Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
When exploring the south of Göttingen you will find a lot of streets named after former German cities. Cities that you can still find on maps but that have new names. Cities that Germany lost after World War II. And these streets are all lined-up along an axis that begins with the street Stettiner Straße (Szczecin) that becomes the Danziger Straße (Gdańsk) and later turns into the Breslauer Straße (Wrocław).
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I was growing up in the northern part of Göttingen. Close to the home of my parents was the factory building of Sartorius, producing pharmaceutical and laboratory equipment. And this area was for sure closed, you couldn’t look behind the walls surrounding it. With the extension of the company and the continuous move to the industrial area in the city quarter Grone the former company area (now called Sartorius-Quartier) was opened up. It now contains a restaurant with a rooftop bar, a life science innovation hub, a hotel, shops, numerous flats and a new event location, the Sheddach-Halle.
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In medieval times it was important to know very fast what’s happening around your city. Therefore Göttingen hat a set of watchtowers (‘Warten‘) and the Diemardener Warte is one of the few that are preserved. You can reach it when leaving Göttingen to the south in the direction of Gleichen. It was built in the year 1409 and you can enjoy views on Göttingen, Klein Lengden and Diemarden from there.
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Like every city, Göttingen is collecting items relevant to the history of the region. That’s the task of the Städtisches Museum located in the Hardenberger Hof. It was created in 1883 and was first placed in the Grätzelhaus at the Goetheallee. In 1897 it moved to its current location, an ancient building from the year 1592. The building was continuously extended but the buildings have two central drawbacks: they are not visible from the pedestrian zone (even though it is not far away) and maintaining these old buildings costs a lot of money.
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Did you ever watch a movie in a church? If not, the Méliès at Göttingen gives you the option to do so. It is a small cinema located in a former Baptist church close to the Bürgerstraße, the ring surrounding the city center. The old church dates back to the year 1903 and was standing empty for about 35 years until a new usage and an investor had been found. Now it houses a special cinema, the former altar is now stage and screen and the gallery of the church has been preserved so that the former character of the building remains.
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The Lumière is one of the small cinemas at Göttingen, Germany. Named after the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière, pioneers of cinema technology, it was opened in 1986 close to the city center, next to the new town hall building. The cinema understands itself as an alternative to the typical multiplex cinemas of our times. It has one single room which is used to show films, for exhibitions and theatre performances.
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When the people of Göttingen leave their homes for an extended walk, they most often go to the Kehr, the surrounding forest, the Kerstlingeröder Feld, or the Kiessee. But many people also prefer to spend their time in the south of the city, very often close to the Flütewehr. There a dam redirects river Leine to the east, leaving only a small stream called Flüte who passes the Kiessee. They dam can be used to cross the river and close-by dogs can swim in the water. As the newest addition a biotope with zebus has been created.
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When you’re walking through the pedestrian zone in the city center of Göttingen, Germany, you might be surprised to see a beautiful arrangement of Asian lanterns next to the Nabel statue. What was formerly a butcher’s shop has been transformed into an Asian fusion restaurant; a bit too small, a bit too loud – but with extremely delicious meals and extraordinary decorations.
Continue reading “GÄMIE”
When the houses in the Ebertal in the south of Göttingen will be rebuilt also the streets will change: some new ones will appear, others will be renamed. A long part of the current Lönsweg will than be known as the Meta-Kamp-Steinmann-Straße. On the Gothaer-Areal nearby a Hedwig-Gehrke-Weg will appear and maybe we will also see a Marianne-Ellenbogen-Weg in the near future. Hopefully these new street names will cause people to search for the history behind them. What does connect these three women?
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Once upon a time the city of Göttingen had different cinemas: the Sterntheater in the Sternstraße, the Capitol in the Prinzenstraße, the Cinema in the Weender Straße and many more before them. When in 1996 the large multiplex cinema CinemaxX opened in the former Lokrichthalle we all went there and enjoyed the modern atmosphere and the new technology. This was the beginning of the end of the smaller cinemas.
Continue reading “Absorption”