The sad last Days of a German Ghost Town

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  • čas přidán 16. 02. 2023
  • Have you ever thought about, how it would be to lose your hometown? For some residents of Germany's rhine area, this imagination is brutal reality. Since the 1960's dozens of village have been razed to the ground, because they unfortunately stand on lignite - a type of brown coal, that is mined in this area. In this video I will tell you the sad story of an abandoned ghost town that is more than 1,000 years old - and that will be torn down this year.
    A film by Matthias Schwarzer.
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    Intro song:
    MÆT - Start Again
    Music:
    The Darkest Path - Jeremy Korpas
    Violet Vape - Cheel
    Thinking Back - Max Surla_Media Right Productions
    #LostPlaces #Ghosttown #AbandonedTown #Abandoned #Garzweiler #Hambach #LigniteMine #Germany #ClimateChange

Komentáře • 139

  • @MatthiasSchwarzerEnglish

    Thanks for watching! Here‘s more you might like:
    ▪ Why this Spanish Canal is an abandoned Place: czcams.com/video/9Kd7tEwS5vg/video.html
    ▪ Why there are weird slow Cars all over Sweden: czcams.com/video/dkpVglZfeF8/video.html
    ▪ Weird Border: Is this Germany or the Netherlands? czcams.com/video/jATA_9A-fWE/video.html

  • @aubreyfan590
    @aubreyfan590 Před rokem +53

    It's very sad that a village that used to have people can just be destroyed like that, hundreds of years of history just gone :(

    • @dancarter482
      @dancarter482 Před rokem +4

      Plus the trees, animals etc. right down to the actual topsoil ! Imagine (or don't) what the ground is like in mid summer.

    • @umba2231
      @umba2231 Před rokem +12

      without the irrational fear of nuclear energy in Germany the village would probably still exist...

    • @dancarter482
      @dancarter482 Před rokem

      @@umba2231 Godzilla checks under his bed for Fukushima!

    • @wandilismus8726
      @wandilismus8726 Před 10 měsíci +1

      Thats when Companies own the Government. Viva Capitalism.

  • @siempeeters5983
    @siempeeters5983 Před rokem +23

    Every so often I tend to come back to videos like these. I live about 30 minutes away from the Garzweiler mine, just across the border in the Netherlands. It saddens me deeply to see villages just like the one I live in be destroyed, and the lives of people which such a similar culture to my own be ruined. Let's hope this idiocy stops soon.

  • @Harrjannk
    @Harrjannk Před 10 měsíci +8

    Great work bringing the topic to the world through CZcams. Hope this gains a lot of views down the line. In northern Germany this is not an issue because we don't have any coal here, but we hear a lot about it. To me it's incredible and sad that these things happen in the same country that I grew up in.
    Seeing those villages, they feel similar to the one I was born in. Especially the churches remind me a lot of the church in my home village near Kiel. Only that my own village is safe just because there's no coal in the ground. Makes you sad about all these people fighting these big companies for the places they grew up in, only to lose eventually, because they don't stand a chance.

  • @100056255
    @100056255 Před rokem +17

    Incredible devastation of the village Borschemich with its iconic and not so frequent historical buildings! It must feel surreal to stand in the devastation of the sites you geolocated a few years ago. Krass. Du machst eine großartige und wichtige Arbeit!

  • @JaapGinder
    @JaapGinder Před rokem +11

    Unbelievable that still happens in a civilized country....

  • @packiejoegilheany1171
    @packiejoegilheany1171 Před rokem +7

    I’ve driven through that area many times in the 80s while living in Bitburg. As a Bronx boy, I loved it, the gardens outside the houses, the cleanliness and just the old look.
    Interesting video, cheers .

  • @danziger9996
    @danziger9996 Před rokem +12

    Reminds me a bit of the village of Doel in Belgium. Almost all the residents left that place. It was supposed to get completely demolished, but after many, many years they decided not to demolish it. There were plans to extend the Port of Antwerp into Doel, but since the 30th of March 2022 the government decided that the village is allowed to remain. It looks like a ghost village. Lots of urban explorers have visited that place. Rave parties have been organised there as well. Worth a visit.

  • @therealdutchidiot
    @therealdutchidiot Před rokem +10

    I have a Gemran friend who grew up resenting Germany for stuff like this, the bad infrastructure, the way people have to pay so much into it when sewer maintenance gets done, the bureaucracy, I could go on and on.
    I used to think she was just venting, but after I drove her to her family (in Saksen-Anhalt) I saw it all for myself.
    How do people put up wth this, I wonder?

