The Mariengemeinde is the old local community of Barsinghausen. The Barsinghausen Monastery and the monastery church of St. Mary were first mentioned in documents in 1193. The monastery was founded by Count Wedekind of Schwalenberg a few years earlier as a double monastery: nuns and monks were to live strictly separately and yet together according to the monastic rules of the church father Augustine. However, the double monastery was soon abandoned and from 1229 onwards the chronicle only records nuns.
The Reformation was introduced in Barsinghausen in 1543. In contrast to other monasteries in the Calenberger Land, the Barsinghausen nuns did not resist it and so the Barsinghausen Monastery was transferred to the Hanover Monastery Chamber at an early stage. As part of the monastery, the monastery church of St. Mary - the parish church of the Evangelical Lutheran Mariengemeinde - also belongs to the General Hanover Monastery Fund.
During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), the monastery, which had by then developed into a Protestant women's convent, suffered severe damage. It was not until 1700 to 1704 that it was rebuilt - now in its current form.
The monastery church was radically altered again between 1862 and 1865. At that time, the medieval nuns' gallery and the crypt below it were demolished. The current galleries and another gallery in the central nave were added. This was, however, removed again during a renovation in 1959.
The monastery was ultimately only inhabited by a few nuns. Since 1996, however, the monastery has been filled with "monastic life" again: the sisters of the Evangelical Community of Barsinghausen Monastery (part of the Wolmirstedt Deaconry) now continue the monastic rhythm of "pray and work" (ora et labora).