Görlitz

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Görlitz
Clockwise from top: View over Görlitz, Schönhof, Upper Lusatian Library of Sciences, renovated Gründerzeit buildings, Town Hall
Flag Coat of arms
show Location of Görlitz within Görlitz district
Görlitz Görlitz Show map of GermanyShow map of SaxonyShow all
Coordinates: 51°09′10″N 14°59′14″E / 51.15278°N 14.98722°E / 51.15278; 14.98722Coordinates: 51°09′10″N 14°59′14″E / 51.15278°N 14.98722°E / 51.15278; 14.98722
Country	Germany
State	Saxony
District	Görlitz
Subdivisions	10 town- and 8 village-quarters
Government
• Mayor (2019–26)	Octavian Ursu[1] (CDU)
Area
• Total	67.22 km2 (25.95 sq mi)
Elevation	199 m (653 ft)
Population  (2020-12-31)[2]
• Total	55,784
• Density	830/km2 (2,100/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	02826–02828
Dialling codes	03581
Vehicle registration	GR
Website	www.goerlitz.de

Görlitz ([ˈɡœʁlɪts] (listen); Upper Lusatian dialect: Gerlz, Gerltz, and Gerltsch, Polish: Zgorzelec, Silesian: Gorlice, Upper Sorbian: Zhorjelc, Lower Sorbian: Zgórjelc, Czech: Zhořelec) is a town in the German state of Saxony. Located in the region of Lusatia on the Lusatian Neisse, it is the second largest town in Lusatia after Cottbus, and the largest in Upper Lusatia. The town is the seat of the district of Görlitz, Germany's easternmost district. Its approximately 56,000 inhabitants make Görlitz the sixth largest town in Saxony. While not Lusatiophone itself, the town is situated just east of the Sorbian-speaking parts of Lusatia.

The town's recorded history began in the 11th century as a Sorbian settlement. Throughout its history, it was under German, Czech (Bohemian), Polish and Hungarian rule. From 1815 until 1918, Görlitz belonged to the Province of Silesia in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later to the Province of Lower Silesia in the Free State of Prussia. It is the largest town of the former Province of Lower Silesia that lies west of the Oder-Neisse line and hence formed part of East Germany after World War II. Today within Germany, Görlitz lies opposite the Polish town of Zgorzelec, which was part of Görlitz until 1945. Together they form the German-Polish Euro City of Görlitz-Zgorzelec.

Görlitz combines Lusatian and Silesian traditions as well as German and Sorbian culture. Spared from the destruction of World War II, the town also has a rich architectural heritage. Many movie-makers have used the various sites as filming locations.^[3]

History[]

Middle Ages[]

As a small Sorbian village named Gorelic in the Margraviate of Meissen, a frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire, it was conquered by Polish ruler Bolesław I Chrobry in 1002, and then formed part of the Duchy of Poland (kingdom from 1025) until 1031, when the region fell back to the Margraviate of Meissen. In 1075, the village was assigned to the Duchy of Bohemia. The date of the town's foundation is unknown. However, Goreliz was first mentioned in a document from the King of Germany, and later Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV in 1071. This document granted Görlitz to the Diocese of Meissen, then under Bishop Benno of Meissen. Currently, this document can be found in the Saxony State Archives in Dresden.^[4] The origin of the name Görlitz is derived from the Slavic word for "burned land",^[5] referring to the technique used to clear land for settlement. Zgorzelec and Czech Zhořelec have the same derivation. In 1126–1131, Bohemian Duke Soběslav I erected a castle, one of several new castles on the Bohemian-Polish border. It was probably located at the site of the present St. Peter and Paul church. In the 13th century the village gradually became a town. Due to its location on the Via Regia, an ancient and medieval trade route, the settlement prospered.

