Seen from the outside, it should have been a good fit: the “rocking district administrator” from Schwandorf and the youth center Burglengenfeld, known for its rock and punk concerts, the nucleus of the resistance against the nuclear reprocessing plant in Wackersdorf. Thomas Ebeling (CSU) likes to pick up the electric guitar, a “rocking district administrator”. It can no longer be proven whether the local press first gave him this title – or Ebeling himself.
The Schwandorfer district administrator is close to the people and modern, whether as a musician on stage or at his citizens’ consultation hours on Facebook. In the summer he settled at the Wacken Festival photograph for the local local press – in the t-shirt of the cult band Slayer and with a fries fork, the hand signal among metal fans. Behind you can see festival visitors, who could also be transplanted directly to a concert in the JUZ in Burglengenfeld. But the similarities between Ebeling and the JUZlers end when it comes to their taste in music.
The youth center is housed in a listed former agricultural school. The owner is the district, which makes the rooms available to the association rent-free. At the beginning of last year it became clear that the district administrator wanted to end this arrangement, which had existed for decades.
The first plan is to renovate the house and then to accommodate social housing there. Ebeling holds out the prospect of spaces for youth and culture being created again – but without the participation of the JUZ. That could then rent the rooms at most for concerts. Should a youth center be accommodated again, then only under the management of the district office. “Supervised handicrafts” is what Peter Wein calls it, SPD district councilor and supporter of the JUZ.
But then it gets even worse. Ebeling and a delegation from the building committee will visit in September to take a look around and clarify the need for renovation. At JUZ they still hope to be able to change the mind of the district administrator, remembers Jule Richter, the association’s second board member. “We promised him a pedagogical concept. And Ebeling was very relaxed. There’s no rush, we should take our time until the end of the year. Nothing would be decided before that. That’s what he said.”
The JUZ people have compiled their ideas for the future of the center on 25 pages. For free. A few weeks later, a majority of the building committee decides to sell the old agricultural college. “We found out about it in an email,” says Richter.
The youth center in Burglengenfeld, a town with 12,000 inhabitants, 30 kilometers north of Regensburg, has been in existence for 50 years. It is one of the few remaining self-administered youth centers in Bavaria. There are so few left that you don’t even need a hand to count them. If the JUZ has to leave the premises, then a club has not only lost its clubhouse. Then a piece of history ends. The JUZ is regarded as the nucleus of resistance against the nuclear reprocessing plant in Wackersdorf (WAA). At the beginning of the 1980s, the center achieved nationwide fame because the anti-WAAhnsinns festivals were organized from there.
Opponents of nuclear power hold several “Anti-WAAhnsinnsfestivals” in Burglengenfeld near Wackersdorf, here the fifth. About 70,000 spectators took part.
(Photo: Staedele/dpa)
Ebeling doesn’t understand the excitement. You can’t leave the rooms like this and it’s not the task of a district to provide free clubhouses for youth centers. In general, the youth center: “How many young people go there? I don’t see anyone under the age of 18, not even under 25.” A “nonsensical” argument, according to Jule Richter. “How old are they in the Junge Union? You can take part up to the age of 35.”
The district of Schwandorf was governed by the SPD for many years. Ebeling’s legendary predecessor, Hans Schuierer, took on the powerful in Munich and made the protest concerts possible in the first place. His party descendants are now also trying to help the JUZlers, for example with an application against a sale. Without success. District councilor Wein wants to continue to prevent the “killing” of the JUZ, because of the “historical importance” and because the JUZ stands for a pluralistic society. “There must also be something for young people who don’t want to go to parish youth. One last place for subculture in the area.”