February 2018

We are ready to go, but for now we have to wait until our governing body has decided on temporary rooms. One thing is already certain: Owingen Library will never open again in the parish house at Rathausstraße 24.

March 2018

Since we keep being asked why apparently nothing has moved for about 4 weeks: unfortunately there is currently no news about temporary premises, for various reasons all of which lie outside our influence.

On Thursday 22 March 2018 the governing body held a meeting in the parish hall with the 4 groups that use it regularly, and with the parish team (above all the women's group, the seniors' gymnastics and the seniors' afternoon). It had to be ended early without result. You can now read the minutes here, barely 2 weeks later: minutes of 22 March 2018.

Right now the future of your Owingen Library is more uncertain than ever. Almost a quarter of a year has passed and no temporary rooms for the rebuilding are in sight.

Reactions from outside:

• "I have no words for this. It could make you lose your faith." (on Facebook)

• "This is incomprehensible! How can the parish team answer for it? Simply to destroy such a wonderful library!" (on Facebook)

• "It would be an enormous loss for Owingen. This wonderful library, with so much voluntary commitment in it, simply has to be preserved." (on Facebook)

• "It is so tragic that there is no interim solution here! The rooms outside the parish hall would be there for the present groups.. I cannot understand this obstructive stance; here people are trying to build something up from within and a few are simply destroying an interim solution for Owingen Library with their categorical no." (on Facebook)

• "this really is unbelievable. When the headwind comes from your own parish team..." (on Instagram)

• "This really is shocking, sad and hard to believe..." (on Facebook)

• "Christian charity lived out / together / against one another!" (on Facebook)

• "really sad..." (on Facebook)

• "Oh dear, how can people be so terribly blinkered! It is dreadfully sad" (on Facebook)

• "Where is the charity the church is forever preaching? It reminds me of a story in which the protagonists end up in a stable..." (on Facebook)

• "I am at first shaken, astonished and immeasurably angry! I can well understand that it is not easy to arrange the further use of the parish hall among „so many" groups to everyone's satisfaction. What I cannot understand at all is,

• … that the discussion about it is conducted in such a way?
  … that a thoroughly committed library team feels compelled to justify wanting to carry on and develop work of 90 years'(!) standing that is so valuable to society.
  … that the library team has to listen to accusations of, among other things, „forcing its way" in here, into the parish hall.
  … that grown people cannot manage to discuss things constructively, factually and with a view to solutions (my tip: you can learn that from pupils, young people, even kindergarten children these days!).
  … that the sheer success of Owingen Library is not reason enough in itself to act in the interests of this institution — and that would include a willingness to compromise on all sides.

• I could go on ….. I am truly outraged! The only accusation I will let stand is that the church actually has money (it is just not divided up or allocated properly). „Chapeau" – to all the volunteer, committed library staff; I can only hope you carry on … and at the same time one could understand if some here said 'I've had enough!'" (by email)

• "A pity that the others are not prepared to compromise. Can the whole parish not vote on this use? Would it also be possible to divide the new church and make an area available for the library? There are not so many churchgoers any more. Or the old church, for that long?" (by email)

• "This really is unbelievable and not in the least comprehensible!! The unique commitment of the Owingen Library team, so valuable to many friends and supporters of this institution, myself included, must on no account end like this!" (on Facebook)

• "Unbelievable! Words fail me at how solution-oriented some people can be — end of irony" (on Facebook)

• "Let's hope a solution is found!" (on Facebook)

• "I wish you the best of luck that everything turns out well!" (on Facebook)

• "I have read the minutes. Good grief! I have a vivid picture of that meeting." (on Facebook)

• "I wish you strength and even better nerves. The way this is going is a disgrace!" (on Facebook)

• „Please don't give up" (on Instagram)

• Row over library refuge in the parish hall (Hohenzollerische Zeitung)

• "Simply bitterly disappointing!" (on Facebook)

• "A pity that the subject seems to interest neither the town administration, the town treasury nor the council, nor the population!" (on Facebook)

• "Don't let them get you down! Let's hope you get plenty of allies." (on Facebook)

• "I have just read your reports on the internet (minutes, newspaper article, letters) about the problem of housing the library. All I can say is that in my view this is very one-sided information. (President Trump would say „fake news") ... Regards, Gregor Volm"

• "It really would be a pity if you could not carry on. When I still lived in Owingen I loved going there; now my children go when they visit my parents. It really was an enrichment for the village. ‎Have you worked out the option of renting containers? There are comfortable, secure containers‎; I just don't know what something like that costs. I wish you plenty of staying power and creativity; I am sure a solution will be found in the end." (by email)

• "I remember times when Owingen people still stuck together. Sad" (on Facebook)

• "Heavens, what is the matter with you? Can people be so uncooperative.... a pity" (on Facebook)

• "Christian charity does not exist in Owingen. Pure egotism, that exists!" (on Facebook)

• "the report from your library is shocking; I would not have expected such resistance from these „Christian" circles." (by email)

• and much more.

