Gorlitz: Esat German treasure trove
Saturday, 17 November 2007
Reiner Burger
Surely this must be Italy .. The square is surrounded by four-storey Renaissance buildings: yellow, dusky-pink and pale-green facades with balconies and half-relief figures. In front of the old Rathsapotheke (town pharmacy) on the Untermarkt (Lower Market), young people sit under sunshades, sipping cappuccino and latte macchiato. A row of houses with Baroque facades curves gently down from the square to the river. On the way there, large, wide-open gates - some grey, one ox-blood red with dark metal hinges, one with a grim-looking golden lion's head - reveal courtyards bathed in light. We are in the east, not the south. No German town lies further east than Gõrlitz. This is where the Federal Republic ends'. on the River Neisse, at 15 degrees east - the central meridian for the Central European Time zone. If you turn and look up at the rocky plateau, you can see the Church of St. Peter and Paul with its Gothic towers soaring into the blue sky. Next to it is the Waidhaus, a small fortress: the town's oldest secular building where everything began in post-unification Gõrlitz. This building, then on the point of collapse, was the first to be renovated.
Wall paintings you'd expect in palaces
Fortune did not smile on Gõrlitz during the GDR years, and it was in state of dilapidation by the time the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. While huge sums of money had gone to East Berlin and into building so-called socialist cities like Eisenhiittenstadt and Hoyerswerda, the once proud Gõrlitz faded into the shadows because of its position on the periphery. Gõrlitz residents say there were plans in the 1970s to demolish the entire city centre and put up new buildings - for safety reasons. Although the idea was dropped for lack of money, the first blast holes had already been drilled into some of the façades by 1989, recalls Michael Vogel, who heads the Municipal Authority for the Protection of Monuments and Historical Buildings.
Many East German towns including Gõrlitz were saved in the nick of time after the communist system collapsed in 1989. The ensuing regime change meant that Görlitz town centre's complete ensemble of houses - which represents the styles of the last 500 years and is unique in Germany - could be preserved. Today, the most magnificent buildings can be seen on Görlitz's Untermarkt (Lower Market). Ingrid Bather proudly leads us into her apartment in the centre of town. "The first time I saw Görlitz, I was absolutely thrilled," says Ingrid, who was born in Lübeck. She immediately fell in love with the old merchant houses on the Untermarkt. The buildings are particularly striking witnesses to past affluence. They were built at a time when many of Görlitz's citizens had become rich through the cloth trade. These bourgeois houses contain the kind of magnificent wall paintings and elaborate wooden ceilings you would expect to find in a small palace rather than here. Admittedly, the Görlitz citizens who once lived here had amassed the biggest fortunes and liked to show it. The people of Görlitz call these unique buildings the "Lange Lauben" (Long Arcades) because of their huge entrance halls. Coaches used to be kept and goods sold there.
Superb apartments at reasonable prices
Pensioner Ingrid Mither campaigns unceasingly for Görlitz and has managed to lure several pensioners from west Germany to the extreme east of the Republic. Although people started moving away after unification because they could no longer stand the dreariness and the dirt from the nearby open-cast lignite mine, these days more people are coming to live in Görlitz than are leaving, so that the population has been stable at 58,000 for some time. "That brings life back into the town and creates jobs. And we have more than enough superb apartments at reasonable prices," says Mayor Joachim Paulick. After many years of gloomy prospects on the labour market, today some industries in Görlitz are desperately looking for young, skilled workers - e.g. engineers for the rolling-stock and turbine factories.
Big business thrives in Görlitz's Lutherstrasse. In the sprawling 19th century red-brick industrial plant, Siemens builds steam turbines as big as houses for customers all over the world. Machines have been produced in Görlitz since 1847, and the town was soon gripped by industrialisation when it was connected with the railway network and became an important junction between Berlin, Prague, Dresden and Breslau. In the early 20th century, when the age of the steam engine was over, Görlitz's engineering industry discovered steam turbines - with great success. And the factory was not liquidated after unification; Siemens took it over. Today, the company is the world market leader in the construction of industrial steam turbines, and the Görlitz works with its 800 employees is the company's turbine headquarters. "From here we run our other companies, for example in India, Brazil, Sweden and the Czech Republic," says René Umlauft, head of the "Turbosets" division.
Another company has also survived all upheavals: Waggonbau Görlitz, the town's rolling-stock manufacturer. Double-decker railway coaches made at the factory, which today belongs to the Bombardier group, can be found on local and regional trains all over Germany. And the traction units in the German high-speed ICE tilt trains were also built in the Görlitz factory, where 1,350 employees work today. The factory, a "core location" in the group, is just as successful on international markets, exporting its products to Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Israel and 21 other countries on three continents. The Görlitz company is currently involved in the construction of Bucharest's underground system and recently won the contract for an underground railway in New Delhi.
