The building was very cool though, I think there is still a convent there. It has a very long history; it was originally a Catholic convent, but had to be forcibly converted to a protestant one, although they nuns didn't convert without a fight. When they first had services in the newly converted church, the nuns would sing songs in Latin so loud, that the assembly could not hear the preacher. Nuns mostly came from affluential families, since families a long time ago would have a number of children, usually the youngest daughter would be promised to the convent, in order to guarantee some sort of salvation for the family. Therefore, whatever the daughter would inherit would be given to the convent. This made convents very wealthy. Nuns were not allowed to keep very many things. They had to live a very simple and religious life. Very early on, nuns were not allowed to speak during meal times, so they made up a sign language in order to communicate with each other, which I thought was clever.
During WWII, a bomb had gone off near the convent where they had a bridge. The Germans bombed it, in hoped of stopping the allies. However, the bomb also destroyed a lot of the original stained glass windows. Some of them have been restored, but they have been moved to a safer location of the convent. The whole convent used to be covered with stained glass. The convent was also well known for its stitchwork, and some projects would take up to a year and a half to complete. They were beautiful pieces, threaded using a fishbone. The nuns also may have had a hard time completing their work, since their main source of light came from stained windows.
A house was built in the convent especially for King George I, since when he visited the abbey, there was no place for him to stay. He died before the house was completed.
Their sleeping quarters were also very small. If you think college dorms are small, I think the nuns who lived in convent accommodations would gladly trade with any college student. They were really small, maybe 3 meters by 4 meters, with a window. Later on, they were allowed to decorate their rooms and even have servants, this all was allowed after the reformation.
I remember that two German idioms came from the convent life. One of them goes along the lines of "You can finally see the dog" which means you're left with nothing. Nuns were allowed to keep their belongings in a chest, which had a dog at the bottom of the chest. When they finally "saw the dog"- that means that they were left with nothing in the chest.
The one I do remember ist "halt die klappe" - which means to "shut up." It originates from when the nuns had to be in a waiting room before they had to sing hymns. While they were waiting, they had these sections on the wall, where they could lean against and rest while they waited to go to the choir balcony. Later on, drop down seats were added. When they would be too loud, they would drop down their seats and be quiet.
The convent also had a very valuable painting- apparently sough after by many art museums. It was painted by a friend of Martin Luther, and it was when Jesus was brought down from the cross. The artists had drawn himself into the scene, which included Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary, Mary's Mother, Joseph, and Mary's sister.
We were not allowed to take many pictures of the convent, but these are the ones I was able to take:
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