The "Gilwell Park" trainings and the education seminars of the french scouting center in Jambville inspired the ongoing  scout masters after World War II. Unfortunately, the Luxembourg Scouts did not run any own scouting training center. These circumstances made that, on the 22nd of november 1955, the central comitee of the Luxembourg Boy Scouts Association decided to strenghten their presence in the small town of Neuhausgen and took an option on a land spot in order to build a scouting training center later on. However, without the real estate support and the financial backup of the donating family Rollinger and through the volunteering scouting effort, the chalet, whose construction had started progressively in 1956, could not have been achieved. The construction works were finished in november 1958 and the chalet was finally inaugurated on the 1st of May 1959 which was also the 40th anniversary of the Luxembourg Boy Scouts Association and the start of the famous First May Scouting fares in Neuhaeusgen. The Gilwell trainings started as soon as the construction works were finished. Thanks to the "Learning by Doing" concept, the base camp refuge "Gilwell" was built  later on under the supervision of Jéis Loos during the Gilwell training camp in 1970. This refuge has been erected on the center's 50 acres camping ground. The "Gilwell-base camp refuge" has been equiped  by a drinking water pipe in 1974, an additional garage and an electricity supply in 1981 so that this consequently improoved infrastructure is available since then for campers.

Due to rising needs either in traing or programm, the scouting responsible had severe administrative, financial and technical problems. The planned enlargment of the center was conditionned also by environmental issues as the clearcutting of 18 acres on a newly achieved neigbouring slope of forest had to be equilibred by replanting some 18 acres of trees on an equivalent farming ground nearby. In the same time, the early investment costs done  during the fifties had to be paid back and opposite vues on training and programm methods made it difficult to aproove for any  architectural  enlargement concept that was either to expensive or not suited to the educational needs.

However, this challenge encouraged the Luxembourg Boy Scouts Association to unify their ambitions under the national leitmotive "Neihaischen, our construction, our work". In the follow-up, the national managment board of the Scouting Association decided to build an annex to the main building including a large meeting room, working rooms and camp equipment warehouse facilities. The "Annex" was finally inaugurated on the 1st of May 1978. This enlargement went together with a basic renewing of the existing accomodation, sanitary and kitchen infrastructures. The standardisation policy to new sanitary and hygienic norms has been launched in 2002.

On the way to «Neihaischen-Scoutland»?!

The national training and scouting centers, either the "Relais de l'Amitié"-Chalet - the former Luxembourg Girl Guides training center - or the Chalet Nicolas Rollinger, traditional national scouting training center, have been reorganized under the non-profit organisation of the Luxembourg Girl Guides and Boy Scouts Association and continue to offer accommodation facilities through the mainly volunteering work of both managment boards. New partnership projects coorganized by the Nature Administration, the local support of the city of Schuttrange together with the Luxembourg Guiding and Scouting Federation back-up developing works in waste recycling service or new programm offer: e.g. the "Native Village" project has become a unique education project based on the learning of traditional live style values through different housing forms, either indian tipies, afican huts or an originally reconstructed celtic house.

Feel free to download the Neihaischen-Poster.