Münster (Westphalia)

Communal structure

Under the terms of article 1 of the municipal statutes, the town of Münster is structured in 6 municipal districts ( Stadtbezirke ): Mitte, North, Ost, West, South-east and Hiltrup. Each district lays out of a representation of district of 19 members each one, elected by the population of the district at the time of the municipal elections. The president of each representation of district is called Bezirkvorsteher . According to the municipal statutes, each district itself is divided into centres of population ( Wohnbereiche ). The name of this subdivision is however not used, and in practice one speaks rather about Stadtteil .

List districts and their subdivision in center of population:

Mitte :

Northern Kernbereich

Coerde
Kinderhaus
Sprakel with Sandrup

Ost :

Gelmer-Dyckburg, composed of Mariendorf, Sudmühle, Gelmer and Gittrup
Handorf with Kasewinkel, Kreuzbach, Laer, Dorbaum and Verth
Mauritz-Ost

West :

Albachten
Gievenbeck
Mecklenbeck
Nienberge with Häger, Schonebeck and Uhlenbrock
Roxel with Altenroxel and Oberort
Sentrup

South-Ost :

Angelmodde with Hofkamp
Gremmendorf with Loddenheide
Wolbeck

Hiltrup :

Amelsbüren with Sudhoff, Loevelingloh and Wilbrenning
Berg Fidel
Hiltrup

The downtown area is him-also divided into old historical quarters with sometimes vague contours. Inter alia: Aaseestadt, Erphoviertel, Geistviertel, Hansaviertel, Kreuzviertel, Kuhviertel, Mauritzviertel, Pluggendorf, Rumphorst and Südviertel. On their side, the subdivisions of the other districts of Münster correspond in their majority of old communes absorptive to the wire of time by the city.

History of Münster

Liudger

The place called today Münster, was formerly called Mimingernaford when Bractères resided at it. Then, at the time of Christianity, the city became Monasterium then Münster .

The combat of Christianity, opposed the Francs and the Saxon ones: Charlemagne and Widukind; and was to christianize Saxony to integrate it into the kingdom of the Francs. The Saxon ones were then the only ones to push back the " good nouvelle".

But finally in 785, Charlemagne sent Liudger, a missionary of the plank, to christianize the population of Saxony. He carried out his mission with wonder, and so much that in 805 its diocese was proclaimed évêché and him bishop… Even after its death, its influence was still present. Nowadays, it is known in Münster to be patron saint of the city and the founder of the church. The cathedral and the adjacent school are known like the oldest German college…

Destruction and rebuilding

During the Second world war, the Americans bombarded many German cities so that German is obliged to capitulate… The bombardments were intensive and horrible, so much from the point of view of dead (sometimes in a night there was the double of massacre that in Hiroshima, but it is nevertheless much less than the Jews exterminated by the Nazis!) that from a more geographical point of view (certain cities were striped chart…). The destruction was massive.

The old city of Münster was almost completely destroyed by the allies, and it did not remain about it that heaps of engraved reaching several meters height… The room of peace, where was signed the fine treaty putting at the Guerre Thirty Year old: treated of Westphalia; the town hall, even if works which it sheltered were transported as of 1942 in the cellars of the castle of Wobbel on Lippe; the cathedral; the pediment of Prinzipalmarkt; the castle… These buildings were rebuilt according to the same architectural model, even if certain arcades were modernized…

This rebuilding of the city started the shortly after the war, and mobilized all the population: men, women, children… Initially the infrastructures of the city, necessary to its development, were rebuilt (school, houses, roads…). Then one undertook the rebuilding of the historical buildings, sometimes that starting from 1950…

The history of the town of Münster is detailed and illustrated with the Museum of history of Münster…

Fortifications

In 1121, the town of Münster was conquered by the duke Lothar von Supplinburg. The majority of the buildings were very damaged by fire… The bishop of Münster judged necessary then to protect the city by ramparts, turns and ditches which would encircle it, and either only the cathedral. It is thus at the 12th century that the first wall of the fortifications was built. One rejected the ground towards the city, in order to form a wall, on which one could build the rampart, surmounted of six turns of duty.

But their construction was not completed yet. They later were reinforced three centuries. And the Anabaptiste S completed construction with a double rampart, news towers, cuttings off, and rounds points. The city had then the reputation to be impregnable.

However the War Seven Year old, at the 18th century affirmed the opposite: the ramparts did not hold upright. The Minister for the Prince-bishop then made open the doors of the rampart S, and destroy the fortifications to leave room to a " Promenade" who surrounds the town of a shaded dirt track by limes, which skirts time to other the river Aa.

