The partnership between the Olympic Games and philately is as old as the Games themselves the Organising Committee was faced with a lack of funds to complete the construction of the last venues Two Greek philatelists/numismatists proposed that the Greek government issue a series of commemorative stamps the proceeds (or part of the proceeds) from which would go to the Organising Committee of the Games to finance these last venues Fifty percent of the estimated revenue (200,000 drachmas) was released before the issue date and the remainder was guaranteed with a seven percent bank loan The series of 12 stamps was issued on the inaugural day of the first Games of the Olympiad The Olympic stamps issued that day were the harbingers of the revival of the Olympic Games They were sent from the Games all over the world on letters and packages Official IOC Catalog of Olympic stampsIn cooperation with Phildom the IOC can announce that the new Official IOC Catalogue of Olympic Stamps is now available Five volumes of work document show over 26300 stamps issued for Olympic events dating back to the Athens 1896 Olympic Games More information here: Olympic collectibles The Olympic coin - often described as a collectible and a hedge against inflation - has been one of the most important sources of revenue for the Olympic family for decades Few know that revenue from Olympic coins was surpassed only by television rights in 1984 coin royalties from the Los Angeles Games provided the OCOG and the United States Olympic Committee with US$ 73.5 million to help towards staging the Games a handsome town nestled in the hills of the Oberlausitz But spirits are high at the election stand of the hard-right Alternative for Germany (afd) because we love Germany!” proclaim banners in the party’s trademark bright blue “The mood inside the party is really good,” beams Frank Peschel The afd took 39% of the vote here at last year’s European election and your correspondent struggles to find any local not planning to vote for it at the national election on February 23rd but we just want a normal life,” says Simon He will deliver his first vote to the party next month This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Rightwards and upwards” Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents George Simion will face Nicusor Dan, a mainstream candidate, in a run-off There are five luxuries it can no longer feasibly afford Friedrich Merz’s career is one of unforced errors and puzzling missteps. But he is serious about Europe Both Donald Trump and Ukraine’s diplomats will consider it a success After almost half a year without a case of African swine fever, a wild boar found in the Saxon district of Bautzen tested positive for the virus, according to German swine industry group ISN The reduced restriction zone planned for April is no longer feasible due to the latest case.  especially for the pig farmers in the restricted areas The new ASF case underlines that a new approach to the virus is needed - one that minimises economic damage a new case of African swine fever was confirmed in a wild boar a healthy defector tested positive for ASP by the Saxony State Investigation Institute The National Reference Laboratory has now confirmed this result This officially determines the outbreak of the ASP in Königswartha wildlife searches are currently underway with the support of drones Further measures will be agreed upon on the basis of the search results Pig farmers in restricted zone 2 must report their stock to the veterinary office Arrivals and departures of animals must be indicated The transport of pigs within or from the district is only possible with an exemption from the Veterinary Office This will only be granted if strict biosecurity measures are met Global Ag Media provides a knowledge sharing platform offering premium news analysis and information resources for the global agriculture industry Sign up to our regular newsletter and access news from across the Global AG Media network Barely a year after the so-called “Future Contract” was agreed between Germany’s biggest trade union it is already clear that massive relocations of production and redundancies are on the cards which employs a total of 9,600 people at 13 sites in Germany announced at the end of last week that its rail car construction division is to be relocated to Poland The announcement confirms the statements of an Alstom regional director who was recently quoted in the Handelsblatt newspaper as saying that the utilisation of its German sites was no longer part of the company’s strategy orders were to be redirected to Wroclaw and Katowice in Poland The company’s German plants in Bautzen and Görlitz would then be given the work that could not be carried out in Poland or had to be improved This is exactly what is now being realised will be hit particularly hard and will no longer receive new orders for the construction of rail cars Görlitz is currently still building double-decker carriages for Israel and Deutsche Bahn (German Rail) and tram car bodies for Leipzig These orders are still being processed and are scheduled to end in mid-2026 Production will also be greatly reduced at the Hennigsdorf could be reduced to a development and service site At a plant meeting in Hennigsdorf on 28 May the workforce was informed that what happens after 2026 will depend on the order books The current announcements continue a long series of job losses that have been imposed at every level by IG