Görlitz

Görlitz is a city-district of Germany on the river Neiße, in the Land of Saxony, located opposite the Polish city of Zgorzelec, with which it was plain until in 1945. Historically it belonged according to the time to the Lusace or the Silesia. Population: 58.920 inhabitants in June 2003.

History

The city was founded on an unknown date. The first mention goes back to 1071. At that time Görlitz was only one small village named Gorelic in the area of Lusace, which was to be attached to Bohemia shortly after. In XIIIe century the village became a city little by little. At the following centuries it was a prosperous member of the Alliance of the Six Cities, which linked six towns of Lusace: Görlitz, Bautzen, Lauban, Löbau, Kamenz and Zittau.

It is there that Jakob Böhme in 1575 was born the German philosopher.

After the tests of the War Thirty Year old, the Highone (including Görlitz) passed to the Saxony (1635). In 1815, after the Napoleonean Wars, the Congrès of Vienna decided to give Görlitz to the Prussia, and the city thus formed part of the Prussian province of Silesia of 1815 to 1945.

When the Nazi Germany was about to lose the war, the German troops blew up all the bridges on Neiße. The displacement of borders in 1945 - in particular the carryforward of the germano-Polish border on Oder - divided the city, the part on Right Bank, returning to the Poland, took the name of Zgorzelec in 1948, while the principal part was attached at the German State of Saxony. After the dissolution of the States in East Germany (1952), Görlitz belongs to the district of Dresden, but the States were reconstituted after the German reunification of 1990.

Today Görlitz and Zgorzelec, two cities on opposite banks of the river, maintain the friendly relations. Two bridges were rebuilt and a line of bus joint the parts German and Polish of the city; there is a urban district management, with common annual sessions who bring together the two municipal councils.

Thanks to its exceptionally rich architectural heritage (Gothic, rebirth, baroque, historicist, art nouveau), which was not destroyed during the Second world war - contrary to the majority of the other German cities - Görlitz is regarded by much as the most beautiful town of Germany.

Famous characters

In Görlitz were born:

Michael Ballack (1976 -), footballer
Jens Jeremies (1974 -), footballer
Oskar Morgenstern (1902 - 1977), mathematician and economist
Thomas Ritter (1967 -), footballer

Other bonds with Görlitz:

Holy Hedwige of Silesia

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