In addition to the historic town hall, the Meppen high school church with its striking yellow-red color is one of the most impressive buildings in Meppen city center.
The history of the origins of this late Baroque Jesuit hall church goes back a long way to the middle of the 13th century, when Countess Jutta von Vechta-Ravensberg sold her possessions to the Bishop of Münster, whereby Meppen became part of the Lower Monastery of Münster.
Almost 300 years later, in 1543, the Reformation was introduced throughout the entire monastery by the sovereign and prince-bishop of Münster, Franz von Waldeck, in happy association with the Lübeck superintendent Hermann Bonnus.
It was only with the Peace of Augsburg concluded in 1555 that the Catholic faith became obligatory again in 1612 when Ferdinand of Bavaria was elected Archbishop of Münster. A year later, he called Jesuits to Meppen, but they had to go into hiding for a time during the Thirty Years' War and were only able to settle permanently in 1638.
They founded a high school in 1643. After the brothers' apartment became dilapidated, they had the residence built as an apartment between 1726 and 1729.
Today's high school church was completed in 1743 after just three years of construction and dedicated to the "Immaculate Conception of Mary".
In keeping with the tubulent times, Meppen was taken by the French just 18 years later in the Seven Years' War; Most of the houses were burned down, but the high school church was spared from the fire and found a bizarre use as a hospital and horse stable.