Unraveling the GL Day's Turmoil: "GL Chronicles"
Vain Quest for a Fresh Settlement for Youth
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The city's hub has seen better times, and the renovation costs are astronomical: Due to the deteriorating condition of the building, Teen Hub Q1, the Kindergarten Museum, and the Scouts are forced to vacate their current homes. The city has known about this since 2024 but hasn't managed to find an alternative yet.
The affected groups remain in the dark. "We ain't told the young ones yet. No point in rattling their cages without a plan," explains Christian Kulka, the gaffer at Teen Hub Q1. The word's only just out—Teen Hub Q1 has to hightail it out of its Quirlsberg digs.
What the admin spilled at the last Youth and Family Committee meeting, they've known for a while now—since October 2024, when the church quit on their rental agreement with the city.
Backstory
The building belongs to the city, and the tenant is the church. A roof-and-facade clause means the church is supposed to take care of repairs on the building. But the effort and the cost? Too much, mate.
Shoddy State of Affairs
The city's on the record: the building is a shambles—needs some serious TLC, and the energy efficiency's abysmal. The repair costs? Exorbitant. Self-renovation? Nuh-uh, it ain't on the table. So, along with Teen Hub Q1, the Kindergarten Museum, and the Scouts are also getting booted out.
Initially, they thought September end was the deadline, but the city reckons the rental deal can be extended until December 31, 2025, by mutual agreement, after discussions between the church and the city.
Future Prospects
What's next for Teen Hub Q1 is hazy. Since the church called it quits in 2024, Q1's been waiting for the city to cook up a new real estate plan. The church's keen to team up with the city to keep your youth in a groovy mood at a new spot, according to Kulka.
But the new location? Blank as a blankety-blank. The city's been on a wild goose chase looking for a suitable spot, with department head Claudia Werker throwing out the idea of leasing a retail space smack-dab in the city center for the youth work.
For Q1's boss, Kulka, keeping in touch with visitors and staying a fixed and reliable city center point of contact is paramount. They gotta continue their open-to-all youth hangout at a temporary spot too while this all shakes out.
The demand for this joint space is high. "Some visitors still drop by for a chinwag, even though they've been gainfully employed for yonks. Open youth work needs a place people can fall back on," reports Kulka. Finding that central venue is vital, mate.
Kulka also eyes the Zanders site with hope. Solving this puzzle for the youngsters demands a smidgen of compromising.
The Kindergarten Museum NRW's future's uncertain too. Since its launch in 2004, it's been squatting in the building's basement on Quirlsberg. Antique toys and nursery gear give a glimpse of the past of public childcare, showcasing how things have evolved from storage rooms to educational institutions.
Only this fall, the museum celebrated its anniversary with a hoopla, even attracting a visit from the Minister of Family Affairs, Josefine Paul. But the chair of the museum's support group, Brigitte Holz-Schoettler, was already aware of the move's looming shadow back then.
"Losing our location is a bummer, but if we've gotta stash away the exhibit, the museum dies," she frets. So, the city's hooking up temporary solutions and looking for a permanent new home for the museum too. A move to the Zanders site's possible, with Holz-Schoettler dreaming of being spatially attached to the vocational college on the Zanders site.
"We sure hope the Kindergarten Museum remains in Bergisch Gladbach," says the association chair. However, there's already chatter from the Cologne Frobel vocational school about taking the museum under their wing. "And the minister said at the event that the museum has got to stay in NRW," adds Holz-Schoettler.
Spotlight on Late Notice
Although the church canceled their lease in 2024, the admin didn't promptly inform the council members (and eventually the public) via a published notice in the council information system. Instead, the message was dropped during a "Mayor's Address" read out by Claudia Werker at the meeting's start.
"This was previously agreed upon in the working groups with us," explains the committee's SPD leader, Holz-Schoettler. The city confirms that the message "was communicated in advance during the working group meetings between the CDU and SPD/Greens." But attention was focused on nitty-gritties like who canceled whom instead of questions or discussions about the situation.
Update
In early June, the city administration reacted to the issue, and some concrete solutions are now on the horizon. You can find the revised contribution here.
EVK's Interest in the Building
So far, the city's yet to find a buyer for the Quirlsberg building. The Evangelical Hospital (EVK) confirmed that they've been in talks about a potential purchase, but as of yet, there's no deal on the table.
"We hear the public's keen interest in the Quirlsberg building's future," says Sebastian Haeger, CEO of EVK. "Whether a purchase is feasible for us depends on the overall conditions, particularly regarding the building's high renovation costs, energy efficiency, and economic viability."
As a non-profit, the EVK needs to weigh each investment carefully. "We're willing to contribute to solutions that serve the greater good," adds Haeger, but the specifics of these solutions remain unclear.
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References
[1] https://www.gl-portal.de/lokale-redaktion/aktuell/jugend-und-lernort-ziehen-aus-das-nuetzliche-quirlsberg-haeufig-von-privatheimat-raubgedeckt-1506745-Wa[2] https://www.gl-portal.de/lokale-redaktion/aktuell/non-stop-party-vier-jahre-rund-um-den-quirlsberg-457183-Wa[3] https://www.gl-portal.de/lokale-redaktion/reportagen/quirlsberg-ver Falltnisse-beschwertig-besser-wird-nicht-einfachgeschlagen-1413888-Wa
- Despite the city's turmoil regarding the deteriorating Quirlsberg building, Christian Kulka, the gaffer at Teen Hub Q1, emphasizes the need for a renewed real-estate plan, as finding a central venue for their open youth work is crucial for the continuity of the relational space they provide.
- To ensure the sustainability of the Kindergarten Museum NRW, the museum's chair, Brigitte Holz-Schoettler, advocates for a permanent new home in Bergisch Gladbach, preferably spatially attached to a vocational college such as Zanders site, to secure the museum's future and provide a visible connection between the past and the present of childcare development.
