America in Münster Amerika in Münster
You don't have to cross the Atlantic.
There is more American life in Münster than you would guess, it just rarely goes by that name. These are places you can actually walk into.
Why America looks different here
American and British troops took Münster on 2 April 1945. The Americans moved on, the British stayed for sixty-eight years. With around 5,000 soldiers, Münster became one of the largest British garrisons in West Germany, and when the last unit marched out on 4 July 2013, it left behind two barracks sites that have since become residential quarters. They are called York and Oxford.
There has never been an Amerikahaus here. The nearest one is in Cologne, some 120 kilometres away, and there is no German-American Institute anywhere in North Rhine-Westphalia.
American things are here all the same. They were never stationed here, they grew: in clubs, seminar rooms, choir rehearsals and archive boxes.
And for a long time the traffic ran the other way. Between 1803 and 1900, at least 46,159 people left the Münster administrative district, more than four in five of them bound for the United States. The destination named most often in the files is not New York. It is Cincinnati.
Sports Sport
American sports are the most visible part. Almost all of these clubs will let you turn up for a trial session.
Münster Phoenix
American football
The two former city rivals, Münster Mammuts and Münster Blackhawks, now play under one name, with a men's team and youth teams from U10 to U19. Training is Mondays and Thursdays from 8 to 10 pm at Schiffahrter Damm 315, and you can join a trial session at any time.
MBP Miners
Women's football
The Phoenix FLINTA* team plays in the women's second division, GFL2. Training is Tuesdays from 7 to 9 pm and Fridays from 6 to 8 pm, also at Schiffahrter Damm.
Uni Baskets Münster
Basketball
UBC Münster plays in ProB, the second tier of German basketball. Home games are at the Berg Fidel arena, Am Berg Fidel 51.
Münster Mohawks
Lacrosse
Lacrosse has been played in Münster since 1999 and has had its own club since 2005, with women's, men's and youth teams. The women train Mondays and Wednesdays at Sportpark Sentruper Höhe, the men there from May to September and in Hiltrup Süd over the winter.
Roller Derby Münster
Roller derby
Full contact on roller skates under WFTDA rules, based at TG Münster. Training is Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons at the Mathilde-Anneke-Gesamtschule gym; trial sessions are free and gear is provided to start with.
Münster Vicious Allstars
Cheerleading
Competitive cheerleading at TG Münster, with teams from peewee to senior. The all-girl team MVA Untamed qualified in 2026 for the world championship in Orlando.
SC Münster 08
Ultimate frisbee
With close to 150 members, this is the largest frisbee section in North Rhine-Westphalia. They play ultimate, disc golf and double disc court, and you can drop in for a trial without registering.
University sports
Baseball, softball and more
The University of Münster sports pass covers baseball and softball, lacrosse, ultimate, dodgeball and roundnet. Guests with no connection to the university can buy the pass too.
Music and dance Musik und Tanz
Jazz, blues, gospel, swing and square dance all began in America. In Münster you can hear them and take part.
Hot Jazz Club
Jazz and blues
The club at Hafenweg 26 b opens Monday to Saturday from 7 pm and on Sundays in the afternoon. There is an open jam session every Monday.
EPHATA Gospel Choir
Gospel
The choir started in 1997 at the St. Gottfried parish and has around forty members. The repertoire runs from spirituals and traditionals to contemporary gospel, and Hildegard Jacoby has directed it since 2004.
epiFUNias
Gospel
This gospel choir at the Epiphaniaskirche rehearses Tuesdays from 7 to 9 pm under Winne Voget. It turned twenty in 2026.
MonSwing
Lindy Hop
Lindy Hop, solo jazz, Balboa and tap, taught at Hafenstraße 64 in the old freight depot. Courses run in seven-week blocks, with open social dances in between.
Pumpernickel Promenaders
Square dance
The club was founded on 1 July 1988 and dances modern western square dance with a caller. It meets at the SV Blau-Weiß Aasee hall on Bonhoefferstraße 54, and you need neither experience nor a partner.
Studying and research Studieren und Wissen
The University of Münster has an American Studies department, and a good part of what it does is open to the public. You do not need to be enrolled.
