Munster
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Munster. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
province in Ireland, ancient kingdom of the O'Briens of Thomond, occupying S. W. of island. Contains counties Waterford, Tipperary, Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick. Watered by Shannon, Suir, Blackwater, and Lakes of Killarney. Had famous medieval school at Ross Carbery. Area, 9,532 square miles. Pop. about 1,000,000. MÜNSTER, a town of Prussia, capital of the province of Westphalia; in a plain on the Aa; 78 miles N. N. E. of Cologne. It was once fortified, but the fortifications have been converted into promenades. The principal edifices are the cathedral, the church of St. Lambert, the town house, the exchange, museum, theater, etc. The manufactures include woolen, linen, and cotton goods, etc. Münster was long governed by independent bishops, in whom a warlike spirit was often more conspicuous than a Christian spirit. The most memorable events in the history of the town occurred in 1532-1535, when it fell into the hands of the Anabaptists. Pop. about 90,000. MÜNSTERBERG, HUGO, a German American psychologist; born in Danzig in 1863, died in America in 1916. After receiving his doctorate at Leipsic in 1885, he taught psychology at Freiburg from 1887-1892. In the latter year he came to America as professor of psychol- Vol. VI-Cyc-W ogy at Harvard University, and from that time on most of his work was done in the United States. In 1910-1911 he returned to Germany as the Harvard exchange professor at the University of Berlin. The latter part of his life was given to the attempt to make practical application of the psychological principles taught by him. During the period before the United States entered the war against Germany he wrote extensively in support of his country's cause.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a city of Westphalia, Prussia. It is situated in a loop of the brook Aa, in a sandy plain midway between Cologne and Bremen. Munster grew up originally around a monastery of the twelfth century. It was long the seat of a martial archbishop. It is still an episcopal residence. Although the medieval walls have been leveled to form promenades, the city retains many of the characteristics of medieval times. The marketplaces are surrounded by covered arcades and picturesque gabled houses. Among buildings of note are the Church of St. Lambert, the City Hall, the Guild Hall of Shoemakers, the Cathedral, the Academy, the Museum of Ecclesiastical Antiquities, and the Historical Museum. It would be difficult, probably, to find a city in Germany that represents more adequately the architecture and that preserves more faithfully the atmosphere of Luther's time. The University of Munster has ninety-five instructors and some sixteen hundred students. A botanical garden and a zoological garden add to the attractions of the city. In history, Munster is noted chiefly as the center of the Anabaptist uprisings. The ornaments of the cathedral were mutilated by Thomas Munzer and his peasantry. The cages in which the leaders of the peasants were hung, and the pincers with which they were tortured are still shown. Several railways pass through Munster. The modern city is noted for manufactures of woolens, linens, cotton goods and leather. There are also starch factories and a sugar refinery. The present population exceeds 80,000. See Anabaptists
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 city of gabled houses and covered arcades was about 90 percent destroyed by Allied bombing in 1944-45; postwar Münster chose to rebuild its Prinzipalmarkt and cathedral in the old style, so the medieval look a visitor sees today is largely a reconstruction. The three iron cages of the 1535 Anabaptist leaders do still hang from the tower of St Lambert's, though Aiton's attribution of the trouble to Thomas Müntzer is a slip: Münzer died at Mühlhausen in 1525, and the Münster kingdom was led by Jan van Leiden. The city now holds roughly 315,000 people and its university, with some 1,600 students in 1910, is one of Germany's largest with over 40,000. On the Irish side, Collier's 1921 province was about to be split from British rule; Munster's counties all went to the Irish Free State in 1922, and its population, given as "about 1,000,000," is now over 1.4 million, concentrated around Cork and Limerick.
Written for this edition, 2026.