Münster ( ) is an independent city in North
Rhine-Westphalia
, Germany
.
It is
located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be
the cultural centre of the Westphalia
region and it is also capital of the local government region
Regierungsbezirk
Münster
. It is most well known as the location of
the
Anabaptist rebellion
during the
Protestant
Reformation, as the site of the signing of the
Treaty of Westphalia ending the
Thirty Years' War in 1648 and as
bicycle capital of Germany.
Münster gained the status of a
Großstadt (major city) with
more than 100,000 inhabitants in 1915. Currently there are around
270,000 people living in the city, with about 48,500 students, only
some of whom are recorded in the official population statistics as
having their primary residence in Münster.
Münster's economy is mainly based on service companies and public
administration. Münster is also the seat of eight universities and
colleges as well as of important courts such as the constitutional
court and the higher administrative court for North
Rhine-Westphalia.
The city was founded in 793 by Frisian
Ludger, who was consecrated as the first bishop of
the Münster diocese in 805. His successors held power over the
largest clerical territory within the
Holy Roman Empire until 1803.
Geography
Geographical position
Münster is situated on the river
Aa, approximately 15 km south of
its confluence with the
Ems in the
Westphalian Bight, a landscape studded with dispersed settlements
and farms, the so called "Münsterland". The
Wolstonian sediments of the mountain ridge called
"Münsterländer Kiessandzug" cross the city from north to south. The
highest elevation is the Mühlenberg in the northwest of Münster, 97
metres above sea level. The lowest elevation is at the Ems with
44 m above sea level. The city center is60 m above sea
level, measured at the
Prinzipalmarkt
in front of the historic city hall.
The Dutch
city of Enschede
is about
65 km northwest of Münster. Other major cities
nearby include Osnabrück
, about 44 km to the north, Dortmund
, about
61 km to the south, and Bielefeld
, about 62 km to the east.
Münster is one of the 42
agglomeration
areas and one of the biggest cities of Germany in terms of
acreage. But this includes substantial sparsely populated, agrarian
districts which were formerly separate local government areas but
were
amalgamated in 1975.
Thus nearly half the city's area is agricultural, resulting in a
low population density of approximately 900 inhabitants per
km².
Moreover, the built-over area of the city is relatively large,
because the buildings are smaller compared with other cities of
this size: there is a high ratio of one-family houses and mansions.
There are few high-rise buildings and no skyscrapers. Nevertheless
the population density reaches about 15,000 inhabitants per km² in
the city center. Calculating the population density based on the
actual populated area results in approximately 2890 inhabitants per
km².
The urban area of Münster of 302.91 km² is distributed into
57,54 km² covered with buildings, 0.99 km² are used for
maintenance and 25.73 km² for traffic areas, 156.61 km²
for agricultural and recreational purposes, 8.91 km ² are
covered with waterbodies, 56.69 km² is used by forests and
6,23 km² is used for other purposes. The perimeter has a
length of 107 km, the largest extend of the urban area in
north south direction is 24.4 km, in east west direction
20.6 km.
Climate
Climate diagram of Münster
A well known saying in Münster is
"Entweder es regnet oder es
läuten die Glocken. Und wenn beides zusammen fällt, dann
ist Sonntag" ("Either it rains or the church bells ring. And
if both occur at the same time, it's Sunday."), but in reality the
rainfall with approximately 744 mm per year is close to the
average rainfall in Germany. The impression of Münster as a
rain-laden city depends not on the absolute amount of rainfall but
on the above-average number of rainy days with relatively small
amounts of rainfall. The average temperature is 9.2 °C with
approximately 1500 sun hours per year. In terms of this figure,
Münster is in the bottom fifth in comparison with other German
cities. The winter in Münster is fairly mild and snow is rare. The
temperature during summertime meets the average in Germany.
Adjacent cities and districts
Münster
borders on following cities and municipalities, named clockwise and
beginning in the northwest: Altenberge
and Greven
(District of
Steinfurt
), Telgte
, Everswinkel
, Sendenhorst
and Drensteinfurt
(District of Warendorf
), as well as Ascheberg
, Senden
and Havixbeck
(District of Coesfeld
).
City boroughs
According to § 1 of the main constitution of Münster, the city
is divided into six administrative districts (
Stadtbezirke). These are "Mitte" (Middle),
"Nord" (North), "Ost" (East), "West", "Süd-Ost" (South-East) and
"Hiltrup". Each district is represented by a council of 19
representatives elected at each local election. Heading each
council is the district mayor, or
Bezirksvorsteher.
Further, every district is subdivided into residential quarters
(
Wohnbereiche). This official term, however, is not used
in common speech, as there are no discrete definitions of the
individual quarters. The term "Stadtteil" is used instead, mainly
referring to the incorporated communities. The districts are also
divided into 45 statistical districts.
The following list names each district with its residential and
additional quarters according to the constitution. These are the
official names, which partly differ from the usage in common
speech.
_Stadtbezirke.png/300px-Muenster_(Westfalen)_Stadtbezirke.png)
Subdivision of Münster into its
administrative districts – the darker parts represent the
built-up areas of the city
The center can be subdivided into the city districts which have
evolved historically, whose borders are not always clearly defined.
