Maria Veen was a Trappist monastery in North Rhine-Westphalia from 1888 to 1952.

 

Inspired by the Protestant workers' colony in Wilhelmsdorf, Hermann Harrier (1842-1920), parish administrator of Reken, and the politician Max von Landsberg-Velen founded a Catholic workers' colony in 1888.

 

Through the diocese of Münster, they recruited five Trappist monks from the monasteries of Oelenberg and Mariawald to lead it.

The superior of the convent, Father Anselm Ellering, named the monastery Maria Veen (Latin: Maria in palude, "Mary of the Marshes"), Veen being considered a local spelling variant of Venn (marsh, wet heath).

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The Trappists built a monastic complex with a church in 1909, as well as the Benedictushof and Bernardushof farms for the colony of workers who drained the moor. The monastery was elevated to the rank of priory in 1901, but was never able to acquire the land necessary to build an abbey. So, in 1952, the Trappists left the premises to settle at Engelszell Abbey in Austria. They were replaced by the Mariannhill Missionaries.

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The brewery is mentioned in the 1902 annual report of a section of the Westphalian Provincial Association for Science and the Arts in the following terms: "Der Bruder Kellermeister kredenzte selbst gebrautes vorzügliches Bier, und Brot, Butter und Käse mundeten nicht weniger." ("The brother cellarer served us excellent home-brewed beer, and the bread, butter, and cheese were no less delicious.")