On Sunday (8 December), you will once again have the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes with one of the makers of the special exhibition ‘Body.Cult.Religion’. On the second Advent, Dr Jan Graefe, curator of the Bible Museum, will shed light on the human body as an object and expression of religious ideas. The exhibition is based on the results of the inter-epochal, inter-religious and interdisciplinary research of the Cluster of Excellence ‘Religion and Politics’ on the relationship between religion and the body. Many disciplines are involved, such as ancient studies, Jewish studies, Arabic studies, Christian and Islamic theologies, religious and social sciences, sinology and ethnology, as well as the university's Brazil Centre.

The tour starts at 2 p.m. in the Archaeological Museum, registration is not required. Admission costs six euros, concessions three euros. Students of the University of Münster do not have to pay.

In 2024, there is an anniversary to celebrate in Westphalian coinage history: the first minting of a taler, a large silver coin whose emergence significantly marks the threshold between the Middle Ages and modern times in terms of coinage and monetary history. It was issued by the Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück, Erich II von Braunschweig-Grubenhagen (1508-1532). The coin was presumably used for representative purposes, as the sovereigns in Westphalia did not have their own mining silver, but had to buy silver at high prices on the precious metal market. The few examples probably served as gifts for the purpose of political communication, also for their own officials and functionaries, to business partners, scholars and relatives as honours in every respect.

However, the special feature of the present thalers - which may also be the key to their existence and function - is the inscription on the Peter side: ‘Verbum Dei/Domini manet in eternum’. This biblical phrase from both the Old Testament (Is 40:8) and the New Testament (Peter 1:25) was first used as a personal motto by the Saxon Elector Frederick III (1486-1525) and also appeared on his coins from 1522. It was his commitment to Luther's church reform endeavours and therefore quickly became a general motto of the early Reformation, especially as it expressed the central ideas of the Reformation, the turning to the Word of God.