Salem Palace looks back on a long, eventful history. The beginnings of the complex lie in the Middle Ages, when Guntram of Adelsreute donated a small part of his estate, a place called Salmannsweiler, to the Cistercian Order in 1134. Just three years later Salem was raised to the rank of an abbey under the young abbot Frowin – a friend and companion of St. Bernhard of Clairvaux, and from that time on the monastery in Salmannsweiler bore the spiritual name of Salem; place of peace. In 1178 Pope Alexander III appointed the monastery a consistorial abbey, placing it directly under the Holy See in Rome and not the responsible diocesan bishop of Constance.
As a result of the expansion of agriculture, winegrowing, salt mining and through systematic economic management, Salem grew to become one of the largest and most important monasteries in the German-speaking region. In the High Middle Ages 310 monks and lay brothers lived and worked here.
A visible testimony to this highly productive period is the impressive Gothic Abbey Church (Münster), which was begun under Abbot Ulrich of Seelfingen around 1285 and completed in 1414 on the occasion of the Council of Constance. Quite in keeping with the rules of the Cistercian Order, the building is austere and unadorned on the outside. The only decorative elements are the ornate tracery windows. The three-nave columned basilica is one of the most important landmark structures of the High Gothic age in Southern Germany.
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The Thirty Years' War hit Salem hard; the monastery was pillaged and the monks even had to leave Salem at times. After the end of the war, the convent convened again, however peace did not last long. Only a few decades after the chaos of war, a devastatingly catastrophic fire, to which nearly all convent buildings fell victim, surprised the monastery in March 1697. However, just a few weeks after the fire, the decision was made to completely rebuild the monastery complex, and the famous architect Franz Beer from the Vorarlberg region of Austria was commissioned with the building work.
The generously proportioned new building of the monastery complex rang in a new age of splendor in Salem, which is primarily linked to the names of Stephan I Jung, Konstantin Miller and Anselm II Schwab. If the Cistercian's primary principle was modesty up to this point, the focus in the times of the Counter-Reformation was now on the effects and worldly display of splendor. Renowned artists were entrusted with the sumptuous interior appointments of stuccowork and paintings. The complex program of images of the representation rooms, like the Emperor's Hall (Kaisersaal), the Library (Bibliothek) and the Abbot's Salon (Abtsalon), illustrates the cultural and political importance of the Salem Abbey, which was directly answerable to the Emperor.
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The Gothic abbey church was also initially built in the Baroque style, and was later remodeled in the Early Classicistic style. The new appointments in alabaster, as they can still be admired today, are unique for a Cistercian church.
Shortly before Secularization, the complex and several rooms, including the interior of the church, were converted to the Classicistic style.
In 1802 the Margraviate of Baden officially took possession of the monastery, and on 23 November 1804 the convent disbanded itself once and for all.
Obligated to the educational ambitions of the former monastery, Prince Max of Baden and the reform teacher Kurt Hahn founded the boarding school of Salem, which today is part of the former convent and monastery domestic buildings.
Today Salem Palace presents itself as an extremely lively ensemble and an extensive complex. Large parts of the complex have been preserved since the monastery age and made accessible to the public. Attractive for visitors are not only the historic buildings and the palace rooms, but also the expansive grounds with a park, playground and artisans' workshops, which continue in the handicraft tradition of the monastery era.
The Fire Department Museum (Feuerwehrmuseum), with its impressive historical fire engines and equipment, serves to remind visitors of the exemplary fire protection measures of the Cistercian monks.
In 2009 the Baden family sells Salem Palace to the German state of Baden-Württemberg.