Monastic fishing and fish farming

As was common in the early and high Middle Ages, the rich monasteries in Paderborn also made progress in the agricultural development of their surrounding countryside. Outside the city’s „Wassertor“ (water gate), a first fish pond (“piscina”) of the Abdinghof monastery is already documented on the Riemeke brook for the early 12th century (1103).[1] By the 1370s, their number had increased to three ponds, which the Benedictines leased for life to the Busdorf canon Cord Lyzen in 1377. In the “Dubelo” (An den Fischteichen) district, a parcel of land in the north-west of the city of Paderborn, the Abdinghof monastery had probably also created “large ponds” by 1523, over which the Benedictine monks disputed with the von Stapel brothers.[2] In the middle of the 16th century, the “Oberlifte” (upper pond) is mentioned by name. In the middle of the 16th century, the “Obere Teich”, the “Untere oder Mühlenteich” and a “Hopfenteich” (1555/56) are mentioned by name.[3] These ponds, which were created for fish farming, were all fed by the Riemeke brook (then known as „Riembeke“), which flowed into the Pader to the west of the „Steinerne Brücke“ („Stone Bridge“).