City of Pößneck supports Jena's application for Future Center location

At its meeting this evening, the Pößneck City Council unanimously approved the "Support for the application of the city of Jena as a location for the Future Center for German Unity and European Transformation (ZET) and assurance of cooperation". The letter to be issued by Mayor Michael Modde for his Jena counterpart Dr. Thomas Nitzsche reads as follows

"The city of Pößneck hereby pledges to cooperate with the ZET in its development and work if it is successful and, as jointly envisaged in the course of the application initiative, to establish a first permanent ZET contact point here, which can carry the work of the ZET into the region as an example, organize events and exhibitions on site and enable networking."

The urgency of such a concern, and consequently of the new center to be established at a location in eastern Germany, was made clear at an accompanying event in Pößneck last Thursday. At the "Erzählcafé zum Treuhandfall ROTASYM" in the inner courtyard of the Museum642-Pößnecker Stadtgeschichte, there was a great need to talk about this transformation topic of the post-reunification period: the Treuhandanstalt had sold the ball bearing manufacturer VEB Rotasym, the largest local employer in 1989, to FAG Kugelfischer, which, despite well-filled order books and up-to-date machinery, switched off the lights at the Pößneck competitor shortly afterwards, contrary to all earlier promises. It became impressively clear how the exemplary mechanisms of not being listened to and being pre-determined facts had a subliminal and long-lasting declassifying effect on people in the East, also due to the flood of similar stories and procedures.

"What an impressive, emotional event!" summarized Tilo Schieck, a member of theJena ZET application team, after the storytelling café. "There were pieces of paper in the hands of the visitors, on which they had written down what they finally wanted to say, not only among old colleagues, but also in public."

Companies such as ROTASYM were not just employers, but to a greater extent the center of life, identity and social and cultural institutions that shaped the region. A ZET therefore has truly important tasks to perform - in addition to scientific transformation research, also as a space for storytelling and listening, from diverse points of view, origins, perspectives, appreciating each other, recognizing life's achievements. The city of Jena approached the region with this in mind and Pößneck was involved in the application process from the outset - with the message that the voices of the surrounding area should have a say in the ZET.

With today's decision, the Pößneck City Council has assured Pößneck's voice.