Leipzig at the crossroads : Germany

This project addresses the problems and opportunities posed by the collapse of a social system. It will attempt to show ways in which people can come to terms with such profound change and will thus be particularly interesting for both those who have been caught up in the transformations following the fall of the Wall and for many others whose general circumstances have likewise changed as a result of the transformations in neighboring countries.The “Imaginata” in Jena is a landscape for the senses: for perceiving and marveling, for experimenting and playing, for pondering, discovering and inventing. It kindles excitement for technical and scientific discovery, for natural phenomena, for human development and for the arts.

>The region Dessau-Bitterfeld-Wittenberg in the state of Saxony-Anhalt will play a very special role. This industrial region in central Germany will serve to show the global public how a region that suffered for decades from an unconscionable exploitation of nature is now finding its way back to a state of ecological equilibrium and how it is handling the monumental economic, social and cultural changes brought on by the reunification of Germany.

>One international project which especially deserves support is the “rewindable radio” invented by Trevor Baylis o England. A simple mechanism allows the radio to be operated without electricity or batteries- A spring wound by a crank drives a dynamo that supplies an accumulator with the necessary electric current. The radio can be used anywhere in the world where electricity or batteries are either unavailable or too expensive for people to afford.