NEUMUNSTER  , a

town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, lies on both banks of the small river Schwale, in the basin of the Stor, 40 M . N. of Altona-Hamburg by rail, and at the junction of lines to Kiel, Vamdrup (Denmark) and Tonning . Pop . (1905) 31347• It has an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church and several schools . It is, after Altona, the most important industrial town in the province, and contains extensive cloth-factories, besides manufactories of leather, cotton, wadding, carpets, paper, machinery, beer and sweetmeats . Its trade is also brisk . The name, which was originally Wipendorp, is derived from an Augustine monastery, founded in 1130 by Vicelin, the apostle of Holstein, and is mentioned as " novum monasterium " in a document of 1136 . Its industrial importance began in the 17th century, when the cloth-workers of Segeberg, a town to the south-east, migrated to it . It became a town in 187o . See Kirmis, Geschichte der Stadt Neumiinster (1900) ; and Dittmann, Aus dem alten Neumunster (r879) .