The Knight Johann von Erwitte and his wife Hildegunde founded the monastery in 1240 after careful consideration for the salvation of their own souls, by freely transferring their church ("ec clesiam nostram") with all its furnishings and income from fields, forests, waters, and pastures, as well as all its inhabitants, and indeed all the goods they held as fiefs from Rastede, to the Gevelsberg Monastery in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This transfer was made on the condition that the Gevelsberg convent establish a Cistercian nunnery in Benninghausen. All the goods, with all their rights, were to belong to this newly founded convent in Benninghausen, with the stipulation, however, that until the death of both founders, one-third of the harvest from the transferred goods was to go to them. After their death, the goods were to pass to the full property of the Benninghausen Monastery.

With the exception of the Schuhenhof farm in Ünainghausen, all farms and cottages in Benninghausen, Kaldewey, Ünninghausen, and on the Heide belonged to Benninghausen Monastery. In addition, the Söbberinghof, Weringhof, Glasmerhof, and Klinger farms in the parish of Erwitte belonged to the monastery. The monastery also held property in Stirpe and Westemkotten, including two saltworks in Westemkotten. In the parish of Horn, the monastery owned property in Böckum, Norddorf, Ebbinghausen, Wiggeringhausen, Lohe, Schmerlecke, and Berenbrock. In the parish of Heuinghausen, it owned property, among other places, at the Overhagen farm. Further holdings were scattered throughout the parish of Ostinghausen, in Soest, Lippstadt, near Altengeseke, and in the Münsterland region, not only in Göttingen.

*In Progress