Görlitz

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the town in Germany. For the German football (soccer) player, see Andreas Görlitz.

Görlitz
St. Peter's Church and the rebuilt Altstadt bridge between Görlitz and Zgorzelec
Coat of arms	Location

Administration
Country	Germany
State	Saxony
Admin. region	Dresden
District	Urban district
Town subdivisions	10 town- und 8 village-quarters
Lord Mayor	Joachim Paulick (CDU)
Basic statistics
Area	67.22 km² (26 sq mi)
Elevation	199 m (653 ft)
Population	57,111 (31/12/2006)source
- Density	850 /km² (2,200 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate	GR
Postal codes	02826–02828
Area code	03581
Website	www.goerlitz.de Coordinates: 51°09′10″N 14°59′14″E / 51.15278, 14.98722

House at "Untermarkt" (Lower Market)

Görlitz ([ˈɡœɐ̯lɪʦ] (help·info)) is a town in Germany on the Lusatian Neisse River, in the Bundesland (Federal State) of Saxony. It is opposite the Polish town of Zgorzelec, which was a part of Görlitz until 1945. Historically, Görlitz belongs to the region of Upper Lusatia. Today it is the easternmost town in Germany.

1 History
2 Culture
3 People
4 External links
5 References

[edit] History

As a small village named Gorelic in the region of Upper Lusatia, it was a part 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^[1]. The origin of the name Görlitz is derived from the slavic word for "burned land,"^[2] referring to the technique used to clear land for settlement. Zgorzelec and Czech Zhořelec has the same derivation. In the 13th century the village gradually became a city. Due to its location on the Via Regia, an ancient and medieval trade road, the settlement prospered.

In the following centuries it was a wealthy member of the Lusatian League, which consisted of Bautzen, Görlitz, Kamenz, Lauban, Löbau and Zittau. In 1352 during the reign of Casimir the Great, colonists from Görlitz founded the town of Gorlice in southern Poland near Kraków.

After suffering for years in the Thirty Years' War, the region of Upper Lusatia (including Görlitz) was accorded to the Electorate of Saxony in 1635. 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.

Near the end of World War II, German troops blew up all bridges crossing the Lusatian Neisse. The redrawing of boundaries in 1945 — in particular the relocation of the German-Polish border to the Oder-Neisse line — divided the town. The right bank became part of Poland and was named Zgorzelec in 1948, while the main portion became part of the German state of Saxony. When the East German states were dissolved in 1952, Görlitz became part of the Dresden Bezirk (region), but the states were restored upon German reunification in 1990.

On June 27, 1994, the town became the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Görlitz.

In 2002 Lake Berzdorf, located south of Görlitz, began to flood. The Altstadtbrücke (literally old town bridge) between Görlitz and Zgorzelec was rebuilt in 2003-04. It was officially opened on October 20, 2004.

[edit] Culture

Today Görlitz and Zgorzelec, two towns on opposite banks of the narrow river, have friendly relations. 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 common sessions of both town councils.

The town has a rich architectural heritage (Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Historicist, Art Nouveau), which was — in contrast to most other German cities — not destroyed during World War II. One example of this rich architectural heritage is the Schönhof, which is one of the oldest civil renaissance buildings in Germany.

In 2006 the twin city Görlitz/Zgorzelec was a candidate for European City of Culture 2010. It was hoped that the jury could be convinced by the concept of a Polish-German Cooperation, but Essen got the award, with Görlitz achieving the second place. The campaign was renamed City of Culture to further German-Polish relations and to attract tourists from all over the world.