The Pfadfinderhaus Maxglan opened in 2019. After several years of renovation, the building is now used as a clubhouse for meetings, celebrations, seminars, and to host visiting scouts.
The original, much smaller house dated from the postwar period and had always been owned by the Fischer family – which is why the house is still known among the Maxglaners as the Fischer House. The former building and the property have been leased since January 2010. In September 2011, the Maxglan Scouts purchased the property on the initiative of Georg “Schurli” Sturm Sr. (†), the long-time, distinguished group leader of the Maxglan Scouts. Initially, the existing, small-scale building was used as a storage space and museum for the many items from the group’s archives, but plans for a new house were already in place.
The renovation began in February 2015 with the clearing out of the house. Under the direction of Ernst Fuchs, the current group leader of the Maxglan group, the group renovated their house entirely on their own. By integrating the attached garage into the ground floor, they were able to increase the usable space. With a newly constructed wooden ceiling above the ground floor and a new roof truss, an upper floor with even more usable space was created. The large open space under the roof offers many possibilities for use. With a very well-equipped kitchen and spacious bathrooms, the Pfadfinderhaus is also ideally suited for groups of up to 25 people to stay overnight. The light-filled covered pergola forms a sheltered outdoor space and creates the connection to the small forest – which has been used by our group since 1978 and is named Georgsgrund – that is so important to us.
The Georgsgrund is what remains of the former Eichetwald forest in the western part of the city of Salzburg. Much of the forest was cleared to make way for the Maxglan drill ground during the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the early 20th century. Later, the cleared area was used as an airfield and is now the site of Salzburg Airport. Our Pfadfinderhaus therefore stands on historic ground.
The Pfadfinderhaus Maxglan was planned and renovated by the Maxglan scout group on its own initiative. Funding came largely from the group’s own resources, subsidies from the state government and the city of Salzburg, as well as donations and, of course, the tireless efforts of our members.
Special thanks go to all the volunteers who helped renovate our Pfadfinderhaus. We would especially like to thank Ernst Fuchs – without him, the house would likely never have been completed – and our master builder Martin Fellinghauer.
Special thanks for the generous donations from Max Daxegger, Helmut Fischbacher, Christoph Haas, Ernst Müller, Christine Scheil, and Andra Spallart, the Maxglan Guild, the Scouts of Salzburg, as well as a thank you to the companies Analytec, Master Builder Martin Fellinghauer, Hotel Junior – the Wendl family, Lebeth Surveying, Rufa-Bau, Sanitär Hainze, Schlosserei Lang, Seeleitner Roofing & Plumbing, Slama Sheet Metal Products, Steindl Earthworks, Thaurer Electrical Engineering, and Baumann Carpentry.
103 girl scouts and boy scouts from Maxglan, young and old alike, spent 7,058 hours over 513 days from 2015 to 2018 building our house. Professionals and companies were on site for only 845 hours. The following individuals deserve special mention, as they contributed more than 100 hours of unpaid, volunteer work to our Pfadfinderhaus: Ernst Fuchs, Robert Pfeiffer, Claus Frühwirth, Roswitha Fuchs, Markus Teufelsdorfer, Rene Jenny, Martin Fellinghauer, Alex Fischer, Rudolf Erda, Siegfried Fuchs, Michael Gallhammer, Peter Hilzensauer, Reinhold Ortner, and Christoph Fuchs.
