Future Center: Narrative Café on ROTASYM Pößneck

The storytelling café on ROTASYM Pößneck and its liquidation in the early 90s - A report by Tilo Schieck

"What an impressive, emotional event! Quickly hatte on Thursday8. Septemberevening the small foyer of the Pößnecker City Museum was filled. There was a need to talk - too long was not talked about ROTASYM and its liquidation by the the Treuhand and itscompetitor Kugelfischer spoke. Slips of paper lay in the hands of the visitors, on which they had written down what they wanted to finally bring up not only among old colleagues, but also in public.

ROTASYM, founded in 1971, was the leading bearing manufacturer in the GDR.. Modernized in 1988 and equipped with the latest machinery, ROTASYM was sold in 1991 by the Treuhand for little money to its West German competitor. competitor FAG Kugelfischer, which shortly thereafter closed the factory in Pößneck and moved the machines to its western plants. 1400 people lost their jobs.

ROTASYM was, next to the the large printing plant that still exists todaynot only the most important employer of the townit was also a symbol of identity and has shaped the region with its social and cultural institutions. Impressive was the pride of those present of their company, of the quality of their work, at their cohesion and their communityand fellowship there.All the more greater is the wound that Pößneck suffered with the closure and that has not healed to this day. And sad was to hear how little the work of the employeestheir experiences, indeed their lives, in retrospect. in retrospect appreciated, but so far rather black and white without nuances, even in their case, about the "poor, gray East". was told.

A small group around the local historian Karl Ernst has has started to research the history of ROTASYM and to publish it in the Pößnecker Heimatblätter to describe. At the event the wish was expressed thatss the research is continued, there are more public events like the storytelling café, in the city space better to the operation eand that there should also be a a special exhibition on this topic should should be created.

All tasks and topicsfor which aa future center in Jena should stand for. I presented the Jena ideas for this on behalf of the application group. The Future Center as aa space for reporting, Ercount, listenlisten,from many different points of view, originsperspectives, among each other appreciative, the livingeness, recognizing each other's achievements. That's why Jena approached the region and Pößneck was involved from the beginning. its application right from the start. And after Jena, I will take with me how important it is to the people of Pößneckers that the voices of the surrounding should be heard at the Future Centerten.

At the end of the eventwhich was chaired by Erik Studte moderated, was the great self-confidence of those present. Gut trained, professionally competentcommitted, proud of theirproud of their originsmany have found their new path in the years that followed - in municipal administration and politics, to bring their city forward again, and in a variety of positions in the region's economy. "Dignified into the future" was written on one of the wish lists collected at the end."