Until September, the square was transformed several times a week into an open space for the neighborhood and anyone who wanted to get involved. The activities took place weekly on Monday (soccer training with Faraj and Otto), Tuesday (Capoeira with Edinson (even week)/Baile (dance) with Nayibe (odd week)) and Wednesday (open youth meeting with the Westhang Mobil (Treberhilfe e.V.)), as well as once a month at the weekend and were free of charge.
Photo: Florian Scheible
For regular news or updates on the events, there is the WhatsApp channel [BOLZ] PLATZ for all.
The football pitch is located at Hagebuttenweg 16 in the Dresden district of Gorbitz.
From 12.09 - 20.09.2025 the final culture week took place on the Bolzer in Gorbitz.
On 17.09.2025, the Bolzer became a colorful health marketplace: nutrition, exercise, relaxation and a good mood! With fun, snacks and hands-on activities, we brought the health players to the Bolzer.
Also present were: Medea, GeKo and the public health department.
Photos by Leon Michel
As part of the neighborhood clean-up and beauty salon on 18.09.2025, we not only cleaned ourselves up, but also the football pitch for the grand finale: collecting garbage and transforming it into jewelry with the plastic forge.
The Montagscafé beauty salon opened at the NU KIOSK.
Photos by Lisa Cebulla
On the final Friday, 19.09.2025, we spent a great evening with live music, dancing and good food and transformed the football pitch into a ballroom. We hit the red carpet in our finest dresses and smart shirts.
Photos by Leon Michel
After two young professionals trained the whole of Gorbitz on the Bolzer on Mondays, the Bolzer finally lived up to its name on 23.08.2025 ! Kids, teenagers and all other enthusiasts competed in various tournament modes to win the GorbitzCup.
Gorbitz district library
Visitors can experience how applications and forms can be translated directly with the help of AI and their own smartphone. The library will also be presenting its "Library of Things", where games and sports equipment can be borrowed.
Integration and foreigners representatives
Under the motto of the Intercultural Days "Growing together", we cordially invite you to the stand of the Integration and Foreigners' Representatives. You can expect information about the upcoming 35th Intercultural Days and the new intercultural meeting center HAUS DER BRÜCKE. You can also find out more about "Sport from all over the world" in a quiz and even win some small prizes!
Photos by Gabriel Corredor Aristizabal
Co-production in the interim evaluation
A broad alliance of residents, the city administration, the housing industry and social organizations is behind the activation of the football pitch. Our aim is to try out new forms of cooperation in the neighborhood and not to plan endlessly, but to get things moving.
To achieve this, we regularly look back: What works well? What needs to be adapted? We therefore met on site in August to take stock.
With a small "gallery of successes", we looked back on important milestones and highlighted our personal highlights. Afterwards, Ricarda Pätzold from the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) contributed exciting ideas on the topic of participation in new arrival neighborhoods.
Under the motto Top, Flops and What's Next, we looked to the future: What's next for the football pitch and cooperation in the neighborhood?
Of course, there was also time to enjoy a meal together: Kurdish catering came from the neighborhood - thanks to Zeinab and her team!
Photos by Lucie Friederike Müller
On 13.07.2025, together with Café Mosaik, a Flinta group from the neighborhood,we transformed the Bolzer into a summer oasis with cakes, soft ice cream and coffee!
Photos by Leon Michel
A chronological overview of actions and results during the project period from February to August 2025.
Gorbitz, a large housing estate in the west of Dresden, is a new arrival quarter, especially in the northern part (Harthaerstraße), where different realities of life come together. This diversity brings with it special energies, dynamics and potentials that call for innovative formats to address issues of coexistence and the appropriation of public spaces. This is why the "Gorbitzer Zwingerfestspiele " was launched on the initiative of the FOR:UM 2024 collective. The project focused on reactivating a sports field owned by Vonovia that had been lying fallow and unused for five years. The aim was to actively shape and revitalize this site together with local residents and initiatives. To this end, an open construction site was set up on site for a week, offering space for people to meet, exchange ideas and create together. Low-threshold formats, such as the neighbourhood kitchen for cooking and eating together, created a unifying social practice where people from different backgrounds came together. such as sports activities, a senior coffee klatch, singing, games and the "Zwinger Olympics", which promoted togetherness in the neighbourhood. Project funding as part of the "Weltoffenes Sachsen" funding program expired in December 2024.
Building on the initial idea, a joint process was launched to clarify the central question of how the football pitch can be jointly designed and used in the long term. The challenges in the Harthaer Straße neighbourhood are complex: a low level of civil society organization, a high turnover of residents, language barriers and marginalization as well as a lack of municipal control options due to privatization make sustainable development difficult. Under the concept of co-production, an innovative, participatory approach is therefore to be tested that works on an equal footing and breaks through entrenched problems. The first steps have already been taken: An initial meeting was held in February, at which expectations were exchanged, a status quo mapping of challenges and opportunities was created and a future scenario for 2025 was developed. These results form the basis for the next phase, which is based on the motto "testing instead of planning" and aims to make the project permanent in the long term. Participants include Vonovia, the Dresden Cotta/Plauen district office, the youth and urban planning office of the state capital Dresden, the neighborhood management, the Dresden-West police station, Omse e.V., Westhangmobil and the Dresden Youth Art School.
The football pitch is symbolic of the importance of public spaces in arrival neighborhoods. It plays an essential role in the integration process and serves as a social infrastructure that facilitates encounters, exchange and participation. At the same time, the municipal influence on the current closure of the site is limited, as the area is owned by Vonovia. The football pitch is a central location for negotiation processes between different stakeholders, which requires targeted support and curatorial supervision to ensure sustainable and needs-based use. It offers the opportunity to test cooperative neighborhood development as a model and develop new forms of cooperation. The high degree of involvement of all participants underlines its relevance and creates a strong foundation for joint solutions.
The project is funded by the FLÜWO Foundation, the district of Dresden Cotta and the Mercator Foundation. It is part of the research project"Strengthening participation in "new" arrival neighborhoods"
With the kind support of Vonovia by providing the space.