In 1319 it became part of the Piast-ruled Duchy of Jawor, the southwesternmost duchy of fragmented Poland, and Duke Henry I of Jawor confirmed the town's privileges.^[6] Later on, the town fell back to Bohemia. From 1346 Görlitz was a wealthy member of the Lusatian League, which consisted of Bautzen, Görlitz, Kamenz, Lubań, Löbau and Zittau.^[7] Around 1348 a Jewish woman, Adasse, was made a citizen of the town.^[8] In 1352 during the reign of King Casimir III the Great, Lusatian German colonists from Görlitz founded the town of Gorlice in southern Poland near Kraków. In 1469, along with the Lusatian League, the town recognized the rule of King Matthias Corvinus, thus passing to Hungarian rule, and in 1490 it fell back to Bohemia then ruled by Polish prince Vladislaus Jagiellon.^[7]

Modern period[]

Görlitz in the 16th century

The Protestant Reformation came to Görlitz in the early 1520s and by the last half of the 16th century, it and the surrounding vicinity, became almost completely Lutheran.

After suffering for years in the Thirty Years' War, the region of Upper Lusatia (including Görlitz) was ceded to the Electorate of Saxony in 1635, from 1697 within the Polish–Saxon personal union. One of two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through the town in the 18th century and Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland often traveled that route.^[9] Napoleon visited the town several times in 1807, 1812 and 1813. After the Napoleonic Wars, the 1815 Congress of Vienna transferred the town from the Kingdom of Saxony to the Kingdom of Prussia. Görlitz was subsequently administered within the Province of Silesia, and, after World War I, the Province of Lower Silesia, until 1945. During World War I, an internment camp for Greek soldiers was located in present-day Zgorzelec, while 500 Greek officers lived in private quarters throughout the town.^[10] A burial ground for Greek soldiers was located at the local cemetery.^[10] In 1936, during a nationwide Nazi campaign of changing of placenames, two present-day districts of Görlitz were renamed to erase traces of Slavic origin—Leschwitz to Weinhübel and Nikrisch to Hagenwerder.^[11][12] During Kristallnacht in November 1938, an arson attack was carried out on the city's synagogue. However, the building survived the attack without major damage, because courageous firefighters resisted the order not to extinguish the fire.^[13]

Recent history[]

St. Peter and Paul

When the East German states were dissolved in 1952, Görlitz became part of the Dresden District, but the states were restored upon German reunification in 1990. In 1972, the East German-Polish border was opened for visa-free travel, resulting in intense movement between Görlitz and Zgorzelec, which lasted until 1980,^{[citation needed]} when East Germany unilaterally closed the border due to anti-communist protests and the emergence of the Solidarity movement in Poland. On 27 June 1994, the town became the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Görlitz, but it remains a Lutheran Protestant stronghold.

In 2002 Lake Berzdorf, occupying a former open-cast lignite mine south of Görlitz, began to be filled. The Altstadtbrücke (literally old town bridge) between Görlitz and sister city Zgorzelec was rebuilt between 2003 and 2004. It was officially opened on 20 October 2004. As soon as Poland signed the Schengen Agreement (20 December 2007), movement between the two banks of the river again became unrestricted, since border controls were eliminated. Indeed, users of the new pedestrian bridge are not told by any signs that they are leaving one country and entering another.

Whilst the town was well preserved, it was notably grey and colourless under communist East German rule.^{[according to whom?]} Since reunification, and as of 2013, over 700 buildings have been renovated. It is a popular place for retirement among the elderly of Germany, being quiet and relatively affordable by German standards.^[14] Its tourist potential is rapidly expanding, being very much an eastern counterpart to towns such as Heidelberg.^{[citation needed]} In the case of Görlitz, much of the funding for the renovations of the town's buildings have come from an anonymous donor, who, from 1995 onward, has sent an annual donation of over €500,000, totalling over €10,000,000.^[15]

Arts and culture[]

Lower Market Square

Upper Market Square

Today Görlitz and Zgorzelec, two towns on opposite banks of the narrow river, get along well. Two bridges have been rebuilt, a bus line connects the German and Polish parts of the town, and there is a common urban management, with annual joint sessions of both town councils.^{[citation needed]}

