Diocesan Library

The diocesan library in Westphalian Münster is located west of the central square with St. Paul's Cathedral. The library was officially opened on December 9, 2005, by the local bishop Reinhard Lettmann. The seventy-meter-long building, which connects to the Überwasserkirche, represents, with more than 700,000 volumes, 680 long-term subscribed journals, and thousands of manuscripts, the largest specialized library in Germany. The architect of the building is the Berlin-Zurich architect Max Dudler, who won with his competition design in 2002 and likens it to “a new building stone embedded in the historical core of the city.” In addition to the main library building, two administrative structures have recently been added to the Gothic monastery complex, deviating from city regulations and focusing on the existing composition of the seminary with the church, simultaneously creating new outdoor spaces - a courtyard, a garden, an alley, and a Stations of the Cross - miniatures of essential urban-forming elements and structural principles, where contemporary architecture merges with historical buildings to jointly create a new unity.