Identitätsfindungsprozesse in einer Tagebaufolgelandschaft – vom Ausnutzen, Wandeln, Aneignen und Wertschätzen

Abstract In many places, Lusatia is viewed with negative connotations as a dying open-pit lignite mining area. This applies to outside perspectives in particular, but also corresponds to the self-image of many people in Lusatia. The cultural landscape resulting from open-cast mining is not perceived as such. One of the goals of the Land-Innovation-Lusatia project is to learn to read, understand and appreciate this landscape and to design and develop it based on this knowledge. Awareness of history and optimism about the future are mutually dependent. In this landscape construction site in Lusatia, attempts have been made for more than a century to recultivate, renature and redesign the landscapes that follow the depletion of the mining area, and thus to reshape the landscapes in line with the ideals and models of the prevailing zeitgeist. The mosaic of post-open pit landscape designs formed in this process over the last twelve decades constitutes a globally unique representation of human restoration of former open-cast mining landscapes through the ages. Lusatia can be understood as a globally unique showcase of the changing approaches to opencast mining recultivation over time. The goal of a World Heritage nomination of this landscape supports the social and cultural integration of this research in the region by enhancing the construction of an identity in Lusatia that proudly looks back on more than a century of innovative land use. The combination of unique, innovative land-use traditions with innovative and contemporary land-use research is intended to bring the Land-Innovation-Lusatia (LIL) research initiatives closer to the tradition-focused segments of the population and also increase the appreciation of them. But where and how do you start? This article aims to address these questions in more detail, explain the background to them and illuminate the identification process. Identity-finding processes in a former open-cast mining landscape – on exploiting, changing, assimilating and appreciating