From environmental education for kindergarten and school children to waste and energy advice: the urban environmental station has been around for 30 years.
Photo: Silvia Gralla
At the beginning of May 1990 it was officially opened as part of the State Garden Show (LGS). On this Sunday the Würzburg environmental station actually wanted to celebrate its 30th anniversary as part of the “Spring International” on the former LGS site. Nothing came of it because of the corona restrictions, the popular festival of the twin cities had to be canceled.
Public traffic has also been suspended since mid-March. It has never been so quiet in Bavaria’s first environmental station in nearly 30 years as in the past two months. After all, anyone who went to kindergarten in Würzburg after 1990 or attended school for a long time may have been there at least once with their group or class.
Environmental education as one of the central tasks
Environmental education not only, but especially for young people, is one of the central tasks of the environmental station, which until 2018 was housed in the Zeller Tor’s gatekeeper’s house, which has since been demolished. In the past few years, around 2,500 children and young people have taken part in the environmental experience weeks on the green grounds behind the building.
Photo: Thomas Obermeier
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It was founded as a joint project by the City of Würzburg together with the University of Würzburg and the Bavarian Ministry of the Environment as an expanded information stand for LGS visitors – five years after the German Environment Day in Würzburg first adopted guidelines for environmental protection in 1985.
Half a year after the end of the LGS, the Free State withdrew from the financing, the city took over the environmental station and, among other things, settled its waste, energy and environmental advice there – an idea of the then environmental consultant Matthias Thoma. The Free State of Bavaria recognized the model character of the facility and made it a role model for a network of 58 environmental education stations in Bavaria. Incidentally, this does not include the ecology house of the Bund Naturschutz, which was also built for LGS in 1990 and can celebrate its 30th anniversary this year.
Partial opening from May 18th
“Würzburg was born,” said Environment Minister Thomas Glauber at the opening of the new environmental station almost exactly a year ago. The new building, with its ice storage heater and the recycled concrete used in the construction from the demolition material of a former motorway bridge, stands above all for sustainability and therefore also for what the employees have wanted to convey to its approximately 8,000 visitors a year for 30 years.
Photo: Johannes Kiefer
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The library has now grown to over 5000 books, and there is probably no environmental or environmental protection topic that cannot be found in the environmental station or an information brochure or a contact person.
From Monday (May 18th) the house will be reopened at least partially: Monday to Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. and Friday to 12.30 p.m. According to the current status, all planned events remain canceled until the end of August – partly because the 120 square meter event space is currently only approved for a maximum of 15 people.
Ideas for smaller events
Anja Knieper and her team are therefore in the process of developing ideas for events with smaller numbers of participants: “We will try to work more intensively with a few people,” says the long-time boss of the environmental station, for whom cross-generational formats are very important right now: “Seniors are People we can learn a lot from. They shouldn’t just be seen as a risk group. “
Photo: Thomas Obermeier
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Digital or online offers, on the other hand, do not really fit in with the concept of the house that has proven itself over three decades. There are professional providers who visualize the climate crisis and other issues very well, “said Knieper. And:” This is not environmental education in the real sense. Something like this is only possible with an experience and a group feeling. “
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Wurzburg
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Patrick Wötzel
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waste
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General (not subject-specific) universities
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Libraries
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Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg
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Schoolchildren
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City of Wuerzburg
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Environmental advice
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Environment Minister
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Ministry of Environment
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Environmental officers
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environmental Protection
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Environmental days
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