Münster

Industrial city in North Rhine-Westphalia, northwest Germany, 100 km/62 mi northeast of Düsseldorf on the Dortmund-Ems Canal; population (2005 est) 270,900. There are wire, cement, chemicals, steel, brewing, and distilling industries. It was formerly the capital of Westphalia. The Treaty of Westphalia was signed simultaneously here and at Osnabrück in 1648, ending the Thirty Years' War.

Its university was founded in 1773. Badly damaged in World War II, its ancient buildings, including the 15th-century cathedral and town hall, have been restored or rebuilt.