The seventh chapter of the novel L’Œuvre au Noir by Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987) is entitled La mort à Münster (Death in Münster). It includes a vivid description of the bizarre theocracy established by the Anabaptists in the German city of Münster in the years 1534-1535. The novel’s protagonist, the physician, philosopher and Read More …
This museum claims to have a nearly complete collection of the lithographic works of Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), but they do not have them all on display at once. Only a few rooms of the museum actually show Picasso’s graphics, and these are rotated periodically on an “A-Z” basis. When I Read More …
Münster in Westfalen claims to be the only German city where there is more bicycle traffic than car traffic. The city administration is particularly proud of the fact that Münster has “nearly a two-thirds majority” for the “environmental coalition” of cyclists, pedestrians and bus riders. True, in the nearby Netherlands Read More …
As one of Germany’s foremost bicycle cities, Münster (Westfalen) has the country’s largest bicycle station, with safe and dry parking spaces for 3500 bicycles. The bicycle station is located directly in front of Münster’s main railroad station, so people can ride their bikes to the station and then take the Read More …
Where the old city fortifications used to be, there is now a car-free “Promenade” that goes all around the city center of Münster (Westfalen). It consists of three paved paths, a wide path in the center for bicycles and two narrow paths on either side for pedestrians. The trees along Read More …
Münster was one of two cities — the other being nearby Osnabrück — where the peace treaties were negotiated and signed to bring an end to the Thirty Years’ War that had ravaged Germany, or what is now Germany, from 1618 to 1648. The Hall of Peace in the Münster Read More …
The opera I saw at the City Theater in Münster (Westfalen) was The Cunning Little Vixen (in German Das schlaue Füchslein) by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček (1854-1928). This is a whimsical opera about an older man who falls in love with a young female — in this case a Read More …
At the Münster City Theater I also saw a play: Unter Eis (Under Ice) by Falk Richter, a German playwright who also stages operas — he was the stage director for a Frankfurt production of Elektra, by Richard Strauss, for example. The play Unter Eis is about consultants, people who Read More …