The town has a rich architectural heritage (Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical, Art Nouveau). One example of this rich architectural heritage is the Schönhof, which is one of the oldest civic Renaissance buildings in Germany. Another medieval heritage is a model of the (de) whose construction began in 1465 under Bürgermeister Georg Emmerich.^[16]

In 2006 the twin city Görlitz/Zgorzelec applied to be the European City of Culture 2010. It was hoped that the concept of Polish-German cooperation would be sufficient to convince the jury, but Essen won. Görlitz was placed second. As a result of the campaign Görlitz was renamed City of Culture in order to further German-Polish relations and to attract tourists from all over the world.^[17]

As Görlitz was part of Silesia from 1815 onward, it has a Silesian Museum dedicated to the region (Schlesisches Museum zu Görlitz). The exhibition features the 1000-year-old cultural history of Silesia.

Görlitz is also the birthplace of the German version of nonpareils, popularly known in Germany as Liebesperlen (German: love pearls). Invented by confectioner Rudolf Hoinkis (1876–1944), the name derives from a conversation Hoinkis had with his wife, proclaiming his love for her like these "pearls", the nonpareil. Unsure of what to call the treat he invented, his wife suggested calling them love pearls, and the name stuck. The factory where he first manufactured the treat, founded in 1896, is now run by his great-grandson, Mathias.^[18]

Görlitz Main Railway Station

Transport[]

Görlitz station is on the Berlin – Görlitz and the Dresden – Görlitz lines of Deutsche Bahn. The station also provides an international connection to Wrocław, Poland.

Local public transport is provided by:

• The Verkehrsgesellschaft Görlitz (VGG) provides public transport service in the city, including the Görlitz tramway and bus services.^[19]
• The Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacji Samochodowej (PKS) provides bus service over the river between Görlitz and its sister city, Zgorzelec.^[20]

Film location[]

Muschelminna

Due to the historical parts of the city, many movie-makers have used the various sites as locations. Eli Roth shot the movie-in-a-movie Stolz der Nation (Pride of the Nation) for Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (which incidentally purports to be France) on the Lower Market Square and Upper Market Square in Görlitz' oldest parts of the city.^[21][22] Other films shot in Görlitz include the 2013 war drama The Book Thief and the teen years in The Reader. Görlitz was used as the primary shooting location for the Wes Anderson film The Grand Budapest Hotel, with Görlitz standing in for a resort in the fictional Eastern European country of Zubrowka. A vacant department store in the city was redecorated to serve as the hotel itself.^[23]

Governance[]

Mayor and city council[]

The New Town Hall

The first freely elected mayor after German reunification was Matthias Lechner of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who served from 1990 to 1998. The mayor was originally chosen by the city council, but since 1994 has been directly elected. served from 1998 until 2005, from 2005 to 2012, and from 2012 to 2019; all were independents. In 2019, CDU politician Octavian Ursu was elected mayor. The most recent mayoral election was held on 26 May 2019, with a runoff held on 16 June, and the results were as follows:

The most recent city council election was held on 26 May 2019, and the results were as follows:

Party		Votes	%	+/-	Seats	+/-
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	23,603	30.7	New	13	New
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	16,896	22.0	10.7	9	4
	Citizens for Görlitz (BfG)	13,397	17.5	2.5	8	1
	The Left (Die Linke)	6,516	8.5	6.7	3	3
	Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)	5,847	7.6	1.4	2	1
	Motor Görlitz (MG)	4,347	5.7	New	2	New
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	1,782	2.3	3.1	1	1
	Down to Business! (ZS)	1,729	2.3	7.1	0	3
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	1,663	2.2	0.7	0	1
	BI Seensucht	604	0.8	New	0	New
	National Democratic Party (NPD)	376	0.5	4.8	0	2
Valid votes		26,530	98.0
Invalid votes		544	2.0
Total		27,074	100.0		42	±0
Electorate/voter turnout		46,119	58.7	14.7
Source: Wahlen in Sachsen

