Industry and homes in Europe still use coal a great deal, and the best type is hard black coal. East Germany had none – it was all in West Germany – so they had to make the most of their large supplies of brown coal or ‘lignite’. This is found near the surface in the countryside around Liepzig, but you need to burn an awful lot of it to produce the same energy as black coal.

The official view of ‘the environment’ in communist countries was that ‘nature’ was there to be dominated, not looked after carefully. So the state-owned lignite mining company set about digging up vast areas of farmland as wastefully as it liked to produce brown coal for electricity.

At first sight the grim landscape just south of Leipzig in Germany looks more like the surface of the moon than the centre of Europe. It is one of the most hideous environmental disasters on the continent – an eyesore created by eighty years of open cast mining. The mining only came to an end ten years ago when the Communist government in the former East Germany fell from power. Abandoned titanic excavators offer a ghostly reminder of the sheer scale of the attack. Zwenkau is just one of over twenty mines that were in operation when the industry was at its peak.

53,000 people used to work in the mines, and in the chemical factories and power stations that took in the coal. Brown coal was so crucial to East Germany’s energy supply and economy that nothing was allowed to stand in its way. Any village that lay in the path of the relentless excavators was just wiped off the map. 47,000 people were forced to leave their homes and 60 villages were completely destroyed. Dreskau Muckern was almost one of them. With the threat of destruction hanging over its head, the village just wasted away; deserted buildings decayed into ruins and only a few old people held on.

b) Rural reconstruction in East Germany

Once lignite mining stopped, villages, farmland and rural life began to prosper. For example, the village of Dreiskau Muckern had a lucky escape. In 1989 Communist power in the former East Germany came to an end and the old state mining industry collapsed. The village was saved and people like Claudia Quellmalz and her partner Uwe Hildebrandt were able to return to their family farms.

Across the EU nowadays it is often impossible to survive by farming alone, so Claudia and Uwe are trying to carve out a new niche business. Their dream is to fix everything up again, with new roofs and new plaster, and most importantly they will rebuild the stables so that they can take in horses and run a small riding school. The harsh reality is that buying back the farm and providing a home for their animals has cost a lot of money. The riding school will take time to get going and there is no guarantee of success. So to keep paying their debts, Uwe must work full-time as a plasterer and Claudia as a qualified bricklayer.

Uwe says that the quality of life here is peace and quiet. Peace to build something, or do whatever you want. And there’s no crime. Everyone knows everyone else. Children are safe to go out on the street at night. There’s no need to be afraid. You know all the neighbours, and if you get on with the people, which he does, it’s really great. This quality of life is attracting others – for example, the Hiller family moved to Dreiskau Muckern in 1997. It was the perfect place for their carpentry business to profit from all the rebuilding work going on in the area. And the village continues to grow, attracting more farmers, artists, craftsmen and city types in search of some fresh air. There are now 350 inhabitants with an average age of just 30. But the long-term recovery of the village will depend on the next generation.

c) Revival in Leipzig

In cities in former East Germany – Leipzig, for example, the old factories and homes in the industrial zones were allowed to go unmodernised right into the 1980s. When the government of East Germany collapsed in 1989, huge areas were abandoned – there was no work and the environment was appalling. Since then, things have improved, as former West Germany poured billions of DM into reconstruction. Just as the Leipzig countryside was destroyed by the mines, many of the urban areas of Leipzig were left ruined by old, dirty, polluting industry – especially in the district of Plagwitz, which was left in a terrible mess. It was so bad that many of the local people abandoned the place, searching for better lives elsewhere.

Plagwitz was one of the most densely populated industrial areas in all of Germany. The workers lived across the road from the factories. It had its own schools, a cinema, and shops. Plagwitz was a real emblem of the industrial age that we now see pictured in books. With such heavy industry – all its noise and dirt and so many people crammed together, the quality of life was very poor. The former East Germany failed to modernise the equipment during the 1950s and 60s and the environment got worse and worse. The water supply was contaminated. With everyone burning brown coal in winter, the air pollution was so bad that a strange light clouded the district – and the snow never stayed white for long.

Now the entire area is being revived to encourage people to come back. Derelict factories are being turned into attractive offices and homes. Waterside bars and restaurants are flourishing and deserted railway tracks are being landscaped into parks. The canals have been cleaned up, new cycle paths run along the waterside and people even take boat trips. This is urban renewal on an ambitious scale.

The new Plagwitz is providing an ideal nursery for small and medium scale businesses. Large-scale growth has been replanted out of the city centre on to Leipzig’s new industrial fringe – right beside road, rail and air links. Siemens is one of the first big players to arrive. This new location makes good business sense. The land is cheap, the regional government offers financial incentives to set up here and the wage bill is lower than in other parts of Germany. Such good sense, that a Porsche car factory will soon follow.

d) Unemployment - the new problem?

Under communism, everyone was assured of a job, free health care and many other benefits. Now things are different: you can only have what you and the country can afford.

While many people are better off, new employers don’t carry any ‘passengers’ and most factories are highly automated. The sheer efficiency of Siemens is breathtaking, but the success of the new factory has a double edge. It has created new opportunities for the lucky few. But modernisation in the Leipzig region has also cut many jobs, as people have been replaced by high-tech. People are desperate for even a short-term contract and this shows how serious the threat of unemployment is for people.

The balance of power is firmly in the employers’ hands and nowhere is this clearer than in the modern brown coal industry itself. In 1994 the MIBRAG mining company was founded to continue the extraction of brown coal – but this time under strict control. Before there were twenty-one mines, now there are only two. Before there were 53,000 workers. Now there are only 2,500.