Münster was the location of the Anabaptist rebellion during the Protestant Reformation and the site of the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia ending the Thirty Years' War in 1648. Today, it is known as the bicycle capital of Germany.

In 1535 Münster was captured by an army of Catholics and Protestants, and in 1536 the Anabaptists' “king,” John of Leiden (Jan Beuckelson), was executed with two of his accomplices; the iron cages in which their bodies were publicly exhibited still hang in the Gothic tower of St. Lambert's Church.

Morbid: A True Crime Podcast is an American true crime anthology podcast hosted by Alaina Urquhart and Ash Kelley. Urquhart is an autopsy technician/author and Kelley is a hairdresser. Urquhart is Kelley's aunt, but the two often refer to each other as "sisters".

Münster became a cathedral city as early as 805, and the city remains an active centre of the Roman-Catholic church.