The development of ophthalmology in Münster is described from the itinerant oculists and sooth-sayers of the middle ages to the completion of the enlargements to the eye clinic in the year 1977. After the foundation of the university in 1780 Prof. Anton Sentrup, Professor of Anatomy, held the first lecture in the special field of instruction of ophthalmology. But up to the introduction of a chair for ophthalmology more than a century passed by, after the university in Münster was closed in 1818 in favour of the unversity in Bonn following political changes. In the so's of the 19th century private eye clinics were foundet in Münster. In 1924 the new University in Münster received a chair for ophthalmology. The first director of the eye clinic was Prof. Aurel von Szily. He was followed by Oswald Marchesani, Wilhelm Rohrschneider, Wolfgang Riehm and Fritz Hollwich. The increase in the diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities and the continuously increasing numbers of patients made necessary the enlargement of the clinic by the addition of an operation and ward wing and of an outpatients' department. These additions which were begun in 1968 were completed in summer 1977 under the leadership of Prof. Hollwich.