As the owner of the monastery grounds, the island town of Malchow is making every effort to ensure that the historical precinct is preserved as a culturally enlivened monument. The complexity and sheer scope of the concept proscribe a gradual realisation of the project. The minutely detailed renovation work will certainly continue for years to come, but the monastery complex has already developed into an important cultural center, for both the town of Malchow, and indeed, the entire region.

Art Museum

The baroque rooms in the area of the former refectory were dedicated for the permanent exhibition of paintings, drawings and prints created by regional artists and owned by the town of Malchow. Works of the Mecklenburg artists Rudolf Gahlbeck (1895-1972), Sieghard Dittner (1924-2002), Franz-Friedrich Pingel (1904-1994) and Peter Hesse (1921-2008) can be enjoyed here. Specially prepared windows, revealing historical findings, allow you to uncover the fascinating architectural history of this oldest surviving building in the convent complex. Alternating special exhibitions supplement and deepen the scientific analysis of 20th-century Mecklenburg painting.

 Museum of the Monastery History

In the Middle Ages, the south-eastern part of the monastery complex served as a dormitory. This wing was then divided into four terraced houses and rebuilt as part of the monastery at the beginning of the 18th century. The permanent exhibition on the history of the monastery is now being prepared there. The main focus is on the modern history of the evangelical, aristocratic monastery: its residents and their life in the convent in the context of everyday culture, religion and architecture, as well as the economic and legal conditions. The still-intact maids’ chambers are also included in the exhibition tour, as is the reconstruction of an open-hearth kitchen, offering the possibility of cooking in a group. The redesigning of the canonesses’ former house gardens enabled a “gallery of garden uses” to be created through a careful reproduction of typical 19th century garden scenarios. Here, a kitchen garden, flower garden and pavilion will become part of the museum presentation.

Mecklenburg Organ Museum

The Mecklenburg Organ Museum is located in the monastery church and the parsonage. Both the permanent and temporary exhibitions provide detailed information about the history and function of the organ in general and, in particular, the organ inventory in Mecklenburg. A model organ provides a wealth of information about technology and sound, and it can be played by visitors. Organ building and organ playing are part of the Intangible World Heritage and the museum is charged with the storage of endangered instruments and the research of Mecklenburg organ building. It also disposes over an extensive hymnological collection and a sound carrier archive.

Kiek in un Wonner You

The exhibition premises of the Malchow local history museum are located in the house of the former wheelwright’s workshop, spatially  separated from the cultural center. Curiosities from the everyday lives of the population invite you on a journey into the first half of the 20th century. It’s a hands-on experience, where touching is expressly permitted.

Through further donations of farmland, forest, shares in mills and the acquisition of fishing rights, the convent became rich and fared better economically than the town of Malchow. In the 14th century the rules of the Cistercian order were adopted. The convent then existed until the Reformation in 1572.

After that it became, like the monasteries in Ribnitz and Dobbertin, a state institution and residence for unmarried daughters of the Mecklenburg nobility. The wealth of the convent continued to grow as a result of donations from the aristocracy.

 The neo-Gothic church, built between 1844 and 1849 by master builder Friedrich Wilhelm Buttel, was also the parish church of the Malchow monastery community. This also included the vicarage built in 1835. The nave of the monastery church was rebuilt after a fire in 1888 by the Schwerin master builder Daniel.

The state monasteries and convents were dissolved after the First World War. However, the women of the convent or canonesses retained their right of residence. The entire property became the property of the Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

The convent complex and the other neighbouring residential buildings formed the independent municipality of Malchow Monastery with its own school, hospital, forester’s office, brickworks and cemetery until 1935. Since then, the district of Malchow Monastery has been incorporated in the town of Malchow.

The extensive convent complex has been renovated step by step since 1991. The function of the former monastery buildings is divided between cultural and residential use.

As a rule, the daughters of the Mecklenburg nobility were enrolled in one of the three state monasteries shortly after birth. The eldest in Dobbertin, the second daughter in Malchow, the third in Ribnitz and then the sequence was repeated. A registration fee had to be paid and the aristocratic origin of the parents and grandparents had to be proven in order to obtain a so-called acceptance, tantamount to an entitlement to a place in a convent.

The families of the long-established Mecklenburg aristocracy as well as noble families who were officially admitted into these institutions, were entitled to cloisters. If the daughters did not marry, they were then entitled to a financial allowance from the monastery – the elevations  were staggered in increments and were usually paid quarterly to the canonesses living abroad. Only the canonesses, who, after a long period of waiting had moved up to the full payment in cash or kind and were then already of an advanced age, received one of the conventual apartments in the monastery and moved to the Malchow convent. In addition to free housing and monetary support, the full payment was mainly associated with extensive deliveries of natural resources from the monastery farm, such as firewood, game, fish and stabling. Each conventual lived in one of the spacious terraced houses on the convent and managed her own household with the help of a maid.

