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 The last district council - a special eulogy for our "enabling district administrator" 

The last district assembly on June 15, 2022 was also the last of District Administrator Bernd Lange . In a short, but very personal, emotional speech, he said goodbye to this big stage, which is so important for the district, with the words: “You have to inspire people together, listen to them, discuss with them and don't promise anything they can't keep “.

The district council itself found very personal words of remembrance and thanks in a joint eulogy by Thomas Pilz (district councilor Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), who spoke on behalf of the council of elders of the district council of Görlitz for all fractions We would like to express our appreciation and gratitude as a guest contribution in the original wording:

Dear District Administrator, dear Bernd Lange

You had asked us, as factions in the Council of Elders, not to give co-presentations after your review. We stick to that: not five different co-speakers, but a short speech for all factions together - I was chosen because we have known each other since the Görlitz district council was founded and have therefore shared political life in this district together for 14 years. I was delighted to be able to speak for the whole House here at such a dignified moment, and at the same time I noticed during the preparations that finding the right words is not that easy. What do you say to someone who is 10 years older, who belongs to the CDU, with whom I, as an Alliance Green, was not so seldom wrong and always lie? When we first came together in 2008 as delegations from the districts of Lö-ZI, NOL and Stadt GR that were to be merged, it was not yet clear whether you would become the district administrator of the new district. However, as NOL district administrator, you supported the fact that the district councils must have resources available for their work. That sounds rather banal today, but it was anything but a matter of course back then.  

The relationship between you as district administrator and us as district councilors was constructive, sometimes difficult and also tense - but always characterized by respect and respect. You knew how important the district council is not only for the decisions and thus the ability of the administration to act, but also as a transformation belt into the district society and back into the administration: district councils must be able to explain politics, regardless of it whether they are for it or against it. And: they must be able to develop and submit their applications, which dictate your actions. Not only formally, after the "GO" - but also in terms of content. That requires eye level - and that has always been the case with all the arguments and some emotional outbursts. An eye level that has allowed us to stand very closely together on most budgetary issues over the past 10 years, as a district council and administration. This story is not over, but is only heading towards its climax with the current lawsuit against the Free State.

During these years, I felt I could always feel the conflicts that the knowledge of the disadvantage of the district in financial equalization on the one hand and your loyalty to your own state-ruling party brought you into. The story that years ago you organized sit-in However, their distribution tells you which side you have always been on - that of the district.

A second, Bernd: 

In the 14 years I have always experienced you as a serving politician. You have a clear idea of ​​where you want to go, subsidiarity is part of your tools of the trade. And with this in mind, I baptized you a long time ago as the "enabling district administrator". I found and still find it impressive how you deal with new ideas, approaches and initiatives. You always try to let them run first, to enable them to work, failure not excluded. We need more of this leadership quality if we want to master these great and many challenges in the years to come. These are not just projects in the broader sense. Even political concerns, even if you didn't share them, you made it possible in a fair way. I remind you of things that we set in motion together: the promotion of culture in the district , the future workshop for phasing out coal, but also the Herrnhuter Bahn , where we still have different opinions to this day, but whose alternatives are still in the running. And from the enabling district administrator, I quickly got to the cultural district administrator: Not only the cultural people among us will certainly agree with me. How lucky for Upper Lusatia to have a cultural politician at the head of the administration in the district and in the cultural area in Bernd Lange for the last 21 years (that's how long we've actually known each other)! I cannot appreciate it highly enough that you are leaving your full-time political office in a mixed situation that would have made it possible for quite a few existing cultures to end at any time and certainly not for the start of a new culture, with a stable, diverse and dense one rural area unique cultural landscape in Germany. I would like to thank you personally for this, as I personally experienced these struggles and conflicts as chairman of the cultural advisory board (we sometimes touched each other hard there too).

Most things were and are possible for you because you have good people by your side. As a representative of the district council, I feel the need to thank your wife and family. It is not the case that the burdens that such an office entails do not affect personal family relationships. Anyone who claims that has no human understanding of politics. Conversely, this means that your family has often stood by you, supported you and supported you. We sincerely thank you for that. We would also like to thank those who have been by your side throughout your many years in office: the deputies, heads of department and heads of office. (I know they're not going yet, but no good county commissioner without good staff).

I have to come to the end, although there is still so much to say: e.g. that in the last few years of your term of office you did not choose the major challenges (keyword structural change, Corona, refugees, financial crisis, swine fever), but you did it with your sleeves rolled up encountered and have mastered it to this day. But what else needs to be said: with you, a career changer is leaving local politics. One of the last to enter the ring of democracy in 1990 and wanted to contribute to a free society with free people. After you come the professional politicians... That means, with you, a political generation is leaving the full-time stage that knows the absence of democracy and the lack of freedom very personally. With your biography you have something in your toolbox that we will lack in the future as a matter of course and must be remembered.   

One last: 

Kulturfabrik I accommodate many guests who are curious and want to know what it's like to live here. Lately I've been telling two stories again and again: We are a coal phase-out region and have developed a strategy for the future. Lausitz 2050 - it says how we ideally want to combine our regional development with the solution of the pending questions of mankind. The result is the idea of ​​a very livable, modern rural region in the middle of Europe that many envy us for.

And I tell them about the breathtaking speed with which civil society was and is able to take in several thousand refugees from Ukraine in a friendly and empathetic manner after February 24th. 

Both, Bernd, tell something about the district that you are leaving after 14 years of leadership. For that, I owe you my very personal thanks and the gratitude of my colleagues in the district councils.

PS: We also thought of a gift. But with the experience of your 60th birthday, we prefer to come to you for a beer after you have left office and then hand you the voucher, so much can be said, for a sightseeing flight over the district. So we'll come again.  

Thomas Pilz

District Council Alliance 90 / The Greens

on behalf of the council of elders of the Görlitz district council