structural development

 Who would have thought how quickly everything could go!?

Last Saturday, the new center for data-intensive system research, the CASUS Institute, invited to the open day. CASUS uses digital tools to research complex systems such as climate, biodiversity and exotic states of matter.

This includes cosmic particle and energy flows in the vicinity of super-heavy objects as well as the weather, artificial intelligence, the interaction of physics, chemistry and biology in living organisms or networked and autonomous driving in the city of the future. Wow! Beautiful, complex terms - and of course in need of explanation. During the event, the CASUS scientists presented their work to the hundreds of inquisitive Görlitz residents in the Uferpark. With the best weather, beautiful music and delicious snacks, it was a successful presentation of the highly complex research areas. World-class research, the future you can touch, so to speak - soon with us directly on the Neisse, homemade. The old factory will be remodeled next year. A two-digit million amount invested. International world-class researchers settle with us on the Neisse. Great.

Around 200 interested Görlitzers came to be inspired by the new sciences and to marvel at the old work in full patina and to have them explain how the future will be made here in the near future.

Just as great as the information that MP Michael Kretschmer and State Secretary Prof. Wolf-Dieter Lukas from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) signed a declaration on the funding and financing of CASUS until 2038. Because with this long-term perspective, the conversion of the "old capacitor plant" on the Neisse into a modern research facility becomes possible. The CASUS is designed as an institute of the Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) together with the partners Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research Leipzig, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics Dresden, Technical University Dresden and University of Wrocław - these cooperation agreements were also signed signed at the open day.

The "Lost Place" will soon be history

Until recently, the former VEB condenser plant in Görlitz was only an attraction for lovers of old industrial monuments. People who like to look at, photograph and display on websites such as "Lost Places" or "Rotten Places" once great production facilities that are now only attractive because of their faded charm.

For a long time, Görlitz had such a "lost place" almost in the middle of the city with the VEB condenser factory.

Now, however, the building has a brilliant, internationally respected future ahead of it. But... what was actually produced in the dilapidated building, why did you need... "capacitors"? And - isn't the building much older, what did it house before?

The factory building was built in the imperial era, around 1890. Various companies manufactured suitcases and steam boilers here, and there was also a diamond grinding shop for a time. In 1952 the VEB condenser plant Görlitz - the older Görlitzers will remember - started the production of paper condensers, energy storage devices for radios, televisions and other electric and electronic devices. At first, hundreds of employees work for domestic needs, but also for export. In the 1960s, demand increased rapidly, so that by the mid-1970s, over 1000 employees were producing, also in branch factories on the Polish side and in a new factory (from 1988). But by then the market had changed: cheaper Asian products pushed out the former market leader from Eastern Europe. In 1992, the Görlitzer Capacitor Works had to file for bankruptcy. Hundreds were left unemployed, the building fell into disrepair and became a magnet for "Lost Place" tourists.

But now the decay has stopped. The fact that on September 4th, 2021 a clear signal was given for a new beginning - one that puts Görlitz at the forefront of research in the world - makes us happy and makes the city happy!

We are looking forward to more and will keep you up to date on CASUS - as always, here in the plusmimus blog!

Best regards!

Your

Yasna

Both photos: Copyright CASUS/N. Schmidt