Amerikahaus

On Karolinenplatz in the heart of Munich, the Amerikahaus works as a bridge between Germany and North America. Lectures, exhibitions, concerts and theatre performances fill its calendar, and every one takes place in English. A library adds to all this, with English-language books, magazines, videos, DVDs and databases. Teachers and students find educational programmes there, and readers dive deep into North American literature and culture.

Its roots lie in April 1945, when American forces freed Munich from National Socialism. The American Reading Room opened in the city as the first institution of its kind worldwide. On 12 July 1948 the house itself followed, opening in the former Führerbau on Arcisstraße. Speakers such as T.S. Eliot and William Faulkner took the floor as it grew into a stage for democracy and cultural exchange.

Architects Karl Fischer and Franz Simm completed the building in 1957 on the site of the war-destroyed Lotzbeck-Palais. Its rooms run wide and open, an adjoining theatre seats five hundred people, and wheelchair users move through without barriers. Stand in the atrium and look up: circular openings stack above you on every floor, one after another.