Among these are Aaseestadt, Erphoviertel, Geistviertel,
Hansaviertel, Herz-Jesu-Viertel, Kreuzviertel, Kuhviertel,
Mauritzviertel, Pluggendorf, Rumphorst, Südviertel, Uppenberg, and
the Zentrum Nord.
Transport
Münster is often called the bicycle capital of Germany. Most of the
transport is done on two wheels.
Demographics
Münster has approximately 270,000 inhabitants, and in addition more
than 10,000 have their secondary residence in the city. About 9%
are resident aliens. The rate of unemployment was 6.3% in December
2007. Of the approximately 130,000 employees subject to social
insurance contribution more than 80% work in the
tertiary sector, about 17% work in the
secondary sector and 1% work in the
primary sector. The average age of
Münster's residents was 40.0 years in 2006. The life-expectancy in
Münster is 76.3 years for males and 83.1 years for females.
History
In 793
Charlemagne sent out as
missionary the
Frisian Liudger (later canonized) to convert the
Saxons with whom he had been battling, offering as
headquarters his recently demolished Frankish stronghold of
Mimigernaford ("ford over the Aa river"), at the
crossroads of the road from
Cologne and the
road to Frisia. Liudger was a product of Utrecht and the York
school of
Ethelbert, which
produced many of the clerics who served in Charlemagne's chancelry.
He built his church and cloister on the right bank of the Aa, on
the height called the
Horsteberg: it was the monastery
("monasterium") from which Münster derives its name.
In 805 Liudger travelled to Rome to be ordained the first
bishop of Münster, and soon
founded a school (The Gymnasium Paulinum
is believed to have been founded as the monastery
school in 797). The combination of ford and crossroad,
marketplace, episcopal administration center, library and school,
established Münster as an important center.
In the
Middle Ages Münster was a leading
member of the
Hanseatic
League.
In 1534 the
Anabaptists (specifically the
Melchiorites), led by
John of Leiden, took power in the
Münster Rebellion and founded a
democratic proto-socialistic state. They claimed all property,
burned all books except the Bible, and called it the "New
Jerusalem". John of Leiden believed he would lead the elect from
Münster to capture the entire world and purify it of evil with the
sword in preparation of Jesus's Second Coming and the beginnings of
a New Age. However, the town was recaptured in 1535; the
Anabaptists were tortured to death, their corpses were exhibited in
cages, which can still be seen hanging on the Tower of
St. Lamberti's steeple.
The
signing of the Peace of
Westphalia of 1648 at Münster and Osnabrück ended the Thirty
Years' War and Eighty Years'
War and was one of the foundations upon which modern Europe was
built. It also guaranteed the future of the prince-bishop
and the diocese; the area was to be exclusively
Roman Catholic.
In 1780
the University
of Münster
(today called "Westphalian Wilhelms-University",
WWU) was established, now a major European centre for
excellence in education and research with large faculties in the
arts, humanities, theology, sciences, business and law.
Currently there are about 40,000 undergraduate and postgraduate
students enrolled. In 1802 Münster was conquered by
Prussia during the
Napoleonic Wars.
It became the capital
of the Prussian province of Westphalia
. A century later in 1899 the city's harbour
started operations when the city was linked to the Dortmund-Ems
Canal
. With the spread of radio technology, in
1924 the radio and television organisation
Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) was set
up in Münster's harbour area.
World War II
The Bishop of Münster in the 1940s was Cardinal
Clemens August Graf von Galen,
one of the most prominent critics of the Nazi government. In
retaliation for his success, Münster was heavily garrisoned during
World War II and five large complexes
of barracks are a still resented feature of the city. Münster was
the headquarters (Hauptsitz) for the 6th Military District
(Wehrkreis) of the German Wehrmacht, under the command of Infantry
General (General der Infanterie)
Gerhard
Glokke.
Originally made up of Westphalia and the Rhineland, after the Battle of France it was expanded to include
the Eupen
- Malmedy
district of Belgium
. The headquarters controlled military
operations in Münster, Essen
, Düsseldorf
, Wuppertal
, Bielefeld, Coesfeld
, Paderborn
, Herford
, Minden
, Detmold
, Lingen
, Osnabrück, Recklinghausen
, Gelsenkirchen
, and Cologne.Münster
was the home station for the
VI
and
XXIII Infantry Corps
(Armeekorps), as well as the XXXIII and LVI
Panzerkorps. Münster was also the home of the
6th,
16th and
25th Panzer Division; the
16th Panzergrenadier Division; and the
6th,
26th,
69th,
86th,
106th,
126th,
196th,
199th,
211th,
227th,
253rd,
254th,
264th,
306th,
326th,
329th,
336th,
371st,
385th, and
716th Infantry Divisions
(Infanterie-division).
A
secondary target of the Oil
Campaign of World War II, Münster was bombed on October 25,
1944 by 34 diverted B-24 Liberators
during a mission to a nearby primary target, the Scholven
/Buer
synthetic
oil plant at Gelsenkirchen. About 91% of the Old City and
63% of the entire city was destroyed by Allied air raids. In the
1950s the Old City was rebuilt to match its pre-war state, though
many of the surrounding buildings were replaced with cheaper modern
structures. It was also for several decades a garrison town for the
British forces stationed in West Germany.
Postwar period
From 1974 onward, the city was the residence of the American artist
Moondog, an eccentric individual who
idolized postwar Germany. In 2003, Münster hosted the
Central European
Olympiad in Informatics. In 2004, Münster won an honorable
distinction: the LivCom-Award for the most livable city in the
world with a population between 200,000 and 750,000. For more
information about the honour, see the
leaflet (.pdf) and the 10-minute
DivX coded film:
the 48mb-version or
the 87mb-version from the official
Münster-homepage. In a nutshell, Münster is famous and liked for
its bicycle friendliness and for the student character of the city
that is due to the influence of its university, the Westfälische
Wilhelms Universität Münster.
Town Hall in the Prinzipalmarkt.
Münster: the Prinzipalmarkt with St
Lambert's church.
St. Paul's Cathedral.
Main sights
- St. Paul's Cathedral, built in the 13th century in a mixture of
late Romanesque and early Gothic styles. It has been completely
restored after WWII damage. It includes an astronomical clock of 1540, adorned with
hand-painted zodiac symbols, which traces the movement of the
planets, and plays a Glockenspiel tune
every noon.
- The Prinzipalmarkt, the marketplace in the city centre
with the Gothic town hall (14th century) in which the Peace of Westphalia treaty which put an
end to the Thirty Years' War was
signed in 1648.
- St Lambert's Church (1375), with three cages hanging from its
tower above the clock face. In 1535 these cages were used to
display the corpses of Jan van Leiden
and other leaders of the Münster
Rebellion, who promoted polygamy and renunciation of all
property.
- The Schloss (palace), built 1767–87 as residence for
the prince-bishops by the Baroque architect Johann Conrad Schlaun
and Wilhelm Ferdinand Lipper. Now the administrative centre for the
University.
- The
Botanischer Garten Münster
, a botanical garden
founded in 1803.
- "Münster Arkaden" (2006), new shopping centre between
Prinzipalmarkt and the Pablo Picasso Museum of Graphic Art.
- The fortress "Zwinger", build 1528. Used from the 18th to the
20th century as a prison. During World War II, the Gestapo
used the "Zwinger" also for executions.
- "Krameramtshaus" (1589), an old guild house, which housed the
delegation from the Netherlands during the signing of the Peace of Westphalia.
- Signal-Iduna Building (1961), the first high-rise building in
Münster.
- LVM-Building, high-rise building near the Aasee.
- LBS-Building, location of Münsters first zoo. Some old
structures of the former zoo can be found in the park around the
office building. Also the "Tuckesburg", the strange looking house
of the zoo-founder, is still intact.
- "Cavete", the oldest academic pub in Münster
- Haus Rüschhaus (1743–49), a country estate situated in
Nienberge, built by Johann Conrad Schlaun for himself
- Stadthaus (1773)
- Erbdrostenhof (1749–53), a Baroque palace, also built by
Schlaun
- Clemenskirche (1745–53), a Baroque church, also built by
Schlaun
- Westphalian State Museum of Art and
Cultural History
- University bible museum
- City Museum ("Stadtmuseum"), exhibition of a large collection
showing the political and cultural history of the city from its
beginning up to present, housed by a converted former department
store
- University Mineralogical Museum
- Westphalian Horse Museum ("Hippomax")
- Mühlenhof open-air museum, depicting a typical Westphalian
village as it looked centuries ago
- Westphalian Museum for Natural
History
, state museum and planetarium
- West Prussian State
Museum ("Drostenhof Wolbeck")
- Museum of
Lacquer Art (founded and operated by the company BASF
Coatings)
- Pablo Picasso
Museum of Graphic Art, the only museum devoted exclusively to
the graphic works of Pablo
Picasso
Scientific education and research
Twin cities
Münster is twinned with the following places:
- York
, United
Kingdom
- Fresno
, USA
- Orléans
, France
- Kristiansand
, Norway
- Monastir
, Tunisia
- Rishon LeZion
, Israel
- Ryazan
, Russia
- Mühlhausen
, Germany
- Lublin
, Poland
- Braniewo
, Poland
See also
References
- Stadt Münster – Amt für Stadtentwicklung, Stadtplanung,
Verkehrsplanung: Map of population density in the statistical
areas, page 2
- Regional
statistics for NRW of Landesamt für Datenverarbeitung und
Statistik Nordrhein-Westfalen
- Statistics for 2006 of the city of Münster,
Seite 18
- Münster from A–Z; Information by Münster
Marketing
- Geoklima 2.1
- Statistics for 2006 of the city of Münster,
page 18
- Main constituation of the city of Münster of
December 21, 1995 – p. 13f.
- Statistics for 2006 of the city of Münster,
page 95
- Statistics for 2006 of the city of Münster,
page 54
External links
Sights
Images
History
Other
- Center for Nanotechnology
(ERCIS)
Top topics
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Misc
Search
