“Lauchhammer is the industrial cradle of Lusatia, and we are very proud of that”

Carmen Sahl: I think that for many people there’s still this underlying mood after reunification that they don’t really want to get involved in anything new, or they’ve had bad experiences and then say: OK, it didn’t work out back then, what’s going to happen now?

Gerlinde Michaelis: We used to say: I’m a miner – who’s more than that? That was the slogan in the GDR era, and it’s clear this left people who had to tear down their own workplaces with pain and scars.

Jannik Steinke: Hello and welcome to Local Voices, a podcast as part of the VOICES project. In this series, we want to give a voice to people from regions affected by structural change and make their perspectives heard. My name is Jannik Steinke. For this episode, I travelled to Lauchhammer, a town in southern Brandenburg with around 300 years of industrial history. Once famous for its art casting, and later shaped by massive lignite mining during the GDR era, Lauchhammer is now in the midst of structural change, with many factories and chimneys having disappeared. In Lauchhammer, I met two women, Ms Michaelis and Ms Sahl. They welcomed me in a repurposed school building that now serves as a community centre. Ms Michaelis used to be a teacher at this school herself and has been involved in the Lauchhammer Local History and Culture Association for around 30 years. Among other things, I talk to her about the town’s historical identity and what people here can still be proud of today. Ms Sahl works at the Lauchhammer multi-generational house. She is in direct contact with local residents and tells me what noticeable changes are taking place in the town and what challenges she observes in everyday life.

Carmen Sahl: My name is Carmen Saal. I am 33 years old and moved to Lusatia in 2013 and have been living in Lauchhammer since 2018.

Gerlinde Michaelis: My name is Gerlinde Michaelis. I am the chairwoman of the Kultur- and Local History Association Lauchhammer e.V. I have always lived in Lauchhammer. I studied in Potsdam, but then I returned to Lauchhammer.

Carmen Sahl: I came here for love. I met my husband online and then moved here after my first apprenticeship. I studied therapy sciences at the BTU and, yes, we eventually got married, looked for a house, and now live here because our friends live here in Lauchhammer. Lauchhammer is rather long and narrow. A lot of people used to live here because it was heavily influenced by the coal industry. And I would say that after reunification, from what I’ve heard from locals, that declined very, very significantly. Of course, that’s also due to the coal phase-out, which wasn’t really pursued here. Exactly. Lauchhammer is simply very spread out, with many small districts.

Gerlinde Michaelis: Lauchhammer is a town made up of many former villages, which came together with the construction of the coking plant in Lauchhammer in 1952. And it’s not that simple, because these areas are also quite spread out. There were plans to bring these villages together and build them up into a single town. But after reunification, the opposite happened, because many residents moved away from Lauchhammer. We used to have around 24,000 to 25,000 residents, and now we have fewer than 14,000, which really shows how Lauchhammer has developed. Nevertheless, we are very proud of our town because it is the industrial cradle of Lusatia, if you will, and beyond. That makes us proud. But of course, it is also a difficult situation at present, which has to be looked at from all possible angles. I had a very happy childhood, so I didn’t miss anything, not a thing. What I particularly liked was that people were there for each other. I grew up in a rural area, in Kleinleipisch, a district of Lauchhammer, and there people have always helped one another, which, thank God, has continued to this day. It is also very important today that this solidarity continues to exist, which is of course not so easy in an urban environment. I received my normal schooling. I am the child of workers and farmers, and at that time support was geared towards that – that was the aim. I didn’t actually plan to do my A-levels, but I was basically persuaded to do them. Today I’m no longer annoyed about it, but at the time it wasn’t really my plan, because my parents didn’t earn that much and I didn’t want to be a burden on them. After finishing school, I went to Potsdam, studied to become a history and German teacher, and then came back to Lauchhammer and stayed here, working here in Lauchhammer until I retired.

Jannik Steinke: Both in the multi-generational house and in the local history and culture association, Ms Saal and Ms Michaelis experience the town from a very unique perspective. In our conversation, I talked to them about their daily work and about what has noticeably changed in Lauchhammer in recent years. We talk about specific moments of rupture, about vacancy and the feeling that things are disappearing, but also about what gives them hope. Because through their commitment, they also see the town’s strengths very clearly. Ms Saal starts again with a look back at 2013 and her very first impression of the region.

Carmen Sahl: Actually, relatively positive at first, because you still have shopping facilities here. The Grünewalder Lake is also very, very nice and has a lot of potential. You can see now, through private initiatives and associations, that a lot can be achieved. For example, the cinema association that has just been founded now wants to rebuild the stage and screen in the castle park, so to speak. You can see that people are keen to make a difference.

