The uniquely documented transformation of the mining region in Central Germany tells a story of global dimensions. An insight into the natural mutability of the earth and its living creations, incomparable in space and time, becomes visible. The layers exposed in the open-cast lignite mines become a journey through time for those in the know, through the millions of years of our earth up to the present day. Stages and witnesses of the transformation in a region: from the natural tropical moorland, sea and ice age land, to the settlement and cultural land of early man, to the mining and industrial land and the new beginning, the transformation of a large region into a lake landscape.
Today's man-made lake district is taking shape and becoming a global model and testing ground for the large-scale transformation of a post-mining landscape. The experiences of the Central German region become a global model case of wound healing of man-made, hostile landscape interventions and an opportunity to design in reverence and adaptation to "Mother Earth".