The Saint Paul cathedral

The Cathédrale is the most impressive monument and most prestigious of Münster. It was built of 1225 to 1264: transitional period in the history of the Architecture between the Romanesque art and the Gothic art. It is the only still existing monument today going back to this period there.

The body of the building is composed of three Nef S, two Transept S, and two turns. Inside the church, large arc S springs angular pillars to underline the roomy character of the church. To the wire of the centuries, many vaults, statues, gildings… were added, withdrawn or renovated. Today, the cathedral is an attractive complex, only of the shape of its original masonry (the churches with two transepts are rarer than with a transept since the whole of the nave and transept represents the cross), but also of its many additions like the statues and the gates… It is the largest cathedral of Westphalia, and not only for its size but also for its great artistic value.

The cathedral was almost entirely destroyed (vaults, arcs, pillars, statues, valuable articles…) during the Second world war. It was rebuilt in 10 years during the rebuilding of Münster. (See higher). The astronomical Clock, as well as the series of the apostles, the epitaphs, the furnace bridges, the treasure (the vault of the cathedral); and the vaults of the choruses (one of the vault in which rests the Cardinal von Galen have escaped miraculeusement with the destruction of the bombardments.

The astronomical clock

It is located in the déambulatoire cathedral.

The first clock had been destroyed by the Anabaptistes, but one known forever precisely when it dated. But once the reign of the anabaptists was finished, one rebuilt another astronomical clock with the same site. Three people took part in her creation: the mathematician and printer Dietrich Tewyvel, the monk franciscain and author of the Calendar Johan von Aachen, and the Blacksmith Nikolaus Windenaker. To give to the astronomical clock a more artistic pace, one called upon a painter and a Sculpteur.

As much clock in Germany, the every day at midday, the round of the Magi leaves a small door of the clock. While they turn around an axis to return inside the clock, an old chime plays an air of Christmas. There are two characters on each side of the upper part of the clock. On the basis of the extreme left with the left, the bell ringer which sounds the full hours, and its wife who types at the same time as her husband with a blow of hammer on a bell. Then line, with the extreme right-hand side: Stopwatches holding a sand glass and a scythe which it gives to its neighbor " Mort" , the latter sounding the fifteen minutes with a hammer.

This clock presents the various aspects of many planets, the moon and the sun. The principal needle turns to back, and midnight is located in bottom of the dial. One needs precise astrological knowledge to include/understand the operation of the clock.

A legend in Münster tells that one would have burst the eyes of the principal manufacturer of the clock so that the other cities do not get one of them. The artist would have asked in last wish to see last once his work and of only one gesture, its operation would have stopped.

However, the clock always works very precisely, but it is not expected that to last about 2050…

Presentation of the city

Hanse

Hanse is an association of cities of the Northern of the Germany, and merchants German, of England, Netherlands with the the Baltic. It was founded at the 13th century to ensure the development of their interests and their protection. This alliance allowed a singular increase in the trade between Germany, England and the ports of the Manche. It there never had official building, sits of alliance, but simply a diet.

Today still, there remains a trace of last the " hanséatique" three German cities having fact left Hanse: Lübeck; Hamburg and Bremen. On the number Plates of these three cities one reads:

HH (Hansestadt Hamburg)
HL (Hansestadt Lübeck)
HB (Hansestadt Bremen)

Prinzipalmarkt

Thanks to the development of the trade of Hanse, Münster becomes a prosperous city. The merchants gathered on the great place of the cathedral, especially at the time of Send. In the streets of Prinzipalmarkt, of Salzstrasse and Roggenmark, the markets were aligned, then little by little, as from the 12th century, settled there definitively: the richest merchants built their house with pinions and arcades. Under the arcades the goods were exposed, behind parts to store them, and on the floor the rooms of the merchants. Certain houses were the five century old works of construction: gathering thus harmoniously the five centuries styles consecutive.

Unfortunately, the houses of Prinzipalmarkt crumbled under the attack of the bombs in 1945 and only two original houses remained upright. The rebuilding would have lasted much longer if the houses of Prinzipalmarkt had been rebuilt such as they were it before: therefore one did not rebuild the houses with all their architectural details but in a simpler style by preserving the principal form.

Rathaus

Rathaus is the town hall of Münster. It is the monument most famous of Prinzipalmarkt for architectural and historical reasons: First of all it is one of the most beautiful buildings of civil Gothic architecture in Europe; then it is a room in the town hall called originally " room of Conseil" where the treaties of Westphalia were signed: this is why the " room of Conseil" " was renamed; room of Paix". It is as in this room as the independence of Holland was proclaimed which belonged then to Germany. The sword of Send, symbol of Justice, and symbol of Münster, is exposed in another room.

Der Send und das Sendschwert

Today, three times per annum (in March, June and October), take place the village fair of Send: it is a great fun fair.