Metall and the works councils it controls There were already mass redundancies in 2017 when the plant still belonged to the Bombardier group IG Metall agreed to the destruction of a total of 2,200 jobs even though the Bombardier workers in Hennigsdorf were prepared to defend their jobs and took to the streets in their thousands to do so The works council and IG-Metall promised the workforce that management would invest 8 million euros in the plant only 1 million euros was pulled out of the hat Bombardier was taken over by Alstom at the beginning of 2021 This was part of the global concentration process in railway construction and linked to a programme of fierce rationalisation In connection with the mobility transition the rail industry is experiencing strong growth in Europe and around the world The German Railway Industry Association reported record sales of 7.8 billion euros for the first half of 2023 following 13.9 billion in sales for 2022 as a whole A handful of large corporations are fighting for supremacy on the global market This is taking place at the expense of workers in every country which is expecting sales growth of 5 percent for 2023/2024 This means a continuation of the process that impacted former Bombardier employees after the takeover in 2021: i.e. continuous job losses and wage cuts in return for worthless promises to maintain plants None of these agreements are worth the paper they were written on the “Future Contract” that IG Metall agreed with Alstom in April 2023 was bound up with significant wage cuts for workers The waiver of holiday pay saved the company a total of 34 million euros per year the management promised to invest in the future chairman of the General Works Council at Alstom “In addition to job security for three years the agreement also guarantees to safeguard factories.” the Future Contract served to increase productivity then workers would be asked to pay the difference In the event that productivity targets are not achieved the resulting gap should be compensated for with contributions from employees that are objectively measured and jointly monitored To conceal the content of this arrangement it was also stated that if the “performance-related key figures” developed positively holiday pay would be paid back to employees the following year it was clear from the outset that this would never happen For the Bautzen and Görlitz sites in eastern Saxony the Future Contract offers a great opportunity to strengthen both plants in the long term and make them more competitive in order to offer our colleagues sustainable prospects for the future once again And IG Metall board member Jürgen Kerner commented: “It was a long and at times very arduous journey But it was worth it: the jobs have been saved and the sites secured.” When the company sought to continue withholding holiday pay in 2024 IG Metall was forced to terminate the Future Contract under pressure from the workforce 88.1 percent of union members voted in favour of this in a ballot The union is now accusing Alstom of having not adhered to the agreements and is demanding the return of the money withheld from employees does not accept the cancellation of the contract and insists on its enforcement until the end of 2026 The company is having the cancellation legally reviewed Even after the unilateral termination of the Future Contract it is clear that IG Metall will not lead a fight in defence of jobs it sounds like a threat to the workforce when IG Metall’s chief negotiator IG Metall is still prepared to work together with the company on competitiveness - and thus for the preservation of all plants we do not recognise this willingness on the part of the employer We are therefore not so naïve and are working on a Plan B the union is ready to accept any new deal with which its officials can once again deceive workers and ultimately make them pay Instead of leading the fight in defence of jobs and against cuts in real wages the union leadership prefers to hire expensive management consultants to come up with alternative concepts for greater profitability—all financed by union members’ contributions The trade unions do not represent their members They invariably see their task as defending “Germany as a business location,” and ensuring that it is “economically attractive,” i.e. as favourable as possible for companies such as Alstom even if they use the motto “better not cheaper” to cover their tracks the trade union newspaper metall was still promoting “value creation in Germany” under the headline “Setting the course for the future,” and quoted the vice-chairman of IG Metall demanding that a certain proportion of public contracts be awarded to German factories we will continue to produce in Germany in the medium and long term.” One plant is played off against the other at the expense of the workforce A fight for the interests of the workers is only possible if workforces unite across borders Workers are experiencing this in every industry and in every country Alstom operates in 100 countries worldwide with around 80,000 employees who face similar problems everywhere One has to ask what price the Polish trade unions paid for Alstom’s relocation of rail car production to Katowice In order to restore their wages and defend their jobs workers at Alstom must take stock of and break with the trade union apparatuses There must be an end to endless concessions in the form of job losses wage cuts and deteriorating working conditions in