 From the 18th to the 20th century, the Malchow convent permanently consisted of 14 conventuals and the deaconess, as the superior or abbess in the state monasteries of Mecklenburg was commonly known.

 After the revolution in November 1918, the state monasteries were dissolved.  Monastic property was nationalized and placed under the auspices of the new state government, while the monasteries’ assets and estates were initially administered by the Ministry of Finance.

 The monastery lawsuits were brought by the knights of Mecklenburg and a number of canonesses at the beginning of the 1920s. The private claims of the co-plaintiffs and prospective nuns were upheld. The compensation entitlement was regulated at the suggestion of the state parliament’s monastery committee, based on the previous monastery regulations.  The expectants registered by 1918 were able to be reintegrated, and advanced in the financial elevations as of 1924. The last conventual moved into the convent in 1947.

 Between the end of the 17th century and 1918, a total of 1,205 noble daughters were recorded in the register and had received an acceptance. Of these, an estimated one in seven was assigned a monastery apartment at an advanced age with full elevation, and as of then actually lived in the Malchow convent.

The roomy apartments were reduced in space and rationalised as early as the 1920s. Slowly but surely other residents moved into the monastery, mainly due to the great lack of living space in Malchow. From the 1940s on, war refugees in particular were housed with their families in the monastery for many decades.

 With the death of the last conventual and deaconess, Gertrud von Lücken, in 1972, the history of the Malchow State Monastery as an aristocratic convent irrevocably ended after 400 years.

The Malchow Monastery, serenely resting opposite the old town on the opposite side of Lake Malchow, is an exceptional site that reflects on more than 700 years of history. Numerous structural legacies from these centuries remain intact and lend the Malchow monastery its status as a nationally significant historical testimony to Mecklenburg architecture.

As the owner of the monastery grounds, the island town of Malchow is making every effort to ensure that the historical precinct is preserved as a culturally enlivened monument. The complexity and sheer scope of the concept proscribe a gradual realisation of the project. The minutely detailed renovation work will certainly continue for years to come, but the monastery complex has already developed into an important cultural center, for both the town of Malchow, and indeed, the entire region.

Art Museum

The baroque rooms in the area of the former refectory were dedicated for the permanent exhibition of paintings, drawings and prints created by regional artists and owned by the town of Malchow. Works of the Mecklenburg artists Rudolf Gahlbeck (1895-1972), Sieghard Dittner (1924-2002), Franz-Friedrich Pingel (1904-1994) and Peter Hesse (1921-2008) can be enjoyed here. Specially prepared windows, revealing historical findings, allow you to uncover the fascinating architectural history of this oldest surviving building in the convent complex. Alternating special exhibitions supplement and deepen the scientific analysis of 20th-century Mecklenburg painting.

Museum of the Monastery History

In the Middle Ages, the south-eastern part of the monastery complex served as a dormitory. This wing was then divided into four terraced houses and rebuilt as part of the monastery at the beginning of the 18th century. The permanent exhibition on the history of the monastery is now being prepared there. The main focus is on the modern history of the evangelical, aristocratic monastery: its residents and their life in the convent in the context of everyday culture, religion and architecture, as well as the economic and legal conditions. The still-intact maids’ chambers are also included in the exhibition tour, as is the reconstruction of an open-hearth kitchen, offering the possibility of cooking in a group. The redesigning of the canonesses’ former house gardens enabled a “gallery of garden uses” to be created through a careful reproduction of typical 19th century garden scenarios. Here, a kitchen garden, flower garden and pavilion will become part of the museum presentation.

 Mecklenburg Organ Museum

The Mecklenburg Organ Museum is located in the monastery church and the parsonage. Both the permanent and temporary exhibitions provide detailed information about the history and function of the organ in general and, in particular, the organ inventory in Mecklenburg. A model organ provides a wealth of information about technology and sound, and it can be played by visitors. Organ building and organ playing are part of the Intangible World Heritage and the museum is charged with the storage of endangered instruments and the research of Mecklenburg organ building. It also disposes over an extensive hymnological collection and a sound carrier archive.

Kiek in un Wonner You

The exhibition premises of the Malchow local history museum are located in the house of the former wheelwright’s workshop, spatially  separated from the cultural center. Curiosities from the everyday lives of the population invite you on a journey into the first half of the 20th century. It’s a hands-on experience, where touching is expressly permitted.