Tag: autotranslated

The graphic artist Heinz Möhrdel is best known in Halle-Neustadt for his design of the iconographic city coat of arms. In addition, he devoted himself to art in construction in the GDR and designed the two-part mural ‘Flight of the Swans’ in the Südpark in Haneu. But the ravages of time gnaw at the work and the mural has lost much of its former splendor.

Now the Freiraumgalerie will bring a new edition of the two-part ensemble to the wall. The Freiraumgalerie began work on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Halle-Neustadt last year. The new edition is a tribute to Heinz Möhrdel – representative of the rich architectural art in the district. 

The official opening will take place on July 11 from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Meisdorfer Straße. On this occasion, the Freiraumgalerie is once again organizing a block party as part of the Smart City Halle (Saale) project. A guided tour will take place at 5 p.m. Martin Maleschka, an expert in art in the construction of the GDR, is invited to this. But at the block party, visitors can not only marvel at the mural, but also explore the interfaces between virtual and analog space in an experimental way.
The augmented reality is made possible – a computer-aided expansion of reality perception, which many of the mobile game Pokémon GO should be known. Virtual works of art are placed in public space that can be discovered via smartphone.

The digital exhibits come from students from the Humboldt School and were developed as part of workshops in the Freiraumgalerie during art lessons. The exhibition is supplemented by sculptures that were modeled on the computer and manufactured using 3D printing. In addition, interactive installations are presented via computer monitors that react dynamically to body movements and hand gestures of visitors. Matthias Petzold from the Freiraumgalerie explains: ‘In times when many of us are in isolation in front of screens, our event is an attempt to bring people back together and to make the space tangible together.’

Until May 15th, the residents of Halle-Neustadt were asked to bring in their very own ideas for a smart Neustadt. As part of the “Digital Bridge Builder” ideas competition, which the Science2Public association is carrying out on behalf of the city, there is up to 2,000 euros in prize money. On July 1st, the jury will choose the best projects from a total of 32 submissions. The proposals range from app developments, the use of AI and 3D printing to accessibility and digital inclusion. The winners will then try out their project ideas in the pilot phase by the end of the year.

How and via which channels do people in Halle-Neustadt communicate? The artist Dr. Anna-Lena Wenzel followed up on her research. As a result of several interviews with the residents of the district who had moved in and away, they were created. At this point we publish an abridged interview with Tony (name changed), who grew up as an Afro-German in Neustadt between socialism, turnaround and baseball thug years.

Anna-Lena Wenzel: How did you experience your arrival in Halle-Neustadt?

Tony: My mother moved here with me and my younger brother in 1972. There were jobs and apartments, it said. I was six. 15 students from my class lived in my block. I still know the first names of her siblings and parents. Such a block was really like a village – only on twelve floors with an elevator. At that time everything was a construction site. We played a lot outside and sometimes made crap.

And what was it like growing up here as an Afro German?

In the tram, the space next to me often remained free, even when it was full. If I sat next to someone, he pulled his pockets closer. It was also annoying when friends had to tell me the latest racist joke. Some older people wanted to be particularly nice and praised my good German, while at the same time they couldn’t resist the curious attack on my hair.

What do you know about your father?

He came from West Africa to study mechanical engineering in the GDR, but was expelled when I was three. After that he lived in Cologne. We only had contact after the fall of the Wall. In 1990 or 1991 I went to Cologne with a colleague – for the first time to the west and for the first time to see my father again. However, there was no real bond.

How did you spend your free time?

I can still remember the disco events in our school meals. For this purpose, the tables were pushed aside with dried leftovers, played East and West music from self-made boxes and illuminated everything with two colorful lamps. The students loved it. As a non-dancer, I preferred to hear the gossip afterwards – about scuffles, first alcohol-related embarrassments or rumors of love.
How did it go for you after school?

I did an apprenticeship in the wagon construction of Ammendorf and started the first S-Bahn at 4:35 a.m. for five years. I found the wagon construction Ammendorf to be a gathering place for weird types: alcoholics, ex-knackis and would-be bigwigs. A ray of hope were the Mozambican guest workers. They were given the most unpopular tasks, but had by far the most positive charisma of all.

