Template:Short description Template:Redirect-distinguish {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox German location Görlitz ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}; Template:Langx; Template:Langx {{#invoke:IPA|main}}; Template:Langx;Template:Efn Template:Langx; East Lusatian: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}})<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is a town in the German state of Saxony. It is on the river Lusatian Neisse and is the largest town in Upper Lusatia, the second-largest town in the region of Lusatia after Cottbus, and the largest town in the German part of the region of Silesia. Görlitz is the easternmost town in Germany (the easternmost village being Zentendorf (Šćeńc)) and lies opposite the Polish town of Zgorzelec, which was the eastern part of Görlitz until 1945. The town has approximately 56,000 inhabitants, which make Görlitz the sixth-largest town in Saxony. It is the seat of the district of Görlitz. Together with Zgorzelec it forms the Euro City of Görlitz/Zgorzelec, which has a combined population of around 86,000.

The town's recorded history began in the 11th century as a Sorbian settlement. Through its history it has been under German, Polish, Czech (Bohemian) 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. Being west of the Oder-Neisse line, Görlitz became part of East Germany from 1949 until German reunification in 1990.

Görlitz is culturally diverse. Shortly west of Görlitz lies Sorbian-speaking parts of Lusatia, and Görlitz was founded and first settled by the Sorbs, a Slavic people. This is evidenced by the name of the town and the etymology of some of its incorporated villages and geographical features being of Slavic origin. Görlitz itself speaks the East Lusatian dialect of German (Template:Ill), which is related to Silesian German dialects and differs from the Upper Saxon dialects spoken in most parts of Saxony. It is home to the Template:Ill and Template:Ill, a Silesian Museum ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), and the Silesian Christmas Market (Template:Ill).

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

HistoryEdit

Middle AgesEdit

File:Goerlitz Landeskrone 22.jpg
Landeskrone (Sedło), a hill that was the site of the main stronghold of the Slavic Bieżuńczanie tribe in the Early Middle Ages

Slavs migrated into the area during the Early Middle Ages. The nearby Landeskrone (Template:Langx) mountain, as Businc, is considered the main stronghold of the Bieżuńczanie tribe<ref name=wb/> and Gorelic is said to mean a small village. Other references state the origin of the name Görlitz is the Slavic word for 'burned land',<ref>"Placenames of the World" by Adrian Room, McFarland Pub. 2003 page 140</ref> referring to the technique used to clear land for settlement. Polish Zgorzelec and Czech Zhořelec have the same derivation.

In the Early Middle Ages, the area was inhabited by the Bieżuńczanie tribe,<ref name=wb>Template:Cite book</ref> one of the old Polish tribes.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the late 9th or 10th century, the Bieżuńczanie were subjugated by the Sorbian Milceni tribe, who bordered from the west,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> who in turn were subjugated in 990 by the Margraviate of Meissen, a frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire. The settlement was then conquered by Polish ruler Bolesław I the Brave in 1002 and formed part of Poland until 1031, after which the region fell back to the Margraviate of Meissen. In 1075 the village was assigned to the Duchy of Bohemia. 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 religious Diocese of Meissen, then under Bishop Benno of Meissen. This document can now be found in the Saxony State Archives in Dresden.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1126–1131 Bohemian Duke Soběslav I erected a castle, one of several new castles on the Bohemian-Polish border. It may have been on the site of the present St Peter and Paul church. The date the town was founded is unknown but in the 13th century the village gradually became a town. Owing to its location on the Via Regia, an ancient and medieval trade route, the settlement prospered.

In 1319 it became part of the Duchy of Jawor of fragmented Poland,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Duke Henry I of Jawor confirmed the town's privileges.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" /> Around 1348 a Jewish woman, Adasse, was made a citizen of the town.<ref>"Adasse (fl. 1348)." In Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages, edited by Anne Commire and Deborah Klezmer, 11. Vol. 1. Detroit, MI: Yorkin Publications, 2007. Gale eBooks (accessed 20 July 2021).</ref> In 1352 during the reign of Polish King Casimir III the Great, Lusatian German colonists from Görlitz founded the town of Gorlice in southern Poland near Kraków. From 1377 to 1396 it was the capital of an eponymous duchy.<ref name=mgkl/> 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 reverted to Bohemia then ruled by Vladislaus II of Hungary.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>

Modern periodEdit

File:Goerlitz 1575.jpg
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.

In 1623, during the Thirty Years' War, the town was captured and occupied alternately by Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire.<ref name=mgkl>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1635, the region of Upper Lusatia (including Görlitz) was ceded to the Electorate of Saxony. From 1639, the town was occupied by Sweden again, and then it was besieged by Imperial and Saxon forces in 1641.<ref name=mgkl/> After the war it was part of the Electorate of Saxony, 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 travelled that route.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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, whilst 500 Greek officers lived in private quarters throughout the town.<ref name=lro>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A burial ground for Greek soldiers was located in the local cemetery.<ref name=lro/>

Interbellum and World War IIEdit

Shortly after the Nazi Party's rise to power, in March 1933, the SA established the Leschwitz concentration camp in Leschwitz (present-day district of Weinhübel).<ref name=sae>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Political prisoners were held and tortured in the camp before it was dissolved in August 1933 and the prisoners were deported to other concentration camps.<ref name=sae/> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On 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 firefighters resisted the order not to extinguish the fire.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is the only synagogue in the present state of Saxony that survived Nazi rule.<ref name=jta>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the interwar period most of the Jews had left the city and their number dropped from 567 in 1925 to 134 in 1939.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Many remaining Jews were then killed in the Holocaust during World War II.<ref name=jta/>

File:Denkmal Biesnitzer Grund Goerlitz.JPG
Memorial to the victims of the AL Görlitz subcamp of Gross-Rosen in Biesnitz

During World War II, a Nazi prison was operated in the town, with four forced labour subcamps within the town limits and three in nearby villages.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Nazis also established and operated two subcamps of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, located in present-day districts of Biesnitz and Kunnerwitz, in which over 1,500 Jewish men and women were used as forced labour, and 470 of whom died.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Numerous subcamps of the Stalag VIII-A prisoner-of-war camp were located in the town, in which over 10,000 POWs worked as forced labour in 1942, and one of the largest subcamps was located in nearby Weinhübel (district of Görlitz since 1949).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> After the Soviet offensive of 1944 and the partial evacuation of the German court staff from the General Government in German-occupied Poland, a special court of the General Government was established at the local courthouse.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Several Polish citizens were detained in Görlitz and sentenced to prison or death at this court for rescuing Jews from the Holocaust.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Near the end of World War II German troops destroyed all bridges crossing the Lusatian Neisse. The redrawing of boundaries in 1945—in particular the location of the East German-Polish border to the present Oder-Neisse line—divided the town. The right bank became part of Poland and was initially renamed Zgorzelice, and then Zgorzelec in 1948, with both names being historically used in the Polish language,<ref name=mgkl/><ref>Template:Cite map</ref><ref>Template:Cite map</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> while the main portion on the left bank became part of East Germany, now within the state of Saxony.

On 12 June 1945 the city issued a set of four of its own postage stamps.Template:Citation needed

German Democratic Republic and reunited GermanyEdit

File:Goerlitz Panorama mit Peterskirche.jpg
St. Peter and Paul in December 2004

When the East German states were dissolved in 1952 Görlitz became part of the Dresden District, but the states were restored on 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,Template:Citation needed when East Germany unilaterally closed the border because of 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 informed by any signs that they are leaving one country and entering another.

Since reunification and as of 2013 more than 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Its tourist potential is rapidly expanding since it is very much an eastern counterpart to towns such as Heidelberg.Template:Citation needed In the case of Görlitz much of the funding for the renovations of the town's buildings has come from an anonymous donor, who, since 1995, has sent an annual donation of more than 500,000, totalling more than €10,000,000.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2021 the surviving old synagogue was reopened.<ref name=jta/>

Arts and cultureEdit

Today Görlitz and Zgorzelec, two towns on opposite banks of the narrow river, are well connected.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.Template:Citation needed

The town has a rich architectural heritage (Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical and Art Nouveau). One example of this heritage is the Schönhof, one of the oldest civic Renaissance buildings in Germany. Another medieval heritage is a model of the Holy Sepulchre (de) the construction of which began in 1465 under Bürgermeister Georg Emmerich.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 2006 the twin cities of Görlitz and Zgorzelec applied to be the European City of Culture for 2010. It was hoped that the concept of Polish-German cooperation would be sufficient to convince the jury, but Essen won and Görlitz was placed second. As a result of the campaign Görlitz was renamed the City of Culture in order to further German-Polish relations and to attract tourists from all over the world.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

As Görlitz was part of Silesia from 1815 onward, it has a Silesian Museum dedicated to the region ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}). 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 {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (German for 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 was 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

GeographyEdit

Görlitz is situated on the border with Poland, adjacent to the Polish town of Zgorzelec on the opposite bank of the Lusatian Neisse. The municipality measures Template:Cvt from north to south, and Template:Cvt from east to west.<ref name=ot>Die Stadt Görlitz und ihre Stadt- und Ortsteile, Stadt Görlitz, accessed 12 October 2021.</ref> Its area is Template:Cvt.<ref>Gebietsfläche in qkm - Stichtag 31.12. - regionale Tiefe: Gemeinden, Statistische Ämter des Bundes und der Länder</ref>

