The history of the Verschwörhaus

A lot has happened before and since the opening of the Verschwörhaus. Here is a small overview — if you come around, we can tell you a lot more anecdotes and more detailed insights.

Milestones

  • June 2015 At Jugend hackt Süd 2015 at the Ulm University (organized by and with the datalove group) the idea comes up “to offer all the good equipment that exists at the university to non-students in the center of Ulm”. The idea then is presented to the first mayor at that time during the event, who then proposes to submit an application to the city council.
  • End of 2015 Stefan, some volunteers and other citizens are writing a concept for a Hack- and Makerspace that poses as a “playground” for the world of tomorrow" in Ulm, following the models of the Haus des Freien Wissens and many Hack- und Makerspaces.
  • April 2016 The Ulm City Council decides to provide start-up funding of 70,000 euros for the project “Stadtlabor Ulm - das Experimentierfeld für die Stadt von morgen”. Rooms of the Sparkasse at the Weinhof are rented.
  • July 2016 The “Stadtlabor” project is launched with the working title Weinhof9. With the regular Ulm-API meetings, the first event format is already moving in. Together with the regional civic tech scene, ideas are being developed on how to fill the new space with life.
  • October 2016 Despite reservations on the part of the city, the name “Verschwörhaus”, that volunteers came up with in 2015, prevails.
  • November 2016 Slowly more and more equipment is arriving. The “pioneers” of the Maker-Monday come together. The motto: CNC, CAD and dangerous equipment! Also: The inititative.ulm.digital starts to build up a LoRaWAN network in the city and surroundings. In the Verschwörhaus, a group of volunteers gets together to continue working on the topic.
  • December 2016 In cooperation with the sustainability university group, the sewing cafe starts, the first wikidata- and the first e.tage -workshops take place. The former bank vault becomes a wood and metal workshop.
  • Beginning 2017 The first OpenStreetMap-Mapathon at the Verschwörhaus! Soon after the Ubuntu regulars’ table of the Generationentreff starts and the Café for job application for refugees moves into our premises.
  • June 2017 Through a grant from the inititative.ulm.digital we are now also a full-time field office of the Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland e.V.
  • September 2017 Jugend hackt takes place for the third time in Ulm and for the first time in the Verschwörhaus!
  • December 2017 For the first time we send a delegation to Leipzig to the Chaos Communication Congress. From now on we will have our own area there every year as “Wikipaka-WG” together with Wikimedia Deutschland, Jugend hackt and some other civic tech projects!
  • June 2018 The first CTF/PPP-Meetup take place in the Verschwörhaus.
  • May 2019 The Verschwörhaus is now officially a Jugend hackt Lab!
  • August 2019 The Verschwörhaus e.V. is founded.
  • December 2019 „Frauen Und Computer Kram“ (F.U.C.K.) has its kickoff.
  • September 2023 After several months of renovations we open our new rooms to the public].