"Friedensaal (Hall of Peace)" Top 5 Page for this destination Münster Things to Do Tip by Nemorino

Photos:
1. Friedensaal
2. The chimney
3. The golden rooster

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 Town Hall is where some of the negotiations took place, over a period of five years, before the final treaties were signed (not in this room) on October 24, 1648. The negotiations were long and difficult, with 109 delegations taking part at one time or another, but the end result was that for the first time in European history a major war was ended by diplomacy, not military surrender.

Münster had about 100,000 inhabitants in those days, and had to house and feed roughly the same number of visitors from all those delegations -- which must have been quite a strain, but the advantage was that Münster was declared a neutral city for the duration of the peace talks, so it was not the site of any battles during the final years of the war.

Directions: GPS 51°57'41.85" North; 7°37'40.69" East
Website: http://www.hhog.de/4405.html