AllerWeltHaus Hagen

AllerWeltHaus Hagen is a non-profit intercultural culture and education centre (interkulturelles Kultur- und Bildungszentrum) in the city of Hagen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It describes itself as a house for people from all over the world and as a place that makes the diversity of the wider world tangible and liveable on a local scale. Since 1988 it has operated from a former warehouse and office building directly by the town hall on the Volme river, in the Dr. Ferdinand-David-Park at Potthofstraße 22. The centre is run by the development-policy association AllerWeltHaus Hagen e.V., which has existed since 1979 and was known until 2007 as Dritte Welt Laden Hagen e.V.; its stated purpose is the promotion of development aid. The house is organised around three main areas: the Weltladen (fair-trade shop), the Kulturbüro (cultural office) and the Begegnungscafé (meeting café, Café Bistro Mundial). The Weltladen sells food and handicraft products from cooperatives and producer groups in the Global South, aiming to secure and promote self-determined workplaces for producers in developing countries; its additional range includes environmentally friendly stationery and books on development-policy themes. The Kulturbüro organises development-policy events such as lectures, readings, concerts, theatre performances, workshops and exhibitions, usually in cooperation with partners including the city of Hagen, the Volkshochschule, schools, congregations and the Hagener Nord-Süd-Forum. The vegetarian-vegan meeting café, opened in 1993, offered a changing daily menu and was largely run by migrants; it was awarded the Evangelical Church of Westphalia's Förderpreis Konziliarer Prozess in 1997. More than 30 socio-political groups and initiatives are active in the house, and much of the work is carried out on a voluntary basis. The centre is independent in terms of worldview and party politics. It also hosts a Regionalpromotorenstelle of the Eine Welt Netz NRW, which networks actors in One World work in the region and promotes Fairtrade Town Hagen, Global Learning and Education for Sustainable Development (BNE). Its guiding principle is fair cooperation in our One World, shaped by respect, tolerance and global justice. Important recurring events include the OPENfAIR open-air cultural programme in summer and the AllerWelt-Bazaar in November, a pre-Christmas fair-trade sales exhibition. The house serves as a meeting point for numerous initiative groups, among them Terre des hommes Hagen, the Friedensinitiative Hagen, Arbeitskreis Asyl, the Frauencafé of the Diakonisches Werk, the ADFC Hagen regulars' table, Fotofreunde Hagen, the Deutsch-Französische Gesellschaft, ProVeg Hagen, ECODRIVE, VCD Hagen and the Spielegruppe Hagen. In 2021 the Volme flooded the basement and ground floor of the house during the North Rhine-Westphalia flood disaster. In autumn 2025 the Café Mundial had to close for economic reasons, and a new board was elected at the annual general meeting on 29 September 2025.

