My Trip to Münster

On Friday I was in Münster and there I bought some cards for my collection.

Münster is a big city in the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Once it was an important diocesan and Hanseatic town. It was founded around 800 at the crossing of two trading routes and was supported by Charlemagne. The town is connected to two famous events of the Reformation period. In the 1530s it was praised as New Jerusalem during the later repelled Anabaptists' Rebellion and in 1648 the Peace of Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years' War was signed in Münster and Osnabrück. In 1661 the Prince-Bishop withdrew some of the cities privileges. Soon it also became the residence of the Prince-Bishop. In 1773 the university was founded. In 1803 it became a part of Prussia, was shortly a part of France and in 1816 it became the capital of the Prussian province of Westphalia.

These days Münster is especially in the news as it hosts the 101st German Catholics Day between the 9th and the 13th May. The motto for the festival is Seeking Peace, which has a connection to the Centenary of the end of World War I and the 370th anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia. Famous guests were Angela Merkel and Juan Manuel Santos. It was the largest German Catholics Day since 1990.

For the festival also a special postmark was available. I got the postmark on a view card of Münster.

The Münster Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Münster. It contains the tomb of Münster's most famous bishop, Clemens August Graf von Galen, who led Catholic protest against Nazi euthanasia and denounced Gestapo lawlessness.

The Town Hall of Münster is one of the symbols of Münster and is considered to be one of the most important secular buildings in the Gothic style. In 1648 the Peace of Westphalia was signed in the town hall, for which the town halls Münster and Osnabrück got the European Heritage Label in 2015.

To commemorate also the Centenary of the end of World War I and the 370th anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia and to coincide with the European Year of Cultural Heritage a large exhibition project is carried out in Münster about peace between the antiquity and today. It consists of five exhibitions which are shown in the Archaeological Museum, the City Museum of Münster, the Picasso Museum and the Westphalian State Museum of Art and Cultural History with two being shown at the latter. The exhibitions can be visited until the 2nd September 2018.

The City Museum of Münster was founded in 1979. It shows exhibitions about Münster's city history with many town modells, a complete furnished cafe from the 1950s and other interesting exhibits.

The Westphalian State Museum of Art and Cultural History is the central art museum in Westphalia. It was founded in 1908.

The Picasso Museum was founded in 2000. It houses more than 800 lithographs of Pablo Picasso.

The Münster Palace was built between 1767 and 1787 as residence of the prince-bishop of Münster. Since 1954 it is used by the University of Münster.

The Clemenskirche is said to be one of the most important Baroque churches in Northern Germany. It was built between 1745 and 1753.

The Kiepenkerl is a monument to the travelling merchants which were once found between the Sauerland and Hamburg. It was destroyed during World War II, but was replaced soon after and since then became a symbol of Münster. A copy of the monument can be found at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC. On 7th April 2018 it was the site of the Münster attack, when a man drove a van into people seated outside restaurants.