Landscape – Great Idea! X-LArch III - Department für Raum ...

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Fig. 1: Diagram of the open-cast mine and its recultivation (Krummsdorf & Grümmer 1981)
forced by flooding, there is a high risk of unstable slopes
sliding. Therefore, the basic task is to secure the slopes
and restore a sustainable self-regulating water balance.
As keeping the open pits permanently dry is extremely
expensive, the remediation process was to be carried out
as quickly as possible. In parallel, extensive programmes
were funded by the state for research on hydrology, soil
chemistry, remediation techniques and natural succession
to consolidate the reclamation process scientifically
(LMBV 2001). As a whole, the initial task of the remediator
is not to design a landscape as such, but rather to minimise
the purely technical hazards and restore the water
balance (cf. numerous contributions to the standard work
of Pflug 1998). As the critics point out, however, in actual
fact the landscape so dramatically altered by the mine is
completely transformed once more, and with public funds
at that. This led to serious disputes during the 1990s and
the question of what the core themes are that should
govern how these landscapes are developed and used in
the future.
The sectoral planning for the open-cast mines adopted
with the West German planning system was not initially
adjusted to the particular conditions of East Germany. In
this situation, concepts were developed that, considered
in simple terms, consisted of the four use models: (1)
Agricultural and silvicultural recultivation was planned on
dump areas with suitable substrates. (2) Facility areas
of the mines that were well developed infrastructurally
should be made into commercial parks. (3) The residual
pits were to be used as bathing lakes or for water
management. (4) Some areas were eventually to be used
for nature reserves. These concepts proved problematic
and caused controversy for the following reasons: firstly,
an agricultural and sivicultural use of the devastated
areas is often not economically viable for the foreseeable
future. Secondly, newly established commercial
parks often remain unused. Thirdly, it was often criticised
that the technical reclamation generates monotonous
lakes all over the place that have standardised banks,
a biotope area, and a beach mostly followed by a boat
rental. – This criticism reflects the discrepancy between
the technical concepts and their sensible use for these
landscapes. The dominant view in industrial society,
according to which maximising uses signals progress,
has clearly hit a brick wall here. At least, there are no
apparent prospects of squeezing an economic use out of
these brownfields. Quite the contrary, in fact: these sites
are the remnants of radical utilisation logic. The concept
of eliminating the vestiges of mining during the recultivation
and designing of lakes came up against sometimes
fierce criticism. After all, it was not only the economic parameters
that appeared dubious, but primarily the social
and cultural implications of the concept.
The criticism led to the partial modification of the reclamation
concept. It came from two different directions, both
of which are based upon a closer look at the brownfields
[Fig. 2]. From the perspective of nature conservation,
open-cast mines did indeed mean a colossal intervention
that led to the destruction of numerous “near-natural” areas.
At the same time, however, the animal and plant life
that spontaneously settles in the unremediated areas and
the relief variety there is valued. These are distinguished
as typical biotopes for open-cast mines and a particular
landscape-aesthetic fascination and wilds character is attributed
to them (Tischew 2004: 5). Because reclamation
endangers these qualities, a new concept was developed
that integrates nature preservation aspects in the remediation
process (like in the “Goitzsche Wildnis”). The second
criticism referring to reclamation is culturally grounded.
Karl Ganser regards it as “an obsolete view of modernity”
that the industrial society tends to undo everything produced
industrially. The landscape can therefore be understood
as an ensemble of different cultural strata, including
industrial ones. In transforming the landscape, the new
should be interwoven with the vestiges and relics of industry
(Ganser in Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau 1999: 81). [3]
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