Lehnin Abbey (Клостер-Ленин) | monastery, Brick Gothic (architecture), listed building / architectural heritage

 monastery, Brick Gothic (architecture), listed building / architectural heritage

Lehnin Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery in Lehnin in Brandenburg, Germany. Since the Reformation it has accommodated the Luise-Henrietten-Stift, a Protestant community.

The abbey was founded in 1180 with the support of Otto I, Margrave of Brandenburg as a daughter house of Sittichenbach Abbey. In its turn it founded four daughter houses: the abbeys of Paradiz (1236), Mariensee (1258), Chorin (1260) and Himmelpfort(1299).

It was an important contributor to the land development of the Margraviate of Brandenburg. It was dissolved in 1542 during the Reformation.

Since then it has housed the Protestant religious community known as the Luise-Henrietten-Stift.

Lehnin Abbey remains significant for its architecture, as one of the finest brick Gothic structures in Germany. The ruins were extremely well restored in the 1870s.