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From Tim Ruben Weimer.
Bautzen. It's like Teflon pans, says prime minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) on Monday evening, March 13, in Bautzen. Actually, the plastic was developed to be used in space travel, for example as a seal for astronaut suits, similar to Goretex protects the shoe from water. Only after that had been discovered that Teflon can also be used outside the aerospace industry, for example to coat cooking pans.
Even if the Teflon myth is actually considered disproved - the plastic had already been invented before the first man ever set foot on the moon - he shows what Kretschmer and other representatives of authorities and science were talking about at the Revierstammtisch organized by the Saxon Agency for Structural Change at the Bautzen Castle Theater wanted to convince: The German Center for Astrophysics (DZA), which will be located in Görlitz as compensation for the coal phase-out, is not only intended to attract scientists to the region, thereby creating around 1,000 jobs and strengthening the regional economy. It is also intended to change the lives of ordinary citizens.
Only 35 percent of employees are scientists
For example, that of the excavator operator in the open pit mine: "He will continue to work there until 2038, when he will enter recultivation or receive a retirement allowance that will allow him to work in another company - or he will retire," explains Kretschmer. "But he also wants his children and grandchildren to find work in the region," adds Barbara Meyer, State Secretary at the Ministry of Regional Development. "That's what the Center for Astrophysics can provide." Only 35 percent of the research center's employees are expected to be scientists. For example, he said, there will also be jobs for professions that deal with foreign languages. Meyer says that could be an opportunity for young women from the region.
Medium-sized and small companies from the region are also to benefit from the international appeal of the large research center. According to Meyer, there are also plans to hold school camps this summer to get students interested in astrophysics.
More train connections through the research center
But there is more to the large-scale research center. Service providers such as hairdressers and other businesses only exist in the region because of the previously dominant lignite industry, explains Kretschmer. "We will now repeat this in the same way with the research institute. We invest in science and then people who have nothing to do with the DZA also benefit." For instance, by expanding the infrastructure in Lusatia, for example by extending the S-Bahn to Hoyerswerda. A fast train connection to Berlin is just as desirable as one through Lusatia to Eastern Europe.
The DZA is also seen as an opportunity for the negative demographic development in Upper Lusatia. In the project "Mission 2038" of the German Children and Youth Foundation young people had contributed ideas on what structural change in the region could look like, says Victoria Luh, a research assistant at the Research Institute for Sustainability in Potsdam. "Children and young people want to see results right away, but in real life it takes time." Involving children in the change process also needs to fit their lifeworld, he said. "They don't want to sit on a board for three hours every week."
Are the boreholes suitable as nuclear waste repositories?
The fact that the DZA does not only meet with approval becomes clear when a citizen from the audience asks. How can it be ruled out that the drillings for the Einstein telescope near Ralbitz-Rosenthal not end up as a nuclear waste repository, he asks. "We also have enough skilled workers ourselves who would have to be paid properly," he adds. Foreign workers would not be needed for this, in his opinion. "I always find it exciting to get new ideas from outside," Kretschmer counters. Moreover, the Lusatian granite is not suitable for a nuclear waste repository.
Instead, explains Christian Stegmann of the German Electron Synchrotron, a basic research institute based in Zeuthen near Berlin, the daughter of the excavator driver from the lignite mining area could, for example, become head of the world's largest vacuum network at the planned Einstein telescope. Whether this really comes to Ralbitz-Rosenthal and not to South Holland or Sardinia is to be decided by 2025/26. It is already certain that an underground laboratory will be built, with or without the triangular telescope in the Lusatian granite.
Kretschmer criticizes coal phase-out brought forward to 2030
The Görlitz District Administrator, who was present as a guest Stephan Meyer (CDU) clarifies once again that the districts of Bautzen and Görlitz will continue to include the Settlement of the "Lausitz Art of Building which was inferior to the DZA in the competition. In addition, bureaucracy would have to be cut in order to accelerate the transformation process. Kretschmer blames the slow progress on the change to the traffic light coalition in Berlin. "With the new government, the spirit of the coal phase-out is gone, and it was so important." This is also expressed, he says, with the federal government's new effort to bring forward the coal phase-out to as early as 2030. Saxony is now thrown back on itself, he said. "The only ally we still have is the chancellor himself."
Note: An initial version of the article spoke of the largest "wagon network" in the world. In fact, it is the largest vacuum network. The article was corrected accordingly on 14.3 at 8.45 am.
