Essen Abbey

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Imperial Abbey of Essen Stift Essen
845–1803
Coat of arms
Status	Imperial Abbey of the Holy Roman Empire
Capital	Essen Abbey
Government	Theocracy
Historical era	Middle Ages
• Founded	circa 845
• Gained Imperial immediacy	between 874 and 947 circa 845
• Gained princely status	1228
• Contracted with Duchy of Cleves     and County of Mark over Vogtei	1495
• Joined Westphalian Circle	1512
• Occupied by the Kingdom of Prussia	1802
• Annexed by Prussia	1803–06/7 and from 1813 1803
• Awarded to Berg	1806/7—1813
Succeeded by Kingdom of Prussia
Today part of	Germany

Essen Abbey (Stift Essen) was a community of secular canonesses for women of high nobility that formed the nucleus of modern-day Essen, Germany.

A chapter of male priests were also attached to the abbey, under a dean. In the medieval period, the abbess exercised the functions of a bishop, except for the sacramental ones, and those of a ruler, over the very extensive estates of the abbey, and had no clerical superior except the pope.^[1]