Memleben

Memleben
Ortsteil of Kaiserpfalz
Memleben Abbey Church ruins
Memleben
Coordinates: 51°17′N 11°34′E / 51.283°N 11.567°E / 51.283; 11.567Coordinates: 51°17′N 11°34′E / 51.283°N 11.567°E / 51.283; 11.567
Country	Germany
State	Saxony-Anhalt
District	Burgenlandkreis
Town	Kaiserpfalz
Area
• Total	16.76 km2 (6.47 sq mi)
Population (2006-12-31)
• Total	716
• Density	43/km2 (110/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	06642
Dialling codes	034672
Vehicle registration	BLK

Memleben is a village and part of the Kaiserpfalz municipality of the Burgenlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is known for former Memleben Abbey, the site of a medieval Kaiserpfalz.

It is located southwest of Nebra on the Unstrut River. The former municipality was merged with the neighbouring villages of Bucha and Wohlmirstedt into Kaiserpfalz on 1 July 2009.

Nowadays the village has about 800 inhabitants. It also has an animal training center open to the public.

A settlement called Mimelebo was already documented in a 780 register of the Hersfeld Abbey estates, issued by Archbishop Lullus of Mainz. In the 10th century the Pfalz or villa regia of Memleben, a kind of seasonal king's court, was one of the favourite places of the German king Henry the Fowler and his son Emperor Otto I. Henry the Fowler died here, probably by a stroke, on 2 July 936; his son Emperor Otto I also used Memleben as a temporary residence and died here on 7 May 973. According to the Res gestae saxonicae by the contemporary chronicler Widukind of Corvey, his intestines were buried in a Memleben church.

On behalf of Emperor Otto II, son of Otto I, the Benedictine Memleben monastery was built there from about 979 to honour the memory of his father. The Imperial abbey became one of the most important monasteries in the German kingdom for a short time, until in 1015 Emperor Henry II ceded it back to the monks of Hersfeld Abbey.