The Pänz of the Evastraße 19-29 apartment building know exactly what is missing from their playground in the green area inside the courtyard: bars for pull-ups, gymnastics and other sports. Basketball hoops or some goals for kicks. “Even an underground trampoline would be great,” says one girl. But aside from the playground with sandbox, swing, slide and swings, there’s not much in the immediate area.
Hermann Schulz listens to the wishes of girls and boys. “Sport and exercise are very important for children,” says the 84-year-old. Not only to be physically fit, but mentally as well. Because that’s where sport also helps, Schulz thinks.
Schulz goes for a run twice a week
Even at his age, he still sports regularly. I go running twice a week, always on Tuesdays and Fridays. In the past he has played other sports. “Football, handball, ice hockey and gymnastics with equipment,” Schulz lists. Although he traveled a lot for work, he couldn’t do without sport. “That way you could clear your head and think clearly again.” He thinks that anyone who grew up with the sport cannot do without it.
That’s why he is committed to ensuring that the children in his condominium and surrounding apartment buildings and homes have enough opportunities to play sports. “People always complain that babies can’t move that way anymore or they’re too fat and so they get sick at an early age,” Schulz says. But no wonder children and young people don’t have enough opportunities to let off steam outside the clubs.
Letters to Roters and Schramma
Hermann Schulz not only recognized this problem with current children from neighboring apartments, but several years ago. So he tried to get the subject discussed at the owners’ association’s annual meetings. “But my request was never on the agenda.”
Hermann Schulz wrote letters to Lord Mayors Schramma and Roters, to prime ministers such as Rüttgers and Kraft. “You can tell from the name that I’ve been working on it for a long time,” says Hermann Schulz, pointing to the folder in which he has filed these letters. There are also sketches of him, with which he wanted to show that there would be more than enough space for a trampoline, for example. But Schulz didn’t just try to get something for the children in his immediate living environment.
Schulz wants something to finally happen
Even a few hundred meters further on in the green area Annastraße / Leonorenweg. There are two goals for a kick and a basket, but the children don’t think that’s enough. They think a fitness class like the one at Zündorf’s Groov is great. A second basketball hoop would also be great. “So you can play against each other much better,” says one boy. The boys and girls think that the safety fences for the soccer field and the trampolines from the ground could go here as well. They are between the ages of five and 14 and climbing is especially popular right now.
So the soccer goal is sometimes used to test which of them can hold their arms longer.
The children’s wish list is not a problem, says Hermann Schulz. “There is enough space here.” That’s why the 84-year-old also campaigned for an expansion. You have written to the Cologne administration departments about this. But to date she hasn’t received any positive feedback. “It’s a shame,” Schulz thinks: Especially for children, when they realize that nothing is happening, it is particularly unsatisfactory for them.
But Hermann Schulz doesn’t want to give up. He wants to go back to politics and administration. Someone must have an interest in making things better for future generations, he thinks. “Not just talking about what to do for the children, but also doing it.”
