Regensburg is getting a cultural center: the building on Maxstrasse has a questionable history

Created: 07/12/2022, 20:58

By: Stefan Aigner

Where there are only posters now, cultural life will soon rage: Maxstraße 26 in Regensburg.

© Stefan Aigner

It should be self-organized and open to everyone: a socio-cultural center on Maxstrasse in Regensburg.

A call for applications for those interested will start in August.

Regensburg – After a long wait, it should finally come: a self-organized center for socio-culture at Maxstrasse 26 in Regensburg.

"We have the green light on all levels," says Maria Lang from the municipal cultural office.

But it took a little longer than initially forecast.

Cultural center on Maxstrasse: It took a long time

More than a year ago, in May 2021, the city council decided to make the ground floor of the building - a good 400 square meters - available for a corresponding use.

There was talk of rehearsal rooms and studios, of a stage with basic technical equipment, of exhibition and event facilities.

The "M26" was to become an "innovative pilot project", rented out to artists and cultural workers, "free of exploitation interests and the obligation to consume".

It could become a "nucleus of change and renewal," the draft resolution said.

But the "immediate use" did not work out so quickly.

Because the change of use lasted, so far the ground floor was only intended for business premises, so far there was only an art department store called "ArtTraffik", managed by the cultural office.

And so the project self-organized socio-cultural center seemed to be on the verge of the end, after all, the project was initially only approved until the end of 2022.

Long wait for cultural center: "Change of use was new territory"

Maria Lang justifies the long duration by saying that such a change in use was new territory for the city administration.

But now everything is ready.

“All the necessary permits for cultural use have been in place since June 21.” The project phase was also extended to the end of 2023.

Before the summer holidays, the cultural office now wants to start a concept call for tenders.

We are looking for cultural associations and initiatives that develop the location together with the cultural office as a "consortium of three" - space requirements, operational concept and space management.

"It shouldn't be a clubhouse and it shouldn't be top-down, but worked out together with the scene," promise Lang and her colleague Markus Apfelbacher.

Cultural center in the Maxstraße in Regensburg: Hope for something long-term

The cultural office will then no longer interfere in the direct operation.

However, you will be on site with a small office - as a contact person.

The neighborhood, including homeless people who are staying at the train station, also wants to be involved.

Maria Lang speaks, for example, of a "culture canteen" that could arise.

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"Socioculture in the best sense," she promises herself.

And both she and Apfelbacher hope that, despite the project phase initially only running until 2023, "something long-term" can be established here, "a place with potential at the entrance to the city".

Cultural center on Maxstraße: building with a questionable history

The building at Maxstraße 26 has a rather questionable history.

The city had acquired at the beginning of 2015 at a completely inflated price between 13 and 14 million euros.

Then at least another four million had to be put into the clean-up of the pollutants.

According to reports, the plan was to reserve the building, or at least the area, for a hotel that was to be built if a culture and congress center was to be built at nearby Ernst-Reuter-Platz.

After these plans were overturned by referendum, the property was partially empty.

The socio-cultural center could now become an addition that cultural workers in Regensburg have been demanding for a long time.

(By the way: Our brand new Regensburg newsletter will keep you regularly informed about all the important stories from the World Heritage city and the Upper Palatinate. Register here.)

Center for Socio-Culture: Funding from the city and the EU

In May 2021, the city council initially earmarked 133,000 euros for the project, 52,000 of which were purely imputed rental costs including ancillary costs.

According to a proposal from February 2022, a further 340,000 euros are to come from the REACT-EU funding program.

And there may still be money from a special fund to revitalize the inner cities, according to the cultural office.

Interested parties can probably apply for the consortium from August.

Then they want to publish the tender and get down to business after the summer holidays, they say.