Despite cool temperatures with a tendency towards rain, numerous guests from near and far were drawn to the construction site of the former OSSI youth clubhouse at Liselotte-Herrmann-Straße 1 on 23 January 2025. Lord Mayor Torsten Ruban-Zeh and the structural change project team had invited guests to the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone at the ‘Nikolai Ostrowski’ Neustadtforum, which is being built there.
Around 50 guests accepted the invitation, including the future users, above all the RAA Hoyerswerda Ostsachen e.V., the German Centre for Astrophysics (DZA) and the Hoyerswerda Astronomical Society. Also on site were representatives of the construction companies and planning offices involved, the managing directors of the municipal companies, representatives of the town council and the town administration as well as the mayors of the municipalities of Lohsa and Elsterheide.
In addition to Jörg Mühlberg from the Saxon Agency for Structural Development, the city administration also welcomed Udo Witschas, District Administrator of the Bautzen district, as a guest. In his welcoming address, the district administrator praised Hoyerswerda’s commitment to structural change: ‘I don’t know of any city or municipality in the whole of Upper Lusatia that is realising as many structural change projects as the city of Hoyerswerda.’
The city has already secured over 200 million euros from the Coal Regions Investment Act (InvKG). A portion of this, namely around 8.2 million euros (funding amount), will go towards the conversion of the former youth clubhouse into the Neustadtforum, a future meeting place for science and socio-culture. A total of 9.3 million euros has been budgeted for the project.
‘Social and cultural life in the city centre will move in here. We will also create an anchor here that can showcase new things for the region,’ said Lord Mayor Torsten Ruban-Zeh on Thursday afternoon. He thus illustrated the future significance of the forum for the city and beyond. The new Science Centre being built on the site and managed by the DZA is intended to inspire enthusiasm for scientific topics and show young people promising careers in research.
Construction work on the Neustadtforum began in August 2024 and is progressing according to plan. The demolition and gutting work on the existing buildings has largely been completed. The final work, such as the removal of the concrete subfloor in the hall area, is still ongoing. The drainage channel work in and around the building will also be completed in the next few days.
The construction pits for the new buildings have already been excavated and prepared with compacted, load-bearing material. This forms the basis for the foundations and floor slabs. The shell of the first new building, a two-storey administration and counselling building, is half complete. Work is currently underway on the ceiling above the ground floor.
The foundation work for the planetarium and the open youth work building will begin shortly. The roof of the social centre building has already been renewed. ‘The good and cooperative teamwork of all those involved should be emphasised,’ says Jens Schieber, project manager at the city administration. Together with Marco Bloch, he is providing technical and organisational support for the project. All construction work is due to be completed in 2026 and the Neustadtforum will be finished.
For the symbolic laying of the foundation stone on 23 January 2025, a time capsule was filled with memories of the city in transition and sunk into the ground in the entrance area in front of numerous contemporary witnesses. Anyone who digs out and opens the metal box at some point will find coins, daily newspapers, analogue and digital information from RAA and OSSI, all previous episodes of the #WHY! podcast and the DZA logo as a set of clip-on bricks.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
