Stiftung Kloster Dalheim - LWL Landesmuseum für Klosterkultur

Medieval nunnery, Augustinian canon monastery, baroque heyday, Prussian state domain, estate, museum: the fate of Dalheim Abbey is as eventful as it is exemplary for the monasteries of its time. Based on its own 800-year history, the house invites visitors to discover the world of European monastic culture.
 
From the monastery wall to the late Gothic church, the farmyard with smithy, mill and brewing cellar to the imposing Baroque buildings, almost all the buildings of the once influential monastery have been preserved. The Dalheim monastery gardens with medicinal, ornamental, useful and symbolic plants as well as a selected stock of fruit trees (with a focus on old varieties) invite visitors to relax and linger on around a quarter of the approximately 7.5-hectare site.
 
The award-winning permanent exhibition around the historic cloister shows what monastery culture meant yesterday and today. Eleven rooms, from the church to the storage cellar, use modern staging to show how people lived, prayed and worked in a medieval monastery - including strict monastery fathers, fake fish and medieval underfloor heating. The exhibition on the upper floors uses 300 exhibits to trace the development of European monastic history from the late antique desert fathers through secularization to the present day.
 
The LWL-Landesmuseum regularly devotes itself to special aspects of monastic culture and current socially relevant topics in changing special and studio exhibitions.
 
Several times a year, the former monastery grounds become a venue for theater, music, art and crafts - from the largest monastery market in Europe to the family day "Et labora", the festivals "Dalheimer Sommer" and "Sommernachtslieder" to the "Dalheimer Advent". Guided tours and courses for every age group, vacation programs, children's birthday parties and hands-on activities make the monastery phenomenon an experience.

The museum also includes an inn, a brewery and a monastery store.

Special exhibition from 17.05.2024 to 18.05.2025:
"And forgive us our sins? Monasteries and churches under National Socialism"

Are the Christian faith and belief in National Socialism mutually exclusive? - The question of the relationship of Christian churches and monasteries to National Socialism is characterized by an unprecedented moral fall.

Under the title "And forgive us our guilt? Churches and Monasteries under National Socialism", the Foundation Dalheim Monastery. LWL-Landesmuseum für Klosterkultur is exploring the complex interrelationship between Christianity and National Socialism for the first time in a large-scale special exhibition for a wide audience. Ten questions lead museum visitors on the trail of betrayal and charity, collaboration and resistance, perpetrators and victims: The show sheds light on the measures with which the National Socialists sought to suppress the Christian faith from everyday life and asks what influence Christian motives had in the resistance against National Socialism. At the same time, the exhibition also shows how the Christian churches and their followers were involved in the National Socialist policy of oppression and extermination. The exhibition also discusses how the two major Christian churches deal with their role in National Socialism today.

Special exhibition from 01.05.2024 to 31.10.2024:
"Please put down roots! Sustainable gardening - Green show in the Long Garden"

Which flowers do bees fly to? Who should you leave out in the garden? And why are lazy gardening fans often the happier ones? During the gardening season (May 1 to October 31), the exhibition "Please put down roots! Sustainable gardening".
 
Illustrated information boards and selected illustrative objects provide tips and tricks for a sustainable and ecological garden in the Long Garden. From nesting aids and insect drinking troughs to old varieties and homemade fertilizer, visitors can stroll through the former garden of the head of the monastery and learn how they can counteract the ongoing extinction of species with small means - or even without a shovel and rake.
 
Gardeners and plant lovers can put their feet up in comfort not only at home, but also in the Dalheim monastery gardens. Here they can listen to the lovely garden symphony of bumblebees, black redstarts and co. while gathering inspiration for a feel-good oasis in their own garden.

The "Schau im Grünen" shows how diverse sustainability can look in flower and vegetable beds and whets the appetite for more nature in your own garden.

Detail information on accessibility: Dalheim Monastery Foundation - LWL State Museum for Monastery Culture >>