On the trail of coal
Open-cast mining and Lusatia are inextricably linked. Visitors to the Knappenrode Energy Factory can find out just how important the treasures from the earth were and still are. The grounds and buildings of the industrial museum once housed the Werminghoff briquette factory - today it is home to a modern exhibition world that takes visitors on an industrial journey through time.
The "mother of all prefabricated houses"
Konrad Wachsmann was a pioneer of industrialized timber construction. In Niesky in 1927, the architect planned a residential building in block construction, functionally well thought-out and cubic in the Bauhaus style. It was built by the well-known Niesky timber construction company Christoph & Unmack. Today, the Konrad Wachsmann House houses an exhibition on timber construction, which has left its mark on the entire town.
The blue maker
Lusatia is home to one of the oldest cultivated plants in the world: flax. At the end of May, the plant bathes the fields of Lusatia in a delicate light blue. And it is an all-rounder. Its seeds are used to press the famous Lusatian linseed oil, and its stalks are used to make fibers for insulation and filling material. Linen weaving began in the 13th century and flourished until the 19th century, before cotton largely replaced linen. But the heritage lives on and can still be experienced today: in 1997, nine companies joined forces to form the "Lusatian Linen" sales association, which also organizes the annual "Upper Lusatian Linen Days" in the baroque castle of Rammenau.
A city and its glass
Fine glass sands, coal, wood - Lusatia offered ideal conditions for glass production, which flourished in Weißwasser in particular at the beginning of the 20th century. A total of eleven glassworks produced their wares here. One of them, Neue Oberlausitzer Glashüttenwerke Schweig & Co. AG, was even the world's largest manufacturer of light bulbs. The Weißwasser Glass Museum provides interesting facts about this transparent material, from production to finishing techniques. More than 60,000 exhibits can be seen in the former villa of the Gelsdorf family of entrepreneurs, themselves pioneers of the glass industry in the region.
Five impressive places of industrial heritage
In hardly any other region is change and development as omnipresent as in Lusatia. In the past and present, people have learned to live with it. Comprehensive structural change is also imminent in the coming years. What always accompanies the inhabitants through all the changes is their great heritage. This includes, of course, the legacy of opencast lignite mining, which once supplied an entire country with energy. Today, the largest man-made water landscape in Europe is being created in the same area - the transformation process can be actively experienced in Lusatia. And yet the traces of the past have not been erased, but still shape the landscape today: five impressive places where Lusatia's recent industrial past and landscape transformation are visible: the Nochten erratic boulder park, the Knappenrode energy factory, the UNESCO Global Geopark Muskauer Faltenbogen, the F60 lignite conveyor bridge - also known as the horizontal "Eiffel Tower of Lusatia" - and the bio-towers in Lauchammer, which are visible from afar as a landmark.
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Großes Erbe Faltkarte
Wie kaum eine andere Region Deutschlands steht die Lausitz für gewaltige Gegensätze auf engstem Raum. Gegensätze als Ergebnis eines ständigen Wandels. So prägen noch immer Wunden die Landschaft der Lausitz, allerdings im Kontrast zur Lieblichkeit der englischen Gartenkunst historischer Parkanlagen. Und die Landschaft heilt nach und nach.
Aus Bräuchen und Gegensätzen wird hier Welterbe geschaffen. Von der UNESCO ausgezeichnete Kultur- und Naturerbestätten, Kulturlandschaften, vom Tagebau geprägte Gegenden oder Städte wie Görlitz und Bautzen sind Leuchttürme der Region. Sie erzählen Geschichten, die teils Jahrhunderte überspannen. All das nennen wir unser großes Erbe, welchem wir uns verpflichtet fühlen.
Ausgezeichnet! Großes Erbe im Lausitzer Land
Lassen Sie sich inspirieren von dieser Broschüre, tauchen Sie ein in die Geschichte der Lausitz, ihre Landschaften und Gegensätze,
ihre Architektur und Traditionen. Und gehen Sie selbst auf Entdeckungsreise, bevor es alle tun – das große Erbe wartet auf Sie!
