Historians often associate the time around the ending of 11th and 12th century as a period of movement, change and even with the term „renaissance“. There were innovative and promising changes in various areas: climate change and innovations in the agricultural field resulted in a growth in population with the consequence of an extension of the agricultural land and the erection of new settlements. In the new towns bourgeoisie, commerce and trade developed, in particular the metal and cloth industry flourished. The goods were transported over long distances, which were also facilitated by the construction of new bridges. The goods were increasingly paid for with coins and this started to slowly replace barter as a payment method.

Starting in the 11th century, the ministeriales, former unfree servants of kings and bishops, were able to move up to a noble-like position and to become the actual bearers of a knightly-courtly culture. The administration of justice also changed: The previously common punitive damages, which had to be paid to the victim depending on the crime, class and gender, were replaced by corporal punishment.

The history of literature and art in this era is characterized by the marriage of Romanesque and the birth of Gothic period in France, the start of Minnesongs, the songs of the Troubadours, new forms of epic poetry as well as the start of fictional literature into the 12th century. Researchers even trace the „discovery of the individual“ back to this era, in which autobiographical texts and portrait-like pictures developed. The early foundations of universities in Europe, such as Bologna and Paris, can also be put down to this period. A change going through the theological field was the increasing renunciation of the image of a punishing God as a judge towards the loving, merciful God. This eventful time, which did not really fit into the image of the „dark Middle Ages“, was the time of Hildegard that she was shaped by. In order to understand the work and the theological perception of the Abbess of the Rupertsberg, one has to see her within this temporal context.