the name of “competitiveness.” A combined struggle for the principled defence of jobs and against wage theft is only possible in opposition to the trade union apparatuses and must be waged internationally The defence of jobs therefore requires the establishment of action committees which enable workers willing to fight to network internationally and jointly organise the defence of their jobs—as the basis of their livelihood The WSWS supports the establishment of action committees and helps to establish links with workers at other sites and in other countries Send a Whatsapp message to the following number Zur optimalen Darstellung unserer Webseite benötigen Sie Javascript Bitte aktivieren sie dies in Ihrem Browser Um die Darstellung dieser Seite zu verbessern MDR SACHSEN - Das Sachsenradio sendet sein Programm rund um die Uhr auch im Internet Regional sind online die Beiträge aus dem Regionalstudio Bautzen zu hören Livestreams von MDR SACHSEN - Das Sachsenradio Region Bautzen You don't have permission to access the page you requested. What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. BAUTZEN, Germany (AP) — The nationalist, anti-migrant Alternative for Germany swept into third place with a robust showing in the former communist East German states, where discontent is widespread over dim economic prospects and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to open the country’s doors to migrants has met with its greatest resistance. The hill-top town of Bautzen, in Saxony near Germany’s borders with the Czech Republic and Poland, has been a visible example of such disillusionment, with clashes breaking out in the streets last year between residents and asylum-seekers. In Sunday’s election, voters in the town of 40,000 turned strongly to Alternative for Germany, known as AfD, ousting Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party from a seat it had held for more than 25 years. “I’ve voted for the CDU for the last forty years, and this was the first time I voted for a different party,” said Jens Hamburger, a 72-year-old retiree. “It wasn’t easy for me, but this woman should have gotten an even bigger knock over her head,” he added, angrily poking his cane into the air as he talked about Merkel. He said many eastern Germans felt that Merkel, who grew up in the former East Germany, had betrayed them by not doing more to improve living conditions in the east. “She’d practiced the politics of indifference toward us,” Hamburger said. “I voted for AfD and I’m very content with the results.” AfD won 12.6 percent of the vote overall, but captured 22.5 percent in the east. Its success followed a campaign focused on criticism of the chancellor’s decision to open the country’s doors to more than 1 million asylum-seekers over the past two years. In Saxony, where Bautzen is located, it narrowly topped Merkel’s CDU to become the biggest party, with 27 percent. Merkel told reporters that AfD’s support in the east was mirrored in some economically depressed areas of the west by voters with similar worries, and conceded she would have to do more to address their concerns. “It’s simply fear of losing out, and concern that what they have today could be lost, be it through globalization, be it through sharing with refugees,” she said. Alexander Ahrens, the mayor of Bautzen whose center-left Social Democratic Party suffered a stinging defeat in the election, said his townspeople voted for the AfD out of fear, not hatred. He said that the town has fewer than 2 percent foreign residents, including recent migrants. “The people who voted for AfD are not bad people,” he told The Associated Press. “One has to talk to the people, approach them, and should by no means judge them for their fears.” All mainstream parties have ruled out working with AfD, and co-leader Alice Weidel told reporters in Berlin on Monday that its plan was to provide “constructive opposition.” “We have a very clear mandate from the voters, and there is no time to waste,” she said. Alexander Gauland, the other co-leader, sought to allay fears expressed by Jewish groups about his party’s success. The Anti-Defamation League has called the AfD result a “disturbing milestone,” saying “its leaders have made anti-Semitic statements and played down the evil of the Nazi regime.” Gauland has repeatedly insisted “we have the right to be proud of the achievements of Germans soldiers in two world wars.” Other comments that have caused concern included one from AfD’s leader in Thuringia state, Bjoern Hoecke, who called for a “U-turn” in the way Germany remembers its Nazi past. Still, Gauland insisted that “there is nothing in our party, in our program, that could disturb the Jewish people who live here in Germany.” But he emphasized the AfD would not shirk from its anti-migrant stance, saying “we want to take our country back.” “Bringing a million people to this country takes a piece of our country away,” he said. Karsten Hilse, a policeman who won the Bautzen seat for the AfD, told the AP that many of his supporters had lived in western Germany and returned home complaining of the number of immigrants they had encountered. Hilse said his backers told him they didn’t like it “when you walk through the inner city and then 15 women who are fully veiled come your way.” He added that he and his party “don’t want to change our culture and our traditions.” The 52-year-old, who described himself as “a regular street cop,” seemed a little overwhelmed that he was going