    • @mautoban66
      @mautoban66 Před rokem

      They keep on voting that parties wich make their life more miserable step by step. While complaining they or at least the most repeat saying that thank to god, the right Wing of Parliament is Not in Power! Thema indeed would leed all of us to WW3! They keep on complaining while the government they voted, send weapons and Money to a Country very Close wich is in war with Russia. ...

  • @dutchdutchie316
    @dutchdutchie316 Před rokem +7

    you are doing a fantastic job of capturing interesting stories. I'd love to see more of these in the near future.

  • @alanbrown9178
    @alanbrown9178 Před rokem +5

    In Scotland too....... Glenbuck was a coal mining village that was completely destroyed for open-cast excavation. It was famous for the birthplace of a number of well known professional footballers... Bill Shankley came from here.....

  • @lbergen001
    @lbergen001 Před rokem +4

    Good video👍👍. Intriguing thought that a village completely disappears. Not deserted or died out, but really deleted.

  • @lohphat
    @lohphat Před 10 měsíci +5

    I remember the cries in the 1980s of "Atomkraft, nein danke." protests.
    Now it's not so much of a good idea.
    Germany is burning more coal than ever.

    • @RadimBadsi
      @RadimBadsi Před 10 měsíci

      Germany is delusional with its unrealistic energy policy.

  • @wilcofaber9863
    @wilcofaber9863 Před rokem +7

    Impressive video and a sad story. In the netherlands this is not possible. It s so sad that people living in a Village with a lot of history and where some people live the whole live have to leave, I can imagine their sorrow.

    • @herrstrasser
      @herrstrasser Před rokem +3

      In NL zijn er in het verleden ook dorpen, polders en boerderijen gesloopt, niet zo massaal als hier, maar toch. Voor Vlissingen-Oost bijvoorbeeld, en rondom Delfzijl.

  • @herrstrasser
    @herrstrasser Před rokem +4

    The port of Antwerp destroyed 4 villages in the past: Oosterweel, Oorderen, Wilmarsdonk and Lillo. And for years there was a bit of destroying in Doel. In Zeeland (Netherlands) they demolished a lot of polders and farms for the port of Vlissingen-East. And around Delfzijl (NL) a few villages are demolished. Greetings from NL.

  • @axelplate9080
    @axelplate9080 Před rokem +6

    Talking about the bad influence of burning coal on the climate, let's not forget that the coal mined is mostly exported. I often have to wait at a traincrossing when a train with 40+ wagons of coal are on their way to Rotterdam. Then it goes al over the world, mostly to China. The transport creates its own pollution. The deep hole that they dig also makes the ground-water seep into it, and they then pump it into the Rhein. Thus the nature in a large area gets dryer and dryer. After they have mined everything they can, they want to turn it into a gaint lake. i wonder how someone living in 100 years, sailing on the lake, will feel when they know how it became to be.

    • @insu_na
      @insu_na Před 10 měsíci

      There are quite a few towns that were wiped out for dam construction, but one of them stood out to me specifically, the one at Reschensee. It's a popular tourist destination because lake is beautiful now, but it has the peculiarity of the entire town still being there, submerged. Only the church tower still raising above the water

  • @FinnDeJong
    @FinnDeJong Před rokem +7

    Nice video keep it up

  • @Jay_Speed
    @Jay_Speed Před rokem

    Very nice report of what is going on, thank you.

  • @cakemartyr5794
    @cakemartyr5794 Před rokem +2

    This is so tragic. At least they could re-build the church. Brick by brick. It can be done. I'm not religious, I just think it's the least that can be done to preserve the culture of the community.

  • @misterbacon4933
    @misterbacon4933 Před 10 měsíci

    You deserve more attention! The actual world is not honest....😒 Keep up your valuable work.

  • @conceptSde
    @conceptSde Před 10 měsíci

    In fact there is some motorsports trivia about Kerpen-Manheim: This is the place where German racing driver Michael Schumacher started his career. His parents were the tenants of the local Kart club's racing track ("Erftlandring") in Manheim, and young Michael (as well as his brother Ralf) were taking round after round which finally led to Formula 1 contracts for both and seven World Championships for Michael. Also for other German Formula 1 drivers like Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Sebastian Vettel and Nick Heidfeld it was the home track in their teenage karting years.
    Initially the "Erftlandring" was also part of the area that was assigned for crapping and exploitation by the coal mine, but when the Hambach Forest was saved it was also kept alive until today.

  • @veronicasmith1147
    @veronicasmith1147 Před rokem +2

    You should stand together and fight this

  • @nielsreyngoud2870
    @nielsreyngoud2870 Před rokem +1

    Visited two of these ghost towns in 2015; Borschemich and Immerayn, when they were still mostly up. It is a ridiculous and sad thing that these villages were wiped off the map. Shocking back then, more shocking in 2023 when we we prefer coals over gas.
    Us Europeans like better to have ourselves dragged into conflicts that could very well have been prevented than protecting what is truly important.

