The St. Michael's Monastery in Rostock was once a fraternity house of the Brothers of the Common Life and housed an important printing house and bookbindery of the late Middle Ages.
The monastery building, a combination of church, workplace and multi-storey residential building, was built in 1480. The staircase in the tower leads to the living and workshop rooms in the wool magazine. The Bruderhaus, which adjoins to the west, was built in 1502. A comprehensive renovation took place in 1994. Today, the building houses special collections of the university library and the history library.