My hometown Münster is over 1,200 years old and looks back on a very eventful history. Today the city, which forms the educational and administrative centre of Westphalia, has about 280,000 inhabitants, from whom statistically 7 % study or work at Münster University. During the Second World War the city center was destroyed to a degree of 90%. It is owed to a large extent on the original reconstruction that the historical flair of the city remains until today. The city hall with the Peace Hall, in which the signing of the Westfaelian Peace Treaty terminated the 30-Years-War in 1648 , is likewise a point of attraction like the cathedral and the Lambertikirche.
I was born in the neighbourhood of Sank Mauritz in the outskirts of the city, close to the Pleistermühle, an old water mill. In the 19th century a coffeehouse was established romantically on the banks of the river Werse next to the old mill.
The Münsterland is well known for its park landscape, the water castles and locks. Not only with tourists the bicycle-track-net of over 4,500 km is popular. The Münsterland is also Germany's horseback rider region No. 1, one of the reasons the National Olympic Equestrian Committee is situated in Warendorf, half an hours drive from Münster to the east.
