Current Time in Münster, Germany

Munster lies in the north west of Germany, in the state of North Rhine Westphalia, at the centre of the wide and gently rolling farmland of the Munsterland. The city is built around a compact historic core enclosed by a green ring called the Promenade, which follows the line of the old fortifications, while the artificial lake of the Aasee provides open water and parkland just south of the centre. Hedgerows, moated manor houses and cycle paths characterise the countryside around it.

Around three hundred and twenty thousand people live here, and roughly one in six of them is a student. Munster is an administrative capital for the region, a centre of the church, insurance and public administration, and above all a university city. It is also famous as a cycling city, with more bicycles than inhabitants and a network of paths that makes riding the natural way to get about.

The city grew from a monastery founded in the eighth century, from which its name derives, and became the seat of a powerful prince bishop. In the 1530s it experienced one of the most dramatic episodes of the Reformation, when radical Anabaptists seized control and proclaimed a new Jerusalem before the city was recaptured. A century later Munster earned a permanent place in world history, when negotiations held in its town hall, together with parallel talks in Osnabruck, produced the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and ended the Thirty Years War. Heavy bombing in 1944 and 1945 destroyed most of the old town, which was then painstakingly rebuilt in its historic form.

The Prinzipalmarkt, a street of gabled merchant houses raised above stone arcades, is the finest urban space in the region and leads to the Gothic town hall, where the Hall of Peace is preserved with its original panelling. The cathedral of Saint Paul contains a remarkable astronomical clock from 1540 showing the movement of the planets, while three iron cages still hang from the tower of Saint Lamberti church, a grim relic of the Anabaptist episode. The Picasso museum, the large regional museum of art and culture and an outdoor sculpture project held every ten years give Munster a strong artistic reputation.

Student life fills the bars of the old Kuhviertel quarter, the lakeside beer gardens and the market on the cathedral square, where farmers sell produce twice a week. The Send funfair, Christmas markets and countless cycling excursions to the castles and moated houses of the surrounding country complete the picture.

The University of Munster is one of the largest in Germany, with strengths in law, theology, medicine and the sciences, and several colleges add further students. Fast trains link the city to the Ruhr, Hamburg and the Netherlands, and a regional airport lies a short distance to the north.

Munster combines a beautifully restored historic centre, an easygoing student atmosphere and a reputation for quality of life that has made it one of the most admired cities in Germany.