In Münster, peace history was written that was and is significant for Europe. The Peace of Westphalia was concluded here and in Osnabrück in October 1648. This peace treaty ended the Thirty Years' War in Europe and the Eighty Years' War in the Netherlands. It also influenced later peace negotiations.

The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) was a conflict for supremacy in Europe on the territory of the then Roman-German Empire. It began as a religious conflict between the Catholic emperor and Protestant minorities in the empire. However, it quickly turned into a war between European power dynasties for influence and dominion. In the end, not only the emperor himself, but also the other European powers of Austria, Spain, France, Denmark and Spain were involved in the war.

The Eighty Years' War (1568-1648) is also called the Spanish-Dutch War. It was the war of independence of the then Republic of the United Netherlands against the Spanish king. Besides the resistance of the Dutch against the sovereign, religious tensions between the denominations played a role in the outbreak of the war.

Peace negotiations in Münster and Osnabrück began in the summer of 1645 (picture above). Since almost all European powers came together, it was the first Europe-wide peace congress. The end result was a religious peace that put all Christian denominations on a completely equal footing. This meant that the Protestant minority could not be outvoted on religious matters at imperial assemblies. And Christians were free to choose their denomination.

In the case of the Netherlands, Spain officially recognized the independence and sovereignty of the Netherlands in the Peace of Westphalia, which was also legally established.

The Peace of Westphalia of Münster and Osnabrück is seen as a historic contribution to a European peace order. On the one hand, it paved the way for the peaceful coexistence of the Christian confessions. On the other hand, it established the principle of equal rights for states, regardless of their power. Later peace treaties were repeatedly based on the Peace of Westphalia, so that experts consider it to be the starting point of the development toward our modern international law.

In 2015, the town halls of Münster and Osnabrück were awarded the European Heritage Label by the EU Commission. In doing so, the Commission wanted to honor the importance of the Peace of Westphalia for Europe.

Since 1998, the 350th anniversary of the peace treaty, the "Internationaler Preis des Westfälischen Friedens" (International Peace of Westphalia Award) has also been presented in Münster every two years. Previous award winners have included Helmut Kohl, Kofi Annan and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
 

​

​Further information:

(Wikipedia articles in English)

• Wikipedia article Peace of Westphalia

• Wikipedia article Thirty Years' War

• Wikipedia article Eighty Years' War

• Website of the "Internationaler Preis des Westfälischen Friedens" (website only available in German)