Paper short abstract:

After the reunification of Germany, uranium mines in the former GDR were closed and the areas decontaminated. This has not only changed the topography of the places but also constituted a field of contestation within different memories, heritage conceptions and identity constructions are articulated.

Paper long abstract:

Along with the reunification of Germany, the uranium ore mines in the Erzgebirge region, a part of the former GDR, were closed after having provided uranium for Soviet nuclear programs for more than 45 years. In the course of the decontamination some villages underwent a strong transformation in their topography and social spaces. One of the most severely affected ones turned from a "valley of death" into a spa offering nonhazardous radioactive bathes. Constructing a historical continuity to the pre-war period when the village was a well-known spa, buildings have been erected largely at the same locations as before the uranium mining.

Whereas the uranium mining was highly promoted by GDR authorities, after 1990 the endeavor was devaluated in national as well as local discourses. While the physical legacy is less and less visible, however, associations have been founded to memorize and preserve the so-called cultural heritage of the mining by e.g. performing miner's parades. These local and partially controversial initiatives have now been joined by the contentious project to nominate the entire Erzgebirge region a UNESCO "Mining and Cultural Landscape."

This paper focuses on a Erzgebirge village to investigate the negotiations among local, national and international actors dealing with heritage and landscape understood as a meaning-laden space inscribed with personal as well as collective memories and a relevant means to identity constructions.