Muenster - Ueberwasserkirche

Muenster, the cultural centre of Westphalia, is a city with a population of more than 250.000 of which nearly 50.000 are students at the University of Muenster. This surely helped Muenster to gain the status of the "bicycle capital of Germany".

The Ueberwasserkirche is just about 200 meters west of the cathedral. The car, that you see (stop lamps!) is just passing over a little bridge, as there is a small river, named Aa. So the seen here is "over/ueber" the "water/wasser", what explains the name of the church.

A church was built here already 1040, but the gothic church seen here is younger. The construction of this church started 1340 - and took more than a hundred years, until it was finally completed. At that time the church had a nice spire.

Then came the Muenster Rebellion, when radical, anarchic Anabaptists established a communal theocracy in Muenster. For 18 months the "Wiedertaeufer" ruled Muenster, the "New Jerusalem".

The very unpopular bishop Franz of Waldeck was expelled, the decorations of the cathedral and other churches got burned, the archives destroyed, polygamy got legalized, the community of goods was declared. Prophet Jan Matthys was sure, the God's judgment was near, and that Jesus would come personally to Muenster on Easter 1534 to support them against the evil.

This story explains, why the tower of the Ueberwasserkirche lost it´s spire.

It took only little time for the expelled bishop the return to Muenster and besiege the town. The Anabaptists under the new mayor Bernhard Knipperdolling and the new King John I of Muenster (aka Jan Bokelson, aka John of Leiden) had the spire destroyed, used the stones for the fortifications - and a cannon was installed on top of the tower.

After obstinate resistance, Muenster was taken by the bishop´s armee on June 24, 1535.

What happens then - will be told under the next photo...


Some details about the Muenster Rebellion are to find here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnster_Rebellion
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_Knipperdolling
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_Leiden