"I have a deep connection to Kloster Eberbach. As a child I often sang there with the ‘Kiedricher Chorbuben’ and at the age of 18 I was allowed to participate as an extra in the filming of the movie "The Name of the Rose". The preservation and further development of this historic site is very close to my heart and I would be delighted if you would also support the monastery."
Andreas Scholl, Countertenor
Our Current Projects
A Dialogue with Jewish Life
Photographs by Rafael Herlich in Kloster Eberbach
Under the title "A Dialogue with Jewish Life", the Kloster Eberbach Foundation is showing photographs by Rafael Herlich until 28th February 2022. More than 100 pictures, some of them in large format, are on display in the monks' dormitory and in the abbey museum. They depict Jews living in Germany today - how they celebrate, preserve traditions and their culture - and how the memory of the Shoa shapes them. Rafael Herlich is considered one of the most important chroniclers of Jewish life in Germany.
The event is part of the nationwide celebration year #2021JLID, which is organised and coordinated by the association "321- 2021: 1700 Years of Jewish Life in Germany e.V." with its office in Cologne. The Kloster Eberbach Foundation would like to thank the Holger Koppe Foundation for kindly supporting the photo show.
Rafael Herlich personally guided Dr. Holger Koppe and his wife Nurya Koppe (Deputy Chairwoman of the Advisory Board of the Holger Koppe Foundation) as well as Horst Scheider (Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Holger Koppe Foundation) and his wife through the exhibition.
Set your Stone
The fundraising campaign "Set your stone"continues - take the opportunity and secure your personal stone!
Eberbach KulturKids
Awareness of the importance of Kloster Eberbach as a cultural asset for future generations is an important concern of the Foundation's work.
With the program "Eberbach Culture Kids", the Foundation has begun to create content-related offers for children and young people.
The aim is to convey history through age-appropriate and pedagogically interactive offers. The former Cistercian abbey presents itself as an exciting, extracurricular place of learning as well as a historical experience and adventure space.
As a private person, company, sponsoring foundation or association, you can make it possible for children to get in touch with history on a one-off or long-term basis and give one or more school classes a day at the monastery.
The project is complemented by the Culture Kids Day, which takes place once a year - a hands-on festival for the whole family.
Eberbach Schools
Educational excursions to the monastery
"Eberbach Schools" is a central project component of "Eberbach Culture Kids": During educational excursions to the monastery for different age groups, topics from the subjects of religion, history, art and politics are prepared and vividly conveyed on site. In addition to informative and exciting guided tours, a complete project week with a final day is planned for the long term.
We thank our supporters
Union Investment Foundation
We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to the Union Investment Foundation for its extraordinary commitment to the Eberbach Schools project. With funding of €10,000, school classes will be able to take part in the foundation's educational program on a regular basis in the first half of the school year 2021/2022.
Peter Schulz, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors of the Union Investment Foundation:
Schoolchildren in particular have also had to endure many restrictions since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic. That is why it was particularly important for the Union Investment Foundation to make a contribution to the "Eberbach Schools" educational program. After the summer holidays until the Christmas holidays, this will hopefully mean that at least one school class from the region can once again be invited to Kloster Eberbach - one of the largest and most important monasteries in Germany - every week.
Hortus Ludi
The Kloster Experience
The inspirational power of the Cistercians can be experienced by all generations: with HORTUS LUDI, a cross-generational world of experience is being created on the monastery grounds.
Children's Audio Guide
The creation of a children's audio guide that provides children and young people with age-appropriate access to the monastery complex and imparts knowledge about the 900-year-old cultural asset in an interactive, intuitive and playful way. Development of a comprehensive media and museum education program that enables cross-generational, lifelong learning in the unique monastery complex on various topics.
Barrier-free Kloster
The Kloster Eberbach Foundation is working intensively to create barrier-free access as far as possible in order to enable as many people as possible to have access to the European cultural heritage. For example, there are already special guided tours for wheelchair users and people with walking difficulties, where the tour is rearranged so that the monastery can be experienced barrier-free.
The foundation is planning further projects in this area for the coming years, such as sign language tours for the deaf and a singing bowl installation in the basilica. On the basis of an impulse paper prepared by f.ink, the specialist agency for inclusion, the access barriers to the monastery complex are to be successively minimised.
Nature Park Kloster Eberbach
A boar jumped out of a hedge over a stream before the eyes of Bernard of Clairvaux and Archbishop Adalbert of Mainz - so the founding legend of the monastery tells us.
Today, Kloster Eberbach is part of the Rhine-Taunus Nature Park. In order to preserve and promote wildlife, the non-profit foundation relies on the support of donations.
Current projects are the replacement of the toad fence, which enables safe toad migration, and the expansion of habitats for beneficial insects such as wild bees.
Successfully Completed Projects
Playmobil
From 18 July to 21 November 2021, 5,000 PLAYMOBIL figures, 50,000 individual parts, countless buildings and rare collector's items invited guests young and old on a journey into the eventful and exciting history surrounding Kloster Eberbach and the Rheingau.
For the special exhibition "PLAYMOBIL Kloster History - Oliver Schaffer Collection", the Hamburg artist staged breathtaking play and picture worlds throughout the tour and museum area that go far beyond the original ideas of the manufacturers. The miniature landscapes built a vivid bridge to one of Europe's most important art monuments in the Rheingau.
The Kloster Eberbach Foundation thanked the official sponsors and project partners Baumstark, effexx, ESWE, Lotto, Rheingauer Volksbank, Taunus Wunderland and media partner Hit Radio FFH with a special guided tour.
Learn more
The Bayrle Window in the Cloister
In October 2020, a special treasure moved into the cloister: The internationally renowned artist Professor Thomas Bayrle has created an arcade window from many small smartphone motifs.
Learn more
The Renovation of the Cloister
With the commitment of more than 220 stone sponsors and a heartfelt project has become reality. Martin Blach, Chairman of the Board of the KLoster Eberbach Foundation, and the Minister of the Environment and Chair of the Board of Trustees, Priska Hinz, paid tribute to the commitment of all those involved. Countertenor Andreas Scholl, who has accompanied the project from the beginning, surprised the guests at the inauguration ceremony with a small exclusive performance in the basilica.
The possibility of future stone sponsorships by no means ends with the inauguration - donors can also become part of Eberbach Eternity in the future.
Eberbach as tactile Model
Around 300,000 visitors come to Kloster Eberbach every year. With the idea of setting up a tactile model of the grounds, access to the grounds is enriched for everyone. It offers blind and visually impaired people more independence, mobility and quality of life. For children and young people, the "sensual" grasp of the cultural asset awakens a spirit of fun and discovery. Adults use it for orientation on the grounds.
The representatives of the working group of Wiesbaden's disabled people's organisations and the Wiesbaden disabled people's interest group (AK) were enthusiastic about the fact that it is a 3D print that is pleasant to touch.
Kloster Eberbach under National Sozialism
In a research project, Kloster Eberbach had a historian examine its own role as well as the role of the Rheingau during the National Socialist era.
The results can be found in a book that is available at the monastery and in bookshops. More information about the history of the monastery during the Third Reich can be found here...
Why are donations so important for Kloster Eberbach?
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 Kloster Eberbach 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