How did you experience the turning point?

It was an ambivalent time. While you sucked on his first banana, you got to know the employment office. In addition, our record was one of the first to be demolished and the Nazis became more and more present after reunification. While looking for a job, I came into contact with two North German types. There was a gold rush mood among them, but they also had a vision. We then set up the first large gym in Halle. I didn’t experience arrogance or contempt with the two of them. They were rather impressed by the East German reliability and the family atmosphere in the studio.

You moved away from Halle-Neustadt in 1993. What has changed and how does it feel to be back here?

There used to be two pedestrian bridges over the Magistrale. They fell victim after the turn of the tram. I can remember that as children we often lie on the floor of the bridge, which was heated by the sun, and waited for the Leuna after-work train to spit our mother out of the tunnel station again. As a child, I also rushed down my bridges in summer with roller skates and in winter with sliding shoes completely fearless.
Visually, almost nothing reminds me of my ‘old’ Neustadt. Recently someone posted a photo of facades in the ‘Frohe Zukunft’ district – they are much friendlier today compared to the GDR era. I commented briefly: ‘The facades used to be cold and unfriendly – today it’s the people who live behind them.’ That’s pretty good. What matters to me is that today I’m considered a ‘knife’ just because of my skin color. In the past, racism was not socially acceptable, the AfD made it sayable.

The full length interview:
XXXXX

All interviews are available online at:
our-haneu.de/entertainment request

Despite his young career, filmmaker Conrad Winkler is not a blank slate. He once moved to Trotha for his documentary film “Stadtrand”. The film was awarded at the Leipzig Short Film Festival ‘Kurzsucht’ and also ran in the MDR’s program. For his graduation film, the documentary film student at the renowned University of Television and Film in Munich went back to the outskirts of the city – to Halle-Neustadt. You can find out what the native of Halle is up to and why a picnic along the way triggered his initial spark for his film idea here. 

Your own thesis is often a seemingly insurmountable challenge for students, one that you prefer to postpone. However, Conrad Winkler has no pages to fill up for his graduation, but an evening program. Last year, Winkler moved to Halle-Neustadt as part of his research, before that he had hardly any points of contact with the district and only knew Haneu from swimming lessons.

The interest in the place was there, but he didn’t have a concrete idea. Neustadt is charged with polarizing images for Winkler – between socialism and social hotspots. And so Winkler got his first doubts about his own project. A random observation triggered the decisive impetus last summer in the Südpark in his. Some children have a picnic on a narrow strip of green in front of their house, no adults far and wide: a moment of lightness and naturalness. Winkler sees this as a bridge to the beginnings when Halle-Neustadt was a young and child-rich city. ‘Somehow the emotional access through this picture was there at the beginning and I thought it makes a lot of sense to look at children in Neustadt,’ says Winkler, ‘how are you currently experiencing the district and what are you making of it?’ 

The material was found for a film that he would also like to see in the cinema – a good omen for the filmmaker for a promising project. In order to find the protagonists for his film, Winkler sat in on various children and youth facilities and spent a lot of time there, tackled, helped, implemented radio and film projects with the children and also ran his casting. And watching the children closely: who has a special charisma, with whom a bond can be built? Winkler finally won four children for his film: two girls and two boys – four nationalities. Working with children is inspiring for Winkler, but also challenging. Children are much more open-minded, but the work is characterized by spontaneity, it can be planned less, you have to get involved – to the moment and the personality of the child. Convincing work, on the other hand, was particularly necessary for the parents to build trust and to make one’s own project and the special features of the documentary film comprehensible. After all, Winkler wants to accompany the families over a long period of time. It is important to get to know each other, to make your own work transparent and to introduce the families to the setting with the camera. 

In the second half of the year, the shooting will start. 20 days of shooting are scheduled for this, which are chosen flexibly, after all Winkler wants to capture natural scenes from the children’s everyday life. However, small food for thought or tasks with which Winkler wants to guide the children in order to create an examination of the place and which at the same time show the respective talents of the children are also conceivable. In this way, children’s drawings can be animated using AI or individual sound recordings can be compressed into a scenic sound collage. Whether these ideas will then be fruitful can only be assessed in the shooting process and at the latest on average. ‘Special film is dictatorship, documentary film is more democracy,’ says Winkler. Documentary film is a joint effort that develops dialogically from the process, it is a give and take. But what do Winkler’s protagonists take away from his film?