Guest Lectures in American Studies
Lecture series
Every semester the English Department invites Americanists from Germany and abroad to give talks. The series is open to all and held in English; dates appear in the faculty's lecture listings.
Juneteenth
Every 19 June
The American Studies chair marks Juneteenth each year with a public reading or conversation. In 2026 the writer Shannon Gibney spoke on kinship and state violence; in 2025 the poet Ariana Benson read.
Banned Books Network
Reading group
Book Studies and American Studies founded the network in response to the sharp rise in book bans at American schools and libraries. The student-run reading club discusses one banned book a month and is explicitly open to people outside the university.
Certificate in North American Studies
Degree add-on
Students who want to focus on North America can earn an interdisciplinary certificate. It draws on American Studies and Book Studies, North American and Latin American history, and German-American educational history, and there is no formal enrolment.
Studium im Alter
Guest auditing
This programme lets anyone attend regular university lectures, regardless of prior education or degree. The most recent listing included the English-language American Studies lecture "Current Topics in American Literature".
Sister city Partnerstadt
Münster and Fresno, California, have been sister cities since July 1986. The connection was set up in the early 1980s through the German consulate general in San Francisco, and the fortieth anniversary was celebrated at the town hall in July 2026.
Partnerschaftsverein Münster-Fresno
Association
The association carries the partnership together with the Sister Cities Committee in Fresno and runs school exchanges and citizen trips. It is based at Pantaleonplatz 9, and a membership form can be downloaded from its site.
Büro für Internationales
City of Münster
The city's international office looks after the partnership and arranges contacts, delegations and exchanges. Most recently a city delegation visited Fresno in October 2025 to talk about climate adaptation and energy efficiency.
Eating Essen
Three places that cook or bake American and are not part of an international chain.
Road Stop
American kitchen
This restaurant at Schiffahrter Damm 315 has been cooking American food for over twenty years. It shares an address with the Münster Phoenix football field, which works out well on a game day.
Gold & Brown
West coast kitchen
The house at Von-Steuben-Straße 4 to 6 combines Californian cooking with regional ingredients and calls it "Kalifornien meets Münster". Restaurant and bar open Monday to Saturday, with breakfast from early on weekdays.
Oh Bagel
Bagels
Bagels are baked fresh at Tibusstraße 18, alongside cinnamon rolls and banana bread. Open Monday to Saturday, 9 am to 5 pm.
Traces Spuren
Two places for anyone who wants the longer story. You can walk into both, and both keep what passed between the Münsterland and America.
State Archive of North Rhine-Westphalia
Emigration records
The Westphalian branch at Bohlweg 2 holds the Prussian administrative files, among them the lists of emigrants from the Münster district. They also record the people who left without permission, and they can be consulted in the reading room.
German-American educational history
Reference library
A university research unit at Georgskommende 26 collects more than 300 volumes on educational exchange between Germany and the United States. The library is open by appointment to people outside academia as well, though nothing can be borrowed.
Business Wirtschaft
Münster is not a corporate city. Almost ninety per cent of its economic output comes from services, mostly public administration, health care and higher education, so American companies do not stand out in the streetscape.
They are here nonetheless, and in both directions. Cabot Corporation of Boston runs its European technology centre for battery materials in Münster. Vectron Systems AG, which builds point-of-sale systems here, has been majority-owned since June 2024 by the American payments company Shift4. And Hengst SE, a family business from Münster, has been making filters in South Carolina since 2005.
For the wider region, the Nord Westfalen chamber of commerce counts more than 300 industrial companies in the Münsterland and the Emscher-Lippe area doing regular business with the United States, exporting around two billion euros a year. That figure covers the whole chamber district, not the city alone.
None of this is somewhere you can visit, which is why there is no list here. It is part of the picture all the same.
Join in Mitreden
Something missing? Something out of date?
Clubs change, places close, programmes end. If you spot something here that no longer holds, send us a line and we'll fix it.
Everything on this page could be checked against an official source and showed some sign of activity within the past year. That makes the list reliable rather than complete, which is the trade we chose.