1559 The remaining monks were instructed to convert.
1561 The last Abbott Wendelin Merbot left the monastery.
1564 The monastery was left open. The gates of Otterberg were opened.
1579PfalzgrafJohann Casimir invited religious refugees from theSpanish Netherlands to settle Otterberg and there was active settlement by theWalloons. They used the stones of the monastery complex for the building of their houses, so that today only the abbey church and the chapter hall remain.
1689 Many residents of Otterberg arrived in Holzappel under the leadership of Charles Faucher after a long period of wandering after fleeing Otterberg due to theWar of the League of Augsburg which lasted from 1688 to 1697.
1708 Joint use of the church by theProtestants andCatholics led to problems. The solution was to add a wall inside the church so that the Catholic part (in thetransept) was separated from the Protestant part (in the nave).
1979 During a very extensive restoration project, this wall was removed. The church is now shared by both church communities.
Monastic church: Part a formerCistercianmonastery, this abbey church is the second largest in thePalatinate (after theSpeyer Cathedral). The church was built between 1168 and 1254. The monastery reached its peak around the year 1340 and declined around 1561. In 1579 groups of refugees of the reformed faith arrived from theSpanish Netherlands and from northernFrance.
Nathan Straus (January 31, 1848 – January 11, 1931), an American merchant and philanthropist (brother of Isidor)
Oscar Straus (December 23, 1850 – May 3, 1926), United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor under President Theodore Roosevelt from 1906 to 1909 (brother of Isidor)
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Kaller, Gerhard,Geschichte von Kloster und Stadt Otterberg, Vom Dreissigjährigen Krieg bis zur Gegenwart (Otterberg, Eine Stadtgeschichte), Band 2 (Otterbach: Franz Arbogast, 1981), 544 pp.
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Rink, Franz,400 Jahre Stadt Otterberg 1581 - 1981 (Otterberg: Stadt Otterberg, 1981), 112 pp.
Seeling, Werner,Und dennoch ging es vorwärts und aufwärts durch Gottes Hilfe - Bilder zur Otterberger Kirchengeschichte (Otterbach: Arbogast, 1979), 202 pp.
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Werling, Michael,Die Zisterzienserabtei Otterberg (Otterbach: Verlag Arbogast, n.d.), 36 pp.
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