The first documented mention of Sonnefeld was in the year 1252. In 1260, a Cistercian nunnery was founded in Ebersdorf bei Coburg by Henry II von Sonneberg with the help from the nuns from Maidbronn. Three years later, in 1263, the nearby hamlet of Hofstädten became the property of the nunnery. When it burned to the ground in 1287, a new abbey was built and consecrated in Hofstädten for the nuns. In 1299, the villages of Weidhausen and Trübenbach were given to Sonnefeld Abbey in an exchange of properties with Bamberg. A church was added between 1330 and 1349 in the High Gothic style and became the "Klosterkirche" (monastery church).