Bebenhausen Monastery church

Strict school daysDiscipline in themonastery school

“The Delicta alumnorum", Latin for "misdeeds of the students", filled whole lists. It originated during the time in which Bebenhausen was a Protestant monastery school. What the later priests of Württemberg got up to was sometimes more than simple school pranks.

Visitors in the south wing of the cloister at Bebenhausen Monastery

Speaking German was not permitted.

Strict rules

Paging through the list of misdeeds shows that children then got into similar mischief as children do today. The historical term for disturbing classes was "Allotria." Climbing the cliffs had pedagogical consequences, as did snowball fights in winter. There were repeatedly punishments for illegible handwriting. Hardly imaginable today: Speaking in German was not allowed. Latin was the exclusive language of the monastery school!

Parlatory in Bebenhausen Monastery

Out of hunger, the students would even steal geese.

More than childish nonsense

An indication of the sometimes very meager food in the monastery school was the fact that not only fruit was pilfered, but sometimes even whole geese! Students were even punished if they gave in to vanity and showed a preference for luxurious clothing instead of the dark uniform. Making coffee and smoking tobacco were also forbidden. Naturally, carousing and drunkenness in the monastery school were also nowhere to be found in the list of behaviors that the headmaster could tolerate.

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