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Görlitz (; ; ; ; ; East Lusatian: Gerlz, Gerltz, Gerltsch) 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 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.
Görlitz, first mentioned in 1071, developed as a key trading town on the Via Regia route linking Western and Eastern Europe. In the Late Middle Ages, it prospered through the cloth trade and became a member of the Lusatian League, enjoying considerable autonomy. The town came under Bohemian, Hungarian, Habsburg Empire and Saxon rule before becoming part of Prussia in 1815 after the Congress of Vienna. During World War II, Görlitz was spared major destruction, but the new Oder–Neisse line in 1945 divided it from its eastern districts, which became Zgorzelec in Poland. In the East Germany, Görlitz was a border town with limited cross-border contact, but after German reunification and Poland’s EU accession, cooperation with Zgorzelec increased. Today, Görlitz is renowned for its well-preserved historic architecture and frequent use as a film location.
Görlitz is culturally diverse. Immediately to the west of Görlitz lie Sorbian-speaking parts of Lusatia, and Görlitz was founded and first settled by the Sorbs, a Slavs people. This is evidenced by the name of the town and the etymology of some of its surrounding villages and geographical features being of Slavic languages origin. Görlitz itself speaks the East Lusatian dialect of German ( ), 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 and , a Silesian Museum (Schlesisches Museum zu Görlitz), and the Silesian Christmas Market ().
As of 2025, structural change, internationalisation, and transformation are central themes in the city’s development. At the same time, Görlitz is increasingly developing into a science centre of supra-regional and international importance. In addition to the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences (known as Lusatia), which focuses on social change processes in both the technical and natural sciences as well as the social sciences, the Technical University of Dresden (University of Excellence), the University of Leipzig and HHL are also active in Görlitz with branch offices, study programmes or research institutes. The city is also home to several Frauenhofer Institutes, research groups and labs, the Senkenberg Institute of Natural History, the CASUS Center of Advanced Systems Understanding, which belongs to the Helmholtz Association, the Interdisciplinary Centre for Ecological and Revitalising Urban Transformation (IZS), which is part of the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development, and the German Centre for Astrophysics (DZA). The investment volume for the DZA alone amounts to 1.25 billion euros. Görlitz is also home to the Oberlausitzische Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften (Upper Lusatian Society of Science), which was founded in 1779 and is one of the oldest German scientific societies. The influx from abroad, which has led to an international population share of almost 17%, is now having a positive effect on population development.
In the Early Middle Ages, the area was inhabited by the Bieżuńczanie tribe, one of the old Polish tribes. In the late 9th or 10th century, the Bieżuńczanie were subjugated by the Sorbs Milceni tribe, who bordered from the west, who in turn were subjugated in 990 by the Margraviate of Meissen, a frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire. The area 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.
From 1346 Görlitz was a wealthy member of the Lusatian League, which consisted of Bautzen, Görlitz, Kamenz, Lubań, Löbau and Zittau. Around 1348 a Jewish woman, Adasse, was made a citizen of the town. "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). 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. 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.
In 1623, during the Thirty Years' War, the town was captured and occupied alternately by Swedish Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. 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. 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. 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 Greeks soldiers was located in present-day Zgorzelec, whilst 500 Greek officers lived in private quarters throughout the town. A burial ground for Greek soldiers was located in the local cemetery.
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. 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 Jews men and women were used as forced labour, and 470 of whom died. 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). 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. Several Polish citizens were detained in Görlitz and sentenced to prison or death at this court for rescuing Jews from the Holocaust.
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, 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.
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. Today Görlitz and Zgorzelec are well connected. 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.
Since reunification and as of 2013, more than 700 buildings in Görlitz have been renovated. It is a popular place for retirement among the elderly of Germany, being quiet and relatively affordable by German standards. Its tourist potential is rapidly expanding since it is very much an eastern counterpart to towns such as Heidelberg. 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 Euro500,000, totalling more than €10,000,000.
In 2021, the surviving old synagogue was reopened.
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.
As Görlitz was part of Silesia from 1815 onward, it has a Silesian Museum dedicated to the region (Schlesisches Museum zu Görlitz). 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 Liebesperlen (German language 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.
The nearest airports are Dresden Airport which is away and Wrocław Airport which is away.
Local public transport is provided by:
The Görlitz weather station has recorded the following extreme values:
! rowspan=2 colspan=2| Candidate
! rowspan=2| Party
! colspan=2| First round
! colspan=2| Second round
|-
! Votes
! %
! Votes
! %
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Sebastian Wippel
| align=left| Alternative for Germany
| 9,710
| 36.4
| 11,390
| 44.8
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Octavian Ursu
| align=left| Christian Democratic Union
| 8,077
| 30.3
| 14,043
| 55.2
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Franziska Schubert
| align=left| Green/BfG/MG/SPD/Die PARTEI
| 7,436
| 27.9
|-
| bgcolor=|
| 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:
! colspan=2| Party
! Votes
! %
! +/-
! Seats
! +/-
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Alternative for Germany (AfD)
| 28,496
| 37.2
| 6.4
| 14
| 1
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
| 19,765
| 25.8
| 3.8
| 10
| 1
|-
|
| align=left| Citizens for Görlitz (BfG)
| 10,679
| 13.9
| 3.6
| 5
| 2
|-
|
| align=left| Motor Görlitz (MG)
| 6,266
| 8.2
| 2.5
| 3
| 1
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| The Left (Die Linke)
| 4,727
| 6.2
| 2.3
| 2
| 1
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)
| 3,309
| 4.3
| 3.3
| 2
| 1
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Social Democratic Party (SPD)
| 1,951
| 2.5
| 0.2
| 1
| 0
|-
| bgcolor=169340|
| align=left| Freie Sachsen
| 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
! 1.1
!
!
|-
| colspan="7"| Source: City of Görlitz
|}
Being the easternmost town in the country, Görlitz has formed a 'Compass Alliance' (Zipfelbund) 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.
==Gallery==
Modern period
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.
Interbellum and World War II
Shortly after the Nazi Party's rise to power, in March 1933, the Sturmabteilung established the Leschwitz concentration camp in Leschwitz (present-day district of Weinhübel). 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. In 1936, during a nationwide Nazi campaign of changing of placenames, two present-day districts of Görlitz were renamed to erase traces of West Slavs origin—Leschwitz to Weinhübel and Nikrisch to Hagenwerder. 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. It is the only synagogue in the present state of Saxony that survived Nazi rule. In the interwar period most of the Jews had left the city and their number dropped from 567 in 1925 to 134 in 1939. Many remaining Jews were then killed in the Holocaust during World War II.
German Democratic Republic and reunited Germany
When the East Germany 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, 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.
Arts and culture
Görlitz 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 Burgomaster Georg Emmerich.
Film location
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 (Stolz der Nation) 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. 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.
Sport
The town is represented by the football club Gelb-Weiss Görlitz.
Geography
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 from north to south, and from east to west. Die Stadt Görlitz und ihre Stadt- und Ortsteile, Stadt Görlitz, accessed 12 October 2021. Its area is . Gebietsfläche in qkm - Stichtag 31.12. - regionale Tiefe: Gemeinden, Statistische Ämter des Bundes und der Länder
Divisions
Görlitz is divided into 9 Stadtteile (town divisions) and 8 Ortsteile (formerly independent municipalities). These are:
Transport
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.
Climate
The climate is Oceanic climate (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.
Governance
Mayor and city council
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:
Twin towns – sister cities
Görlitz is Sister city with:
Notable people
in Görlitz]] in the background]]
Notes
See also
External links
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