In the beginning, the word Send indicated the synods: religious gatherings accompanied by markets. Whereas the ecclesiastics met, the large markets settled in the cloister of the cathedral. According to that, they installed their stands outside the cathedral, where settle nowadays and several times per week, the traditional markets (of fruit and vegetables, breads and cheeses, pork-butchery and fish…). But today, the markets of Send moved on the Hindenburg place in front of the castle of Münster: the village fair attracts thousands of spectators.

A tradition of more than four centuries wants that the sword of Send: das Sendschwert, is hung on the frontage of Rathaus throughout festival. In the beginning, a function of Send was to return justice, and the sword was used for the executions. Das Sendschwert had a double value then: It was symbol of justice and symbol of Freedom of Market (to trade, buy, sell, haggle over: all that was authorized and free). Moreover, one truce was to be respected during Send.

Die Lambertikirche (the church Saint-Lambert)

The lambertikirche is the second larger church of Münster. It is located at the crossing of the three streets of large markets: Prinzipalmarkt; Roggenmarkt; and Alter Fischermarkt.

It was built by the tradesmen and the middle-class men of the beginning of Hanse, in 1375. They preferred it with the Cathedral: the latter was symbol of the ecclesiastical capacity, while Lambertikirche was symbol of the middle-class and commercial richness.

It is of Gothic style , and was built according to the model of the cathedral of Freiburg. It is made up of a principal Nef and two adjacent naves of the same height, supported by many slim pillars. One notices also the presence of many large stained glasses.

Hung to the Bell-tower, there are three iron cages. At the 16th century, the Anabaptistes wanted to found the thousand-year-old kingdom of God. When the last king, Jan van Leyden (Jean de Leyde), and its two leaders were carried out by the bishop in 1536, the appalling reign of the anabaptists ceased. To be used as example, the bishop made build three cages in which it put their corpse and that it suspended in top of the bell-tower.

Later, at the 20th century, the bishop Clement Auguste GRaf von Galen pronounced in Lambertikirche of the famous speeches against the Racisme and Euthanasie programs it Nazis. The faithful ones of the church were warned against the mode National-Socialist.

Works of Schlaun

It is in Münster of many works of the architect baroque Johann Conrad Schlaun.

Das Universitätschloss

Das Universitätschloss, or Residenzshloss, or castle of Münster, are the palate baroque of Münster, which belongs today to the university (from where its name). It was the residence of the prince-bishops of Münster: moreover, it is the prince bishop Maximilian Friedrich and his minister von Rürstenberg who asked for the construction of the residence: it started in 1767, and was not completed with not died of Schlaun.

The frontage is a red brick alternation and sandstone, to break traditional monotony, more especially as the sandstone is one of materials of predilection of the architect. The sculptures surprisingly fine, are seen their low visibility, must with the fact that they are fixed on the fourth floor. The Baroque art is present in all the anthropomorphic representations (see the Anthropomorphisme); in the cherubs with the generous curves, and in decorations with the curved lines.

Behind there is a botanical park.

Der Erbdrostenhof

It is the most particular hotel of the area. It is located at an angle of street, and its slightly round form makes it possible to exploit of advantage the space of the ground and to give an impression different from the traditional design of the traditional buildings.

On the triangular pediment the blazons of the noble family are exposed which made it build in 1753. One notices still red alternation brick/sandstone. Inside trompe-l'oeil and the mirrors are used, which give a reinforced impression of space and size.

Die Clemenskirche

It is the vault of a hospital, which was destroyed during the Second world war. The vault was built of 1744 to 1753. It is equipped with a cupola, and the style baroque of the interior is largely inspired by the Master baroque Balthazar Neumann: south of Germany. The style baroque touches with the style rococo: there is in Clemenskirche of many very alive statues, gildings, the turquoise and pink colors…

Die Rieselfelder

It is the natural reserve of Münster. One can walk there to foot where in the bicycle, it extends on kilometers, gathering many kinds of birds, such as fishing martins, ducks; but also of the bulls, the cows, frogs, the beavers…

Der Mühlenhof/Das Freilichtmuseum

The " Museum of Moulin" of 1959 with 1960 was founded, it gathers a score of houses built starting from vestiges coming from all Westphalia, and thus reconstitutes a city such as it could the being before during the post-medieval time. It was the idea of Theo Breider to establish this museum.

Among about thirty house, there are a mill, a school, a tavern, and walking from time to time a guide equipped in traditional costume (red scarf, stick, blue jacket).

Allwetterzoo Münster

Zoological gardens of Münster.

Life today with Münster

Münster is a city which aims at a greater ecology: the traffic in the bicycle and the bus is very developed: many public garages kept for bicycle are established, in particular in the most attended public places.