Reconstructing the historic centre
Hardly any other region has benefited more from German unification and EU enlargement than the Oberlausitz (Upper Lusatia) region of Lower Silesia. This delightful part of the country, which has been on the important Via Regia trading route between west and east since time immemorial, fell into a European no-man's-land after the Second World War. In the Potsdam Agreement the Allies gave Poland the German territories to the east of the River Neisse, and with them the eastern part of Görlitz. The two towns turned their backs on each other, and for many years the shallow River Neisse in the middle of Görlitz was an almost insurmountable demarcation line. Today, Görlitz again lies at the heart of Europe. "These days, we are no longer at the end of Germany, but at the beginning," says Mayor Paulick.
Since 1990, and even more so since Poland's accession to the European Union, the region has been seeking to build on its great Central European traditions - and not only economically. Görlitz and Zgorzelec call themselves one European city: the theatres cooperate, representatives from the two councils meet regularly, and there are German-Polish kindergartens in both Görlitz and Zgorzelec. School classes have a partner class on the other side. Görlitz and Zgorzelec together applied for the title of 2010 European Capital of Culture and pursued their candidature with great commitment, attracting nationwide attention. Although the two towns lost the battle to Essen a year ago, they are now much better-known - and are implementing many of the things they planned anyway. For example, they are going to renovate the Stadthalle (the "guildhall" whose concert hall used to be regarded as the most beautiful between Leipzig and Breslau) on the Görlitz side and the Dom Kultury (former memorial hall) on the Zgorzelec side. Even more important for the two towns is a project that has no direct connection with the failed candidacy: the reconstruction of the Postplatz (Post Square) on the Zgorzelec side; here, at its historical centre, Görlitz/Zgorzelec wants to grow back together. The two town councils are planning this together: Zgorzelec's town architect Adam Cebula is responsible for all architectural issues, Peter Mitsching, whose job is to look after Görlitz's cityscape, is in charge of colour design, not only for the Postplatz but also for the historic buildings on the Polish bank of the Neisse, e.g. the house where the famous mystic Jacob Böhme lived. Everyone agrees that the Görlitz side, much of which has been beautifully renovated, and the re-emerging Zgorzelec side should also grow together optically.
Cooperation in industry is also bearing fruit: Siemens' turbine factory intends to open a branch in Zgorzelec soon, a small office for young engineers from Poland. Specialists are scarce in Germany, so with an office in this pretty double-town Siemens hopes to attract young Polish technicians who don't really want to leave their home country. —Deutschland
Surely this must be Italy .. The square is surrounded by four-storey Renaissance buildings: yellow, dusky-pink and pale-green facades with balconies and half-relief figures. In front of the old Rathsapotheke (town pharmacy) on the Untermarkt (Lower Market), young people sit under sunshades, sipping cappuccino and latte macchiato. A row of houses with Baroque facades curves gently down from the square to the river. On the way there, large, wide-open gates - some grey, one ox-blood red with dark metal hinges, one with a grim-looking golden lion's head - reveal courtyards bathed in light. We are in the east, not the south. No German town lies further east than Gõrlitz. This is where the Federal Republic ends'. on the River Neisse, at 15 degrees east - the central meridian for the Central European Time zone. If you turn and look up at the rocky plateau, you can see the Church of St. Peter and Paul with its Gothic towers soaring into the blue sky. Next to it is the Waidhaus, a small fortress: the town's oldest secular building where everything began in post-unification Gõrlitz. This building, then on the point of collapse, was the first to be renovated.
Wall paintings you'd expect in palaces
Fortune did not smile on Gõrlitz during the GDR years, and it was in state of dilapidation by the time the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. While huge sums of money had gone to East Berlin and into building so-called socialist cities like Eisenhiittenstadt and Hoyerswerda, the once proud Gõrlitz faded into the shadows because of its position on the periphery. Gõrlitz residents say there were plans in the 1970s to demolish the entire city centre and put up new buildings - for safety reasons. Although the idea was dropped for lack of money, the first blast holes had already been drilled into some of the façades by 1989, recalls Michael Vogel, who heads the Municipal Authority for the Protection of Monuments and Historical Buildings.
Many East German towns including Gõrlitz were saved in the nick of time after the communist system collapsed in 1989. The ensuing regime change meant that Görlitz town centre's complete ensemble of houses - which represents the styles of the last 500 years and is unique in Germany - could be preserved. Today, the most magnificent buildings can be seen on Görlitz's Untermarkt (Lower Market). Ingrid Bather proudly leads us into her apartment in the centre of town. "The first time I saw Görlitz, I was absolutely thrilled," says Ingrid, who was born in Lübeck. She immediately fell in love with the old merchant houses on the Untermarkt. The buildings are particularly striking witnesses to past affluence. They were built at a time when many of Görlitz's citizens had become rich through the cloth trade. These bourgeois houses contain the kind of magnificent wall paintings and elaborate wooden ceilings you would expect to find in a small palace rather than here. Admittedly, the Görlitz citizens who once lived here had amassed the biggest fortunes and liked to show it. The people of Görlitz call these unique buildings the "Lange Lauben" (Long Arcades) because of their huge entrance halls. Coaches used to be kept and goods sold there.
