| abstract | - It was founded by Count Heinrich II of Lechsgemünd (d. 1142) and his wife Liutgard, and was a daughter house of Lützel Abbey in Alsace. Count Heinrich's initial gift of the land was made in 1133; the foundation charter was dated 21 September 1135. The first church was dedicated in 1183 by the Bishop of Augsburg, but was damaged in a fire in 1286, and re-built in its entirety between 1352 and 1387, when the new building was dedicated. The foundation charter guaranteed the new monastery immunity and independence from secular powers, but on the extinction of the Counts of Lechsgemünd in 1327, their territories passed to the Wittelsbach Counts of Graisbach, who were unwilling to honour the original terms. Although in 1346 the abbey succeeded in obtaining from the Emperor Charles IV a confirmation of the rights included in the charter, and was declared a "Reichstift" (Imperial abbey), the Wittelsbachs were not inclined to honour it. In 1505, the territory of Pfalz-Neuburg was created, which inherited the rights of the County of Graisbach, including territorial rights over Kaisheim. When during the Reformation the ruler Ottheinrich of Pfalz-Neuburg became a Protestant, it looked for a while as though the abbey would be dissolved, although the danger passed off. Finally, in 1656 the then abbot George IV Müller reached agreement with Duke Philipp of Pfalz-Neuburg that the abbey's status as "reichsfrei" would be respected. This carried with it the obligation however to provide troops to the imperial army when required, and from this date onwards the abbey had to accommodate a small standing force of soldiers of some 80 men. The buildings underwent a major re-building in the 1720s in the Baroque style.
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