Weltenburg in the News (with Video)

Reuters... Hold steady Brother Benedikt
In southern Germany, a 28-year-old man drowned when he ventured out with two friends in a dinghy which capsized on the River Mangfall near the town of Feldkirchen-Westerham.
He was Germany's first victim of the floods, which have turned regions of Bavaria into disaster zones.
At the Benedictine abbey of Weltenburg, Bavaria's oldest monastery, monks were forced to take safety in upper floors.
"It's a war of nerves," one monk, Brother Benedikt, told Reuters Television.

The Guardian.... Go Go Gerhardt Go!
With just over three and a half weeks until Germans go to the polls, Mr Schröder stopped off in the Bavarian city of Augsburg. As the Danube continued to rise, and water even started seeping into the basement of Bavaria's famous Weltenburg monastery, the chancellor promised generous assistance. "We have to show solidarity with those affected," he said.
The village of Staubing, near Regensburg, was largely under water. In the nearby medieval monastery of Weltenburg, visited by half a million tourists each year, the prior, Father Benedikt, told Spiegel magazine: "We have been inundated. The water keeps coming into our rooms."

iol (SA)... Quit wining and start brewing Benedikt (promoted to Father)
Water levels were falling on Thursday in the tributaries of the Danube in Germany, and officials were hopeful that the cities of Ingolstadt and Regensburg would avoid serious damage.
However, the river flooded part of the south-eastern town of Kelheim, including its Weltenburg monastery, founded in the seventh century and described as the oldest in Bavaria.
The ground floor of the Benedictine monastery, which draws 500 000 visitors a year, was submerged early on Thursday, said Father Benedikt, the monastery's prior.

MSNBC... ALL HAIL FATHER THOMAS!! YOU ROCK!

But then— finally— prayers seemed to be answered.

At 4 p.m., the Danube river peaked at just over 24 feet, not enough to trigger a disaster. But no one here pretends to know what this abnormal weather will do next, least of all, Father Thomas, who has more earthly concerns: like, re-opening the beer garden.
“The flood will not enter the brewery so the beer will have the same quality!” he says.
And even if the forecast calls for rain, the priceless art, and the beer are safe — for now.

(Best Article & Video http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9077650/)