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The Lawspeaker
05-26-2009, 05:18 PM
Glourious Görlitz (http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/3591-glourious-goerlitz)

Published on May 22 2009 | Frankfurter Rundschau (http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/source-information/556-frankfurter-rundschau)





http://www.presseurop.eu/files/images/article/gorliz-490x225.jpg?1242988437


Görlitz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6rlitz) is Germany's easternmost city. Rich in historical monuments, it plays up its retro side while looking towards the future with Zgorzelec, its Polish twin across the river.

The clocks are right on time in Görlitz. The 15th meridian runs straight through this Saxon town, so local time here corresponds exactly to Central European Time. But seeing as that is not the case anywhere else in Germany, one could also say the clocks run differently in Görlitz.

And that comes a lot closer to describing the way visitors feel in this town, which has yet to put itself on the German map either as a motorway exit or as a “place of manufacture” on any mass-produced merchandise.

Between fabulously restored Renaissance and Baroque edifices, Jugendstil buildings and entire streets lined with 19th century Gründerzeit dwellings, you feel as though you’re browsing through a Manufactum catalogue of German history (“The good old days still exist!” (1)) and wondering whether here at least, in a town unscathed by World War II, it might be possible to lead the “right kind” of life. In the sense of a clear-cut pre-modern society of manageable proportions. A wistful and ahistorical notion, to be sure. But can nearly 4,000 listed buildings be lying?

At the very least, this is a good backdrop for performing. The jewellery shop at the eastern end of the Untermarkt (Lower Market) is called “Handwerkerey” [archaic spelling of Handwerkerei: a craftsman’s workshop/business] and, alongside the usual wristwatches and wedding rings, it offers hand-wrought articles. Sundial pendants, bangles adorned with Celtic patterns. At the back of the live-in shop you can see potters at work in historical garb on wooden benches warmed by animal hides.
The international Dream Machine has already spotted this readymade retro location. Quentin Tarantino used the historical Untermarkt for a shootout scene in Inglourious Basterds: Görlitz with its 58,000 inhabitants as Nazi-occupied Paris.

Görlitz is actually on the Neisse River and has two bridges to its twin town Zgorzelec in Poland, which used to be just one of the newer districts of Görlitz before 1945. Europe happens rights at home here, so to speak. Görlitz is the easternmost town in Germany, and the Czech border lies just a few miles to the south. Its peripheral location is, of course, one reason for the pervasive sense of timelessness. The fact that it’s a long way here from just about anywhere.

Görlitz is out of the way even for people from Dresden, and to get here from Berlin the train crawls to Cottbus first. Then the Eastern German Railway chugs on towards the southeast and right through the Muskau Heath, which wolves have recently reclaimed as their hunting grounds. First the wilderness, in other words, then Görlitz. In the late Middle Ages, the town was situated on the most important East-West European trade route, the Via Regia between Santiago de Compostela and Kiev, hence its affluence. Cloth-makers dwelt here.

A few years ago, Görlitz teamed up with Zgorzelec to put in a bid for the title of European Capital of Culture in 2010. Besides tourism, culture is the principal industry of the future for this region : in the midst of all this beautiful architectural history, the local economy is not doing very well at all. Unemployment is currently over 22 per cent, and Görlitz ranks among the German towns with the highest percentage of child poverty.

In his capacity as “Burgomaster of Cultural and Social Affairs”, Michael Wieler isin charge of both: i.e. the flashy and the smouldering sides of Görlitz.

Some locals go into near raptures when they talk about the time of the Capital of Culture bid. The spirit of optimism back then did the town good. “When I got here, I was euphoric about the possibilities presented by the existence of the Polish twin town. But I had to learn the hard way that things you can describe historically from the outside have to be processed emotionally by the people concerned in a very different way."

Meaning Görlitzers don’t just amble over to Zgorzelec. Not even after Poland’s EU accession and the opening of both bridges to the “other side” in 2004.

When Görlitz was debating the construction of a new swimming pool and Wieler procured figures showing how underused the pool in Zgorzelec was and recommended sharing it, one reader wrote a letter to the editor blasting the “delusions of an uprooted West German”.