  • @Tuffydipstick
    @Tuffydipstick Před měsícem

    Same thing happened in England. The army wanted the villages of Imber and Tyneham for training for the war in the early 40s. The villagers were told they were going to be returned but it never happened. Now those villages are ghost villages.

  • @profwaldone
    @profwaldone Před rokem +3

    sometimes its nessery to relocate entire villages for the betterment of a greater whole. but this is not the case here. this is not a high speed rail line, no air/seaport. this is an open pit mine for the most poluting and one of the least efficient forms of energy currently in use. Germany made a huge mistake in shutting down its nucliar reactors and keeps making that mistake every day this mine and its cuisins are allowed to remain opperational.

  • @dancarter482
    @dancarter482 Před rokem +1

    I had time to wander around a ferry port years ago while waiting for a sailing. It's right in the town so I ended up in the residential district. It is just a collecion of ugly boxes - filing cabinets for worker drones! A van with the ferry company logo came out of one of these estates and went off to start a shift at the port. It struck me that the van was a company perk, the job was to afford the box to shelter in between shifts - the time waiting in the box was spent distracted by "entertainment" and probably leading to debts and so on ad infinitum .... .. . .
    I wonder what the home life and communities of the mine workers consists of.

  • @laura11654
    @laura11654 Před 7 měsíci

    Shocking that this happens in Germany in this era. I'm sad for the previous owners and the landscape. Heartbreaking.

  • @hpruijs
    @hpruijs Před rokem +1

    So, even though mining of brown coal is prohibited from 2030 on, the mining companies still expand their territories. People are relocated but there are no real alternatives for the houses they were forced to leave. The behaviour of these mining companies reminds me, in a frightening way, of the German "Government" in the 1930's and 1940's, only this time it's not the government, but companies chasing people away from their home ground. I wonder how their employees salute each other and the management. I hope and pray history doesn't repeat itself!

    • @africanrover5425
      @africanrover5425 Před rokem

      "The Association of Municipal RWE shareholders (VkA) mostly represents cities and municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia," .... The biggest single shareholder in RWE

  • @harenterberge2632
    @harenterberge2632 Před 10 měsíci

    I find it quite ironic that renewable energy opponents say that a landscape is destroyed when windturbines are added to the landscape, when lignite and coal mining really and irreversibly destroy the landscape.

  • @tristandunn4628
    @tristandunn4628 Před 10 měsíci +1

    This is heartbreaking. Germany is a beautiful place. All these lovely villages with centuries of history and life, snuffed out for one quick excavation of coal and then nothing 😟 Sadly, the place that had been saved from demolition is probably already beyond the point of no return. With the residents already gone it will still be wasted, as nature will reclaim it. So sad

  • @angelsone-five7912
    @angelsone-five7912 Před rokem +1

    People and history count for very little these days, it`s sad.

  • @glynscothern5569
    @glynscothern5569 Před rokem

    Yes Akright town Derbyshire was moved 2 miles to dig out the Coal .Open cast.

  • @camco1989
    @camco1989 Před rokem

    nice video hey

  • @rey_nemaattori
    @rey_nemaattori Před 10 měsíci +1

    Y'all shouldn't have shut down your nuclear plants man. It drives up the demand for coal and lignite, to the point the provision of energy trumps the lives of people in these villages.

  • @carbugnov1952
    @carbugnov1952 Před rokem +1

    Wahnsinn!!!

  • @jmbpinto73
    @jmbpinto73 Před rokem +2

    Happens allover. In Portugal, the Tua valley and train line was destroyed and flooded because of a Dam to increase power production by 0.2%. The people was relocated, and the money they got was vastly below the market value of the properties. The dam was recently sold to some multinational power company. Big business and Big energy always make their way regardless. A little video of "before": czcams.com/video/bVo13zGEIqM/video.html

  • @lyedavide
    @lyedavide Před rokem

    What a tragedy. When destroy the past, you also destroy your culture and identity. That new church looks more like a penitentiary than a place of worship. Incredibly sad...

  • @chrismccartney8668
    @chrismccartney8668 Před rokem

    I thought brown coal was very polluting and was not being used anymore in Europe.
    So why in the UK are we not mining high quality Anthracite and burning it ??

