“We need more rusted metal!” exclaimed the French artists Marc Babarit and Gilles Bruni. On this day in the middle of the Goitzsche, a 62 km region in the former East Germany that was once one of the largest brown coal mines in Europe and is currently the largest landscape art project in the world, an unusual group has come together. There are the artists. And there are the workers, mostly all former miners from the region who have become unemployed since the closing of the mine in 1991 after German reunification and the immediate restructuring of the former East’s economy and society. Gathered around an artificial hill of gravel, sand, dirt, and a couple of rusted metal scraps, the artists have decided that they need more metal to realize their vision of a hill that represents the industrial history of the landscape. The local residents offer their help. Immediately, the crowd disperses to search for potential contributions. Soon, the workers have returned with heaps of personal belongings that they are willing to donate to the art project. The hill is now effectively covered with old, soon-to-be-rusted objects.

For the Goitzsche and region surrounding Bitterfeld, the last 100 years have been a time of immense upheaval and transformation. Situated in what was once one of the most industrialized regions in Europe, the visions and tensions of Germany’s recent history have been deeply imprinted onto the region’s physical and psychological landscape. Today, the former mine has been flooded to create a new landscape of lakes, and various art projects have been integrated onto the emerging shorelines. Once called “the dirtiest corner in Europe,” Bitterfeld and the Goitzsche now must be seen as a model for comprehensive, dialogue-based regional planning and development. The unique approach implemented in the Goitzsche utilizes art to strengthen the distinct character of local places, foster intercity cooperation, build sensitivity to ecology, and promote interdisciplinary and international collaboration.

In the middle of the 19th century, Bitterfeld and the Goitzsche first began to develop as a major resource of brown coal for rapidly industrializing Prussia and the soon to be declared German empire of 1871. At the beginning of the 20th century, an open-pit mine was already operating and chemical industries soon implanted themselves next to the rich energy source. The area was also at the forefront of German cultural development. The Bauhaus located in nearby Dessau and AGFA, where color film was first developed, began in Wolfen, directly next to Bitterfeld. After the Second World War, the already heavily devastated landscape received no respite. The area resided in the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany, soon to become the communist German Democratic Republic (GDR). In GDR policy, intense industrial production came before environmental concerns, and the mining and chemical industries were expanded. The mine in particular grew immensely in this period, and in the process four historic villages were entirely displaced and the natural route of the main regional river, the Mulde, was dramatically altered. Although the mine provided work for the surrounding communities, the negative environmental impacts upon people’s lives were enormous. In windy weather, the neighboring cities would become completely submerged in polluted soil blown over from the open-pit. Few places in Europe had such a terrible reputation. Whenever people from Bitterfeld or the other villages would meet others from outside the region, they would always be viewed as types of second-class citizens, unfortunate residents of a sickly environment. After the fall of the GDR in 1989 and the reunification of Germany in 1991, the mine was closed and the region was declared an ecological disaster site.

After the closing of the mine, much of the regional population was left unemployed, stranded in the environmental hazards of the destroyed landscape. The open-pit was a massive desert of polluted soil. The surrounding communities were forced to confront the ecological restoration of the former mine and to also begin developing a new economy and identity for the region. From 1991, the planning of the landscape was led by the landscape architecture firm Knoll Ecoplan, headed by Prof. Siegfried Knoll. In these desperate conditions, Ecoplan saw the opportunity to help the region redevelop through dynamic planning and design. Their aim was to provide the local communities with useable, accessible public space, while at the same time confronting the socio-economic problems of the area by creating jobs, establishing opportunities for future economic growth in recreation, and improving the quality of life in the region in order to help attract new employers. The new landscape would neither be a monument to the past nor would it erase the traces of history. Bringing the past into the present through site-specific art projects, the new landscape would lay the foundation for the region’s future success in a post-industrial capitalist economy.

To achieve connection with the local communities, the Zweckverband was created to play a mediating role. Roughly translated as “purpose association,” this organization, headed by Dr. Michael Stoppa, brought together the leading politicians of the eight surrounding communities to discuss the development of the region. The Zweckverband became an integral part of the planning process, being the structure that connected the professionals from outside with the concerns of the locals, assuring that the visions of the planners, designers, and artists would be in tune with the needs and concerns of the communities themselves.

The most important result of the Zweckverband was the creation of the so-called “Shoreline Contract,” a document that outlines the cooperative goals of the different Goitzsche communities and assures a future of quality, sustainable development in the region. The “Shoreline Contract” focuses upon the creation and preservation of public space in the new landscape. The very first point of the contract binds all communities to respect the new shoreline as public space not to be developed for private purposes (outside of a selected intensive use region near Bitterfeld). The shorelines are accessible to all for relaxation and recreation. In a region with such an intense history of political turmoil and oppression, the formation of public space was seen as an essential groundstone for promoting democracy and community-based, socially-conscious future development. In 1995, Knoll Ecoplan completed a comprehensive masterplan for the entire region. The plan cultivated a mixture of uses in different areas. It set aside places exclusively for environmental protection, others for light recreation (hiking trails and bike paths) or more intensive use, such as camping and limited commerce. Lastly, sites were designated for the integration of art projects. Most of the art projects would be on the half-island of Pouch, a peninsula that would be a perfect place for creating a web of interconnected landscape art projects.