to have a seat in the country’s parliament. He said he planned to use his position to work for a more positive relationship with Russia, establish better border controls and ensure that migrants who don’t fit in with German culture are kept out. Hilse said he was eager to get to Berlin to get down to business. “Tomorrow is our first caucus meeting,” he said excitedly, though he said he didn’t yet have any real staff nor an apartment in the German capital. “I want to go to Berlin now!” he said as he left his office. In the capital, the leadership’s first appearance after election night was marred by a public eruption of long-running cracks at the top. Co-chairwoman Frauke Petry — who was recently sidelined after she urged her party to exclude members who express extremist views — stormed out of a news conference, leaving three other top party leaders chuckling and smirking. “An anarchic party … can be successful in opposition, but it cannot make voters a credible offer for government,” Petry said, adding she wouldn’t join AfD’s parliamentary caucus. This story has been corrected from an earlier version to show the surname of Bautzen’s mayor is Ahrens, not Ahrerns Rising reported from Berlin. Frank Jordans contributed to this report. Stay secure and make sure you have the best reading experience possible by upgrading your browser! new video loaded: Seeking Asylum in Germany Suspected arson comes three days after protesters blocked bus carrying asylum seekers in east German state A fire that destroyed a hotel being converted into a shelter for refugees in Saxony was cheered and celebrated by onlookers began in the early hours of Sunday morning Police are treating the incident as suspected arson Locals had cheered as the building caught fire “Some people reacted to the arson with derogatory comments and undisguised joy.” While the majority of Germans have been welcoming toward refugees, a vocal minority has staged protests in front of refugee homes, especially in the east, and there has been a surge in violence against such lodgings in the past year. Saxony is home to the anti-Islam and anti-immigration group Pegida. Read moreThe fire happened just days after about 100 protesters screamed “We are the people!” and “Go home!”as they blocked a bus carrying asylum seekers to a shelter in Saxony. Two videos of the incident in Clausnitz emerged on social media on Friday, with one of them showing a police officer dragging a visibly distressed boy from the coach into a nearby building. Police insisted the move was necessary to prevent the situation from escalating. Saxony’s chief of police, Uwe Reißmann, said the use of “simple direct force” had been absolutely necessary and appropriate to remove three passengers, including a minor, who had refused to leave the vehicle after being asked to do so via an interpreter. At a press conference in Chemnitz, Reißmann said the refugees were partly to blame for the incident after escalating the situation with provocative gestures, such as showing the middle finger. “We will certainly extend the investigations to include one or two of the bus’s passengers,” he said, adding that police were already following up 14 charges, including breach of assembly rules and use of duress. Some German politicians, such as the co-chair of the Green party, Cem Özdemir, have called for the suspension of the officer in charge of police operations during the incident. “We were scared to get off the bus because we thought the people wanted to kill us or tear us to pieces,” one of the refugees told the newspaper Die Welt. “We wanted to stay inside the bus and return to Chemnitz, where we were beforehand. We were just scared.” Witness reports describe protesters throwing snowballs at the bus and shouting “Let’s see what kind of vermin will get off here” and “asylum scum”. According to the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, the boy manhandled by police is a 15-year-old from Lebanon called Luai, who had fled the country with his father and brother. The group of asylum seekers inside the coach also included four Syrians, two Afghans and six Iranians. The group are the first asylum seekers to be allocated to Clausnitz, a town of about 800 residents. It emerged that the man in charge of supervising the shelter in the town is a member of the local branch of anti-refugee party Alternative für Deutschland. Read moreEngineer Thomas Hetze gave a speech in front of the rural district office in November in which he said that while he supported humanitarian aid for people fleeing war zones “unrestrained invasion by 100,000 of economic migrants” represented “a crime against the German nation” In his speech Hetze referred to the existence of an “American masterplan” aimed at destabilising North Africa and the Middle East in order to “weaken Europe” said the two incidents were appalling and shocking and described the perpetrators as criminals “This is abhorrent and disgusting,” he said in an interview with the Funke newspaper group Tillich pledged that authorities will investigate and “bring everyone responsible to account” tweeted that anyone who applauds as buildings burn or who intimidates refugees “acts abominably and abhorrently” Bombardier Transportation has launched its new test centre at its site in Bautzen Bombardier Transportation has launched its new locomotive testing facility at its site in Bautzen Saxony Minister President Michael Kretschmer attended the ceremony State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure and Saxony State Parliament Representative The company has invested €16m in the new facility Local firms from Saxony were responsible for the majority of the construction work Bombardier Transportation German management board chairman Michael Fohrer said: “With the digital final assembly hall opened last year and the test centre presented today our site here in Bautzen is now equipped for the future with the latest modern innovative production and testing technologies “The site has a solid workload and is taking on a pioneering role at Bombardier Transportation as a competence centre for the serial production of regional and long-distance trains as well as trams and metros.” Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis the company’s Italian production site in Vado Ligure celebrated the manufacture of its 2,000th locomotive it displayed three different locomotives from its 114-year history These showcased three different production techniques the company has used through different eras of manufacturing the E.494.039 that was the 2,000th locomotive In October, Petards won a contract to supply its eyeTrain CCTV systems to Bombardier Transportation Bombardier Transportation and Leclanché also recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to accelerate the use of battery systems in the railway sector In September, Bombardier Transportation completed the production of the first driverless train for Line 14 of Shanghai Metro in China Nominations are now open for the prestigious Railway Technology Excellence Awards - one of the industry's most recognised programmes celebrating innovation This is your chance to showcase your achievements Don't miss the opportunity to be honoured among the best - submit your nomination today Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights View all newsletters from across the GlobalData Media network French train manufacturer Alstom left the fate of its plants in Hennigsdorf Bautzen and Görlitz in eastern Germany hanging in the air The IG Metall union has been agreeing to job cuts and wage reductions for years It has organised rationalisation programmes itself arguing that this was the only way to make these—and other—plants “competitive” in the face of domestic and international competition 3,700 workers in these plants confront the immediate loss of their livelihoods Alstom Group CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge refused to provide clear information at the press conference only providing hints about what lies in store The situation was “objectively complex,” he said in a press interview which is related to Bombardier’s earlier market losses in Germany,” he said A total of 9,600 people work at 13 locations in Germany Finance daily Handelsblatt quoted the Alstom regional director saying that the capacity utilisation of the German sites was not part of the company’s strategy Orders went to Wroclaw and Katowice in Poland; Bautzen or Görlitz would then receive what could not be completed there or had to be reworked The Alstom plants in eastern Germany had belonged to Bombardier until the end of 2020 After the merger between Siemens and Bombardier failed in 2017 due to objections from the European antitrust authorities Alstom took over Bombardier’s railway division at the beginning of 2021 the two companies were considered the world’s No Only the Chinese train manufacturer CRRC generated more revenue from the construction of rail vehicles The takeover of Bombardier by Alstom at the beginning of 2021 was the culmination of the concentration process in the railway construction industry for dominance on the global market and was linked to a brutal rationalisation programme to increase profits the group operates in 100 countries worldwide with around 80,000 employees Alstom CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge offered shareholders the prospect of a “double-digit increase in earnings per share” as a result of “increased efficiency and a stronger operating profile.” From the fourth year after the takeover “cost synergies totalling €400 million per year” were expected merging and/or closing parts of the business will take place on the backs of the employees and will be co-organised by IG Metall the largest Bombardier plants in Hennigsdorf near Berlin replaced permanent workers with temporary labour and relocated work processes to low-wage countries such as Poland or the Czech Republic thousands of Bombardier workers demonstrated in Hennigsdorf in defence of their jobs But IG Metall nevertheless agreed to the loss of 2,200 jobs at the German sites IG Metall went so far as to agree to the piecemeal destruction of more than half of the jobs It used the announcement by the German Bombardier Group management to invest a sum of €8 million in the company to justify the job cuts this announcement was never meant seriously and IG Metall continued in 2021 where they had previously left off at Bombardier—with continuous job cuts and wage cuts in return for worthless promises about maintaining the sites None of these agreements were worth the paper they were written on Alstom announced a programme of cuts in Germany that included the elimination of up to 1,300 jobs the Hennigsdorf site with Hennigsdorf Drives Siegen and Kassel had “structural and long-term underutilisation.” The union and the General Works Council it heads then engaged management consultants in order to draw up their own plan for the cutbacks