Oldenburger Münsterland

Oldenburger Münsterland (aka Niederstift Münster oder Südoldenburg)

Geschichte: Siehe Fürstbistum Osnabrück und Fürstbistum Münster
Heute: Siehe Oldenburg und Niedersachsen

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Description: The name of this region can instantly create confusion as to its geographic location. Is it a part of the Münsterland or a part of the old Grand Duchy of Oldenburg? Its borders are best described along present diocesan lines which include the Deaconates of Cloppenburg (founded 1628), Vechta (1628), Löningen (Cloppenburg until 1954), Friesoythe (Cloppenburg until 1927) and Damme (Vechta until 1927). It becomes clear then that Cloppenburg and Vechta were the basic "religious" territories which make up this region. The dioceses of Hildesheim and Osnabrück surround the region. Until the post WWII era, when refugees from the east came to settle here, this was a veritable diaspora of Catholicism in northern Germany. It all goes back a long way.

History: Since religion has set the borders and cultural background, it is also religion which for the most part makes up its history. All this goes back to the powerful Count-Bishops who ruled both Münster and Osnabrück as both lay and spiritual fiefs. In 1532 Franz von Waldeck started to change his domains to the Lutheran faith. The Cathedral Chapters of both cities resisted the loss of their powerbase but the Hochstift Osnabrück to which the area belonged began to wane and Protestantism had arrived. When the Count Electors of Cologne and Bishops of Münster and a few other places started to attempt to bring the church back to Catholicism, they found little enthusiasm to go back. The priests had by now married their concubines and the concept of inheriting and passing the goods of the church on to the family had made strong inroads. The bishops did not like this idea at all but did not quite know what to do with the wives of the priests. Basically there were only three unmarried and Catholic priests in the area of discussion. Other promised to change to keep their jobs but as soon as the administrators left they resumed their old ways. In order to facilitate some local control the Count-Bishop of Osnabrück split up his diocese into 13 diaconates. By this time the area had come under the civil control of the Count-Bishops of Münster.

It just so happened that a vigorous re-catholization campaign had created a nominal catholic population which thus became frozen with the Treaty of Münster and Osnabrück of 1648 (Treaty of Westphalia) which advised via 'cuius regio eius religio' to the status of 1624 as the permanent religious faith of an area. Actually it took until 1682 when the last bunch of recalcitrant priests was fired to complete the Roman Catholic reconversion of the Oldenburger Münsterland.

The Münster Count-Bishop Christoph Bernard von Galen started to make waves about getting the spiritual side of his territory to match the civil administration part of his principality in the mid 1660s. In 1667 he was able to purchase the Ämter Vechta, Cloppenburg, Meppen and Bevergern from Osnabrück. Pope Clemens IX approved the deal the next year. Thus ended a 100 year battle for religious-civil control of the Hochstift Osnabrück which from now on became known as the Niederstift Münster. Not much changed until the advent of the French Revolution. The general rearrangement of the balance of power in Germany came to the larger and powerful states as Prussia started to make its influence known. Prussia had already occupied the city of Münster in 1802. The Reichsdeputationhauptschluß of 1803 in Regensburg sealed the fate of the religious principalities in Germany. The eastern part of the Fürstentum Münster, the Niederstift, was given to the Duke of Oldenburg and the western part, the Amt Meppen, to the Duke of Arensberg. The people rejoiced that they did not wind us as a part of Prussia. The last Count-Bishop of Münster, Max Franz, had died in 1801 and the suspense as to his successor was now over. The area has stayed in the Münster Diocese to this day even though it is not physically connected to it and is surrounded by other dioceses.

Today: See Oldenburg and Niedersachsen. See also the historical Fürstbistum Osnabrück and Munster.