In Wettringen, you can expect THE GOOD LIFE between town and country: the municipality is located in the middle of the Münsterland park landscape, but only a few minutes away from the urban centre of Rheine. The approximately 8200 inhabitants of Wettringen live in the town centre and in eleven districts.
Wettringen is located in the northern Münsterland in the district of Steinfurt between Ochtrup and Neuenkirchen. The northern boundary of the municipality also marks the border between North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony. To the west, the Netherlands is right on the doorstep: the popular shopping city of Enschede is just 40 minutes away by car, for example. You can be in Münster and at Münster/Osnabrück Airport (FMO) just as quickly, with Osnabrück just 50 minutes away. The district town of Steinfurt is ten minutes south of Wettringen by car.
By the way: you can drive to the North Sea coast in around two hours on the A31 motorway, which passes to the west of the municipality.
Tip: Münsterland is a cycling region! 4500 kilometres of cycle paths offer you almost unlimited possibilities in the city and in the countryside: you can easily commute to work by bike and go on great tours with friends and family.
But in Wettringen itself you have particularly good conditions for cycling. In the ADFC Cycling Climate Test 2024, the municipality came first in the category for towns with up to 20,000 inhabitants. Wettringen also scooped the special prize as the town with the best rating in the "Cycling in rural areas" category. The outstanding ratings came from the municipality's own cyclists. Nena Sohr, climate protection manager of the municipality of Wettringen, and Markus Rehers, head of Wettringen's building administration, certainly contributed to this success. Find out more about them in this interview.
Most of the approximately 8,200 inhabitants of Wettringen live in the town centre, with eleven small farming communities also located in the countryside around the town centre. The residential areas in Wettringen surround the small centre with shopping facilities and restaurants. To the east, the Steinfurter Aa meanders through the town with its green banks.
Even though rental and purchase prices are following the general property trend overall, there are still numerous niches to be discovered in Münsterland when it comes to building, buying or renting. Here you can find the average purchase and rental prices for a house or flat in rural Münsterland.
If you would like to build a house in Wettringen, you can view the plans for current building sites at the local authority and apply directly for a building plot using a form.
In the centre of Wettringen you can shop in several supermarkets, an electrical shop and a toy shop. In between are restaurants, pubs and an ice cream parlour. Some shopping facilities, such as a DIY store and a gift shop, are located in the large industrial estate to the north of the centre. You can get clothes locally in some clothing and sports shops, and the popular Designer Outlet in the neighbouring town of Ochtrup, about ten kilometres away, invites you to go shopping.
Do you prefer to cycle or e-bike in Münsterland? No problem: Wettringen has several specialist bicycle shops.
There are around six daycare centres and family centres in Wettringen. The very youngest children are also looked after in daycare centres. You can find the contact details of all childcare centres and the contact person for finding childminders on the city website.
The primary school in Wettringen, the Ludgerusschule, also offers afternoon care as part of the open all-day school (OGS). The Josefsschule, a private special school specialising in emotional and social development, and a private secondary school are also located in the town.
Further education is available in the neighbouring towns, for example a secondary school in Neuenkirchen as well as a comprehensive school, a secondary school and several grammar schools in Rheine and Steinfurt.
Among the 700 or so commercial enterprises in Wettringen are a number of small and medium-sized companies in the metal and plastics processing and construction industries. However, some large companies have also settled in the steadily growing industrial area to the north of the core town. These include, for example, the solar system manufacturer Bosch Solarthermie GmbH, Mirotec Glas- und Metallbau GmbH, the steel wholesaler Eisen + Baustahl Hubert Pohlmann GmbH & Co KG and Bolan Home Fashion GmbH, which manufactures garden furniture, among other things.
Alpaca at the Engelshof in WettringenOur colleague Kristina went on an excursion to the Engelshof in Wettringen and learned a lot about alpacas and how they are kept. A walk with the fluffy four-legged friends was also part of the trip. In her article on the MünsterlandBlog you can read why a visit to the Engelshof is worthwhile.
