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TALE OF TWO CITIES: Divided for decades by the cold war, Göorlitz and Zgorzelec straddle a faultline between east and west
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Sluggish and muddy brown, the narrow Neisse doesn't look like much of a river. A mere 46 m at its widest point and so shallow that a child could wade across it, the stream that divides Germany's easternmost city, Görlitz, from the town of Zgorzelec in Poland has nothing of the Rhine's majesty or the Moselle's quaintness. But when it comes to political and symbolic significance, the still waters of the Neisse run deep.
Part of the boundary established by the Allied powers after World War II, the Neisse today marks another frontier: between the European Union and the former Eastern Bloc countries that want to join. As integration into the E.U. becomes an ever more contentious political, economic and cultural issue, these two towns on the frontline of "ever closer union" embody both the difficulties and the opportunities facing Europe as a whole.
An all-German settlement until 1945, Görlitz, which this year marks its 930th birthday, developed from a thriving trade and manufacturing town at the heart of upper Lusatia into an even more prosperous center for the vehicle-building and textile industries in the 19th and early 20th centuries. At the end of World War II, the town was split: its eastern quarters — now Zgorzelec — became part of Poland as European boundaries were rearranged at the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences. As a result, thousands of ethnic Germans fled or were driven out of the country. Where once several bridges had spanned the Neisse only one road bridge remained, and that was heavily guarded by border patrols.
Many people in pretty, prosperous Görlitz dread the day when Poland, the Czech Republic and other East European countries join the E.U., while those in unlovely, impoverished Zgorzelec can't wait for that day to come. The Germans fear that the region's ailing economy will decline even further once competitors from the east move in, while the Poles hope for just the opposite: more jobs and a higher standard of living thanks to the E.U.
A look behind Görlitz's handsome façade explains why, a decade after reunification, so many of its citizens are wary of the changes E.U. enlargement may bring. Although $500 million was spent on renovation and the place now resembles an open-air museum with its pastel-colored neoclassical villas and imposing Renaissance and Baroque mansions, the economic foundations are crumbling. At 21.6%, joblessness is 5% higher than in the rest of Saxony and more than twice as high as the national average. Of the 13 large industrial plants Görlitz once supported, three have closed down and the remaining 10 employ only a tenth of their former workforce of 21,000. The city has also lost 18,000 of its reunification population of around 81,000, mostly young people who — as many of their Polish counterparts would no doubt love to do — trek to the West and its promise of jobs and prosperity.
Like many of his colleagues, Hans-Ulrich Lehmann, the founder of a Görlitz metal-working firm that manufactures steel and wrought-iron fittings, isn't looking forward to open borders. "Once people here find out that our Polish competitors offer the same products and services but for less money, they'll place their orders there," he says. "Without considerable state subsidies, we'd have to lower our prices to compete. But we can't afford to do that since the necessary wage cuts would scare our employees away." Lehmann doesn't believe E.U. enlargement will attract new industrial enterprises to the area unless innovation centers and research institutes settle here as well.
Barbara Nowke, a self-employed anesthetist, also regards E.U. enlargement with "misgivings rather than hope." Not only does she expect "the euro to become even softer" once the first batch of former East Bloc countries become members, but the 45-year-old also fears that "a great number of Polish workers willing to work for lower wages will move into the region." That the rest of the state and the country will actually benefit from such an influx — particularly of computer experts, but also craftsmen from various fields — doesn't change her mind. Expanding her sphere of professional activity to Poland, Nowke says, is not an option because she, like the overwhelming majority of Görlitz's population, does not speak Polish.
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