Osnabrück

Osnabrück, a town in the Prussian province of Hanover, in the fertile valley of the Hase, 75 miles by rail SSW. of Bremen and 70 WSW. of Hanover. Its great Catholic cathedral, in the Transition style of the first half of the 13th century, is rich in relics and monuments; and the town-hall (1486–1512) contains portraits of all the plenipotentiaries who here on 24th October 1648 signed the peace of Westphalia. By that treaty the bishopric of Osnabrück, founded by Charlemagne about 810, was to be occupied alternately by a Catholic prelate and a Protestant secular prince of the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg. After having last been held by Frederick, Duke of York, the district of Osnabrück came in 1802 to Hanover, and the chapter was dissolved, until the re-establishment of the bishopric in 1857. Osnabrück has important iron and steel works, and manufactures of railway plant, agricultural machinery, gas-meters, paper, tobacco, &c. Dating from 772, it suffered much in the Thirty Years' War, but recovered, thanks to its linen industry, during the 18th century. The name Osnaburgs given to coarse linens in England is derived hence. Pop. (1852) 13,718; (1875) 29,850; (1890) 39,929, of whom a third were Catholics. See works by Möser, by Frideri and Stive (1816–26), and by E. Müller (1868).