Oeventrop Abbey

The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who had settled in Hiltrup after the Kulturkampf, sought an additional training facility in the early 20th century. At the suggestion of Dean Caspar Berens, the order acquired approximately 10 hectares of land on the outskirts of Oeventrop. A building of red clinker brick was constructed there and inaugurated in 1902. Until 1969, high school graduates were trained here to become priests, who, after a five-year study of philosophy and theology, worked in missions in places such as Papua New Guinea, China, Africa, and Peru. The time ended abruptly with World War II when the building was confiscated in 1939 and converted into a military hospital for soldiers with lung diseases. Over 1300 patients died here and were buried in the Oeventrop military cemetery.