On March 14, 2023, project participants of the German Center for Astrophysics (in german: “Deutsches Zentrum für Astrophysik” or “DZA”) came to Hoyerswerda to receive the symbolic and then also the “real” key for the premises in the Old Town Hall in the presence of numerous media representatives. From now on, two offices with a total of around 55 square meters will be made available by the city administration, whereby Mayor Torsten Ruban-Zeh emphasized that more capacity can be created if necessary. At least four employees will use the premises in the future to set up and formally establish the large-scale research center in Lusatia.
Diana Karbe, Commissioner for Sorbian Affairs, welcomed the new tenants: “Čujće so prošu kaž doma. Make yourself at home.” Prof. Dr. Christian Stegmann, Director of Astroparticle Physics at DESY, thanked the city of Hoyerswerda for its great support and emphasized the importance of the appointment, saying, “It is a small beginning, but together we will hopefully write a big story and develop the region for science and technology. Today’s handover of keys in Hoyerswerda marks the first official step towards the DZA.” After all, with the DZA office comes a first visible sign of innovation and research in the city and in Lusatia.
On the one hand, Hoyerswerda will in future focus on seismic investigations of the granite in order to build the Low Seismic Lab from 2026. For this purpose, individual employees will use the site as a work area when they are on site for investigations. On the other hand, the focus is on the interpersonal aspect. The project team would like to permanently establish a person for regional communication in the town hall as well as bring contact persons from the field of innovation and transfer for the companies in the region to Hoyerswerda on individual days.
“It’s a great experience for us every time to be here and develop a vision together with the people. We want to contribute something so that this region, which is a geographical center of Europe, also becomes a real center of Europe,” said Prof. Dr. Stegmann at the meeting in the atrium of the town hall. The project team was already able to make one promise: The underground lab is certainly coming.
