLID festival, which was organized and coordinated by the association “321-2021: 1700 Years of Jewish Life in Germany” with its office in Cologne.
The Eberbach Monastery Foundation would like to thank the Holger Koppe Foundation for its kind support of the photo exhibition.
PLAYMOBIL monastery story(s)
From July 18 to November 21, 2021, 5,000 PLAYMOBIL figures, 50,000 individual parts, countless buildings and rare collector's items invited guests of all ages on a journey into the eventful and exciting history of Eberbach Abbey and the Rheingau region. For the special exhibition “PLAYMOBIL monastery story(s) - Oliver Schaffer Collection”, the Hamburg-based artist staged mini-format display landscapes throughout the tour and museum area, creating a vivid bridge to one of Europe's most important art monuments in the Rheingau.
The Eberbach Monastery Foundation would like to thank the official sponsors and project partners Baumstark, effexx, ESWE, LOTTO, Rheingauer Volksbank, Taunus Wunderland and media partner Hit Radio FFH.
The Bayrle window in the cloister
With the help of generous donors, a fantastic project was realized at Eberbach Monastery in autumn 2020. The world-famous draughtsman, painter, graphic artist and sculptor Thomas Bayrle, who lives in Frankfurt, has designed a stained glass window with a Pietà motif for the cloister. The motif, i.e. the depiction of Mary with the body of Jesus Christ, is a medieval motif that fits perfectly into a monastery. Bayrle has given it a modern interpretation by creating the image - as a kind of “superform” - from many small smartphone motifs.
Eberbach as a tactile model
Around 300,000 visitors come to Eberbach Monastery every year. The idea of setting up a tactile model of the grounds will improve access to the site for everyone. It offers blind and visually impaired people more independence, mobility and quality of life. For children and young people, it awakens a spirit of fun and discovery through a “sensory” understanding of the cultural assets. Adults use it to find their way around the site.
The representatives of the working group of Wiesbaden's disabled people's organizations and Interessengemeinschaft Behinderter (AK) Wiesbaden were delighted that it is a 3D print that is pleasant to the touch.
Eberbach Monastery under National Socialism
In a research project, Eberbach Monastery has commissioned a historian to examine its own role and the role of the Rheingau region during the National Socialist era. The results can be found in a book, which is available in the monastery and in bookshops. More information on the history of the monastery during the Third Reich can be found here.
Why are donations so important for Eberbach Monastery?
The extensive renovations, which were begun in the 1980s and are now in their final phase, are largely funded by the State of Hessen. However, the Eberbach Monastery Foundation has to maintain the extensive complex without tax or church subsidies. The income from entrance fees, guided tours, events, rentals and, from 1st January 2020, also from overnight hotel stays, must cover the running costs of the foundation.
Julius Wagner
Phone: +49 (0) 6723 9178-118
Mail: stiften@kloster-eberbach.de
