A clear separation between East and West we also find in Cologne. The city was founded as the Roman Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium in 38 before Christ is located on the left side of the Rhine river in the West. In contrast, the newer part of the city on the right side in the East is called the Schäl Sick (Lower German Rhenish for squint, i.e., wrong side).
Yesterday a contribution in the local Sunday newspaper Der Sonntag revealed that people living in the western parts of Freiburg feel like living on the Schäl Sick. The topography shows that they live on the wrong side of the tracks.
The map shows the railroad Frankfurt-Basel separating Freiburg in an eastern and western part nearly coinciding with a separated water supply (read below)(©Badenova) |
Once the space between the station and the city had been built up in the second half of the 19th century, Freiburg continued expanding beyond the railroad tracks in the West. Small factories and workers settled in these new parts of town while the old part with the Münster church, the museums, and the university in the East remained on the noble side.
At the time of Mayor Winterer, the new residential quarters of Herdern and Wiehre housed professors, medical doctors, lawyers, business people, and wealthy retirees living in villas on the right side of the tracks.
Nobody is interested in visiting the new living quarters in Weingarten and Rieselfeld with their multi-story buildings where unemployment is higher than in the East and with their high percentage of inhabitants of migrant backgrounds. The fact is that Freiburg touching the Black Forest in the East can only grow in the West. Today only 88 400 people live in the East, but already 125 500 people in the West consider themselves the stepchildren of urban development. For example, for years, Westerners have been moaning about a ramshackle and, therefore, closed public swimming pool, the Westbad (sic!). Now, they fear further trouble coming up with the construction and operation of new ice and soccer stadiums, causing noise, increased traffic, and dirt. A letter to the editor commented on the city planning of a new town district: The West is not only depraved, but it is also sacrificed.
Curiously enough, there is even a separation in Freiburg's water supply. In the East, soft water runs from the taps, whereas in the West, the water quality is middle hard. The newly edited city map comes in two parts: East and West.
Reader, next time you come to Freiburg, go West.
Curiously enough, there is even a separation in Freiburg's water supply. In the East, soft water runs from the taps, whereas in the West, the water quality is middle hard. The newly edited city map comes in two parts: East and West.
Reader, next time you come to Freiburg, go West.
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