Muenster - St. Lamberti

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".

A small church was constructed here around 1000, financed by the local merchants as kind of "counterweight" to the nearby bishop´s cathedral. This was for sure a sign of wealth, but maybe as well a sign of civilian pride and independence. The construction of the gothic church seen now started 1375. The tower with it´s high steeple is younger. End of the 19th century the original tower was decrepit, so it got replaced by this one 1888/1889. It is about 90 meters high - a small copy of the steeple of the Freiburg Minster.

The point from where the photo was taken is in front of the town hall.

Here the story of the Muenster Rebellion continues.

Prophet Jan Matthys had the vision, that Jesus would come personally to Muenster on Easter 1534, so, convinced of his invulnerability, he left the besieged city with a small group, to welcome the Lord. Only minutes later, the prophet´s head stuck on a long pole and was shown to the city by the besiegers.

Strange enough the Anabaptists did believe, that Jan Matthys would resurrect after three days, what did not happen. Now Jan of Leiden started the "Regiment of the 12 Apostles", what added fierce terror to the immense hunger in the besieged city.

There are details within the Muenster Rebellion, that are difficult to understand nowadays, as visions and delusions seem to be important and frequent. It may be, that these delusions actually could be caused by ergotism, a poisening through a fungus in rye, better known as "Saint Anthony's Fire". But that is just a theory.

Fact is, that the troops of the bishop conquered the town in June 1535. Seven months later the most prominent Anabaptists Jan van Leiden, Bernhard Knipperdolling and Bernhard Krechting are sentenced to death by torture. It is written, that the flesh was teared off their bones with red-hot tongs. What was left of the bodies after that was put into iron cages - and these cages were placed on the steeple St. Lamberti.

St. Lamberti´s steeple is jut over 100 years old, but the original cages, that had been on the old tower were moved to the new one. A close up of the cages will follow.


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