A typical day in the life of a tower keeper …
An article for all my new subscribers who are wondering what this special kind of tradition entails. I warmly welcome you and appreciate your interest! As I write this, it is raining heavily outside and a thunderstorm can be heard. This atmosphere makes the tower room something very special…
Most days, I am alone in the tower, without any media representatives or registered official guests. I have to be in the tower room by 8:45 p.m. to report to the professional fire brigade (operations command). On the one hand, this is for practical reasons – the firefighters have a key to the tower and would rescue me if there was any danger. On the other hand, it is also a symbol of the original task of the tower keepers – they kept watch for fires, so there is a natural connection to this day.
When climbing the stairs, it is always a wonderful experience when someone is playing the organ. The organ in St. Lambert’s Church is incomparably beautiful. Sometimes I can also hear a little of the choir rehearsal inside the church, angelic voices, so wonderful! Note: Please make sure to visit the interior of the church – the art installation „Himmelsleiter“ by Austrian artist Billi Thanner is in part inside, directly at the floating organ!
On the way up, I have to unlock a few doors, which gives me a good opportunity to catch my breath. After 300 steps, I reach the top, call the fire brigade’s operations centre, put on my pure wool cape, assemble the two parts of the copper horn and step outside. Every evening, a different view awaits me, always new, always interesting, always inspiring.
If a media representative or similar accompanies me, I will also spend more time at the large flagpole, which is moved outside during celebrations. There are some very interesting photos and drawings there, which I can use to tell you a few things about the history of St. Lamberti Church. How it was built larger and larger over the centuries, with more and more floors added, the tower leaning – like the Leaning Tower of Pisa! – and finally having to be demolished and rebuilt.
The new pointed neo-Gothic tower is so completely different from the angular tower with its dome that was familiar until the 1880s. Not everyone liked it back then… But today we love our St. Lambert Tower!
The next stop is the level with the council bell. The three iron Anabaptist baskets also hang here. They are popularly known as cages. Here I can once again draw on history and talk about the short but terrible reign of the Anabaptists, about the function of the council bell, which is not owned by the church but is rung for secular purposes – this year, 2025, for the mayoral election and swearing-in ceremony. Every five years, it is my job to ring this bell!
But I also enjoy recounting stories from times gone by, when the bell was still known as the ‘fire bell’ and was always rung by the tower watchmen when they spotted and reported a fire. Thunderstorms were also ‘rung away’ with the fire bell back then. Today’s thunderstorm is slowly but surely clearing up on its own…
We look out over the rooftops of the city, already sensing the sunset in the west, and still have 75 steps to climb before we reach the ‘office’ of Münster’s tower keeper.
On we go…
Once at the top, I register my guest(s) so that all the safety regulations are taken care of.
Between the signals for the hour and half-hour until midnight, I have time to either answer questions in an interview or, if I am alone (as is usually the case), to read documents or books I have brought with me. Or to do online research – about the city of Münster, about the tower keepers since 1383, about St. Lamberti Church, about comparisons between then and now. Because that’s what I love most about Münster: the connection between the past and the present.
My journalistic guests are free to leave whenever it suits them best; it is impossible to get lost in the tower. I myself remain upstairs from midnight until the last signal of the shift, researching, reading, writing, blowing the horn, philosophising, thinking of all my predecessors.
When the time comes, I pack my things, climb the 300 steps back down, and report back to the fire brigade operations centre. My shift is over, and my bicycle takes me home safely. Then a new day of tower duty awaits me, with or without guests. I enjoy it and want to experience many more interesting things in Münster.
Thank you very much for your interest, and I hope you enjoy exploring Münster too!
Yours sincerely, Martje Thalmann-Saljé, Türmerin von Münster.
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event recommendation:
On Thursday, 4 September, Mayor Markus Lewe will open the SchauRaum – the festival of museums and galleries at Domplatz – at 5 p.m.
Come along and join us for three days of art, music and culture! From the afternoon onwards, you can expect live music, DJs, delicious street food from the weekly market vendors and cool drinks.
Lars Motel from the Westphalian School of Music has put together a special programme ranging from jazz to Latin with eight bands for the music programm on the round pavilion stage: On Thursday, the ‘H(t)ML Quartett’ and ‘Trio Corretto’ will be performing. On Friday, ‘Jazz-Manufaktur’ and ‘Kabinetto Quartetto’ will play. Saturday will feature the bands ‘Walking Blues Prophets’, ‘Amandus Grund String Trio’, “EuroLatin” and ‘Better Days Ahead’. DJ Mono, alias Peter Griese, will be spinning records from 10 p.m. onwards.
Domplatz Park will be the heart of the festival on all Schauraum days: here you will find the information tent, comfortable seating under the lime trees and the pavilion stage with a varied music program. On the east side of Domplatz, the Initiative starke Innenstadt (ISI) invites you to the ‘Platz für den Moment’ (Place for the Moment).
Further information on venues, programs and art locations can be found here:
www.schauraum-muenster.de
‘SchauRaum – the festival of museums and galleries’ is a joint production by Münster Marketing and the municipal cultural office in cooperation with museums and galleries, the Strong City Centre Initiative (ISI Münster), neighbourhood communities and the Münster Westfalen Market Vendors Association (Wochenmarkt Münster). Special thanks go to Brillux GmbH & Co. KG as the main sponsor and Volksbank im Münsterland, which support the showroom.
#schauraummuenster #exploremuenster
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