Halle-Neustadt is a popular material for media projects – a constant coming and going. A report by Stern-TV about Halle-Neustadt reached an audience of millions last year. The one-dimensional image that draws the documentary of Haneu gets caught in the minds of the people – even those who live here. However, Winkler’s work will not be an image film about the district. He wants to name the problems, but also not depict stereotypes or downsize crime statistics. Winkler not only wants to tell about, but from Halle-Neustadt and show that there are real people behind his protagonists. ‘Halle-Neustadt is a habitat and not a hotspot,’ says Winkler. With his film he will not be able to change the thinking of cinema-goers – that would be idealistic. But he wants to carry the film into the children’s lives and arouse interest in telling his own story. In doing so, he hopes to at least create an approach to his own perception, not only for the children who appear in his film, but for everyone who recognizes themselves in them.

If you see the roof of a colorful circus tent in the Neustadt at the end of the month, then the Neustadt fan club may have invited to the Langen Tafel – with coffee, tea and homemade cakes. The Neustadt Fanclub is a loose connection from various initiatives in the district and wants to bring the neighborhood into dialogue so that people from the district with different opinions can listen to each other, exchange ideas and get to know each other – like in April at Niedersachsenplatz. Above all, older residents from the immediate neighborhood have gathered, many of them are first-time contenders.

Lower Saxony Square deserves the name Square not at all. It is a green fallow land. Lined with tall grass and isolated trees and shrubs, trails make their way. The district center once stood here, as was intended for the local supply of every residential complex. The dismantling followed at the turn of the day. The new town should shrink in the reverse order as it once grew – from the edges to the center. Apart from a department store, nothing stopped. But now there are plans for how the open space at Niedersachsenplatz could be used in the long term. In mid-April, the city presented its planning for an extensive green space design to the public in the context of early citizen participation. ‘The time of shrinkage is over,’ says Nico Schröter from the city.

Green strips to Heidesee

A green strip is to upgrade the center of the former sixth WKS and create an attractive connection to the local recreation area on the Heidesee. Overall, investment funds of almost three million euros, financed by urban development funding, are to be used for this purpose. The planning for the first construction phase is to be completed by the end of the year and implemented by the end of 2027. Numerous cross-generational games, sports and residency offers are to be created and a wildflower meadow and drought-resistant native tree species are to be planted. But the project is not only met with goodwill among the population present. Because many wishes and suggestions cannot be implemented. So there will be no lighting, even a barbecue area cannot be implemented for fire protection reasons. However, the creation of a dog meadow is conceivable and should be taken into account for the following planning. Public drinking fountains or toilets are also not planned, as the development is too expensive. 

However, the neighborhood center of the Haneuer Wohnen housing cooperative, in whose shell the citizen participation took place, could take care of this. This is to be completed by mid-2026, as Gerhard Wünscher, board member of the Haneer Wohnen, announced and for which he promptly harvested malicious laughter from the audience. Because an opening date for the neighborhood center has often been announced and postponed again. The increased construction costs and the lack of staff among the contractors are to blame for the fact that the opening date was repeatedly delayed. Meanwhile, the costs have doubled. The Haneer is keeping a low profile about the exact figures. The neighborhood center is particularly aimed at the older audience – target group Ü65. It should counteract loneliness. Because loneliness is a risk factor for high blood pressure, diabetes and dementia, says Claudia Treuter, nursing manager at Haneer Wohnen.

In the future, sports and exercise offers such as yoga, Zumba and dance courses will be offered in the neighborhood center in bundles. Physiotherapy wants to rent and a show kitchen will be accommodated in which isolated cooking events with star chefs are to take place. Nutritional advice is also offered and a community garden is to be created. The model apartment of the housing cooperative is also accommodated in the neighborhood center, where residents can find out about modern solutions for an apartment suitable for the elderly. According to the people of Haneu, the entire quarter with its 4,000 residents should be redesigned in a way suitable for the elderly. 

The daring grandma

You can already get an insight into this in the Göttingen Bogen. A mattress in bed measures movements and moisture. This may save the nursing service unnecessary ways. A drug box can be filled weekly by the pharmacy. A green light flashes and tells the residents which medications have to be taken at which day of the week and what time of day. Relatives can then check the income via the app or that they were at least taken out of the packaging. The lighting in the apartment can be controlled by voice input. A camera on TV measures the emotions of the residents, but unfortunately it works more badly than right, and Treuter lets Treuter know.

Using cameras in the fridge, the relatives can check from afar whether it is sufficiently filled. A cat seems to like the interested visitors of the model apartment in particular. She purrs and moves, but is otherwise not very much alive, because it is a robot. Such a thing is said to provide society with dementia as a companion. After all, living pets threaten to starve to their forgetful owners. Sensor technology is installed in the floor, which alerts the emergency service if the residents fall and informs the relatives via an app. The residents can also use an app to transmit vital data such as blood pressure and sugar levels, which are then forwarded to the responsible family doctors. About 50 residents are currently taking part in this model project. Technical solutions to a social problem that may have the opposite effect from what you intend to do. For example, when the concerns of the relatives about parents or grandparents are outsourced – and the grandchildren’s call will not call in the future, because instead the status update will only be checked in the app.: Everything in the green area – the grandmother lives. A deceptive certainty, because technical solutions are error-prone. And what about the self-determination of the participants? Isn’t the potential of self-distance possibly leading to a compulsion or expectation to participate in the project? Such objections considers Wunsch to be unfounded. It is the task of those affected and their relatives to determine what fits and what does not. 

Originally, a total of 300 apartments were to be equipped with such technical assistance systems. However, the Haneuer has said goodbye to this project, because the equipment is simply too expensive. A freely adjustable care bed would be a real relief for caregivers, but the long-term care insurance does not cover the costs of around 7,000 euros. In addition, Wunscher lets you see that you have now said goodbye to overly techno-optimistic solutions. For self-determined, elderly-friendly living in your own four walls, you also need the involvement of the family and the neighborhood. 

A quarter for everyone?

Back to the long table. A participant at the Langen Tafel lives directly opposite Niedersachsenplatz, on Oldenburger Strasse. Your block of flats was renovated a few years ago by the Haneuer appropriate for the elderly. elevators were installed. The apartments on the ground floor are barrier-free and can be used by members of the cooperative after rehabilitation stays. However, the older lady thinks very little of the constant self-assessment, she has done that often enough. A children’s playground is to be built right in front of their door, and there are fears of noise and vandalizing young people in the house. And one fears migrants. In the past ten years, the proportion of foreigners in western Neustadt has increased sevenfold. Every fourth person does not have a German passport. But wouldn’t playgrounds be suitable for ensuring social mixing across ages and making the neighborhood attractive for young families? However, Wunscher has little understanding for the noise sensation of the residents. Such conflicts must be negotiated among themselves. ‘We shouldn’t talk bad about everything,’ says Wunscher, ‘we now have the chance for a spirit of optimism’.

Together with the University of Halle, the Haneer wants to research how the mobility behavior of people with walkers and wheelchairs can be improved using digital possibilities. However, concepts such as multi-generational houses that older people not only as a cost factor, but also as valuable support for young families – for example in neighborhood childcare – understand and appreciate, do not play a major role in the planning of the housing cooperative. After all, the neighborhood center should take care of encounters between young and old. The people of Haneu are also trying to find vacant apartments with families and young people. In the west of the VI. WKS, within walking distance to the Soltauer Straße stop, the city also has suitable areas that could be used as building land for single-family homes to prevent young families from moving into the surrounding area.   

The western new town is one of the districts with the oldest population. In the last federal election, the AfD received 43.8 percent of the second votes and was by far the strongest force. The Neustadt fan club, the organizers of the Langen Tafel, wants to promote more understanding, not only between the generations, but also between long-established and newcomers. But there is still a lot of discussion to do and to do a lot of persuasion. Wait and drink tea.