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atch out for bikes!” my tour guide Annette Stadtbaumer cau-
tioned as we strolled along the cobblestone streets of charming
“WMünster.
“Look up! See those cages?”
As I stopped and craned my neck to gaze high up at the tower of St. Lam-
bert's Roman Catholic church, she told me the story of the 16th-century Ana-
baptists—a protesting religious group. In 1536, the corpses of three male ring-
leader/martyrs were displayed in the three 7- by 3-foot vertical cages—which
hang from the church tower--as a deterrent to the townsfolk. She described the
“wide-open mesh” on the cages that allowed ravens to feed on them; their bones
finally were removed some 500 years later.
This doesn't exactly sound like a great tourist draw, but it's part of the fas-
cinating history of this northern German city of 300,000. During the Protes-
tant Reformation, a group of religious zealots calling themselves the Anabap-
tists--Community of Christ--was on a European crusade, advocating what some
felt were radical changes in Christianity. That included promoting adult baptism
(“re-baptism”), polygamy, the belief that paradise on Earth would be found with-
in the city walls--and that the end of the world was imminent.
“They were radical with changes and reform,” explained Stadtbaumer. “They
thought they were the chosen people, and they found this chosen place in Mün-
ster. If you joined them, you would survive the world.” The Anabaptists gathered
by the thousands in Münster—then a heavily-fortified walled city—in 1533, tak-
ing over the local political leadership, advocating a communal, sectarian govern-
ment, and evicting nonbelievers from the city. Following bloody rebellions, bru-
tal beheadings, drownings, torture, and a siege, their regime ended in Münster
18 months later. (One fascinating book is “The Tailor-King: The Rise and Fall of
the Anabaptist Kingdom of Münster” by Anthony Arthur.)
On January 22, 1536, powerful Anabaptist ringleaders Bernard Knipper-
dolling, Jan Van Leiden, and Bernard Krechting were publicly tortured to death,
then their corpses placed in the cages, which were hung above St. Lambert's
tower clock, 200 feet up. In 1987, lightbulbs were installed, and at night visitors
can see the eerie, dim glow in each cage, “in memory of their departed souls.”
“It was the worst thing, not to be buried,” observed Stadtbaumer.

Left: The Paulus Dome formed over many centuries
the center of Domburg in the heart of Münster. Photo:
Press Office Münster / Andreas Lechtape

Wine Dine & Travel 2016 61