The monastery was founded in the 1130s by Gotebold II, Count of Henneberg, and his wife Liutgard on a site near the confluence of the Schleuse and the Werra. The church was dedicated in 1138; the foundation received papal confirmation three years later. For the whole of its existence of more than four hundred years the abbey was a family monastery of the Hennebergs. It also had a close association with the von Bibra family, particularly in the 1400's. During the Reformation in 1543, the monastery was turned into an estate.