Every design for Minden

Stand by the Minden Aqueduct and you can watch a barge glide across the Weser on a bridge of water, the river flowing on underneath. This crossing, where the Mittelland Canal is carried over the river, is what Minden is known for, but the town's identity goes back much further. It was a diocesan town from 800 until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, then the capital of Prussia's Minden-Ravensberg, and later the seat of the East Westphalian region. Fortified from the 15th to the late 19th century, it is still a garrison town today.

The Mindener Dom anchors the old town on its plateau above the western bank, a reminder that bishops ruled from here for more than eight centuries. Around it stand the Altes Rathaus, Sankt Martini and the Marienkirche, while the LWL-Preußenmuseum Minden recalls the Prussian fortress years. The largest town between Bielefeld and Hanover, Minden has also been the terminus of one of Germany's oldest railway lines since 1847.

Minden children learn the town on two levels, the upper town and the lower town, divided by the old riverbank, and you can trace the walk between them on the map without thinking.