But Michael Wieler believes in the power of culture. To keep the projects envisaged in the Capital of Culture bid from simply seeping away into the Neisse, he started up Initiative Kultur2020. The future of Görlitz/Zgorzelec, self-proclaimed a “European town” since 1998, lies in pooling their fortunes, he is quite sure about that. Even if it’s not all that noticeable yet in day-to-day life.


(1) Manufactum is a German mail order company for choice-quality old-fashioned (and usually high-priced!) products. Its slogan is “Es gibt die noch, die guten Dinge” (“The good things in life still exist”).

Lawspeakers' edit in the article: link to wikipedia provided by me.

The Lawspeaker
05-26-2009, 05:24 PM
Emigration | (http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/3591-glourious-goerlitz)Repopulating Görlitz (http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/3591-glourious-goerlitz)


The town of Görlitz is depopulating at a frighteningly rapid pace. Its population has shrunk from 100,000 twenty years ago to half of that today, leading its town councillors to think on how they could make its streets bustle again. The solution they came up with was to persuade young Poles from the nearby towns to settle on the German side of the border. One incentive is the possibility of spending a week for free in a luxury apartment in Görlitz. The Probewohnen (Trial Residence) programme was launched a couple of weeks ago. It's run together by the Dresden Technical University and the Görlitz municipal housing authority. A number of apartments have been renovated and, with funds donated by sponsors, completely furnished, household appliances included. These apartments are now being made available to young Poles. One of the first Poles to move into such a flat in Görlitz was Agnieszka Jarosz, a 20-year-old from Zgorzelec on the other bank of the Neisse, or Nysa. "We thought they’d put us into some tatty apartment in a run-down tenement. Nothing of the sort. Everything was new, straight from an Ikea store, and the building is in a quiet, peaceful neighbourhood," says Ms Jarosz. Anne Pfeil, who oversees the project on behalf of the university of Dresden, explains that Probewohnen is a research project. "Young Poles get a chance to settle in Görlitz and in return they share their thoughts with us," she says. This feedback will be used as a basis for transforming Görlitz’s town centre so that it will suits residents’ needs better. One potential deterrent factor for Poles willing to move to Görlitz is the cost. Monthly rent for a flat of some 80 square metres is about €500, plus another €200 euros in utility bills. "It’s not cheap, but I wouldn’t return to Zgorzelec now," says Emil who has been living in Görlitz for two years with his wife and two-year-old child. It is precisely such Poles that the people behind Probewohnen are counting on.

Loddfafner
05-26-2009, 09:00 PM
I visited it last summer. It is an easy stopover between Dresden and Breslau. I posted one of its churches in a quiz thread. It is beautiful and well-preserved or restored but it seemed empty. A few tourists wandered around what could have been a model set.

What few natives I saw were all dressed in Thor Steinar, such that I couldn't help but wonder if that was the regional native costume.

I plan to go back, mainly to check out the Jacob Boehm museum on the Z--- side of the river (it was closed wen I was there) and then to take a local steam train into the hills to see a ruined abbey that Caspar Friedrich painted.

Electronic God-Man
05-26-2009, 09:16 PM
My roommate in Germany (Leipzig) was from Goerlitz. He was awesome...and his name was even Axel.

I had read some article about the place just before I went to Germany, so I happened to know exactly what he was talking about when he mentioned it. Sounded like a cool place between the Slavic and Germanic world.

Lenny
05-30-2009, 12:59 PM
What few natives I saw were all dressed in Thor Steinar, such that I couldn't help but wonder if that was the regional native costume.That city has had the highest rate of votes for the nationalist NPD in all of Germany. Of the larger cities. (For some rural districts it's been much higher).

In the 2004 breakthrough for the NPD, nationalist and national-patriotic parties got a combined 15% in Goerlitz. (10% for NPD, 5% for a smattering of minor parties with names like "The German Social Union" and "Party of Bible-loyal Christians"). NPD beat out the SPD in Goerlitz.:D



persuade young Poles from the nearby towns to settle on the German side of the border
They took over the eastern one-fourth of Germany in 1945, and now the Drang Nach Westen continues? :eek:


Note: It's pretty clear why Goerlitzers would be such heavy Nationalist-party voters. Considering they used to have a twin city across the river which was brutally deGermanized a short 60 years ago. Which they can see out their windows. It's sort of like the Palestinian mindset.