Gerlinde Michaelis: Yes, that’s typical for Lauchhammer, and it’s something we’re particularly proud of. You’ve just been holding it in your hands. It’s art casting, which actually has its roots in my own family. My grandfather worked in the art foundry as a modeller and chaser, which meant there was a close connection to art casting, and that has stayed with me throughout my life – especially as I studied history, and the cast statues and everything else produced there kept crossing my path again and again. And at home, the display cabinet is also full of art castings, because people gave them to each other as gifts for birthdays and other celebrations. And when you worked there, you also had a special connection to it. The art foundry was part of the Lauchhammer works. In my case, half of my family worked in mechanical engineering and the other half in coal mining. That was common here, especially in Lauchhammer. And that’s why it’s so deeply rooted in our community. There are several cultural and heritage associations in Lauchhammer, but we’ve divided things up quite neatly so that the work isn’t duplicated. Our local history association has been around for 30 years and was founded because we saw that many documents and eyewitness accounts were being lost in the wake of reunification. Businesses were closed, institutions were shut down, and everything was simply thrown out. That’s how we experienced it at BFG [N.B.: VEB Excavator, Conveyor Bridge and Equipment Construction (BFG) Lauchhammer, predecessor of the TAKRAF combine in the GDR.]

Carmen Sahl: Well, you can already sense a high level of frustration among some people. But you can also see that young families are now coming back here, and that gives you hope. The change I’ve noticed here is mainly in the lake district, where, let’s say, a lot of emphasis is now being placed on towns such as Senftenberg and Großräschen, where the harbours have been rebuilt and there’s a strong focus on tourism. Here in Lauchhammer, the changes are more gradual than in Senftenberg. A lot has happened in Senftenberg since 2013, and in Lauchhammer, I have to say, it’s a bit more difficult, I think, because of the general attitude of some people, but it’s still feasible.

Gerlinde Michaelis: Because many people had so many negative experiences during reunification that they sometimes suffered psychological damage or were left with a lot of pain, so to speak. And if you don’t have anyone to talk to, or someone who can cheer you up a bit, then of course that’s not good. I always say: the coal is gone, but the statues and everything that was cast here in Lauchhammer are everywhere. They’re in Berlin, they’re in Dresden, they’re in New York, they’re in Tokyo. They’re our bells, they’re everywhere. They’re monuments that have been erected there, and we can be proud of that. Yes, that’s over, but it takes time to build something new, and we have to get through it. We just have to muster the strength and patience for that to happen.

Carmen Sahl: Typical problems that I notice in my work – with the multi-generational house I also have a particular focus on reading and writing in adulthood, in other words basic education – and I do notice significant difficulties there. Nationwide, about 6% of people leave school without a school-leaving certificate, but here in the district it’s 10%. It’s really a serious problem. Drug problems are also often part of the picture. People often feel they have no prospects. I’m glad that the basic education centre has now been re-established. Before that, I was a bit of a lone fighter here in the district. But thanks to the basic education centre, we’ve now gained a little more attention for this issue. We’re also working with the job centre now and really expanding our network there to help people. Otherwise, I have to say that society here is also ageing very rapidly. The average age of our clients here, of our visitors, is simply very high. Accordingly, health issues are also very prominent. And what is now slowly coming more into focus, of course, are young families. People are also thinking about what they can do here with their children. That’s something that’s on a lot of people’s minds right now: what can I do with my children? How can I get my child to the nearest club? What activities are there? That’s also something we try to reflect here.

Gerlinde Michaelis: I was one of the founding members back then. At that time there were about 50 of us, if I remember correctly, maybe even 50 or 60. It’s only natural, I would say, that older people will eventually pass away.

Carmen Sahl: There are various aspects to this change. As I said, you notice that many people show initiative, have ideas, want to move forward and don’t want to give up their home. But then there are also setbacks. For example, the closure of Vestas here a few years ago was another major blow. A lot of jobs were lost. People had been counting on that. Then there was S-Volt, which also wanted to come here but then pulled out. Lauchhammer has already experienced many setbacks. Some people come out of it stronger and say: OK, we’ll keep trying, we’ll keep going. But you also notice that many people say: OK, we’re giving up here, we don’t see any prospects, and then they tend to move to larger cities. Even among my friends there are people who have said: OK, I’m moving to Dresden now, I’ll find work there and stay there, and have other people around me, not just this negativity, which of course isn’t exclusive to this place. In some parts of the town, I would say there is more resignation. Others, as I said, don’t want to give up their home without a fight.

Gerlinde Michaelis: After reunification, we actually had hope that Lauchhammer would still do well, because TAKRAF still had a very strong position. There were also a wide variety of businesses still operating on the ironworks site. Then Vestas came along, which also raised great hopes in Lauchhammer, as it had around 500 employees. And I would say that the only thing that disappeared was our coal. The result was that those jobs disappeared completely, and that was more than 5,000 people who had worked in coal and manufacturing. We still had hope that this industrial development would continue, because we were also counting on our strong industrial history, which we do have. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Vestas left – a great loss. And now you can see that even valuable companies no longer have as many employees. Small and medium-sized companies are still in the majority here, and they are still keeping things going. But it’s all the more important, because, as I said earlier, this break in the coal industry caused a lot of damage, to give people the courage and pride in their past to carry them into the present. Otherwise, it’s difficult. We used to say: I’m a miner – who is more than that? That was the slogan in GDR times, and it’s clear that it left pain and scars among the people who had to tear down their own workplaces. And that continues to have an impact today. We have to be clear about that. It’s been a long time, and it still hasn’t been overcome. The more industry disappears, the worse it gets. Then people say there’s no point getting involved here anymore. Everything’s going down the drain anyway. And of course it’s a shame that this development is taking place. It really hurts us a lot.