that had been “announced by the Group and realised through productivity increases,” and to prevent the relocation of work to foreign Alstom plants Under the motto “better instead of cheaper,” the union presented a plan to make the sites competitive for the future instead of unimaginatively letting them face death by a thousand cuts,” writes IG Metall on the background to the current situation The union’s willingness to make concessions to the Group management is boundless The IG Metall statement reads: “In the event that the productivity targets are not met the resulting gap should be compensated for with contributions from employees that are objectively measured and jointly monitored.” It was under this plan that the so-called “Future Contract” was concluded at the beginning of April 2023 “Setting the course for greater competitiveness in Germany.” the “contributions of the workforce” in the affected plants amounted to many million euros per year these affect special payments under the collective agreements If performance-related key figures are achieved the wage losses will be repaid in the following year Alstom stated that it would invest 2 percent of turnover in Germany each year in the German sites allegedly to increase their competitiveness With the end of the zero-interest-rate policy it was no longer possible to simply finance the debt with cheap loans Alstom announced that it would again cut 1,500 jobs worldwide and sell off assets the Alstom board also announced an increase in share capital totalling €1.75 billion IG Metall complains that it has complied in every respect with the provisions of the “Future Contract” and had provided the company with givebacks covering the approximately 10,000 employees the company had not honoured the agreements at least not those propagated by the union and the works council the investment requirement in Hennigsdorf has been reduced from €11 million to around €3.5 million Alstom’s actions are also said to make it impossible to achieve the production targets so that the special payments saved can be repaid IG Metall and the works council are also complaining that the employment figures for the individual sites set out in the Future Contract are not being adhered to; in Görlitz 64 in Bautzen 42 and in Siegen 26 fewer employees are to work than agreed It was also six months overdue for the sites in the Group that are not covered by collective labour agreements to be bound by them IG Metall officials and the General Works Council begged for the agreement to be honoured They appealed to the conciliation committee but the Alstom management refused to make any concessions in February this year it announced a further programme of up to 290 job cuts in Germany even before the second payment of their holiday pay 88.1 percent of union members in the affected plants voted in a ballot in favour of terminating the “Future Contract.” IG Metall and the General Works Council pleaded with Alstom’s management until the very end to give in and implement the agreed measures according to IG Metall Oranienburg and Potsdam IG Metall and its works council representatives were never prepared to put up a serious fight in defence of the jobs Their only concern has always been to push through the savings with “imaginative” proposals for cuts and nebulous promises to bolster their role as irreplaceable co-managers head of the works council at the Görlitz plant and chairman of the general works council Workers at Alstom—and not only in the affected plants—must take stock and consciously break with the trade unions There must be an end to the limitless concessions in the form of job losses wage cuts and worsening working conditions in the name of “competitiveness” that the corporations use to play national and international sites off against each other A joint struggle with fellow workers in France the Czech Republic and many other countries for the fundamental defence of all jobs is only possible against IG Metall and union apparatuses The defence of jobs therefore requires the establishment of independent rank-and-file action committees in which workers who are ready to fight can network internationally and jointly organise the defence of their jobs—as the basis of their livelihood The WSWS supports the establishment of action committees independent of the trade unions and will help to establish links with workers at other sites and in other countries Get in touch with us by sending a WhatsApp message to the following number: +49 163 33 78 340 and register using the form below and from its expropriation after the war to its miraculous resurrection after Germany’s reunification in 1990 by the founder’s great-grandson Lange & Söhne has taken a circuitous path but is now safely home Lange & Söhne is celebrating another return this time marked by the return of a valuable pocket watch that was lost in the turmoil following WWII to its rightful place in the Museum Bautzen the Tourbillon “Pour le Mérite” was the first of its kind with a constant-force mechanism and showed the world that ALS was set to regain its prime position As a member of the international jury of the 1900 Paris World’s Fair Lange probably had the platinum-plated gold case of the pocket watch engraved and the Roman goddess Minerva painted on the cover other pocket watches and works of art from his collection were exhibited at the Museum Bautzen Kept safe in a depot from bombing during WWII the pocket watch disappeared in the aftermath