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How a flagship model in Regensburg's city center brings together creative professionals, founders, science and urban society.
Presenting, organizing, networking: Since 2015, Regensburg has had a central point of contact for the creative industry, where founders, creative professionals, the public and academia come together to contribute to the city of the future - realized according to the ideas of creative professionals and yet communal. The Degginger shows that this balancing act can work.
Start-up vibes pervade the Degginger. Because of the assembled founders from the creative scene who have found their temporary workspace in the café downstairs or in the co-working upstairs, because of the young companies that have their offices on the upper floor, because of the exhibiting cultural industry.
The Degginger project manager is Oliver Löscher, 34, a native of Regensburg who lived here for 20 years, studied and worked in Vienna for over ten years and has now been back in the country since 2022. He describes the perfect Degginger day: "It's a full house at the front, in the main room, because an architecture lecture is taking place. Today, urban development plans for a new district are being presented, experts from other cities are here. You continue through the building and come to the project lab at the back. There is an industry meeting taking place, for example the Creative Industries Forum, which is discussing how to organize a conference on the impact of AI on the industry. And on the opposite side is the pop-up room, where design products will be exhibited for a week. In the evening, this store becomes a workshop space where a course is held to teach people the craft of ceramics. Conference guests and co-workers then come down from the other floors and the whole building comes alive."
The doors of the Degginger are open to everyone. Up to 199 guests can fit into the café on the first floor with its stage, which is regularly used for concerts and lectures. In addition to the project lab and pop-up space, there is also "the smallest gallery", above which are three floors full of co-working spaces, start-up and seminar rooms as well as offices for associations and developers, press and architecture offices, city marketing and the creative authority itself.
The Degginger is operated by the creative authority of the Office for Economy and Science and financed by funds from the city of Regensburg. Started as an experiment, it is something of a municipal start-up and today it is impossible to imagine Regensburg without it. As early as 2012, one in ten Regensburg companies was part of the cultural and creative industries. A survey revealed a high demand for creative workspace in the city. In 2014, the Degginger was launched as the first project of the new creative authority. At around the same time, the Forum Kreativwirtschaft e. V. was founded, which organizes the local cultural and creative industries and remains an important cooperation partner to this day. Numerous others were added.
"Firstly, the industry's desire for space and secondly, the political will. Those were the two decisive factors for the initial spark," says Sebastian Knopp, 40, also a native of Regensburg, who studied in Regensburg, has professional experience in Berlin and Linz and has been with the Regensburg Creative Authority since 2015. The Degginger was his first project. Knopp has been Head of the Creative Authority since 2019 and is responsible for a total of three projects. He himself comes from the scene, film production, switched to the other side of the desk and built up the Degginger brand together with Werner Zapf, the restaurateur who has been cooperating with the establishment from the very beginning.
The Degginger was named after the former owner family and is located right in the middle between the town hall, cathedral, Neupfarrplatz and Haidplatz - the best location in the old town, which would otherwise be unaffordable for many creative professionals. The listed patrician house from the 14th century is actually two connected buildings. And, importantly, the Degginger connects two of Regensburg's most popular promenades via a passageway. Knopp says: "This contributes a lot to it being low-threshold and to people strolling through and popping into an event who wouldn't have come otherwise." Lecture topics such as the light rail system and the popular knowledge transfer of Uni Goes Downtown also reach the general public.
This also reflects our understanding of promotion, because our aim is not only to support the industry in its value creation, but also to position it as an influential player for other social or economic processes, to involve urban society again and again and thus also to take on a mediation role and simply to be a lively, vibrant place where different players come together.
Oliver Löscher
In addition to creative professionals and locals, these include associations, corporations, universities and universities of applied sciences. In 2023, the events alone reached over 16,000 visitors. In addition, there is the general public and catering guests. Oliver Löscher says: "We do our own program, but for the most part we accompany and support the creative people, their associations and initiatives who place their program here."
The "Startplatz" for self-employed founders, an office community for food bloggers to app developers with demand-oriented training, is also popular.
The Degginger's current three full-time employees - Löscher, an event manager and a technician - do not manage everything on their own. The café, parts of the stage program and the flexible coworking co_degX, including conference rooms, are operated by partner HTW GmbH. Two trainees will soon be joining the creative agency's team.
The Degginger is versatile. As a stage for the pop culture festival PUSH or for individual concerts such as that of the well-known singer-songwriter Nino from Vienna. As host of the design market and regional book fair, conferences of industry associations such as Dialog Pop, Bayern Design, Games Bavaria, the Chamber of Architects, the Future Dialogue or the URBAN network conference of urban developers. "A very strong format," says Knopp, "because there was a joint discussion on how the creative industries can influence how a city develops." Degginger is also committed to the "Regensburg Plan 2040" guideline that the city of Regensburg has set itself. It sees itself as a driving force and a piece of the puzzle. The Degginger's ambitious plans for the coming years were recently approved by the city council.
The Degginger is not only a third place for networking and creative value creation, but also an elementary component of the economic policy strategy and therefore a decisive factor for the creative city of Regensburg.
Gertrud Maltz-Schwarzfischer, Lord Mayor of the City of Regensburg
"Understanding the creative industries not just as an economic sector, but as an industry of the future," summarizes Löscher. A concept that is setting a precedent and has now been awarded the well-deserved special prize for municipal commitment in the State Prize for Bavarian Creative Locations 2024. Degginger is being imitated, but every city has to find its own tailor-made solution, says Knopp. Regensburg has theirs at Wahlenstraße 17.