The news for Gera and the surrounding area to start your Monday

Gera. Harvest festival, balloon flight anniversary, Fort Wayne exchange: This and more in the short news for Gera and the surrounding area

Harvest Festival in the Botanical Garden Gera

GeraAt the end of the 2024 season, the Museum of Natural History Gera and the Society of Friends of Natural Sciences in Gera invite you to the traditional harvest festival in the Botanical Garden on Sunday, September 22nd, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. There will be a lot to discover for mushroom pickers, but basically for all garden and nature lovers. A special highlight is the mushroom exhibition, which is being organized by mushroom expert Bodo Wagner with mushroom friends from the “Pilzstammtisch Gera” together with the Museum of Natural History. Mushrooms you have collected yourself can be brought along and identified by the mushroom expert. Information on the subject of bees and honey is available from the Gera 1879 Beekeepers’ Association. Various pumpkin plants with their ripe fruits can be viewed in the greenhouse. Advice and products for soil improvement are offered by Terraeconet and the Wurmverein. Small works of art made of ceramics, wood and stone by Liebstückl can be admired and purchased. A wide range of hands-on activities with games for all generations on the topic of birds, a photo competition by the Nature Conservation Youth Kids and craft opportunities for children round off the offer. The Gera Health Team will provide culinary delights with soups, bread, coffee and cake, and the Green House Gera association will provide fresh waffles.

Still looking for participants for student exchange

Gera. Students aged between 15 and 18 from Gera have until the end of October to apply to take part in a student exchange in Gera’s twin town Fort Wayne in the US federal state of Indiana. The visit is scheduled to take place from October 2nd to 18th, 2025 during the fall break. The visit to the twin town will again be led by Dana Wagner. The students will be accommodated with host families during their stay in the American twin town. The costs for the flight and transport to and from the airport must be financed by the students themselves. At the same time, a 2-week visit by students from Fort Wayne is also planned from June 10th to 25th in Gera. They will also be accommodated with local host families. When applying to Fort Wayne, preference will therefore be given to students whose families are willing to host a student from Fort Wayne for two weeks. Please send applications by October 30th by email to: [email protected]. A notification will be sent to those applicants who have been selected by the end of the year.

New round in the Gera Skat Championship

GeraThe ninth Skat tournament for the 2024 open club championship will take place on Tuesday, September 17th. A round of 60 will be played at 6 p.m. in the “Am Fuchsberg” restaurant on Ebert-Straße 47b. The stake is 10 euros. The stakes are paid out in full as prize money on the same evening. The rake money will be paid out to the best in the overall ranking at the end of the year. All Skat fans are invited. The eighth tournament in August was won by Andreas Wüchner ahead of Udo Jähring and Horst Liepelt.

Parkinson’s support group meets

Gera. On Wednesday, September 18th, the Parkinson’s self-help group will meet at 2 p.m. in the “Eichenhof” in Gera-Lusan, Eichenstraße 11 b. Stefan Brodoeht (neurologist) and Eric Winter (Parkinson’s assistant) will be available as guests to answer questions and address problems related to Parkinson’s disease.

45 years of balloon flight – school project to commemorate a unique escape

Gera. September 16, 2024 marks the anniversary of the spectacular escape of two families from the GDR in a homemade hot air balloon. In 1979, the Strzelczyk and Wetzel families managed to escape from Thuringia (Oberlemnitz) across the inner-German border to the Bavarian border town of Naila in a “balloon”, after the Strzelczyks’ first escape attempt ended near Hornsgrün on the territory of the former GDR and also failed. The State Security investigations to clarify the Escape attempts come to nothing. The preparations for the production of a new, even larger balloon made of 1,200 square meters of fabric also remain undiscovered, so that Peter Strzelczyk and Günter Wetzel, together with their wives and children, are able to make the journey to freedom this time.

This event, which goes down in history under the name “balloon escape”, is documented by the Memorial Amthordurchgang Gera in a special school project. Four schools whose locations are historically linked to the escape are taking part: Pößneck, Bad Lobenstein, Gera and Naila. The students are given the opportunity to experience and reflect on the historical events in a variety of ways. The content of the project includes getting to know the history of the GDR, experiencing and evaluating the film “Balloon” (2018) together, tracing the original escape route, visiting the Naila Museum in the Schusterhof, critically examining the history of the GDR in the film in comparison to real events and contact with contemporary witnesses. Günter Wetzel (main initiator) and Anke Strzelczyk (family member who stayed in the GDR) accompany the students with their memories of the balloon escape and its consequences. Another special highlight is the visit to the Mödlareuth Borderland Museum, which will bring the students closer to the reality of the inner-German border. A camera team made up of students will also be trained to document the entire project week.

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The project is made possible by the cooperation of teachers, contemporary witnesses and external experts. It is supported by: the Thuringian State Chancellery, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Thuringia, the State Center for Political Education Thuringia, the State Commissioner of the Free State of Thuringia for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship and the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship.

topicnews · September 16, 2024

The news for Gera and the surrounding area to start your Monday

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