Our cultural alliance started in autumn 2022 with the aim of: WH22 as a community-supported and used resource to maintain and think ahead in the long term. On the site at Werner-Hilpert-Straße 22, a shared quarter should be created with a focus on cultural and social uses, which is characterized by mutual cooperation, democratic participation and collective administration.
After 1.5 intensive years, it is with a heavy heart that we have to stop our efforts. Unfortunately, our attempt to acquire the area jointly through a cooperative supported by the users was unsuccessful. The area has with the cdw foundation A new owner since summer 2023. Unfortunately, the subsequent discussions with the foundation about renting part of the area by our alliance did not lead to the desired result. Unfortunately, the core components of our concept idea could not be reconciled with the ideas of the cdw Foundation. We are now drawing conclusions and dissolving the alliance.
We will use the next few weeks to reflect on the process and to self-critically process our own contributions and our failures.
We would like to thank everyone who actively participated in the alliance with a lot of commitment or supported us in developing the vision of a self-managed cultural venue in Kassel and making it a reality. We wish those initiatives who, as individual actors, want to rent space on the WH22 area good luck and hope that the WH22 area will develop into an exciting place for Kassel with a different conceptual focus.
For the numerous actors who will unfortunately not be able to find space on the site, the search for space now begins again. The need for opportunities for cultural and social participation and spaces remains acute. Even if we were unable to implement our vision in WH22, we remain convinced that new approaches are needed to create open and low-threshold accessible spaces and to maintain them in the long term: Oriented towards the common good, developed cooperatively & supported by many: for the benefit of many Many.
More about this in our press release from November 27th, 2023:
