Head Pit Gruber and employee Heidi Kollmannsberger in the party room, which has a music system, bar, a stage with seating area, table tennis table and table football. In the Juze there is also a workshop, a band room, a TV room, a Playstation room and an office. © Photo: WOS
39 years ago, the youth centre on Nonnenwaldstraße was opened in Penzberg. The building was actually only supposed to be a temporary solution for two or three years. Now the Juze management has created a concept for a new start, or rather a "vision of the future": a move to the Berghalde, where the Juze could also offer childcare.
Penzberg – The temporary building on Nonnenwaldstraße has been in place for four decades now. "We have been very happy here so far," says Heidi Kollmannsberger from the Juze management team. However, the house is in need of renovation, not handicapped accessible, unfavorably divided, energetically not exactly optimal and ultimately too small. In addition, according to her, the environment is becoming increasingly dense, due to the refugee shelters, whose children and young people are co-supervised by the youth center, and by a workshop that is currently being built on the property boundary. New apartments are also being built nearby, which could lead to problems with the volume.
Against this background, Peter "Pit" Gruber, who has been head of Juze since 1991, and his colleagues Heidi Kollmannsberger and Alexander Michel have developed a "vision of the future" aimed at the Berghalde. One trigger was the city of Penzberg itself. She asked "what we would like to see in terms of sports facilities on the Berghalde," says Pit Gruber. As reported, the city is currently planning to upgrade the leisure and recreation area, for example with a football field, children's playground, picnic corners and pump track facility. "That's why we came up with the idea of leaving the hut and making a conceptual restart on the mountain slope," says Gruber. From an educational point of view, a lot is possible on the mountain slag heap.
The youth centre on Nonnenwaldstraße has been in existence for four decades. © Photo: WOS
In its concept, the management team proposes to move the skate park, which needs to be renovated anyway, and the dirt park to the mountain dump. Together with the planned pump track facility, an adventure playground and a multifunctional hard court, many areas could be covered, according to the concept: leisure and sports, youth work, a rental of the rooms for culture as well as all-day and lunchtime care.
The last point in particular would be something completely new – and a proposal that could make the move a bit more palatable to the city. The concept states that in the youth center a lunchtime care with catering via a caterer and a subsequent all-day offer at the adventure playground, in the youth center and on the sports fields would be conceivable. It would also be conceivable, it continues, to supervise homework in the Juze rooms. It would therefore be advantageous if there were a connection to the bus network.
The timing is right - Berghalde is currently being re-planned
The Juze team sees the timing for the concept as opportune because the city is currently overplanning the tailings pile anyway. The trio has also thought about financing. Thus, money could be raised through the sale of the Juze property. In addition, the concept points to funding programs that could be tapped for such purposes.
The "vision of the future" was also briefly discussed in the city council when Anette Völker-Rasor (PM) drew attention to it. The youth center is very satisfied with the location on Nonnenwaldstraße, she said, but because of the significantly greater use, the energy situation, the age of the house and the equipment, the team "prefers to see itself on the mountain slope". Please do not forget the Juze in further planning. Mayor Stefan Korpan (CSU) said that there had already been a discussion in a small group, in which the youth officers of the city council had participated. However, no decision has been made so far.
Opening in March 1984
The municipal youth centre on Nonnenwaldstraße was opened in March 1984 after a long search for a location, driven by a support association that had been founded three years earlier. It is open to young people between the ages of twelve and 22. Since 2010, there has been a skate park and a dirt park next door. The "Nonnenwaldrock" team regularly organizes concerts. The Juze also participates in the holiday program. Currently, according to Heidi Kollmannsberger, an average of 43 visitors come every day, on some days up to 70. Among them are young people from the neighbouring refugee shelter – and children from there who romp through the Juze at least in the afternoon.
