Görlitz: The pearl of Silesia
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Nestled on the western bank of the River Neisse, the magnificent old town of Görlitz sits at the crossroads of trade routes linking Bohemia to the east and the Baltics to the north with Poland and Germany.
As a result of this fortunate geography, the medieval and renaissance merchants of the town, known as the Pearl of Silesia, grew wealthy. To display their fortunes, they built magnificent houses and civic buildings, making the town one of the most beautiful in Germany.
My fascination for Görlitz as I first traveled in Europe in the 1960s and ’70s was not its architecture but rather its mysterious remoteness. Situated as it was then in the far southeastern corner of East Germany, it was well out of reach of Americans. But I must have filed it away in my mind along with Katmandu and Timbuktu as a place I’d get to someday if I could.
Now, in a new and free Europe, I have finally made it. It was worth the wait.
Today’s Görlitz is part of the Free State of Saxony, but historically it is a Silesian town, first mentioned in documents dated 1071 (nearly all of the rest of Silesia is now part of Poland). Over the centuries, Silesia alternated among Polish, Czech, Austrian and German rule, but waves of German immigration beginning in the 13th century eventually absorbed or displaced the original Slavic inhabitants (the Gothic Church of Saints Peter and Paul and the remains of the old city wall and watchtowers date from this period). By the end of the Middle Ages the population of Görlitz and of the entire province, except for parts of far eastern Upper Silesia, was thoroughly German.
From the 14th through the mid-17th centuries, Görlitz and the region surrounding it grew rich on trade and on the manufacture of textiles. To protect its wealth both from highwaymen and from the Bohemian and Saxon nobility, in 1346 it allied itself with five neighboring towns to form the Upper Lusatian League of the Six Cities. For around 200 years, the League encouraged economic growth, and many of the finest buildings in all six of the towns date from this period. The towns still exist, although one of them is now in Poland. The coats of arms of the league members are prominently displayed on the façade of the newer wing of the Görlitz Rathaus.
Eventually wars and the rise of Prussia to the north limited the powers of the League, and after about 1650 Görlitz, though remaining an important town, never recovered its previous position. It remained moderately prosperous, if a bit provincial, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries and right up to World War II.
Görlitz’s Altstadt, or old city, is a gem, one that is in the process of getting a good polishing. Though the Red Army poured through the region in 1945, Görlitz, unlike nearby Dresden, had the good fortune to almost entirely escape the war’s physical destruction.
Although the following 45 years of East German Communist neglect led to slow deterioration of the town’s beautiful architectural heritage, unlike in so many towns in West Germany, there was no “economic miracle” to encourage ill-planned modernization of the historic city and virtually all of it is still there — more than 3,500 sites are today under historic protection (the most highly concentrated number in Germany).
Fortunately, after unification it was not too late to overcome the effects of the years of Communist rule — never have I seen a town whose medieval, renaissance and baroque façades are undergoing such a well-executed face lift. Görlitz also boasts a wealth of late 19th century Empire-style neighborhoods and art nouveau buildings (called Jugendstil in German), including the magnificent Karstadt department store on the Marienplatz.
Nowhere in Germany are so many fine examples of great European architecture in such a small space — and almost everything in Görlitz is in easy walking distance of everything else.
What does modern Görlitz offer the visitor?
Compared to towns in western Germany, Görlitz is a real bargain. A good meal in a restaurant runs 6 to 8 euros, and our family of four adults stayed in a two-bedroom holiday flat a block from the 15th century rathaus for 90 euros a night (breakfast included).
Görlitzers, proud of their Silesian heritage, boast a new Silesian Museum next to the Rathaus, and restaurants serve local specialties like pumpkin soup or Silesian heaven (Schlesisches Himmelreich, a dish of smoked pork and baked fruit) that you might not find in other parts of Germany. The town abounds in shops selling handicrafts and antiques.
For the shopper, the biggest draw is undoubtedly Görlitz’s proximity to the home of Polish pottery, just across the border.
How many Americans know Görlitz only as the last exit in Germany before reaching the Polish pottery shops just 40 kilometers — about 25 miles — across the border in Boleslawiec? This famous ceramic, produced here since the 1830s, is still known as Bunzlau Ware (from the German name for Boleslawiec), and signs announcing Bunzlauer Waren crop up as you approach the town along Route 40. (This is a far cry from the situation when I first visited Poland in 1977, when even a copy of a map showing former German place names was subject to confiscation!)
Polish pottery is beautiful and extremely durable, due to the purity of the clay in the region and the extremely high temperatures at which it is fired. The Polish artists continue to produce the traditional Silesian designs used by their German predecessors, but have additionally developed such an array of new imaginative patterns that a visit to one of the shops can be a bit overwhelming.
With so many shops and so much to see, it’s hard to absorb it all. If you can find a better way, perhaps the overnight bus trips offered by various organizations on a crowded weekend aren’t the best option. Here’s a travel tip: Center your shopping adventure around two or three weeknights in Görlitz. You won’t regret it.
Görlitz has another claim to fame. Berlin may be the most well-known German city to be divided after WWII, but it is not the only one. Görlitz was split into German and Polish sections by the decision of the victorious allies in 1945. The split made the Neisse River, which flows just to the east of the Altstadt, the new border between the two countries, along with the Oder River to the north. The result was the division of the city into Görlitz and Zgorzelec (pronounced zgo-ZHEL-ets).
The division was even more painful than that of Berlin, because the Germans living in the eastern third of the city, indeed in all of Germany east of the Oder-Neisse, were forced at gunpoint from their homes to make room for Poles evicted just as cruelly from their lands far to the east, coveted by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
For many years the division of the town symbolized the loss of their eastern provinces to the Germans, and highlighted fear on the part of the Poles that one day they would again be evicted from their homes. But today the people on both sides of the river are determined to overcome their tragic past, and have proclaimed Görlitz/Zgorzelec a “City of Europe.”
The two town councils cooperate on a large number of cultural and civic projects, and have determined to rebuild the bridge, blasted by retreating German troops in 1945, that once spanned the river by the Church of Saints Peter and Paul. Poles and Germans now pass freely back and forth over a second bridge a quarter mile to the south, using only their identity cards (Americans need their passports).
When Poland someday joins the European Union and replaces the zloty with the euro, the town will have obtained a degree of unity not experienced since the end of the war. As a symbol of a peacefully uniting Europe, Görlitz/Zgorzelec has no equal.
Army Lt. Col. Robert G. Jordan is assigned to the office of the European Command Surgeon, in Stuttgart, Germany.
More information ...
Tourist Information Office, on the Obermarkt, telephone (+49) (0) 35814- 7570.
Official city Web site (in German only): www.goerlitz.de/index.html.
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