Location

The university town Cottbus, located about 100 km southeast of Berlin at the former border between Prussia and Saxony, is the economic and cultural centre of Lower Lusatia (Niederlausitz). Within Germany, Lower Lusatia is an inimitable region with two different ethnic groups living together for centuries, the Germans and the Sorbs – otherwise known as Wends.

Cottbus is not a huge city and perhaps not a "beautiful" one in the usual sense. But Cottbus and its environment represent a highly interesting region, especially because of the richness of places remembering the industrial history on the one hand and the impressive beauty of nature along with the various signs of the Sorbian culture on the other.

Nowadays the region is facing a massive change and exemplifies the situation encountered by many other places in Eastern Europe which were similarly de-industrialised after 1989. The marks of the industrial downfall are omnipresent – huge unused plants, large-scale washed-out landscapes, shrinking towns, dead windows hiding empty flats. But there are also many signs of the progress of the region towards a new, post-industrial future.

Cottbus - The Town >>
Niederlausitz - The Region >>
Brandenburg University of Technology >>

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