Reichskartause Buxheim

Buxheim Charterhouse is situated near Memmingen in Bavaria, Germany.  The monastery was originally founded around 1100 as a community of canons from the cathedral at Augsburge, but in 1402 it was handed over to the Carthusian order and soon became the largest charterhouse in Germany.

During the reformation, the city of Memmingen attempted to seize its property, but the prior appealed to the Emperor Charles V and in 1548 it was declared an Imperial Charterhouse (Reichskartause), directly responsible to the Emperor.  The monastery’s library is particularly famous, both for its many fine manuscripts and for its extensive collection of early printed books, including over 3,000 incunabula. 

When the monastery – like most others in Germany - was secularised in 1802, the estate, together with the library, came into the possession of the Count of Ostein.  On his death in 1809, Buxheim was inherited by Count Friedrich Waldbott von Bassenheim.  His son, Hugo Philipp (1820-1895), was so extravagant that he was forced over the years to sell off much of his inheritance. In 1883, the historic library from Buxheim was sold by Carl Förster at auction in Munich.