Superb apartments at reasonable prices
Pensioner Ingrid Mither campaigns unceasingly for Görlitz and has managed to lure several pensioners from west Germany to the extreme east of the Republic. Although people started moving away after unification because they could no longer stand the dreariness and the dirt from the nearby open-cast lignite mine, these days more people are coming to live in Görlitz than are leaving, so that the population has been stable at 58,000 for some time. "That brings life back into the town and creates jobs. And we have more than enough superb apartments at reasonable prices," says Mayor Joachim Paulick. After many years of gloomy prospects on the labour market, today some industries in Görlitz are desperately looking for young, skilled workers - e.g. engineers for the rolling-stock and turbine factories.
Big business thrives in Görlitz's Lutherstrasse. In the sprawling 19th century red-brick industrial plant, Siemens builds steam turbines as big as houses for customers all over the world. Machines have been produced in Görlitz since 1847, and the town was soon gripped by industrialisation when it was connected with the railway network and became an important junction between Berlin, Prague, Dresden and Breslau. In the early 20th century, when the age of the steam engine was over, Görlitz's engineering industry discovered steam turbines - with great success. And the factory was not liquidated after unification; Siemens took it over. Today, the company is the world market leader in the construction of industrial steam turbines, and the Görlitz works with its 800 employees is the company's turbine headquarters. "From here we run our other companies, for example in India, Brazil, Sweden and the Czech Republic," says René Umlauft, head of the "Turbosets" division.
Another company has also survived all upheavals: Waggonbau Görlitz, the town's rolling-stock manufacturer. Double-decker railway coaches made at the factory, which today belongs to the Bombardier group, can be found on local and regional trains all over Germany. And the traction units in the German high-speed ICE tilt trains were also built in the Görlitz factory, where 1,350 employees work today. The factory, a "core location" in the group, is just as successful on international markets, exporting its products to Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Israel and 21 other countries on three continents. The Görlitz company is currently involved in the construction of Bucharest's underground system and recently won the contract for an underground railway in New Delhi.
Reconstructing the historic centre
Hardly any other region has benefited more from German unification and EU enlargement than the Oberlausitz (Upper Lusatia) region of Lower Silesia. This delightful part of the country, which has been on the important Via Regia trading route between west and east since time immemorial, fell into a European no-man's-land after the Second World War. In the Potsdam Agreement the Allies gave Poland the German territories to the east of the River Neisse, and with them the eastern part of Görlitz. The two towns turned their backs on each other, and for many years the shallow River Neisse in the middle of Görlitz was an almost insurmountable demarcation line. Today, Görlitz again lies at the heart of Europe. "These days, we are no longer at the end of Germany, but at the beginning," says Mayor Paulick.
Since 1990, and even more so since Poland's accession to the European Union, the region has been seeking to build on its great Central European traditions - and not only economically. Görlitz and Zgorzelec call themselves one European city: the theatres cooperate, representatives from the two councils meet regularly, and there are German-Polish kindergartens in both Görlitz and Zgorzelec. School classes have a partner class on the other side. Görlitz and Zgorzelec together applied for the title of 2010 European Capital of Culture and pursued their candidature with great commitment, attracting nationwide attention. Although the two towns lost the battle to Essen a year ago, they are now much better-known - and are implementing many of the things they planned anyway. For example, they are going to renovate the Stadthalle (the "guildhall" whose concert hall used to be regarded as the most beautiful between Leipzig and Breslau) on the Görlitz side and the Dom Kultury (former memorial hall) on the Zgorzelec side. Even more important for the two towns is a project that has no direct connection with the failed candidacy: the reconstruction of the Postplatz (Post Square) on the Zgorzelec side; here, at its historical centre, Görlitz/Zgorzelec wants to grow back together. The two town councils are planning this together: Zgorzelec's town architect Adam Cebula is responsible for all architectural issues, Peter Mitsching, whose job is to look after Görlitz's cityscape, is in charge of colour design, not only for the Postplatz but also for the historic buildings on the Polish bank of the Neisse, e.g. the house where the famous mystic Jacob Böhme lived. Everyone agrees that the Görlitz side, much of which has been beautifully renovated, and the re-emerging Zgorzelec side should also grow together optically.
Cooperation in industry is also bearing fruit: Siemens' turbine factory intends to open a branch in Zgorzelec soon, a small office for young engineers from Poland. Specialists are scarce in Germany, so with an office in this pretty double-town Siemens hopes to attract young Polish technicians who don't really want to leave their home country. —Deutschland