European youth recreation and meeting place Werbellinsee
The European youth recreation and meeting place Werbellinsee is a youth meeting place in the area of the municipality Joachimsthal in the district Barnim . Under the name of Pioneer Republic of Wilhelm Pieck , the facility was the central pioneer camp of the pioneer organization Ernst Thälmann in the GDR until 1989 . The state of Brandenburg was the sponsor from 1990 to 2004, and WS Werbellinsee GmbH & Co. KG has been operating the facility since 2004.
history
In 1949 the Council of Ministers of the GDR decided to build the pioneering republic and made 18 million marks available. Richard Paulick was the architect of the building and Reinhold Lingner was responsible for the landscaping . The facility was inaugurated on July 16, 1952 by the then President of the GDR, Wilhelm Pieck . The operator was the Free German Youth (FDJ).
The design of the pioneer republic Wilhelm Pieck was largely based on the Soviet all-union pioneer camp Artek in the Crimea . After it functioned as a recreation center for war orphans in the early years, in the following years until 1989 it served the political education of members of the pioneer and FDJ organization of the GDR.
After expansions and renovations, the plant had a total area of 1.1 km² in 1989. The facilities on the camp grounds included a crèche , a polytechnic high school , sports halls, cafes and a Mongolian yurt .
The total number of visitors to the pioneering republic is estimated at around 400,000. From 1961 international summer camps were organized , in which children from foreign socialist and communist youth organizations , including from Western countries, also took part.
During the camp visits outside of the school holidays, around 1000 Thälmann pioneers were on the site at the same time. They were delegated there by the friendship council of the respective school, whereby normally only one student per school was allowed to participate. The delegation to the usually six-week stay was considered a special honor. In the pioneering republic, the participants received regular and especially political school lessons at a high level. Pioneer afternoons were held in the afternoon, and watching the news program Current Camera was part of the daily routine. The students should keep a diary during their stay. The supply of food was not typical of the GDR, there were few supply bottlenecks for products such as oranges, bananas and ice lollies.
A visit to the pioneering republic was subsidized in 1988 with 40 marks per day of participation . Partner organizations supported the camp, including the PCK Schwedt , the VEB Werk für Fernsehelektronik Berlin, the VEB Schiffsarmaturen- und Leuchtenbau Finow, the FDJ basic organization "Albert Hößler" and the fighter squadron "Hermann Matern" .
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the facility, which was now open to all children and young people, was operated from 1990 to October 2, 1990 under the name Kinderland am Werbellinsee by the Youth and Sports Office of the GDR, and since reunification by the State of Brandenburg. The facility has had its current name since 1992. In 2004, the state of Brandenburg sold the entire area for € 515,000 to WS Werbellinsee GmbH & Co. KG. In addition to class and club trips, family and day tourism came to the fore. Many of the listed buildings have been renovated over the years.
Todays use
The European youth recreation and meeting place Werbellinsee is used, among other things, for children and youth camps , training camps, holiday camps and family vacations. Almost all of the buildings are listed on the site . There are over 1000 beds available.
On the spacious area there are three seminar hotels with double and single rooms with shower / toilet, five guest houses with one, two and three-bed rooms including shower / toilet, seven youth hostel houses and six summer houses with multi-bed rooms and communal washrooms and a small holiday home for four people. Some of the buildings are barrier-free. The gastronomic area consists of two dining rooms, a restaurant on the banks of the Werbellinsee and a snack bar / kiosk. There are also several beach volleyball fields and a sports stadium with stands near the lake, and the facility also has its own gym and a wellness house with sauna and fitness room.
Web links
- Chronology on the website of the EJB Werbellinsee
- Memories of Peaches and Bananas , Die Tageszeitung (Taz) , August 2, 2011
- Pioneer Republic of Wilhelm Pieck: Propaganda during the holidays (contemporary witness report on Spiegel online), September 10, 2008
Individual evidence
- ↑ History on the EJB homepage , accessed on May 26, 2018
- ^ History of summer camps in the GDR: "Wilhelm Pieck" pioneering republic at Werbellinsee . Blog post on the homepage of the GDR Museum, accessed on May 26, 2018
- ^ The Pioneering Republic of Wilhelm Pieck , mdr-online, accessed on May 26, 2018
- ^ The Republic of Pioneers , mdr-online, accessed on May 26, 2018
- ↑ List of monuments of the state of Brandenburg: District Barnim (PDF) Brandenburg State Office for Monument Preservation and State Archaeological Museum
- ↑ Self-presentation of the EJB , accessed on May 26, 2018
- ↑ Information on the EJB homepage , accessed on May 26, 2018
Coordinates: 52 ° 55 '32 " N , 13 ° 43' 36" E