Brown Spree

Between flourishing landscapes and feral dynamics in Lusatian post-mining landscapes

Authors

  • Kristiane Fehrs Humboldt-Universität

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18452/28586%20

Keywords:

coal mining, anthropocene, water, anthropocene landscapes, sensory ethnography, Lusatia

Abstract

The Lusatian coal mining area is to become an attractive holiday region for city dwellers. Former open-cast mines are being flooded with water to create the Lusatian Lakeland. At the same time, a complex interplay of hydrochemical, geological and technical processes is causing waters in the region to turn brown decades after the closure of a large part of the opencast mines - the phenomenon is called the Brown Spree. In this article, I take a look on these post-mining landscapes as anthropocene landscapes. In doing so, I highlight frictions between the supposedly 'flourishing landscapes' of the future tourism region and the unintended effects of coal mining - which I define with Tsing et al. as feral dynamics. By looking at these frictions, it becomes clear how a narrative of progress seems to be perpetuated in the staging of the design of the Lusatian Lakeland, which in turn is unsettled by the phenomenon of the Brown Spree.

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Published

2024-06-05

How to Cite

Fehrs, K. (2024). Brown Spree: Between flourishing landscapes and feral dynamics in Lusatian post-mining landscapes. Berliner Blätter, 87, 63–76. https://doi.org/10.18452/28586