  • @worldtraveler930
    @worldtraveler930 Před rokem +4

    You wouldn't have to destroy your own land and gut your own history if you had simply kept and maintain your nuclear power plants!!! 🤠👍🇩🇪

  • @chrismccartney8668
    @chrismccartney8668 Před rokem

    Very sad to watch

  • @qopiqq3629
    @qopiqq3629 Před rokem +1

    The new village looks cold and unwelcoming. Just modern squares. Even the church, something that used to be the eye candy of a town looks like a couple cubes stacked up.
    This is horrible. Life is about creating, not being stale and coporate.

    • @zombiedoggie2732
      @zombiedoggie2732 Před rokem

      The original church would of took years to of been made, They didn't have that kind of time, so hopefully they could start working on a church that is beautiful eye candy with the windows from the old church installed. Same with other buildings. Hopefully they can now start planning for beautiful architecture more reminiscent of the past. I hope that the old toombstones was able to get relocated with the remains. I doubt the workers of the mines would care and probably just destroy the beutiful old tombstones.

  • @lorir5728
    @lorir5728 Před rokem

    That's sad. You can't get buildings like that again

  • @dougdimmadome8986
    @dougdimmadome8986 Před rokem +1

    Ga zo door!

  • @vimsi
    @vimsi Před rokem

    wenn ich sowas sehe könnte ich kotzen... wie kann sowas nur legal sein 😢

  • @aston-s
    @aston-s Před rokem +3

    This feels like it would happen in China and shouldn't be happening in Germany
    (Loving the channel by the way, consider me subscribed)

    • @fischX
      @fischX Před 9 měsíci

      Actually China has relatively strong homestead protection that's why you find there Houses with a lot of new developments around it

  • @markuserikssen
    @markuserikssen Před rokem +4

    Very interesting. Too bad the energy companies have so much power.

  • @LeonTichy
    @LeonTichy Před 10 měsíci

    7:55, they do destroy lives tho

  • @mr.x4633
    @mr.x4633 Před rokem

    Ein sehr kleinen Vorteil hat das ganze ja: Die Häuser sind jetzt auf dem Stand der Zeit. Also keine gesundheitsschädlichen Bleirohre für das Leitungswasser mehr, falls welche verbaut waren. Und die Häuser sind jetzt auch Asbestfrei.

  • @YeOldeThrashDude
    @YeOldeThrashDude Před 10 měsíci

    I'm sure they call it "Progress".

  • @franktaylor7617
    @franktaylor7617 Před rokem

    I often wonder what was removed, cleared, disassembled and destroyed to build the village over a hundred years ago?
    What kind of history was completely lost due to progress back then?
    It is what it is.

    • @RadimBadsi
      @RadimBadsi Před 10 měsíci

      This is not progress, though. In fact, it's the exact opposite. Germany chose to close down clean, technologically advanced nuclear power plants and go back to the crude way of burning coal to produce energy.

  • @glynscothern5569
    @glynscothern5569 Před rokem

    Just emagine You old house replaced By a NEW HOUSE

  • @maylinde986
    @maylinde986 Před rokem +4

    Furchtbar! Dennoch Danke! Auch an alle, die sich unter widrigsten Umständen für den Erhalt einsetzen!

  • @alfredwaldo6079
    @alfredwaldo6079 Před 10 měsíci +1

    Good job germany. Making a oversized mine destroying the landscape for the absolute worst energy source. But noo nuclear power is too scary!!!

  • @jhb61249
    @jhb61249 Před rokem

    I used to visit Mannheim back in 1998. This is sad news.

  • @eS._Te
    @eS._Te Před 10 měsíci +1

    wenn ohne grund atomkraftwerke abschaltet, muss man halt kohle fördern, grün+rot=braun

  • @jayerjavec
    @jayerjavec Před 10 měsíci

    Just go to ex DDR and you'll find numerous places like this. You can buy a house for couple of grand, even a train station for 1.500€.

  •  Před rokem

    Spend your time on creating clean energy, instead of crying about the old/current one.

  • @jessesnels6401
    @jessesnels6401 Před rokem

    RWE be playing factorio. The factory must grow. The factory must grow...

  • @deamondeathstone1
    @deamondeathstone1 Před rokem +1

    Well, if you Germans hadn't gone totaly mad after Fukushima, maybe you guys wouldn't need so much coal.

  • @cplcabs
    @cplcabs Před rokem

    What a shame.

  • @nohaukrapotke1267
    @nohaukrapotke1267 Před 10 měsíci

    I think, this was a very recent topic, when you posted this video, because of the demolition of Lützerath which had been blockaded by thousands of activists for several years until January, when over 10000 policemen were ordered to there to get those activists out...

  • @lucidmoses
    @lucidmoses Před 7 měsíci

    If you really want to stop it, start a campaign to double the electricity prices. That should reduce the coal mining and help the environment to boot.

