Draft:Exzellenzhaus

The Exzellenzhaus (short: eXhaus) is a historical building in Trier (Germany).

History to 1972

It originally belonged to the monastery of St. Marien, which was built in the 7th century. The French conquest of Trier in 1794, at the beginning of the Revolutionary Wars, led to the expulsion of the monks, conversion to barracks and finally secularization in 1797. Under Napoléon Bonaparte, the monastery was largely demolished by 1807; the stones and timbers were used as building material for new buildings. Only the east wing (rear of the monastery) remained standing.

Since the Congress of Vienna in 1815, when Trier fell to Prussia, the estate had been the seat of the Trier divisional commander. If this officer was a lieutenant general or higher, he was entitled to the title of Excellency (german: Exzellenz) in Prussia. The originally colloquial term “Exzellenzhaus” (house of excellence) eventually found its way into official usage.

After the Second World War, the building was initially used for storage and fell into disrepair.

Youth and culture center (1972–2019)

In March 1972, the city of Trier, which owns the property, rededicated it as a youth center. This was an important step in the city's development. In 1980, the Exzellenzhaus was on the brink of collapse because the south wing was dilapidated and had to be closed. It was not until 1983 that it became financially possible to gradually renovate the building. Until the Exzellenzhaus closed at the end of 2020, it housed a self-managed youth and cultural center. The focus was on youth work on the one hand and the promotion of youth culture on the other. Until its insolvency, the Exzellenzhaus was managed by an association of the same name, which was financially supported by the city. This was organized in the umbrella association Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft Soziokultur & Kulturpädagogik Rheinland-Pfalz.

The Exzellenzhaus fulfilled an important function in the Trier-Nord district, a social hotspot, by providing a day nursery and various socio-pedagogically supervised leisure activities for young people. It also provided rehearsal and performance spaces for bands from the regional music scene.

Until 2018, the Exzellenzhaus hosted the annual Summerblast Festival, one of the best-known German music festivals in the fields of metalcore, hardcore punk, deathcore, post-hardcore and emocore.

Restriction and closure of the Exhaus

In early 2015, fire safety deficiencies were discovered in the Exhaus and the maximum permitted number of event visitors was subsequently restricted. In March 2016, the city council decided to carry out fire safety renovations, which began in May 2018. The fire safety measures included, for example, the construction of an external staircase from the Balkensaal to the parking lot on the north side, as well as a tunnel from the large Exil to the neighboring Public outdoor pool Nordbad. The association had to file for insolvency in 2018, partly due to the lower income from events. Shortly afterwards, the association initiated the “Save the Exhaus” fundraising campaign. In 2018, the insolvency of the operating association was averted for the time being.

In the course of the construction work, it became apparent after some time that the wooden beam ceiling in the middle wing of the building was affected by dry rot, among other things. As a result, this wing was closed in late summer 2018. At the beginning of February 2019, it became known that load-bearing components in the building were dilapidated, whereupon the building was immediately evacuated and closed by the city of Trier as the owner. The after-school care center had already been relocated to the Ambrosius elementary school, while the Eintracht Trier soccer club's fan project and staff offices were relocated to the former Geschwister-Scholl secondary school.

Discussion on the revitalization of the Exhaus and youth and cultural work (since 2019)

In April 2019, it was announced and officially decided by the city council in August 2019 that the Exzellenzhaus e.V. would be located in two buildings of the former Deutschordenskommende on Schießgraben, not far from the Trier vocational school, until the Exzellenzhaus could be used again after a general refurbishment. If all went well, the association initially expected to move into the buildings on Schießgraben in the center of Trier, which were also to be renovated, in summer 2020. In 2020, it was then predicted that the premises could only be used from 2022. In June 2020, the association and the city of Trier presented a jointly developed concept for the use of the premises of the Exzellenzhaus after its renovation, for which the costs were being calculated at the time.

