Dobbertin Abbey

Dobbertin Abbey (Kloster Dobbertin) is a former Benedictine monastery of monks, afterwards housed a community of nuns, and later still a women's collegiate foundation, located in the municipality of Dobbertin near Goldberg in the district of Ludwigslust-Parchim in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It stands on a spit of land in the Dobbertiner See and includes the only church with two towers in Mecklenburg.

The abbey was founded during the Christianisation of Germany in about 1220 by Prince Heinrich Borwin II of Mecklenburg and was the first field monastery in Mecklenburg. The founder gave it to the Benedictines for a community of monks. 15 years later it was turned into a Benedictine nunnery.

In 1549 the Landtag at Sagsdorf Bridge near Sternberg resolved to introduce the Lutheran Reformation into Mecklenburg. Despite violent resistance the abbey was secularised and in 1572 converted into a Lutheran collegiate foundation for noblewomen (Damenstift).

In the middle of the 19th century the church was restored by Georg Adolf Demmler to plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The work was completed in 1857.

In 1918 the abbey premises became the property of the state and were converted into a youth hostel. After World War II Soviet troops were stationed here, and destroyed much of historical interest.

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