of the war but resurfaced in 1976 for a special exhibition of Lange pocket watches the pocket watch has been auctioned several times and was about to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in London in 2019 when the town of Bautzen contacted the auction house and bought back the watch For more information, please visit ALange-Soehne.com. Gracias por este magnífico artículo sobre una magnífica obra de arte relojero This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page a region that straddles the states of Saxony and Brandenburg Germans in Lusatia are content with just one name This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “A Sorb story” Registered in England and Wales. No. 236383 | Registered office: The Adelphi, 1-11 John Adam Street, London, WC2N 6HT | VAT Reg No: GB 340 436 876 Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. The Spreehotel’s defences were erected three months ago to protect 150 asylum seekers from Syria I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A10ft steel fence topped with razor wire and metal spikes surrounds the “Spreehotel” – once a hotel, now a refugee hostel on the outskirts of the east German town of Bautzen. It looks like a relic of the Cold War, but the Spreehotel’s defences were erected only three months ago at a cost of £15,000 to protect 150 asylum seekers from Syria, Afghanistan and 15 other countries who live within. “The fence may look sinister, but its not some kind of Berlin Wall that’s meant to lock people in,” manager Peter Kilian Rausch, explained. “I had to put it up to protect of my residents. They are frightened.” Since he converted his conference hotel into a refugee centre four months ago, Mr Rausch has twice been threatened with murder. His establishment was surrounded nightly by gangs of black-clad neo-Nazis, until the police stepped in. Mr Rausch is banned from three shops in Bautzen for encouraging “refugee spongers” to live near the town. He has also been spat at and insulted by local people when giving his residents a lift into town, and attacked online. The Spreehotel’s residents are also frightened. Most are wary about going into Bautzen except in groups. Mohammed Orfali, 24, from Syria, who crossed the Mediterranean in an open boat, said: “I always thought of Germany as the greatest country. I am just glad that I have met a few nicer Germans who speak English.” Mr Rausch and his residents are the victims of a racist backlash against Germany’s growing refugee population, which has grown to be the largest for 20 years. An average of 25,000 people request asylum in the country each month. By the end of 2014, 200,000 immigrants will have applied. In comparison, the UK had just 20,000 asylum applications during the whole of 2013. Last week German television viewers were shown a video found on the mobile phone of a security guard working at a refugee hostel in north-west Germany. The video showed two grinning guards, one with his boot placed on the neck of frightened and handcuffed Algerian asylum seeker lying on the floor. The guard asks the refugee whether he wants “a kick in the face”. Police investigating the incident said the video looked like something from “Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay”. The news magazine Der Spiegel commented last week: “The politicians appear helpless in the face of he growing refugee influx.” But the issue has provided big political gains for Germany’s new eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has just won its first seats in the parliaments of three states. In Thuringia, where the AfD’s candidate claimed foreigners were set to replace Germans as the dominant racial group, the party won 12 per cent of the vote. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative allies have responded by calling for the reintroduction of controls on Germany’s border with Austria. The federal government also this month imposed a block on asylum applications from the western Balkans by declaring that the region was officially “safe”. But given the increasingly unstable situation in the Middle East, few expect Europe’s refugee flow to decrease in the short term. At the Spreehotel, Mr Rausch says the addition of a security fence has increased his residents’ sense of well-being: “It cost a lot but I’m very glad it’s there,” he said. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies By 2019-12-11T13:51:00+00:00 GERMANY: Bombardier Transportation inaugurated a €16m rolling stock testing facility at its Bautzen factory on December 12 with guests including Sachsen’s Minister President Michael Kretschmer and Canadian ambassador Stéphane Dion Around 50 employees can work in three shifts at the test centre which can undertake simultaneous testing of three different types of vehicle up to 120 m long Facilities include a waterproof testing system which automatically adapts to the shape of the carbody corner load measuring with a combined four-axle wheel load scale a track for test runs and a separate customer acceptance hall ‘With the digital final assembly hall opened last year and the test centre presented today our site here in Bautzen is now equipped for the future with the latest modern innovative production and testing technologies’ said Michael Fohrer Chairman of the German management board of Bombardier Transportation ‘The site has a solid workload and is taking on a pioneering role at Bombardier Transportation as a competence centre for the series production of regional and long-distance trains as well as trams and metros.’ INTERNATIONAL: Discussion are underway for the possible acquisition of Bombardier Transportation by Alstom SA The French company issued a statement on February 17 confirming that discussions were on-going but no final decision had been made This was echoed by Bombardier Transportation GERMANY: Bombardier Transportation inaugurated a new final assembly hall at its Bautzen plant in Sachsen on June 15 Built at a cost of €8m as part of a €30m investment in the site the hall has a production area of 8 100 m2 GERMANY: The outline of Bombardier Transportation’s planned ‘reorientation and safeguarding’ of its German sites was agreed by management and employee representatives at a supervisory board meeting on June 29 but up to 2 200 jobs are expected to go across Germany by 2020 Site powered by Webvision Cloud a study visit to the Bautzen prison took place in which students of the social rehabilitation with criminology program members of the Prison Penitentiary Scientific Circle at UZ as well as the Criminology and Victimology Scientific Circle at UZ participated The trip was made possible thanks to the support of the European Point of Assistance for Persons Subject to Punishment and Victims of Crime operating within the framework of Cross-Border cooperation supported by the Saxon Ministry of Justice led by Dr rektorat@uz.zgora.pl the second such incident in weeks."},"children":[]}]},{"name":"paragraph","children":[{"name":"text","attributes":{"value":"Two refugees fled for their lives as the mob screamed racist insults and threats Police were out in force but apparently did not act until the refugees began to run away."},"children":[]}]},{"name":"paragraph","children":[{"name":"text","attributes":{"value":"One was hit by a stone and by a bicycle ridden by one of his pursuers Police rescued the second youth and took him away in a patrol car according to the newspaper "},"children":[]},{"name":"italic","children":[{"name":"text","attributes":{"value":"Die Zeit"},"children":[]}]},{"name":"text","attributes":{"value":"."},"children":[]}]},{"name":"paragraph","children":[{"name":"text","attributes":{"value":"The town has imposed a nightly curfew for unaccompanied minor refugees since mid-September when nearly 80 neo-Nazis chased 19 asylum seekers through streets."},"children":[]}]},{"name":"paragraph","children":[{"name":"text","attributes":{"value":"The confrontation on Tuesday escalated after both groups exchanged insults in a"},"children":[]}]}]},"summary({\"maxCharCount\":200})":{"type":"json","json":[{"name":"paragraph","children":[{"name":"text","attributes":{"value":"A mob of up to 50 stone-throwing neo-Nazis chased migrants from Bautzen city centre in east Germany Berlin"}}]}]},"image":null,"__typename":"TextByline"},"ROOT_QUERY":{"article({\"id\":\"fda280b2-a0ee-11e6-aca7-d9d4fe48eef4\"})":{"type":"id","generated":false,"id":"Article:fda280b2-a0ee-11e6-aca7-d9d4fe48eef4","typename":"Article"}}};Migrants flee neo-Nazi mob in German city centreAllan Hall The TimesBautzen appears to have a particular problem with neo-Nazis In February a crowd gathered to cheer as a refugee shelter was burnt downGETTY IMAGESAllan Hall The TimesA mob of up to 50 stone-throwing neo-Nazis chased migrants from Bautzen city centre in east Germany Two refugees fled for their lives as the mob screamed racist insults and threats Police were out in force but apparently did not act until the refugees began to run away One was hit by a stone and by a bicycle ridden by one of his pursuers The town has imposed a nightly curfew for unaccompanied minor refugees since mid-September when nearly 80 neo-Nazis chased 19 asylum seekers through streets The confrontation on Tuesday escalated after both groups exchanged insults in a 16:36Lesezeit: 4 Min.Bildbeschreibung ausklappenSchon am Samstag war es bei Demonstrationen von linken und rechten Gruppierungen auf dem Kornmarkt in Bautzen zu Spannungen gekommen.dpaIn Bautzen ist die Gewalt zwischen Asylbewerbern und Einheimischen eskaliert Stadt und Landkreis wollen nun durchgreifen - unter anderem mit einer Ausgangssperre für minderjährige Flüchtlinge denn schon in den vergangenen Tagen hatte sich auf dem Kornmarkt Beleidigungen und immer häufiger auch Handgreiflichkeiten zusammengebraut hatte Bautzens Oberbürgermeister Alexander Ahrens (parteilos) noch am Mittwoch erklärt die zunehmende Gewalt verurteilt und Gegenmaßnahmen angekündigt: Mehr Kontrollen mehr Polizei und mehr Streetworker zur Prävention „Die Bautzner müssen wieder ohne Angst den Kornmarkt nutzen können“ Doch was sich dann nur wenige Stunden später in der Nacht zum Donnerstag auf eben jenem Platz und in der Innenstadt ereignete dürfte die Angst nur noch vergrößert haben die Ukraine und das Baltikum mit Sitz in Warschau TeilenVerschenken Merken Drucken Anhören Zur StartseiteSchlagworte: Großer Zapfenstreich: Olaf Scholz verabschiedet +++ Musiker spielen ausgewählte Serenaden +++ Scholz hält seine letzte Rede +++ Spahn zum Vorsitzenden der Unionsfraktion gewählt +++ alle Entwicklungen im Liveblog Kreml hält Treffen zwischen Trump und Putin für nötig +++ Peskow: Treffen erfordert gute Vorbereitung +++ Xi zu viertägigem Besuch in Moskau erwartet +++ alle Entwicklungen im Liveblog Trump will Alcatraz-Gefängnis wieder in Betrieb nehmen +++ US-Präsident: Gewalttätigste Straftäter dort unterbringen +++ Trump kann sich Vance und Rubio als Nachfolger vorstellen +++ alle Neuigkeiten im Liveblog