According to the 11th-century chronicles by
Hermann of Reichenau, the monastery of Kempten dedicated to
Virgin Mary and
Gordianus and Epimachus was established in 752 under its first abbot Audogar. According to other sources, it was however erected by two Benedictine monks from the
Abbey of Saint Gall,
Magnus of Füssen and Theodor, who also founded the
St Mang's Monastery in
Füssen. The abbey had financial and political support from the ruling
Carolingian dynasty, mainly from
Hildegard, the second wife of
Charlemagne, and her son
Louis the Pious. It soon became one of the more prominent monasteries in the
Carolingian Empire. It was rebuilt in 941 by the abbot
Ulrich of Augsburg after
Magyar raids.
Imperial Status The status of
Imperial immediacy (
Reichsfreiheit) was confirmed by King
Henry IV of Germany in 1062. The Kempten abbots assumed the title of a
Prince-abbot (
Fürstabt) in the 12th century. In 1213 the
Hohenstaufen king
Frederick II of Germany vested them with
comital privileges in the abbey's territory and in 1218 also ceded the rights of a secular
Vogt protector, confirmed by his son King
Henry VII in 1224. Several attempts under their successors
Conrad IV and
Rudolph I to regain the secular lordship ultimately failed. The abbey's development of an Imperial estate was accomplished with the bestowing of a single vote in the
Imperial Diet in 1548. By a privilege granted by King Rudolph I, the town of Kempten had freed itself from the authority of the abbot and became a
Free imperial city, starting a long rivalry. When during the
German Peasants' War in 1525 the Kempten Prince-abbot had to seek shelter within the city walls, he was forced to sell his last property rights inside the imperial city in the so-called “Great Purchase”, marking the start of a tense co-existence of two independent estates bearing the same name next to each other.
Thirty Years' War More conflict arose after the Imperial city of Kempten from 1527 onwards converted to
Protestantism in direct opposition to the
Catholic monastery. The citizens signed the 1529
Protestation at Speyer and the 1530
Augsburg Confession. In turn, Kempten Abbey joined the
Catholic League in 1609. During the
Thirty Years' War, the monastery buildings were burnt to the ground by
Swedish troops in 1632. From 1651, the Kempten Prince-abbot Roman Giel of Gielsberg commissioned a princely residence and the new abbey church
St. Lorenz Basilica, one of the first major churches to be built after the war in Germany. Still in 1706, Kempten was the center of a religious controversy, when the abbot confiscated a Reformed church, which provoked King
Frederick I of Prussia to confiscate all Benedictine properties until the church was returned.
Secularisation Emperor
Charles VI granted the monastery complex
town privileges in 1728, however, an autonomous municipality was not established. In 1775 the abbey ordered the last
witchcraft trial in the Holy Roman Empire, when
Anna Maria Schwegelin was sentenced to death by decapitation, though the verdict was not enforced. During the
Napoleonic Wars the abbey's territory was occupied by
Bavarian troops in 1802 and was formerly dissolved in the subsequent
German mediatization (
Reichsdeputationshauptschluss). The abbey's territory as well as the Imperial city of Kempten were annexed by Bavaria, in 1819 both territories were merged into a single communal entity within the
Kingdom of Bavaria. ==Notes==