Carmen Sahl: Personally, I find it difficult, but I think it’s a general problem in today’s society that as soon as you have a different opinion, people can no longer talk to each other. That they don’t let each other finish speaking, that they immediately write the other person off because they have a different opinion, whether political or in any other social context. Sometimes it even becomes personally offensive. I find this development very dramatic. Here in Lauchhammer, and in Lusatia in general, you can see that society is leaning more to the right. Of course, not everyone, but you can see that, because of the overall frustration with politics, people are now reorienting themselves and placing their hopes in something that could very quickly go wrong.

Gerlinde Michaelis: So the problems are actually that there are no longer any real settlements in Lauchhammer. People are still leaving, and more are still moving away from Lauchhammer, and there is no longer any major industry. That’s why I said that support for small and medium-sized businesses really needs to happen here, otherwise it will become a big problem. The second thing is that it wasn’t just after reunification that many young people left. I mentioned the population figures earlier – that already makes a lot of things clear. It’s still the case that if you want to find a decent job, you often have to leave the area. We are, after all, still on the outskirts of Dresden. Many of the younger people work in Dresden and the surrounding area. That has become our catchment area, so to speak, Saxony, if you like. And that is difficult. The next thing is that, because there are so few residents left, the apartment blocks are being demolished, one after the other. If you drive from Lauchhammer-Mitte to Lauchhammer-Ost, over the Butterberg, you can see that at least five or six blocks have already been demolished, and that three more will be gone soon. They are concentrating on the inner structure, starting to demolish from the outside, but this also distances these village-like districts even further from the town centre. This means that a sense of urban identity is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. People organise themselves in their local areas, which works wonderfully. Thank goodness, you might say. But this urban character has always been difficult in Lauchhammer anyway, because of the way Lauchhammer developed as a town. As you may have noticed when driving through here, there isn’t really a proper town centre. That’s becoming increasingly difficult. And it’s not easy for neighbourhood management either. Recently I asked someone from the Wertewandel association in Kleinleipisch to come and take a look at the multi-generational house, where we hold a Sunday café for the residents of Kleinleipisch every third Sunday of the month. The young people bake cakes and serve them. They do everything. But it’s not just people from Kleinleipisch who come, people also come from Lauchhammer-Mitte. The house is full of all kinds of activities. There’s pottery, there’s sport. You can organise events there. There’s the traditional club, there’s model building. And she quite rightly said: Why doesn’t that work in Lauchhammer-Mitte? I said: Because it has more of an urban character. This familiarity with each other, this cohesion… it’s naturally more difficult to create in an urban structure than in a village one. That’s just how it is. Yes, those are really the problems.

Carmen Sahl: The strength of the place is above all the gratitude that you often receive in return. The fact that people are happy when you take matters into your own hands and show initiative. In addition, people themselves become creative and show initiative, and many of them don’t let themselves be discouraged when things get difficult. I would say that the positive development in Lauchhammer is that people are simply realising they have to take action themselves. And that this can only happen hand in hand, which is now also becoming clear to many people. But it is a process.

Gerlinde Michaelis: Yes, the strength is actually that people are seeking more closeness with one another, more community. And I think that’s a very good thing, because only if we help each other – and perhaps also do things for one another and for the town – will things change here. The town has no money, we all know that. It’s no different in other places. And it can’t pay much either. So we are dependent on these voluntary activities. Ten years ago, there were 100 clubs in Lauchhammer. There aren’t 100 anymore. But we still have very active club life in Lauchhammer in every respect, whether it’s sport, culture, or something else. I also mentioned tradition earlier. When you look at it, all these things are actually quite remarkable for such a small town. And I’m counting on the town, and perhaps others as well, to recognise the importance of voluntary work. In my opinion, this is not yet promoted enough – or, how shall I put it, people don’t really see it as the core element that needs to be preserved in a situation like the one we are in now. At least, that’s how I see it. Recognition is very, very important. That you acknowledge it too. And I hope that we can make some more progress in that area. The next point is that we have the only real cultural centre here, the Kunstgussmuseum. And I really hope that it will be preserved, because we are still holding on to it. Because it is very important. You can read what I wrote at the entrance. Then you can also understand why we are so attached to it. Because we are proud of it. And it’s important to maintain pride in what has been created, even if it was in the past. I always say: the coal is gone, but the statues and everything else that was cast here in Lauchhammer are everywhere. They are in Berlin, they are in Dresden, they are in New York, they are in Tokyo. There are bells made by us, and monuments everywhere that were cast here, and we can still be proud of that.

Jannik Steinke: After all these stories about structural change, loss and cohesion, I wanted to ask both of them something very specific to conclude. Something that sums it all up. I asked them to imagine that for a huge billboard in the market square in Lauchhammer for a week, which everyone could read. What would it say?

Carmen Sahl: On the billboard, I would simply write this sentence: Don’t give up hope, and believe in the good in people.

Gerlinde Michaelis: Draw strength for new things from pride in the past.