Weekly review no. 31
03.05.2024
Hřensko's new mayor wants to close the border huts
The border town of Hřensko will be led by women in the future. Kateřina Horáková was elected as the new mayor on Monday. Her deputy, Alena Pačáková, is also a woman. Horáková succeeds Zdeněk Pánek, who resigned at the end of the year after serving as mayor of the municipality for many years. Pačáková replaces the previous deputy, Robert Mareš, who had temporarily led the municipality since the end of the year and has now resigned not only as deputy mayor but also as a municipal representative.
Horáková is taking office at a difficult time. For years, Hřensko was able to rely on substantial revenue from boat tours in the Edmund Gorge. But since the major forest fire in the summer of 2022, the gorge has been closed due to the risk of falling trees. As a result, Hřensko has already had to lay off employees. Only the smaller Wild Gorge, which is more difficult to reach, remains open for tourist boat trips. It is not possible to say when the Edmund Gorge will reopen. A few weeks ago, the national park announced that it would remain closed for at least another three years.
The newly elected mayor’s first goal is therefore to negotiate with the national park regarding the reopening of the gorge. The new mayor also wants to install parking meters at the municipal office to reduce the costs of managing parking spaces.
Horáková said her second major goal was to reduce the number of stalls where mainly Vietnamese vendors sell their sometimes haphazard assortment of goods. She cited safety as the reason. Some of the stalls block the way for fire trucks and ambulances. But she also hinted that the stalls—where counterfeit and fake goods have repeatedly been confiscated during inspections, where far-right extremist items are also offered for sale, and which in the past have also served as a transshipment point for drugs—do not fit the image of the community she envisions. "We want more tourists to visit us. That’s why we will do everything we can to ensure that our village finally enters the 21st century—so that visitors will enjoy their time here," said Horáková.
The Jeschken cable car is being extended
The Liberec City Council has made the decision. In the future, a cable car with a single large cabin suspended from two cables will lead up to the local mountain, Ještěd. At the same time, city officials decided to extend the cable car by 770 meters to the tram terminus in Horní Hanychov. The old cable car was 1.2 kilometers long.
The representatives based their decision on a feasibility study. According to the study, a circular design with several gondolas would have been somewhat cheaper to build, but the city representatives were also guided by aesthetic considerations. A cable car with circular gondolas would not be suitable for Ještěd, they said.
However, it will still be some time before Liberec’s local mountain can be reached by cable car again. Optimistic forecasts suggest this will happen by 2029.
Pirna Students Explore the Story of a Winton Child
For three years now, a large, colorful mural has been on display in a once-dark passageway at the main train station in Ústí nad Labem (Aussig). It tells the story of the extraordinary life of Ruth Hálová. Shortly after its completion, the mural was even viewed by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife Elke Büdenbender, who made a special stop in Ústí on their trip to the neighboring country. Recently, this mural, in the form of a handout, was the focus of a lesson for a German-Czech class at the binational Schiller Gymnasium in Pirna. “Ruth came from Český Krumlov in southern Bohemia. She was one of the 669 Jewish children who were rescued and brought to Great Britain shortly before World War II on the initiative of the Briton Nicholas Winton. (This heroic act is commemorated in the currently showing film “One Life,” starring Anthony Hopkins.) After the war, Ruth settled in Ústí and led a team that developed vaccines,” explained Michaela Valášková, who came up with the idea for the mural and also for the leaflet that resulted from it.
The students’ task now is to translate the leaflet into German. Ruth Hálová’s story is not one that pertains solely to Ústí. “It has a universal dimension that resonated with our Czech and German students,” says class teacher Jana Neuper, adding, “Thanks to the translation, they are acquiring new skills that will help them in their future development.” Work on the translation is still proceeding diligently. As soon as it is finished, a German version of the leaflet will, of course, be printed.
The mural and leaflet were created as part of the “Unknown Heroes” project and are the work of the artists Adéla Bierbaumer and Magdalena Gurská. The project presents the stories of people who were born in Ústí or who lived there and made history—sometimes later, after they had moved away from Ústí—in public spaces throughout Ústí. In this way, works of art have already been created in honor of the graphic artist Heinz Edelmann, the illustrator and creator of the famous Beatles film “Yellow Submarine,” and the nuclear physicist Lilli Hornig, who was involved in the development of the first atomic bomb in the United States and campaigned throughout her life for greater representation of women in science.
Steinmeier and von der Leyen in Prague
On May 1, 20 years ago, eight Central and Eastern European countries joined the European Union along with Malta and Cyprus. This largest wave of accession in the history of the European Union is therefore also referred to as the EU’s eastward enlargement. This week, two prominent politicians were in Prague: Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier took part in the anniversary celebrations. He called the accession an “epochal turning point.” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also paid tribute to the historic date with her visit. For both of them, the war in Ukraine was also the dominant topic. Steinmeier, together with his counterpart, Czech President Petr Pavel, emphasized the ongoing support for Ukraine. “Our solidarity has no expiration date,” said Steinmeier. Ursula von der Leyen, who is running for a second term, also visited Czech arms manufacturers, whom she thanked for their deliveries to Ukraine.
The production of this newsletter is co-financed by tax revenue based on the budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament.