From Hell to Heaven: When the Coal Mines Close

In the far southeast of Germany lies the small land of a thousand lakes: Lusatia, a region full of contrasts. In the tranquil ponds live rare animals like the European otter or the great bittern; in the wooded swampland, even elk are once again raising their young. Yet only a few kilometers away lies a lunar landscape. Decades of brown-coal mining in Lusatia have left behind giant slag heaps and mine lakes. Nowhere else in Germany has the landscape been so radically changed over the past decades as here. But nature is returning: today, wolves and deer roam through military practice grounds. Colorful hoopoes and European bee-eaters occupy re-cultivation areas. Lusatia is a piece of wild Germany, seen from its most exciting side. After decades of darkness, it now shelters Germany’s most fascinating wilderness as a new wildlife paradise.