Morning In Münster

Thursday morning we got up and had a nice breakfast with my Aunt Marie, Bina and Lina.  Both my cousins had to go to work but they were not going to stay for the entire day.  Lina had to go to school.  Sabine had offered to take Bina, Kathleen and I to Münster for the morning.  We hopped into her car, a new Renault Megane and headed to Münster.  After arriving downtown we drove into a modern and super clean underground parking garage.  When we surfaced we were in the center of a city that Charlemagne sent missionaries to Christianize the Saxons in 793.  A monastery was constructed on the banks of the River Aa and completed in 805.  Münster derives its name from the Latin word, "monasterium".

  

Münster Cathedral or St.-Paulus-Dom built 1224-64 was the 3rd cathedral at this location. 

The St.-Paulus-Dom was the third cathedral built at this location,  The first, Ludgerus Dom was erected slightly north of this site in 805 and remained there until 1377.  A second church was started  in the 10th or 11th century but was demolished, save the front façade and the two towers, in order to make way for the new cathedral.  The two Romanesque towers were incorporated into the new cathedral which was built in the Gothic style.  The next major change to the cathedral was the simplified front façade between the two western towers.  The change was the result of the reconstruction of the damage the cathedral suffered as a result of the war.  





Inside St.-Paulus Dom looking up the nave towards the high choir.



As travelers it was nice to see the statue of Saint Christopher when we entered the cathedral.

Kathleen and I walking in the Quadrangle of the cloisters looking at the Cemetery of the Domherren.

One of the cathedral's stained glass window which I thought was quite different from what I was use to seeing, and no wonder, it is a Picasso!

Here is something I do understand, an Astronomical Clock from 1542 but this one of a few monumental clocks left in the world that run counter-clockwise. The clockworks had to be completely rebuilt in 1932.

During the Second World War, Münster was a large garrison city which headquartered the 6th Military District of the Wehrmacht thus was a very important target for the Allied bombers. We walked through the old part of the city and marveled at what was there.  The new blended in very well with the old. The rebuilding of Münster after 1945 made me think that all this and more already existed, only to be destroyed by a useless war. There were many photos posted of the buildings say in 1900, then 1945 as one stood in front of them to admire.  I felt sad thinking about all the civilians who died during the air raids and subsequent fires.  This sadly this theme of "was there, destroyed, rebuilt" was repeated city after city as we made our way to Budapest. 

Some old, blended with a lot of new. Unfortunately 91% of old Münster was destroyed during WW2.

Münster's Prinzipalmarkt in 1900. We are looking north towards St Lamberti Church.

Same view in 1945.

March 16th, 1946 Cardinal von Galen returned to Münster and was honored at the front portal of St Lamberti Church. The scene above would have looked much like this 1946 photo.

Same view today.

 Münster's greatest event in my mind was its role in the signing of the Treaty of Münster ending the conflict between Spain and the Dutch Republic.  Along with the Treaty of Osnabruck, the Peace of Westphalia was established on October 24, 1648.  These  treaties ended both the Thirty Year War and the Eighty Year War.  The Peace of Westphalia established a new system of political order in central Europe, one where the concept of having sovereign states embraced.  This concept became central to international law and to the prevailing world order. 

  

The Town Hall or the Rathaus, parts of which date back to 1250.  It was here where the Treaty of Münster was ratified on May 15th, 1648. 

A painting of the event by Dutch artist Gerard ter Borch, 1617-81  







The Hall of Peace, many of the people in Borch's painting are depicted in the portraits hanging on the wall to the left.  

After leaving the Rathaus we walked the short distance to St. Lamberti Church, the one at the end of Prinzipalmarkt.  This again is one of four churches on this site.  The first was built in around 1000 AD, the second in the Romanesque style was constructed after 1150, the third an early Gothic structure was started in the mid-13th Century.  The present building was built between the 14th and 15th Century.  The next big change in the look of the church was the construction of its neo-Gothic tower.  The reason for the change was because the old tower was sinking.  A totally new foundation was built to support the new tower and after 20 years of bickering the tower was completed in 1898.

St Lamberti sometime in the 1870s

The new tower with the 3 cages suspended above the clock.

Why the cages?  The answer belongs in the "fact is stranger than fiction" department.  Most have heard about of the Reformation and the creation of the Protestant religions, well it did not end there.  A man by the name of Melchior Hoffman who had once been a follower of Martin Luther decided to join and promote the Anabaptist cause.  The main premise of the these Christians was a simple one, Protestant Reformers had not gone far enough. They wanted adult baptisms, they were looking to create a "New Jerusalem" where all men were equal, money was not necessary and so on, Münster was to be that nirvana, a Jan Matthy, its leader.  Jan Matthy also prophesized that the world was to end in 1533, for anyone living in wrenched conditions of the early 16th century I can see why the would be inclined to believe him.    

Jan Matthy unlike Melchior Hoffman was not a pacifist and fought oppression with violence.  He cleared Münster of non-believers, cleared St Lamberti of its alter, glass windows liturgical vessels and lastly the Prince Bishop Count Franz of Waldeck.  The Prince Bishop lay siege on the city.  Jan Matthy who now believed he was invisible went outside the protective walls of the city on Easter Sunday of 1534.  Shortly after meeting with Prince Bishop's army, Jan Matthy was killed and his head placed on a long pole for all to see.

The siege continued, New Jerusalem was now led by Jan van Leiden the self-proclaimed King of Münster.  Polygamy was now legal for men in the "New Jerusalem" but the "good times" did not last.  The Army of Münster fell to the Prince Bishop on June 24th, 1535.  Jan van Leiden and his two main disciples, Bernd Knipperdolling and Bernd Krechting were tortured, executed and their corpses placed in cages to be hung on the steeple. 

Interior view of St Lamberti Church.

In 1929 a priest from Berlin was sent to Münster to become the Parish Priest of St Lamberti.  The priest, Count Clemens August of Galen was from an old Aristocratic family, he loved Germany, the Monarchy, thought the Treaty of Versailles unfair to Germany and did not like Communism or what Stalin was doing to the Catholic Church.  To the people of Münster he seemed conservative and old fashion.  Four years latter he was appointed Bishop of Münster the same year the Nazis took power. 

The first issue was the removal of religious instruction in the Catholic schools, he battled and won. From 1934 on he started to poke fun at some of the Nazi doctrine.  In 1936 the Nazis wanted to remove Crucifixes from the schools, von Galen's protests led to public demonstrations.  By 1937 von Galen and others in the Catholic Church began attacking the Nazis of violating the 1933 Concord and sowing the seeds of  "tares of suspicion, discord, hatred, calumny, of secret and open fundamental hostility to Christ and His Church." 

The Allied bombings of Münster in 1941 left the cathedral unusable,  von Galen returned to St Lamberti.  It was there he gave three of his most important sermons, the first denounced the methods of the rulers, the second questioned the arbitrariness of the Gestapo and the third he accused and condemned the Nazis of killing the "unproductive' mentally ill.

From this point on von Galen was kept under house arrest, he was far too popular for the Nazis to execute. After the war he became a pain in the ass for the British and American Occupiers insisting that common German folk be treated fairly and be protected from injustices and from the plundering of German homes, factories and offices by the troops. 

Pope Pius XII raised the rank of von Galen to Cardinal in 1946. Upon his return from Rome the Mayor of  Münster Cardinal greeted von Galen with a ceremony in front portal of St Lamberti Church.  Six days later on March 22, 1946  the good Cardinal von Galen died.