Berlin churches as sports facilities
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Romp around in the house of God
Many churches remain unused in the mornings, and at the same time there are no sports facilities in Berlin. In order to fill the places of worship, a project is currently being explored how children and youth sports can be implemented there. By Friedrich Rößler
Unusual scenes take place on the holy ground of the Paul Gerhardt Church in Berlin Pankow. Not far from the intersection of Wisbyer Straße / Schönhauser Allee, the church tower bell usually calls the congregation to prayer, but what happens under the church roof that day has less to do with prayer and more with movement.
Six people, with their arms stretched upwards, balance a large rubber ball with their hands from the altar over the prayer benches towards the exit. Suddenly a brightly striped cloth is stretched that covers the entire seating area and again a large ball flies through the air.
Counteract the lack of sports facilities
When the light becomes less and neon-colored glow sticks have replaced the rubber ball, a contemplative and Christmas mood sets in. Sport and thank goodness says the managing director of the children’s and inclusion club Pfeffersport Jörg Zwirn. “We have inclusion as one of our main topics and that is an early Christian thought that everyone can participate in a range of sports and exercise.”
The Berlin association Pfeffersport and the parish of the Paul Gerhardt Church in Berlin Pankow have teamed up to counteract the shortage of sports facilities in the federal capital. At the beginning of 2018, according to the Berlin Senate, more than 300 sports facilities were missing in the Spree metropolis. Little has happened. So the idea of the unused houses of worship comes exactly right.
Bring others into the churches
“Instead of just closing the churches, we just take others in and see what we can create together,” says Tobias Kuske, the pastor of the Paul Gerhardt Church. The hustle and bustle on this cold winter day in the run-up to Christmas serves as an initial stress test, because such a house of worship is not designed for running or jumping, let alone for ball sports.
Defy the cold with capoeira and a parcours
So that the dream of this ecclesiastical sporting community can come true as early as the beginning of 2022, the prayer benches are to be stored in a listed manner and a sports floor is to be laid. In the future, prayers should also be held on this surface, standing. The church is often empty in the mornings, when the Pfeffersport association would like to offer sports for young and old.
“We do not yet know what the temperature will be in this room, so we will start with exercise-intensive sports at the beginning of next year,” said Pfeffersport Managing Director Zwirn. He thinks of the obstacle course sport or the martial arts Capoeira.
Encourage others
“In the Evangelical Church in Germany, too, it could be that this project is encouraging,” says Pastor Kuske. There are almost 300 Protestant churches in Berlin. If many of them are only partially used and the project from Pankow is successfully accepted, the Protestant congregation of the federal capital could reduce the shortage of sports facilities on the Spree with its real estate.
At the Pfeffersportverein everyone involved firmly believes that their plan will work. And sometimes belief can move mountains, in which case it is more about big red rubber balls.
Broadcast: rbb24, December 19, 2021, 9.45 p.m.