Münster is also a city with great industrial and commercial importance.

A popular tradition tells that in Münster, either it rains, or the bells sound, or both.

The Wasserschlosser of the neighborhoods

The Wasserschlösser are castles surrounded by water, built the Middle Ages until the end of the 18th century. Münsterland counts of them 100 more to date.

Their origin: Die Wasserburgen

With the Middle Ages, the lords of Germany, who fought without delay, had the idea to build castles on islands surrounded by water. Indeed, it was well the only means of defending oneself. The area was very punt, but the many rivers, rivers and affluents provided an excellent defense, more especially as one could dig ditches around the castles, also filled with water.

It is thus at the 12th century that these mini-fortresses, the “Wasserburgen”, are set up with the means of stones or bricks. They are very different from the Frenchwomen. The majority are built while skirting the shape of the island (circular), others are spread out over two islands connected by a drawbridge, but the castles are never closed. Some are equipped with a tower, which seldom exceeds the 25 meters in height. But, as from the 16th century, the invention of the firearms and in particular of the guns, made primitive and useless this type of defense. The majority of the castles were taken, and destroyed, especially during the Thirty Year old war. It is the end of the “Wasserburgen”, and the beginning of the “Wasserschlösser”.

What they became: Die Wasserschlösser (or castles surrounded by water)

After the Thirty Year old war, the majority of noble decide to buy the grounds with the “Wasserburgen” in ruin, and to rebuild them on true castles of pleasure and holiday, where water would be an essential component of decoration. Some are rebuilt according to the shapes of the old castles, by preserving the tower sometimes. Some become splendid imposing palates, others of the smallest manors with two or three bodies of buildings. The Baroque art is propagated at this time there, it influences the noble ones, and is found on the grids, the tables… The noble ones come in their residences primarily during the summer, because the castles are very cold in winter, therefore they set out again downtown.

Today, the 3000 castles almost collapsed all, except for 300 which remain entirely preserved. Currently, they are sometimes museums, and one can visit them. One gives to it also traditional concerts and feasts. They are also always private castles.

Some famous castles

Vischering
Burg Hülshoff
Haus Rüschhaus
Nordkirchen
Wasserburg Anholt
Schloss Ahaus

Traditions with Münster

Der Westfälische Himmel

Der Westfälische Himmel, wants to say " the Westphalien" sky; in French. In Westphalia, one says that the sky " is filled of jambons". However, one hung formerly in the houses, the large pieces of hams in the hood of the chimney, which occupied an important and central place, to make them smoke. It is thus this chimney, which represents " sky filled with jambons" and which gives to all the old houses of Westphalia this so particular odor of the Jambon smoked…

Der Kiepenkerl

DER kiepenkerl, is in other words, the hawker. At the time when data processing and the media were developed little, the hawkers, commercial amateurs, went from city downtown, and told with each one what they had heard in their preceding stop. They were very useful for the inhabitants of the isolated regions, this is why Münster set up a monument in their honor: a statue of Kiepenkerl: traditional character in the city.

Das Altbier

It is the " old woman bière": a traditional Beer made of Korn. It before was brewed in many breweries, but today there remains nothing any more but one about it where the beer is been useful: " Pinkus Müller".

Der Pumpernickel

The name of this black Bread, Westphalian speciality; comes from a French officer, who after having eaten some, had declared " They is good for Nickel" , its horse… From where German translation " Pumpernickel" (Good " gave; Pum" and For " gave; Per"). Of this bread, humanistic Dutch, Justus Lipsius also say, in 1586, " When his aspect was seen, his colors, all his forms, then, one can claim to know all the pains".

Der Send

In the beginning, Send was a religious holiday, followed by the many open ones. Today it is a fair which takes place in March, in June, and October. She points out the sword of Send (see higher).

Twinnings

York with the the United Kingdom since 1958.
Orleans in France since 1960.
Kristiansand in Norway since 1967.
Monastir in Tunisia since 1969.
Rishon-Le-Zion in Israel since 1981.
Fresno with the the United States since 1986.
Rjasan in Russia since 1989.
Mühlhausen in the Bundesland of Thuringue in Germany since 1990.
Lublin in Poland since 1991.

Vésinet in France -->

Characters

Monseigneur Von Galen, bishop of Munster.
Kurt Gerstein, Nazi, born in 1905.
Carl Wilhelm Wutzer, enseignant´

External bonds

Prosopographie of the noble families in the area of Münster (17/18 century, ecclesiastical principality of Münster) in line
Edicts of the ecclesiastical principality of Münster (coll Scotti) in line
" DER wedderdoeper eidt" /The oath of the anabaptists of Münster
Tourist-Information Münsterland

Simple: Münster (Westfalen)

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