Insights into lignite mining between Hoyerswerda and Cottbus and the formation of the young Lusatian Lake District.
According to a legend, it was the devil who once hid coal deep in the earth from the people of Lusatia. As a reminder, he now guides cyclists as a symbol of the Lower Lusatian Mining Route through the region. With the opening of the first lignite mine in the mid-19th century, the industrial upswing began for Lower Lusatia, especially in the cloth and glass industries. Around 100 years later, lignite even made the Lusatian mining district the energy center of the GDR. And coal still plays an important role here today. The Lower Lusatian Mining Route runs for over 500 kilometers through old and new landscapes. Viewpoints along the bike paths offer a view of impressive expanses and towering open-cast mining equipment in the few still operating lignite mining areas. If a distant view is not enough, you can embark on adventure tours to the excavators in the canyons and deserts or even climb such a steel giant yourself. Decommissioned briquette factories and power plants have been given a second life as museums, landmarks, event, or exhibition venues. Former working environments, technological history, and the daily path of the miners can be experienced up close in many places. Whether in the washing house where dozens of helmets and work clothes hang from the ceiling or in a real mine tunnel “underground.” Often it seems as if it is still in the air: the fine mist of coal dust, the smell of freshly pressed briquettes. There can also be hissing, steaming, and shaking when the old machines are back in action. The energy production also has downsides, such as partially necessary resettlements, as shown by the archive of vanished places. However, the landscapes left behind after mining also offer the opportunity for new design. Part of this are artificial bodies of water on former open-cast mine ground, which with their very own faces make up the charm of the Lusatian Lake District and its future.
