Living in Münster | Mitte-Südost | Hansaviertel, harbour and more
Living in the liveable city of Münster
© Münsterland e.V./Philipp Fölting
Living in Münster

Mitte-Südost: Hansaviertel, Herz-Jesu, Hafen, Hawerkamp and Wolbecker Straße

The urban atmosphere of the Erphoviertel also continues in the popular Hansaviertel, which begins almost directly behind the main station. The Hansaring is the pulse of this district and has been one of the hippest alternative nightlife streets in the city for years. Here, rocked-out pubs line up with hip gin bars, bistros and cafés, and in between are long-established bakers and butchers or small co-working spaces on the ground floors of apartment buildings. The old goods station is also part of the Hansa district, which, in addition to commercial and occasional gastronomic spaces, is mainly home to rehearsal rooms for Münster's comparatively large alternative band scene.

Parallel to the Hansaring is the harbour promenade with the Kreativkai. This area used to be an industrial area of the former Hanseatic city of Münster and is now home to several architects' offices, co-working spaces and Münster's art gallery, as well as large-scale restaurants, cafés or gastronomy chains such as Vapiano.

Opposite the Kreativkai, on the "B-Side", you can admire the decaying industrial charm of the former harbour, where the last cargo ship arrived in 2012 and unloaded its cargo. Just a little further on, on Albersloher Weg, is Münster's largest cinema, the Cineplex. The street continues past another former industrial area, where Münster's diverse creative and alternative scene has also settled: at Hawerkamp. Here there are several nightclubs, some offices and, in summer, an open-air cinema.

Behind this, Albersloher Weg continues south-east through the Loddenheide industrial estate into the more rural district of south-east with Angelmodde, Gremmendorf and Wolbeck. You can find out more about the city of Münster's south-east districts in the welcome brochure.

Incidentally, the Dortmund-Ems Canal, which fills the harbour basin with water, is still heavily used by ships today, but they no longer dock in Münster. For the city's inhabitants, the canal is one thing above all: a popular walking area. In addition, it turns into a kind of natural outdoor swimming pool in summer because it flows so close to the city and runs under several central arterial roads. So you can not only quickly get from the city centre to the canal bank, but also in a few minutes to various city districts - for example to the small but popular Herz-Jesu-Viertel, also affectionately known as "Little Grouchy", which lies between Sternstraße and Wolbecker Straße and has meanwhile grown together with the Hansaviertel.

In recent years, Wolbecker Strasse, which at the beginning, together with its branch streets, actually still belonged to the Mauritzviertel, has increasingly merged with the Hansaviertel and has developed considerably in the process. Many alternative shops, cafés, individual bars and small restaurants are now lined up here, transforming the street into another lively mini-centre that begins directly behind the main railway station. The street continues across the canal to the Stapelskotten open-air swimming pool and more upmarket residential areas in the countryside. By bike, these neighbourhoods are only a few minutes away from the Hansaviertel and the city centre.

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Prinzipalmarkt is the heart of Münster. Prinzipalmarkt is the heart of Münster.
© Münsterland e.V./Philipp Fölting