Cultural Security in Post-mining Landscapes : The Case of the Sorbs in Middle Lusatia

Abstract:

What role does culture play in reclaimed mining landscapes? How is this handled in the Lusatian lignite mining area, which overlaps to a large extent with the settlement area of the Sorbian national minority? Resettlements as a result of mining, above all when they involve the destruction of whole villages, have a severe effect on the affected inhabitants. They not only effectuate an invasion of sociocultural structures but also of organic settlement structures within the cultural landscapes. This results in the loss of one’s homeland and sense of cultural security. This chapter illustrates a situation of such extreme crisis with the example of the Schleife Parish in Central Lusatia, an area straddling the Länder of Brandenburg and Saxony in East Germany. The chapter first discusses the impacts of lignite mining on the Sorbian community in general, before the sample region with the Schleife Parish and the Nochten lignite mine is introduced. It then examines the role that Sorbian culture plays in different official planning documents. Finally, the breadth of possibilities for regaining cultural security in a reclaimed mining landscape are assessed. The starting point of this analysis is an approach to the concept of cultural landscape, in which the bicultural nature of the region is taken into account and in which the Sorbian minority has the opportunity of following the paths of active involvement in planning processes.