Germany · Baden-Württemberg, Schloss Maulbronn

Maulbronn originated as a settlement of the Cistercian Order. According to the order’s ideal, its monasteries were to be situated in seclusion and made as economically self-sufficient as possible through the work of the community. The monks and lay brothers therefore created an extensive system of ditches, ponds and waterways in the surrounding area. It supplied the monastery with drinking water and water for general use, powered mills, and enabled fish farming and irrigation. The complex also included farm buildings, workshops, storehouses, and areas for agriculture and viticulture.

The buildings erected over several centuries document the transition from the Romanesque to the Gothic style. The cloister precinct includes, among other structures, the church, cloister, chapter house and refectory. In front of the monastery church is the vestibule known as the “Paradise”. The Fountain House in the cloister is also one of the characteristic parts of the ensemble. The enclosed complex therefore conveys not only an impression of monastic architecture, but also of the organisation of a medieval religious community.

The Reformation brought a change in use. The monastery was converted into a Protestant monastery school, which served to educate the future theological clergy of Württemberg. This tradition gave rise to today’s Evangelisches Seminar Maulbronn. Former pupils include Johannes Kepler, Friedrich Hölderlin and Hermann Hesse. Hesse later drew on his experiences from his school years in Maulbronn in his literary work, including in the novel “Unterm Rad”.

The coin belongs to a German series in which each federal state was represented by a building or another characteristic motif of the state. The order basically followed the Länder’s rotating presidencies of the Bundesrat. During this period, Baden-Württemberg provided the President of the Bundesrat, Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann. The monastery was chosen as the motif because it combines medieval religious history, the history of the Reformation and education in Württemberg, and the state’s traditional cultural landscape.