"The monks of our Order must live from the work of their hands, from farming and keeping livestock. Therefore, they may posses for their own use: lakes and rivers, forests, meadows, fields (removed from settlements of secular people), and animals, with the exception of those which are kept more for reasons of curiosity and vanity than of utility, such as cranes, stags and the like”.
In this way the rules of the Cistercian Order describe its principle of self-subsistence, which was to intended to guarantee the economic independence of every monastery. However, the strict rules could not be followed for long, as profits were earned from the surpluses, additional property was purchased and the transition to the feudal system of paying rent was carried out.
Characteristics of this former management and the nature cultivated for it can still be found today in the immediate and greater surrounding area of Bebenhausen
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Württemberg kings used the Schönbuch area as a hunting district and built a hunting palace in buildings of the former monastery. A royal private garden was also a necessity, and King Friedrich I had his modest hunting palace surrounded with a "little flower garden".