“Now the last gap is closed.” This is how Lothar Stetz, director of the adult education center in the north of the district of Munich, expresses his joy at the completion of the new building in Garching, which the educational institution will from now on share with the local neighborhood help. The long period of starving and improvising for the VHS Nord in the university town is now a thing of the past. While in the past few years spacious premises or even modern centers for adult education have been set up in the other supporting municipalities of Unterschleißheim, Ismaning and Unterföhring, the residents of Garching had to hold out in a building on Mayor-Wagner-Strasse that had fallen into disrepair and expand their range of courses and Split lectures to different locations in the city. “It was painful to see that something new was being created everywhere else, just not in Garching,” said Stetz. And there of all places, “in the nucleus of the VHS,” as he said on Monday afternoon at the presentation of the VHS program for the upcoming spring and summer semester.
Some of the furniture has already been delivered.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
The spacious house now allows the VHS to finally offer good adult education again in Garching. Stetz also associates the opening of the building at Telschowstraße 5 to 7 with the hope that the trend in the number of participants in Garching will reverse again. Last but not least, due to the lack of space, there has been a decline in bookings for courses in the past, because many users of the VHS then preferred to go to one of the neighboring municipalities to learn French and Zumba in an attractive environment or one of the to listen to many socio-political lectures with recognized experts.
Before the official start of the semester on February 27, interested parties can see for themselves how successful the new domicile of the adult education center has become. During the carnival holidays, a taster week will take place in Garching from February 22 to 24, including a well-known speaker: Wolfgang Heckl, the director of the Deutsches Museum, will speak in the modern premises on Wednesday evening from 7:30 p.m. His topic: “The world of technology in 100 objects”.
A lot of wood is also used inside.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
The fact that sustainable building materials and technology can be used in construction can be seen from the new building not far from the center of Garching: The house has been built predominantly in solid wood, and is supplied in an environmentally friendly way through a connection to the local geothermal energy system There is a photovoltaic system, and there are charging stations for e-cars in the underground car park. In 2020, the Garching city council launched the project for social and cultural uses on the former post office forecourt on Telschowstraße. In a good year and a half, the Ober- and Unterschleißheim building cooperative, which took over the property as a heritable building right, had it built – completely without delay and within the budgeted budget of up to 17 million euros.
In future, charging stations for electric cars will be part of the equipment in the underground car park.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
Regardless of moving into the Garching building, according to Stetz, the adult education center is expecting “an exciting year”. So one very much hopes that after the almost three years of the pandemic, the conditions for the VHS Nord will improve again and the number of registrations will increase. During this time, the number of participants dropped by up to a third, says the VHS boss. In the new semester there are more than 1500 events to choose from, that’s as many as before Corona. Both purely face-to-face and online events are planned, as well as hybrid formats in which one sits in the course room and the other can join in.
With a good 45,000 listeners and 3,000 offers from the fields of politics, education, business, world/outdoor, art and culture, photography, health, languages, professional qualifications and IT throughout the year, the VHS Nord is the second largest adult education center in Upper Bavaria. 551 lecturers are involved in the new semester program, and 21 full-time employees are on duty.
The printed program has a print run of 52,000 and has been distributed to households in the northern district since the middle of last week. The offers are also available online. Registrations are either in person at the VHS offices, by telephone on 089/550 51 70, by e-mail to [email protected] or online at www.vhs-nord.de possible. As before, people from the catchment area who receive state benefits such as basic security or support from the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act can take part in courses and events free of charge.