DivisionsEdit

Görlitz is divided into 9 Stadtteile (town divisions) and 8 Ortsteile (formerly independent municipalities). These are:<ref name=ot/>

  • Stadtteile: Historische Altstadt, Innenstadt, Nikolaivorstadt, Südstadt, Rauschwalde, Biesnitz, Weinhübel, Königshufen and Klingewalde
  • Ortsteile: Ober-Neundorf, Ludwigsdorf, Schlauroth, Kunnerwitz, Klein Neundorf, Deutsch-Ossig, Hagenwerder and Tauchritz

TransportEdit

File:Bahnhof Görlitz.jpg
Görlitz Main Railway Station

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:

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ClimateEdit

The climate is oceanic (Köppen: Cfb) or on the western edge of humid continental (Dfb) at the 0 °C isotherm. The location on 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Görlitz weather station has recorded the following extreme values:<ref name=sklima/>

  • Its highest temperature was Template:Convert on 7 August 2015.
  • Its lowest temperature was Template:Convert on 9 February 1956.
  • Its greatest annual precipitation was Template:Convert in 1939.
  • Its least annual precipitation was Template:Convert in 1943.
  • The longest annual sunshine was 2,162.5 hours in 2011.
  • The shortest annual sunshine was 1,368.3 hours in 1977.

Template:Weather box

Film locationEdit

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 Nation's Pride ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) for Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (which incidentally purports to be France) in the Lower Market Square and Upper Market Square in the oldest parts of the city.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

GovernanceEdit

Mayor and city councilEdit

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. Rolf Karbaum served from 1998 until 2005, Joachim Paulick from 2005 to 2012, and Siegfried Deinege 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:

Template:Election table ! rowspan=2 colspan=2| Candidate ! rowspan=2| Party ! colspan=2| First round ! colspan=2| Second round |- ! Votes ! % ! Votes ! % |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Sebastian Wippel | align=left| Alternative for Germany | 9,710 | 36.4 | 11,390 | 44.8 |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Octavian Ursu | align=left| Christian Democratic Union | 8,077 | 30.3 | 14,043 | 55.2 |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Franziska Schubert | align=left| Green/BfG/MG/SPD/PARTEI | 7,436 | 27.9 |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Jana Lübeck | align=left| The Left | 1,470 | 5.5 |- ! colspan=3| Valid votes ! 26,693 ! 98.7 ! 25,433 ! 98.6 |- ! colspan=3| Invalid votes ! 339 ! 1.3 ! 370 ! 1.4 |- ! colspan=3| Total ! 27,032 ! 100.0 ! 25,803 ! 100.0 |- ! colspan=3| Electorate/voter turnout ! 46,120 ! 58.6 ! 46,135 ! 55.9 |- | colspan=7| Source: Wahlen in Sachsen |}

The most recent city council election was held on 6 June 2024, and the results were as follows:

Template:Election table ! colspan=2| Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Alternative for Germany (AfD) | 28,496 | 37.2 | Template:Increase 6.4 | 14 | Template:Increase 1 |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | 19,765 | 25.8 | Template:Increase 3.8 | 10 | Template:Increase 1 |- | | align=left| Citizens for Görlitz (BfG) | 10,679 | 13.9 | Template:Decrease 3.6 | 5 | Template:Decrease 2 |- | | align=left| Motor Görlitz (MG) | 6,266 | 8.2 | Template:Increase 2.5 | 3 | Template:Increase 1 |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| The Left (Die Linke) | 4,727 | 6.2 | Template:Decrease 2.3 | 2 | Template:Decrease 1 |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) | 3,309 | 4.3 | Template:Decrease 3.3 | 2 | Template:Decrease 1 |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 1,951 | 2.5 | Template:Increase 0.2 | 1 | Template:Steady 0 |- | bgcolor=169340| | align=left| Free Saxons | 1,377 | 1.8 | New | 1 | New |- ! colspan=2| Valid votes ! 76,570 ! 100.0 ! ! ! |- ! colspan=2| Invalid ballots ! 428 ! 1.6 ! ! ! |- ! colspan=2| Total ballots ! 26,964 ! 100.0 ! ! 38 ! ±0 |- ! colspan=2| Electorate/voter turnout ! 45,068 ! 59.8 ! Template:Increase 1.1 ! ! |- | colspan="7"| Source: City of Görlitz |}

Twin towns – sister citiesEdit

File:18-09-29-Görlitz-RalfR-DJI 0418.jpg
Görlitz seen from its twin town Zgorzelec, Poland

Template:See also Görlitz is twinned with:<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Being the easternmost town in the country, Görlitz has formed a 'Compass Alliance' ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Notable peopleEdit

GalleryEdit

NotesEdit

Template:Notelist

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

Template:Sister project Template:EB1911 poster

Template:Cities and towns in Görlitz (district)

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