April 2018

On Friday 27 April 2018 the parish council met. One subject was the library's current situation and how to proceed. After 15 weeks the library's future remains uncertain. The parish council has decided that nothing will be rented after all. Either the parish hall is used together with the groups, or the library moves out of Owingen (the church has empty rooms there), or there will be no library any more. The first option, „using the parish hall together", will not work; further problems are simply pre-programmed, at the latest when in a few weeks more donated library furniture (loans desk, picture-book troughs and so on) is delivered. The whole area of about 80 sq m will then be needed; in particular we now need more office space than before for cataloguing the 6,000 items. In the parish house the library had about 100 sq m without an office and was already bursting at the seams. So the only options are out of Owingen or no library any more....

Reactions from outside:

• "This is so very sad. How can those responsible in a parish allow it??" (on Facebook)

• "Shameful for those who are preventing the library using the parish hall - it really cannot be that Owingen library comes to an end after 90 years because of this." (on Facebook).

• "Impossible! It makes me furious! How can these people sleep soundly? It would be an unimaginable loss! Something has to happen here. Can we start a signature collection or a petition, to fight for the Owingen site after all?" (on Facebook)

• "It is a warning sign to all Owingen readers, parents, children and many more, who should at last stand together in protest against old, narrow-minded structures. On the street, in conversation, those in favour of using the parish hall outnumber the opponents 100 to 1! Stand together and don't leave the team to fight alone! And simply talking about it unfortunately helps nobody! The public demonstration at the school did move something... Why not for the library! Besides — when we were children the library started in exactly this hall... for that reason alone I think the library has just as much right to be placed there until an alternative is found!" (on Facebook)

• "It is often not about being able to but about wanting to. If church and council pulled together, several office container units could have been provided over the past (15!) weeks. It even works for school classes." (on Facebook).

• "I have followed from afar how things stand with your library. It is shocking to see what remains of grand words like solidarity and togetherness in times of need, and how wilfully something is being destroyed that many volunteers built up over countless hours of work and with a great deal of effort and heart. That you can still muster even a spark of motivation borders on a miracle to me. We hope for you that good sense prevails in your parish after all and that a solution workable and acceptable to all sides can be found." (by email)

• "I too remain speechless and very sad that no solution could be found here. For years the Owingen Library team with Bernd Liener has made an incredibly important contribution to society and to culture, well beyond Owingen, with a commitment that cannot be valued highly enough. So I still hope that this is not the final end!!!" (on Facebook)

• "It is enough to make you weep... Three years ago today [6 May 2018] the opening of the new youth room in the old parish house was ahead of us. And now - a fire and all of it ruined. No rooms for a new youth room have yet been found. Owingen Library is being pushed out of the parish hall to Stetten because the groups in the parish hall categorically refuse to let the library use it for the next 2 to 3 years. Given the quantity of books and PCs, the library can only work properly again if the whole parish hall is available. But even if other rooms were there for the seniors' gymnastics, the seniors' afternoon, the women's group and the church choir (which could be organised in Owingen without difficulty), the groups, led by a few former Owingen parish councillors, refuse to make the parish hall available to Owingen Library for the next 2 to 3 years. Is that Christian togetherness? Owingen was always proud of its library, and now it is to founder on the concrete-headed mentality of a very few? That must not happen!" (on Facebook)

• and much more.

June 2018

Since we keep being asked whether things have now come to a standstill: unfortunately there is no news about the library's future or about temporary premises. We are currently waiting for a response from the governing body to the library's future plan, which we submitted at the beginning of June and which will apparently not be discussed until July. Only if the entirely voluntary library team is given appropriate assurances about the library's future is it prepared to take on, in its own time, the great effort of rebuilding in the neighbouring village of Stetten.

July 2018

Now, half a year after the fire, there are unfortunately still no concrete decisions or statements from the governing body about a viable future for the library. Without appropriate prospects, rebuilding simply makes no sense. Now we — the entirely voluntary 20-strong library team with 500 readers, 120 of them children and young people — have to go on waiting, this time for the governing body's next meetings in September...

October 2018

There are still no concrete decisions or statements from the governing body, the Catholic parish of Eyachtal-Haigerloch St. Anna, about a viable future for the library. On 18 October 2018 an extraordinary, non-public meeting of the parish council is to take place. That is: more waiting...

On 31 October 2018 a joint meeting was held between the library team and representatives of the pastoral care unit, the foundation board, the parish council, the Friends of the Library, the citizens' association and the advisory office for church libraries in Freiburg, after the library team insisted urgently on it. There were still, however, no binding assurances or decisions about the library's future, and no information at all about various events since the fire. All that was ever said was that we should simply trust. In the end the team decided nonetheless to carry on for now, and to trust.