The school was founded in 1895 by Abbot Theobald Grasböck as an all-boys boarding school following the typical Cistercian tradition of monastic schools in Wilhering that can be traced back to the year 1580. In 1904 it was acknowledged by the Imperial-Royal Ministry of Culture and Education as private school under public law. Being home for several intellectuals resisting Nazism, the school was closed after the German Annexation of Austria in 1938 but reopened immediately after the World War II in 1945.