I discovered the Chemnitz Petrified Forest in the courtyard of the Chemnitz Cultural Center when I visited Chemnitz, Germany, last fall. The city is located in Saxony, a state in the central region of Germany. In its 1,000-plus-year history, Saxony has been a medieval duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, a kingdom and twice a republic. At the end of World War II, U.S. troops conquered the western part of Saxony, where Chemnitz is located, but later handed it to the Soviets in accordance to the Potsdam Agreement. Chemnitz became part of East Germany and was renamed Karl-Marx-Stadt in 1953. In 1990, when the two Germanys reunited, Chemnitz returned to its original name.
Specimens of the Chemnitz Petrified Forest on exhibit in the Chemnitz Cultural Center – Photo by J. Elke Ertle © 2014
Chemnitz Cultural Center – DAStietz
Specimens from the Chemnitz Petrified Forest are on exhibit in the courtyard of the Chemnitz Cultural Center, named “DAStietz”. In 1913, architect Wilhelm Kreis constructed the building in 1913 for the Tietz family. It served as a large and modern department store and was knows as Kaufhaus Tietz (Department Store Tietz). Because the Tietz family was Jewish, the Nazis closed the store during the pogroms of 1938. In 1945 the building suffered serious damage and was not reconstructed until the 1960s. It reopened as a people-owned department store under the name Zentrum in 1963. In the 1990s, after German reunification, the Kaufhof chain acquired the building and turned it into a shopping center. But when a new department stored opened nearby, the original building was turned into a cultural center. Following extensive renovation, the building reopened in 2004 as “DAStietz”, Along with shops, it now houses the Chemnitz Municipal Library, the Chemnitz Community College, the Museum for Natural History, the New Saxon Gallery and the Chemnitz Petrified Forest.
What is petrified wood
Petrified wood is a fossil wood that is preserved due to a lack of oxygen. Minerals replace the original organic materials. The original structure of the wood remains. The process occurs while the wood is buried under sediment. Over time, water flows through the sediment and deposits minerals in the plant’s cells. As the organic material decays, a stone mold forms in its place.
How the Chemnitz Petrified Forest formed
The Chemnitz Petrified Forest formed as a result of an eruption of a volcano in the Zeisigwald, a large wooded area northeast of the city. The blast uprooted and snapped off the primeval tree ferns and horsetails. Hot tephra (fragments of volcanic rock and lava) covered the tree-like trunks. Fossilization occurred over the millions of years that followed. Although the event occurred about 291 million years ago, the petrified fossils were not discovered until 1737. https://www.tu-chemnitz.de/uk/pressestelle/aktuell/1/5538/en
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Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.
