Hydraulic and Geodetic Excursion in Summer Semester 2023

Far over the Misty Mountains cold, to dungeons deep and caverns old: Tolkien’s famous verse might best describe this year’s hydraulic engineering and geodesy excursion to Bautzen/Budyšin, Germany’s mustard capital: Already on the way to their desitination, the students were greeted by unfamiliar perspectives, because the Kinzig dam, which is currently under revision, could not only be walked upon, but was also shown to the students from the now-dry water side and entered, unveiling the mechanical heart of the structure. The second excursion day led the travel group underground, where they were greeted by the knowledgeable guides of the visitor mine Marie Louise Stolln with a spirited “Glück auf” (the traditional German miner’s greeting) and were sworn in to the unconditional solidarity in the mines. With these impressions in mind, the group, accompanied by Professors Lehmann, Linke and Eichhorn, traveled on to the UNESCO biosphere reserve Oberlausitzer Heide- und Teichlandschaft (Upper Lusatian Heath and Pond Landscape). There, synergies and conflicts of land use and nature conservation were discussed at the example of the unique landscape characterized by carp farming. In the evening, a group of students gave exciting insights into the history of Bautzen. The academic exchange was in focus when the group went to the state capital Dresden on Wednesday: While at the HTW Dresden exciting insights into their ongoing geodetic research were given, the hydraulic engineers got their money's worth during the tour of the hydraulic engineering hall of the TU Dresden. A guided tour of Dresden's Neustadt district organized by the TU Dresden offered new impressions of pressing urban development issues in the nexus of inner development, monument protection and gentrification discourse. The excursion group was able to build on this on Thursday, when Hartmut Wilke, head of the Office for Urban Development of the historic European City of Görlitz, gave interesting insights into his work and answered the interested questions of the excursion group. The following hike through the rain-soaked Saxon Switzerland turned out to be more adventurous than expected, where the overcoming of the “wild hell” made many a person rise above themselves. Having just recovered from this, on the day of departure the group visited a completed land consolidation process in the idyllic Thuringian town of Creuzberg, which is widely regarded as a best-practice example and was impressively discussed by the employees of the institutions involved. This wrapped up the water engineering-geodesy excursion, and the travel group started their journey home with a lot of acquired knowledge in their bags.