A boat for young people – our grand opening on 29 August 2025
On 29 August 2025, the time had finally come: after many years of hopes, setbacks and tireless work, we were able to officially open our new boat and hand it over to the young people to use.
The “Langer See” mobile youth centre is a project that arose from the idea of creating open youth work opportunities in Grünau, Karolinenhof, Schmöckwitz and Müggelheim – in places where there were previously no permanent youth centres. It quickly became clear that our youth centre should become a boat.
The road to this goal was long and not always easy. After initial concepts, political decisions and the search for shipyards, there were severe setbacks – including a failed collaboration with an insolvent shipyard. Nevertheless, our team never gave up: With rental boats, great commitment and many creative ideas, offers were implemented, young people were involved, workshops were organised and festivals were co-organised.
The decisive turning point came with the support of many partners:
First and foremost, the 1. FC Union Berlin foundation “UNION VEREINT. Schulter an Schulter” foundation, which not only actively supported us, but also made many donations to our project possible. We gratefully accepted the symbolic cheque from CEO Christian Arbeit and Maik Degener. We were joined by numerous other companions, supporters, advisory hands and, of course, countless donors who made this boat possible.
In the Mebow shipyard, we finally found a partner who built us a fully electric, spacious and sustainable boat – the “boat of our dreams”. After a few obstacles during transport to Berlin, we were finally able to launch it a few days ago.
The opening on 29 August was a special evening: together with young people, supporters and many guests from the youth welfare office, local politicians and, of course, our managing director and companion Tilo Kießling, we celebrated, looked back and looked ahead. It was a successful, cheerful and moving opening evening in the magical setting of Strandbad Wendenschloss, which showed how much is possible when many people hold on to an idea.
And now? The boat is ready – for encounters, projects and experiences on the water. We look forward to filling it with life together with the young people.
