Trappists
It was occupied and re-founded as a Trappist monastery in 1925 by refugee German monks expelled after World War I from Oelenberg Abbey in Alsace, who had found temporary shelter in Banz Abbey but were looking for a permanent home. Initially established as a priory, in 1931 it was elevated to the rank of an abbey, and the former prior, Gregorius Eisvogel, appointed abbot, in which office he was dedicated by Johannes Maria Gföllner, Bishop of Linz, at a ceremony in Wilhering Abbey. On 2 December 1939 the abbey was confiscated by the Gestapo and the community, numbering 73, evicted. Four monks were sent to Dachau Concentration Camp, while others were imprisoned elsewhere or drafted into the Wehrmacht At the end of the war in 1945, only about a third of the previous community returned. They were augmented however by the refugee German Trappists expelled from Mariastern Abbey, Banja Luka, Bosnia, under their abbot Bonaventura Diamant.
Since 1995 the abbot has been Marianus Hauseder. As at 2012, the number of monks in the community was 7.
Read more about this topic: Engelszell Abbey