  • @potdog1000
    @potdog1000 Před 9 měsíci

    i am saddened by this as i thought more of the German government

    • @Ziegex
      @Ziegex Před 8 měsíci

      Since the End of 2021 it really was getting worse sadly

  • @echinas0908
    @echinas0908 Před 9 měsíci

    And that is supposed to be better than the nuclear plants?

  • @frankfisher99
    @frankfisher99 Před rokem +1

    Germany bulliesand bribes the rest of the world to abandon coal, but carries on mining and using its own coal? Huh?

  • @thebiglich
    @thebiglich Před 10 měsíci

    Lets pray Berlin is next 🙏🙏🙏

  • @paulknight3793
    @paulknight3793 Před rokem

    I would like to have recycled the church would make a lovely home from this waste. In years to come all the town’s homes could be reused.

  • @isaacbobjork7053
    @isaacbobjork7053 Před 8 měsíci

    Sinnlosen zerstörung, indeed

  • @rodden1953
    @rodden1953 Před rokem

    They could have stayed there if they had used Solar and wind instead of using coal

    • @africanrover5425
      @africanrover5425 Před rokem +1

      That is the problem. Solar and wind can not do the job at present and I doubt they ever will.

    • @rodden1953
      @rodden1953 Před rokem +2

      @@africanrover5425 They can by combining it with battery storage, much better that a massive hole in the ground .

    • @echinas0908
      @echinas0908 Před 9 měsíci +1

      Nuclear is the answer for a constant supply of energy

  • @bluebear6570
    @bluebear6570 Před 9 měsíci

    A very narrow and one sided view, which bears little resemblanceto reeality-

  • @altepost3805
    @altepost3805 Před 10 měsíci +1

    Why has a German CZcamsr tell the world how to speak a flawless English? The potato chewing guys from overseas can take it as an example of how to speak understandable English!

  • @gerrygalactic
    @gerrygalactic Před rokem

    Goodbye beautiful plaster houses of eastern europe

  • @peterbushby9009
    @peterbushby9009 Před rokem

    Why not house the refugees in the town ..

  • @give_me_my_nick_back
    @give_me_my_nick_back Před 10 měsíci

    Well it's a small price to pay for the green coal energy! At least your country won't be poluted by nuclear power.

  • @francescoE1989
    @francescoE1989 Před rokem +2

    It is a real shame. Good job on the topic and the presentation! I hope this reaches the right (amount of) people.
    Please German people... please... don't follow your gouverments footsteps... not again!

  • @ccjelley2390
    @ccjelley2390 Před rokem

    The high-consumption, comfortable lifestyle of Germans must be safeguarded. And all the migrants will want the same. Something must be sacrificed....but not lifestyles lol!

  • @bobjackson4720
    @bobjackson4720 Před rokem +1

    I'm sure the people who made this video enjoy all the benefits of modern life. These things are only possible because of the power provided by this coal. Sun & wind can only provide power when they are available, battery systems are so small they are virtually pointless. Yes this is sad but it's sadly necessary.

    • @RadimBadsi
      @RadimBadsi Před 10 měsíci +1

      No, Germany could have kept its nuclear power plants open.

  • @jarikinnunen1718
    @jarikinnunen1718 Před rokem +1

    And when coal mine end, it`s usable. Next you can go to wind farms hell. All technologies come from mines. In stone age they had mines.

  • @limeallens6160
    @limeallens6160 Před 4 měsíci

    the new town looks more westernized yuck.

  • @bladder1010
    @bladder1010 Před rokem +3

    Hmm, it's almost beginning to seem like you can't run a modern industrialized society with windmills and solar panels. I'm shocked! 😯

  • @matsv201
    @matsv201 Před 8 měsíci

    Aaa great... its really good that Germany closed down 14 nuclear power the last 12 years to save the environment. Because.. how bad would it be if they didn´t do that to save the envorment?
    Might be a bit sarcastic.

  • @dte01video
    @dte01video Před 10 měsíci

    Was willst du erreichen, wenn du English sprichst? You are not a nativ speeker!

  • @hugovanherck5437
    @hugovanherck5437 Před rokem +1

    Maybe you can visit Ukraïne and make a drama of all the villages that are disappearing over there...and without any compensation tot the inhabitants. That is a much worse brutal reality

  • @LordDucarius
    @LordDucarius Před rokem

    I went to school there, manheim has been rebuilt somewhere else now

  • @andyjay729
    @andyjay729 Před rokem

    Sounds like Pripyat, Ukraine, or Centralia, Pennsylvania. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania