Domplatz (Münster)

Münster ( MUUN-stər, German: [ˈmʏnstɐ] (listen); Low German: Mönster) is an independent city (Kreisfreie Stadt) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state district capital. Münster was the location of the Anabaptist rebellion during the Protestant Reformation and the site of the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia ending the Thirty Years' War in 1648. Today it is known as the bicycle capital of Germany. Münster gained the status of a Großstadt (major city) with more than 100,000 inhabitants in 1915. As of 2014, there are 300,000 people living in the city, with about 61,500 students, only some of whom are recorded in the official population statistics as having their primary residence in Münster. Münster is a part of the international Euregio region with more than 1,000,000 inhabitants (Enschede, Hengelo, Gronau, Osnabrück).

The Diocese of Münster is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. It is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Cologne. Bishop Felix Genn is the current bishop of the Diocese of Münster. He was ordained to the priesthood on 11 July 1976 and was appointed to the See of Münster on 19 December 2008.

Münster Cathedral or St.-Paulus-Dom is the cathedral church of the Catholic Diocese of Münster in Germany, and is dedicated to St Paul. It is counted among the most significant church buildings in Münster and, along with the City Hall, is one of the symbols of the city. The cathedral stands in the heart of the city, on a small hill called Horsteberg, which is encircled by the Roggenmarkt, Prinzipalmarkt and Rothenburg streets and by the Münstersche Aa river. This area, which also contains the Domplatz and surrounding buildings, was the old Domburg. Today the cathedral is the parish church for this area. West of the cathedral lies the bishop's palace and part of the old curia complex along with the current cathedral chapter. The cathedral had two predecessors. The first cathedral (called the Ludgerus Dom, 805-1377) stood to the north of the current cathedral; the second cathedral was built in the tenth or eleventh century and was demolished during the construction of the third and current cathedral between 1225 and 1264. The imposing westwerk with its nearly identical towers was built as part of the second cathedral around 1192 and was incorporated into the current building. As a result, the cathedral is a mixture of styles, combining the Romanesque westwerk, old choir, and west towers with the Gothic nave, transepts, high choir and ring of chapels. Each of the cathedral buildings served as the cathedral church of the Diocese of Münster, but each also had additional functions, at least at times. The original Carolingian cathedral was also the Collegiate church for a monastery founded by Liudger, with the monks living under the rule of Chrodegang. Each cathedral served as a parish church, originally for the whole of Münster. As a result of the foundation of further parish churches, the parish district of the cathedral was reduced to the Old Domburg and Domimmunität in 1090. In the first half of the thirteenth century, the Church of St Jacobi was built on the Domplatz. With the completion of this church, the cathedral, which was then under construction, lost its function as a parish church entirely. Since the demolition of St Jacobi in 1812, the cathedral regained its role as the parish church for the Old Domburg and Domimmunität. The cathedral contains the tomb of the former Bishop of Münster, Clemens August Graf von Galen who became a Cardinal shortly before his death in 1946 and was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.

The church St. Jacobi was located south of Münster Cathedral in the Domplatz in Münster and served as the parish church for the laity who lived within the Domimmunität. The church is first mentioned in 1262. The building was heavily damaged during the Münster Rebellion, but was rebuilt after 1535. During the French period, the building was demolished in 1812 after the rejection of an alternative proposal to demolish the cathedral and expand St. Jacobi. The bells of St. Jacobi continue in use at St. Agatha in Angelmodde. According to a 1748 ground plan of the cathedral and cathedral district including St Jacobi by Schlauns, St. Jacobi was an aisleless church, had three-bayed structure enclosed by cross-vaults with a polygonal apse (5/8 choir: five segments of an octagon). On the south side of the church building was a fenced area whose purpose (graveyard?) is no longer clear.

The Westphalian State Museum of Art and Cultural History (LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte) is an arts and cultural museum in Münster, Germany Besides an extensive collection ranging from spätgotik painting and sculpture to the Cranachs, the museum specializes in paintings from the Der Blaue Reiter and Die Brücke movements, in particular works by August Macke.

On 7 April 2018, a man drove a van into people seated outside restaurants in a pedestrianised square in the old part of the German city of Münster. He killed four people and injured about 20 others, six of them seriously, before committing suicide.

The Institute for New Testament Textual Research (German: Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung — INTF) at the University of Münster, Westphalia, Germany, is to research the textual history of the New Testament and to reconstruct its Greek initial text on the basis of the entire manuscript tradition, the early translations and patristic citations; furthermore the preparation of an Editio Critica Maior based on the entire tradition of the New Testament in Greek manuscripts, early versions and New Testament quotations in ancient Christian literature. Under Kurt Aland's supervision, the INTF collected almost the entire material that was needed. The manuscript count in 1950 was 4250, in 1983, 5460, and in 2017 approximately 5800 manuscripts. Moreover, INTF produces several more editions and a variety of tools for New Testament scholarship, including the concise editions known as the "Nestle–Aland" – Novum Testamentum Graece and the UBS Greek New Testament. Many of the results are also available to the wider public at the adjoining Bible Museum, which is affiliated with the institute. First supplements of the Editio Critica Maior with the Catholic epistles and the Acts of the Apostles have been published since 1997.

The Prinzipalmarkt is the historic principal marketplace of Münster, Germany. It is shaped by historic buildings with picturesque pediments attached to one another. It extends from St. Lambert's Church (Lambertikirche) in the north to the Townhouse Tower (Stadthausturm) in the south and is home to luxurious shops and cafés. The centre of the eastern side, opposite the south-eastern entrance to Cathedral Square (Domplatz), is dominated by the Historical City Hall of Münster. Having been largely destroyed during World War II, the Prinzipalmarkt was reconstructed from 1947 to 1958, most buildings true to the original.

Bible Museum Münster is a museum located in Münster, Germany, telling the story of the Bible from its handwritten beginnings until today. The main focus lays on the tradition of Greek New Testament as well as the German Bible. The museum forms part of the Institute for New Testament Textual Research at the University of Münster.

The Historical City Hall of Münster was one of the theatres of the negotiations of the Peace of Westphalia which concluded the Thirty Years' War in Western Europe and the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was the site of the Peace of Münster of 1648. Located in the centre of Prinzipalmarkt, it is the city's predominant landmark – besides Münster Cathedral. Having been destroyed during World War II, it was rebuilt true to the original from 1950 to 1958.

Roggenmarkt is a city square and marketplace in the city of Münster in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It lies to the northeast of the Münster Cathedral at the city center. The Roggenmarkt is located north of the city's main Prinzipalmarkt and extends in an arc to the west away from St. Lambert's Church. The two markets flow into each other. It was created by the middle of the 10th century and, together with the adjacent Old Fish Market (German: Alter Fischmarkt), is one of the oldest markets in the city. Roggenmarkt got its name because rye (German: Roggen) and other grains were mainly traded there. It lay on an important trade route in the east–west direction of Holland, and in the immediate vicinity of the major north–south connection from the Rhineland in the north and Friesland, Bremen, and also later Lübeck. As the principal market of rye, it was almost completely destroyed in the Second World War, and rebuilt thereafter to a large extent on the basis of the original.

St Lambert's Church (German: St. Lamberti) is a Roman Catholic church building in Münster (Westphalia) in Germany, dedicated to Lambert of Maastricht. Its present building is the most significant example of Westphalian late Gothic architecture. It lies on the north side of the Prinzipalmarkt (main market square) in the city centre. Until the early 20th century, the Roggenmarkt (which also borders the church) contained the Drubbels district of housing. To the church's east lies the Alte Fischmarkt and the Salzstraße, whilst between the church and the Salzstraße is the Lambertikirchplatz with the Lambertibrunnen. Three iron baskets hang from the church tower – in 1536 these were used to expose the corpses of Jan van Leiden, Bernhard Krechting, and Bernhard Knipperdolling after they were publicly tortured and killed in the Prinzipalmarkt for leading the Münster Rebellion. In 2007, the twentieth episode of the TV-series Wilsberg, 'Die Wiedertäufer' ('The Anabaptist'), was filmed at the church.