The origins of the AllerWeltHaus Hagen lie in the fair-trade movement of the 1970s. The Weltladen Hagen was founded in autumn 1976 in the Protestant parish hall in Westerbauer and initially bore the name "Namibia-Shop", because the proceeds of the shop supported a refugee family from Namibia. From early on the aim was not to wait for customers but to go where people shopped, and for almost ten years the "Dritte Welt Laden" established itself on the edges of the Haspe pedestrian zone. In 1986 the shop took the step into the Hagen city centre, and in 1988 the opportunity arose to move into a former warehouse and office building directly by the town hall on the Volme, in the Dr. Ferdinand-David-Park at Potthofstraße 22. The association behind the shop had been founded in 1979 and was known until 2007 as Dritte Welt Laden Hagen e.V.; its purpose is the promotion of development aid. With the move to the city centre in 1988, the AllerWeltHaus was established as a free cultural centre with a development-policy focus, continuing the work of the Dritte-Welt-Laden. The centre grew into three main areas: the Weltladen, the Kulturbüro and the Begegnungscafé. The Weltladen, the core cell of the house since 1988, offers food and handicraft products from cooperatives and producer groups in the Global South, with the aim of securing and promoting self-determined workplaces for producers in developing countries; its additional range includes environmentally friendly stationery and books on development-policy themes. The Kulturbüro organises development-policy events such as lectures, readings, concerts, theatre performances, workshops and exhibitions, usually in cooperation with other bodies and organisations such as the city of Hagen, the Volkshochschule, schools and congregations, and the Hagener Nord-Süd-Forum. Until the mid-2010s the house's library also belonged to the Archiv3 database, but it has since been dissolved. The vegetarian-vegan meeting café, Café Bistro Mundial, opened in 1993. It offered a changing daily menu from Monday to Saturday and was organised on a voluntary basis; since its opening the kitchen was mainly run by migrants, though not after the closures connected with the coronavirus crisis and the 2021 flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia. It pragmatically understood itself as a "Schnittpunkt der Kulturen" (intersection of cultures), expressed for example in the international selection of recipes. In 1997 the café was awarded the Evangelical Church of Westphalia's Förderpreis Konziliarer Prozess (since 2003 the Förderpreis für Gerechtigkeit, Frieden und Bewahrung der Schöpfung), with the jury stating that the project's approach was exemplary and combined social aspects with the provision of ecological food and the possibility of mutual perception between different social groups. In autumn 2025 the café was provisionally closed because it was no longer economically viable; whether a reopening will be possible is not yet foreseeable. Over the decades the house has become a meeting point for numerous initiative groups in Hagen, among them Terre des hommes Hagen, the Friedensinitiative Hagen, Arbeitskreis Asyl, the Frauencafé of the Diakonisches Werk, the ADFC Hagen regulars' table, Fotofreunde Hagen, the Deutsch-Französische Gesellschaft, ProVeg Hagen, ECODRIVE, VCD Hagen and the Spielegruppe Hagen. Important recurring events include the OPENfAIR in summer, an open-air cultural programme held on a Saturday in summer under the title "Vielfalt tut gut" with initiative groups, and the AllerWelt-Bazaar in November, a pre-Christmas fair-trade sales exhibition on 200 m² of exhibition space during the whole All Saints' week from the preceding Saturday to the following Sunday. The house also hosts a Regionalpromotorenstelle of the Eine Welt Netz NRW, which networks One World actors in the region and promotes Fairtrade Town Hagen, Global Learning and Education for Sustainable Development (BNE). Because Hagen lies at the confluence of four rivers, large parts of the city were affected by the 2021 flood. The Volme, whose water level rose by more than four metres during the flood, submerged the basement and ground floor of the AllerWeltHaus, which lies directly on this otherwise unremarkable little river. In 2025 the house faced further change: the Café Mundial had to close on 1 October 2025 for economic reasons, and at the annual general meeting on 29 September 2025 new board members were elected, including managing board members Johann Christian Grote and Michael Eckhoff. The association continues to describe itself as a place for people who work voluntarily for peace, social justice, human rights, ecologically sensible development and more, and as locally, worldview- and party-politically independent.

• 2025

  Café Mundial closes on 1 October; new board elected on 29 September.

• 2021

  Flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia submerges basement and ground floor of the house.

• 2007

  Association renamed from Dritte Welt Laden Hagen e.V. to AllerWeltHaus Hagen e.V.

• 1997

  Café awarded the Evangelical Church of Westphalia's Förderpreis Konziliarer Prozess.

• 1993

  Café Bistro Mundial opens as a vegetarian-vegan meeting café.

• 1988

  AllerWeltHaus opens in a former warehouse and office building by the town hall on the Volme.

• 1986

  The shop moves into the Hagen city centre.

• 1979

  The supporting association is founded (until 2007 named Dritte Welt Laden Hagen e.V.).

• 1976

  Weltladen Hagen founded in the Protestant parish hall in Westerbauer as the "Namibia-Shop".

Non-profit, independent intercultural culture and education centre promoting fair trade, global justice, human rights, peace and sustainable development.

• Weltladen fair-trade assortment

  Food and handicraft products from cooperatives and producer groups in the Global South, plus environmentally friendly stationery and development-policy books.

• Café Bistro Mundial menu

  Vegetarian-vegan changing daily menu, internationally inspired.

• OPENfAIR
• AllerWelt-Bazaar

1. 1Allerwelthaus Hagen - Interkulturelles Kultur- & Bildungszentrumallerwelthaus.org
2. 2AllerWeltHaus - Über unsallerwelthaus.org
3. 3Weltladen - Geschichteallerwelthaus.org
4. 4AllerWeltHaus Hagen - Wikidatawikidata.org
5. 5AllerWeltHaus - Wikipedia (German)de.wikipedia.org