When many Ukrainian refugees arrived in Neustrelitz in 2022, Katja Thiede and her husband Christian wanted to create a place for simple encounters. Since sport transcends language barriers, they simply set up two ping-pong tables in their own garden.
Since January 2025, the project has had a permanent home in a former hair salon at Elisabethstraße 33 in Neustrelitz. Professional tables are available in the approximately 100-square-meter space.
Photographer Norman Konrad visited the salon for Chrismon Magazine.
Katja Thiede's ping-pong salon in Neustrelitz is about much more than just sport. It's a place where people who might otherwise never have met come together: young and old, newcomers and locals, engineers, retirees, families, and singles.
What began with two ping-pong tables in their own garden is now a vibrant meeting place in the heart of the city. People play, talk, laugh, play cards, recite poetry, and discuss life.
"Katja Thiede brings color to the city. When she writes letters to the property management company, there's confetti in the envelope. Her projects are just as colorful. Thiede founded the Ping-Pong Salon. She's managed to get even Berliners to travel an hour and a half to visit. Several times a week, people who might otherwise never meet come together to play," writes Chrismon Magazine.
Sociologists call such places "third places"—spaces between home and work that foster community. For many visitors, the salon has become exactly that: a place where you can belong without having to achieve anything.
"There are rarely spaces where you're not judged for what you say," says one of the visitors. The salon hasn't gone unnoticed: For its strong commitment to the city's community, the project was awarded the German Neighborhood Prize in 2025.
The monthly Protestant magazine chrismon, with a circulation of approximately 1.5 million copies, is one of the most widely read and distinguished print publications in the German-speaking world. As a high-quality supplement to renowned daily and weekly newspapers (including Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Die Welt), it reaches a discerning, intellectually engaged readership of millions.
Photographer Norman Konrad is represented by the Hamburg-based agency DOUBLE T.
GoSee : pingpongsalon.de + chrismon.de