Twin towns – sister cities[]

Görlitz seen from its twin town Zgorzelec, Poland

Görlitz is twinned with:^[24]

• Amiens, France
• Molfetta, Italy
• Nový Jičín, Czech Republic
• Wiesbaden, Germany
• Zgorzelec, Poland

Being the easternmost town in the country, Görlitz has formed a "Compass Alliance" (Zipfelbund) with the northernmost, westernmost, and southernmost towns, List, Selfkant, and Oberstdorf respectively. They participate in the annual German Unity Day celebrations to represent the modern limits of Germany.^[25]

Notable people[]

Michael Ballack

• Michael Ballack (born 1976), football player
• Jakob Böhme (1575–1624), mystic and theologian
• Johann Christoph Brotze (1742–1823), educator
• Hans Georg Dehmelt (1922–2017), co-recipient of 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics
• Hans-Jürgen Dörner (born 1951), football player and coach
• Werner Finck (1902–1978), comedian, actor and writer
• Richard Foerster (classical scholar) (1843–1922), classical scholar
• Johann Carl Gehler (1732–1796) physician, anatomist and mineralogist
• Johann Gottlob Harrer (1703–1755), composer
• Torsten Gütschow (born 1962), football player
• Herbert Hirche (1910–2002), architect and designer
• Hanna von Hoerner (1942–2014), astrophysicist
• Emil Jannings (1884–1950), first actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor
• Jens Jeremies (born 1974), football player
• Reinhart Koselleck (1923–2006), historian
• Michael Kretschmer (born 1975), politician (CDU)
• Lars Kaufmann (born 1982), handball player
• Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992), musician, interned at Stalag VIII-A
• Oskar Morgenstern (1902–1977), economist
• Gustavus Adolphus Neumann (1807–1886), publisher
• Arthur Pohl (1900–1970), set designer, director and screenwriter
• Pavle Jurišić Šturm (1848–1922), Serbian Army general, born in Görlitz
• Alfred Wagenknecht (1881–1956), American Marxist politician
• Giorgio Zur (1930–2019), Catholic Archbishop and Apostolic Nuncio in Austria

Climate[]

The climate is oceanic (Köppen: Cfb) or on the western edge of humid continental (Dfb) at the 0 °C isotherm. The location at the easternmost border of Germany, far from the sea, gives a climate less affected by prevailing westerly winds although these do reach further into the western half of Poland. Summers can be warm, though not as much as in Southern Europe, and the winters are cold; snow is sporadic, not persisting all winter.^[26]

Gallery[]

• 

  St. Peter and Paul church, the Woad House and the river Lusatian Neisse in Görlitz

• 

  Interior of St. Peter and Paul with its Sonnenorgel (sun organ)

• 

  The Schönhof, the oldest Renaissance building in Görlitz

• 

  Interior of the Görlitzer Warenhaus department store

• 

  View over Upper Market Square taken from Reichenbach Tower, residential buildings of Zgorzelec in the background

• 

  Old town hall on the Lower Market Square

• 

  Royal coats of arms of Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus (Old Town Hall)

• 

  Reichenbach Tower

• 

  Courthouse

• 

  The Landeskrone, literally "land's crown", the local mountain of Görlitz

• 

  Theatre

• 

  Gothic Holy Trinity church

• 

  Thick Tower

• 

  Nikolai Cemetery

• 

  Nikolai Tower

• 

  St. Peter and Paul

• 

  old town hall

• 

  new town hall

• 

  Wilhelmsplatz

• 

  Nikolaikirchhof

See also[]

• Ludwigsdorf

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Görlitz.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Görlitz.

• Görlitz travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Official website (in English)
• Official website (in German)
• DW-World 'trial living' report.
• "Görlitz/Zgorzelec – Urban development from 12th to 21st century" on YouTube