The implementation and selection of the art projects was led by the state-financed, but privately-incorporated organization, EXPO 2000 Saxony-Anhalt. A product of a time of great concern in Germany for the redevelopment of the former East, this organization, headed by Gerhard Seltmann, carried out regionally significant projects to be showcased at the World EXPO in Hannover in 2000. The state of Saxony-Anhalt, its image within Germany and abroad heavily tainted by its extensive environmental, social, and economic problems, saw the World EXPO as an opportunity to create and showcase innovative methods for the redevelopment of the state’s most troubled regions. The Goitzsche was just one of more than twenty projects executed by the corporation, but it was undoubtedly the largest. The role of EXPO 2000 was essential to the realization of the Goitzsche, providing much of the funding and vision for the art projects and forcing the project to be completed by a specific deadline.

EXPO 2000 selected the art projects through the Kuratorium for the Cultural Landscape Goitzsche, a forum that realized the interdisciplinary and international objectives of the region’s politicians and the project’s planners. In 1997, EXPO 2000 invited various artists, scientists, politicians, architects, and engineers from throughout Germany and Europe to discuss the integration of art into the new lake landscape. The creation of the art projects was seen as far more than “art for art’s sake.” Art was understood in practical terms as a means of communication between the professionals and the local communities, and as a tool for strengthening the identity of the region to assure a tangible connection between the history of the landscape and its slowly emerging future. There would be no place for autonomous public art projects that did not engage directly with the unique character of the place.

Along with the rusted metal covered hills of Babarit and Bruni (8 Hills and 49 coalcones), the Swimming Stones of Nadia Schmidt and the Disappeared River of Herman Prigann are two works that are particularly powerful in their reconstruction of the memory of the place. The Swimming Stones are ten floating pontoons, on top of which Schmidt placed different types of small rock from the former mine itself. The idea was to bring the former texture of the pit up onto the surface of the new lakes. The Disappeared River recreates the former, natural course of the Mulde river, redirected in GDR times to expand the mine, with a combination of undulating hills, large boulders, and poles in the lake itself.

Another one of the most significant art projects is the AGORA, an open-air amphitheater made primarily of white granite designed by Knoll. The AGORA lies on the half-island of Pouch with the majority of the other art projects and serves as the central meeting and event space for the area. Knoll envisioned the amphitheater as a modern version of the ancient Greek meeting place from which the title is derived. In the same manner as the “Shoreline Contract,” the main function of the AGORA is to serve as a public space where all of residents of the community may come together. In design terms, the AGORA is distinguished by its unusual form: all of the seating rows are curving lines. This continuously curving shape was developed in conjunction with Swiss sound artist Andres Bosshard. Working with Knoll, Bosshard helped design the amphitheater for optimal acoustics, allowing for the sounds of the new natural landscape to be clearly heard by people sitting in the AGORA.

One of the few art projects not on the half-island of Pouch is the Water Level Tower. Created by German architect Prof. Wolfgang Christ, the Water Level Tower was designed with the specific purpose of evolving as the symbolic image of the newly emerging landscape. Christ designed a tower and connecting bridge that would constantly rise with the flooding of the mine. The height of the tower itself is the exact height of the future shoreline. Thus, as water floods the mine, the tower rises and serves as a measure of the changing water level of the lake itself. Constantly concerned with the psychology of the community and its relationship to the project, the planners, artists, and politicians believed that a singular, unifying symbol would bring people together and provide a tangible image to understand the changing character of the region. The tower was funded by the local Sparkasse bank, a unique German banking institution that invests in socially-responsible and regionally-significant projects.

At first there was resentment and confusion among the local community concerning the idea of using art to drive the redevelopment of the region. Most of the population had little experience with art and saw the projects as a waste of money. These feelings were not ignored, but instead directly confronted through an atmosphere of dialogue.

One of the central moments in this exchange was during the construction of the art projects. All artists were required to be present during the building of their works. The projects’ construction was carried out by unemployed former miners and managed by the former mining company, the LMBV. This building method created jobs and forced the artists to shape their work in dialogue with the local population. At the same time, this process allowed the community to learn through firsthand experience the significance and purpose of the art projects. Another one of the educational events was the so-called “Artist’s Evening,” in which all the artists presented their works to the community and answered any questions local residents had concerning the intended meaning of their art. The Goitzsche is a project that recognizes the essential role of social issues and psychology in regional planning processes. This is far from pure aesthetic design. This is landscape architecture, public art, and community planning that understands the context of a project as the essential factor in the creation of place. The Goitzsche is a landscape designed to be used, and it is through use that its benefits for the community will be realized. This commitment to the concerns of people can be seen in almost every element of the project.

The Goitzsche has always been a special place. Today, however, it is no longer remarkable for its degree of heavy industry and ecological destruction, but instead as one of the most interesting landscape redevelopment projects in the world. In a region traditionally at the forefront of technology and ideas, it is fitting that today the whole area can be seen as an inspiring model for planners, artists, developers, and politicians.