On September 21, 2020, it was announced that the Exzellenzhaus e. V. association would be completely dissolved at the end of the year due to insolvency. The after-school care centre, fan project, Bunker music rehearsal room in Karl-Grün-Straße and the Streetwork Blue area in the district Trier-Ehrang/Quint were taken over by other independent youth welfare organizations, while the Umsonstladen and cultural areas were terminated without replacement. The eXhaus bleibt! Aktionsbündnis (exhaus stays! action alliance) was founded to preserve the entire work in a sponsorship structure and organized several demonstrations for this purpose at Trier City Hall, each with 200 to 300 participants. On October 6, 2020, the Trier City Council decided with the votes of the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, CDU and Die Linke parliamentary groups that the city administration should support “the development towards a new support structure” for youth and cultural work. The various fields in which the insolvent association Exzellenzhaus e.V. had previously been active would have to be “united under a new institutional umbrella”.

Kulturgraben e.V. was founded in January 2021 out of the Aktionsbündnis, announcing that it would essentially continue the work of the former association and submitting a concept to the city. A location for the activities and the staff to be employed had not yet been determined, as the renovation of the buildings on Schießgraben had been downgraded in priority in the meantime. The new association wanted to use two donation pots with a total of 50,000 euros, which had been filled by the end of 2020 and were managed in trust until then, before a sponsor took over the activities in accordance with the city council resolution of October 2020. In 2022 and 2023, however, the funds were divided between the various providers of the services. Kulturgraben e. V. has so far only taken over the event area from the old range of services offered by Exzellenzhaus e. V..

On August 20, 2021, the eXhaus bleibt! Aktionsbündnis launched a petition for the renovation of the Exzellenzhaus and its renewed management by youth and youth culture work. A number of local celebrities officially supported the petition, including Helmut Leiendecker, Florian Valerius, the players from Eintracht Trier, Jupiter Jones, Popperklopper, Christian Baron, Frank Jöricke, Love A and Pascow. The campaign alliance submitted 6,821 signatures to the electoral office of the City of Trier by May 17, 2022, 4,824 of which were from Trier residents eligible to vote. The quorum of at least 5% of eligible voters was therefore met. Nevertheless, the legal department of the city of Trier declared the citizens' petition inadmissible a few days later for various substantive reasons.At the end of September, the city council confirmed the assessment of the city administration with a few dissenting votes. The campaign alliance initially criticized the opinion of the legal department, as no concerns had been expressed in a discussion at the start of the campaign. The alliance announced that it would appeal against the decision and reiterated its intention to take legal action following the council's decision. On September 12, 2023, a hearing was held before the Trier Administrative Court as a result of the action group's complaint. On October 9, 2023, the court ruled that the citizens' petition had been inadmissible as it related to a city council resolution and had not been sufficiently substantiated. The campaign alliance lodged an appeal against this decision with the Koblenz Higher Administrative Court. On January 24, 2024, the court rejected the appeal on the grounds that the citizens' petition was insufficiently substantiated. At the end of January 2024, the Trier City Council, with the votes of the SPD, Green, FDP and CDU parliamentary groups, reaffirmed its intention to renovate the Exhaus in the near future due to its urban development significance. To this end, financing options are to be examined with an external partner and a utilization concept developed that also includes social and public welfare-oriented purposes. The background to the application is the view of the aforementioned parties that, on the one hand, refurbishment financed by the city alone is not feasible and, on the other hand, the eXhaus should not be sold. Furthermore, the focus on a pre-2019 use was unrealistic. In contrast, a rejected alternative motion by the Left Party in collaboration with the eXhaus bleibt! Aktionsbündnis stipulated that use for youth and youth culture work should be a mandatory consideration.

On February 26, 2024, the eXhaus bleibt! Aktionsbündnis filed a constitutional complaint with the Rhineland-Palatinate Constitutional Court following the Higher Administrative Court's decision. On April 15, the campaign alliance announced that this appeal had also failed. In the press release, the campaign alliance questioned in principle whether citizens' petitions were even possible in Rhineland-Palatinate if a local authority acted against them.

The eXhaus bleibt! Aktionsbündnis announced further actions, such as a night dance demo

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