Join us for a number of pre- and post-conference tours at the 2022 RSA CEE conference in Leipzig, Germany. Most of these tours are free, but booking in advance is required.
Pre-conference tours – Wednesday, 14 September 2022
Option 1:
Guided city walking tour of Leipzig, 09:30-11:30
Meeting point: Augustusplatz (Mende Fountain)
Cost: £10
Click here to book your place
We will meet at Augustusplatz (Mende Fountain) and a knowledgeable guide will show you around Leipzig’s city centre, pointing out the most interesting sights. highlights include the exhibition architecture found in Leipzig, including its unique arcades, the Thomas- and Nikolai church, Peaceful Revolution 1989, Leipzig as a city of music, writers of Leipzig, Auerbach’s Cellar and much more.
The walking tour will last two hours and we will end at the conference venue (University of Leipzig, Jahnallee 59, Leipzig). Places are limited at 25 participants.
Option 2:
Walking tour Grünau, 09:30-11:30
Meeting Point: Inner square of University of Leipzig Jahnallee Campus, Jahnallee 59
Cost: Free
Click here to book your free place
Grünau – the model district of socialist GDR. Old glory and new divides.
As an alternative to the classical Leipzig tour, which we can only recommend, we will explore not all, but one district of Leipzig. We shall start directly at Jahnallee Campus, the venue of our conference. Right in the middle of the campus square, we will take a closer look at the monument, which was removed from the main university building in 2006– the Karl Marx-Relief and the revolution of the communist international. After learning the history of the university and the campus, we are crossing the street and will take tram number 3 in direction to the heart of the Grünau district. It was the 3rd largest GDR large panel system-building district during the GDR era with a total of 8th microraions, and was finalized by 1988.
After the fall of the wall, the district witnessed major disruptions, symbolically and literally. Following the downgrading demographics, many of the buildings were included into a program of demolition, reduction in size and height, or reconceptualization. Large groups of the pre-transition generation, now at age, continued living in the district, but with new neighbours. The district hosts the largest part of migrants and refugees in Leipzig, living next-door with “native” German folks, who constitute the highest number of income support receivers (the so called Hartz 4) per capita in a single district in Germany.
The short excursion to Grünau will display the old life and the new divides in a former socialist model district and will give us a look into its past, present and chances for the future. We will gain insights of developments of post-socialist panel districts, typical not only for the GDR, but for elsewhere in the former socialist world before 1989, as a counter example of gentrification.
- Guide: Dr. Lyubomir Pozharliev
- Consultant: Prof. Dr. Arnold Bartetzky
Post-conference tour – Saturday, 17 September 2022
Option 1:
Excursion to Zeitz – Lignite mines, 09:30-16:30
Meeting Point: Bus station Goethestrasse, opposite of Vienna House Easy Hotel
Cost: Free
Click here to book your free place
In which region do we want to live? – Transformation in economy, society and culture in Central Germany
Since the 19th century, Central Germany has been marked by extensive lignite exploitation as well as energy-intensive industries. Yet, after German reunification in 1990, many mines and industrial facilities had to close with profound impacts on the region’s social and economic landscape. At the same time, mining had also devastating effects for the environment which was largely neglected before 1990.
Still today, the landscape in the area south of Leipzig is marked by the legacies of former and current mining activities. On the way to our main destination, we will have a short visit to the United Schleenhain coal mine in the province of Saxony just 20 km to the south of Leipzig. After that we will make a short detour and take a look at the power plant Lippendorf. Our journey continues to Zeitz, in the province Saxony-Anhalt. As many other small and medium-sized towns in this region, Zeitz and its citizens and businesses is trying to reinvent themselves. The town has long been known for its diverse industries. Yet after 1990, only few of them remained and the town experienced high unemployment rates, outmigration, decay of industrial and housing buildings and a loss of reputation. Just within the last seven years, this development seems to come a halt with new opportunities stemming from the German “lignite mining exit” and an emerging cultural and creative scene that has recently discovered the town’s free spaces.
The excursion will give an insight into this economically and culturally interesting region. Participants will discover the lignite mining industry in the region and discuss the effects of the structural changes from 1990 up to today as well as future economic development options with responsible persons from different fields from the region.
Places are limited at 30 participants.