V a t t e n f a l l - Sweden´s other face

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The relevant passages in the Brown Coal Plan for the Jänschwalde strip mine, drawn up by the Brandenburg Environment Ministry in 1993 (and in 1995 declared to be unconstitutional by the State Constitutional Court), provides a chilling insight into the catastrophic living conditions that prevailed in Grötsch in the early 1990s:
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"By the end of 1993 the moving of part of the village of Grötsch (eastern part) mit 25 properties (45 inhabitants) should be completed. This deadline cannot be regarded at present as certain. The consequence is: mining in Grötsch has to be adapted to the actual resettlement situation in 1993/94. (…) Until the moving of part of the village of Grötsch has been completed, all mining activities should be conducted only with the agreement of the village council.[That the Government felt it necessary to intervene in this manner gives an inkling of what the situation in Grötsch would otherwise have been!]
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In order to determine the immission situation in Grötsch, the mining company was required to commission a further independent report by experts. The conclusion of this report is that further immission protection measures must be implemented in the short- and medium term. But even after implementation of all technical measures, a residual health risk, resulting from the long-term operation of the Grötsch coal-loading plant until around 2010, cannot be completely ruled out."
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Over the following few years the Jänschwalde mine was run alongside what was left of the village of Grötsch. In what was earlier the middle of the village LAUBAG created a pretty little park-like area with a car park for visitors, who could admire the "technological wonder" of strip-mining from an observation platform, with no reminder of the fact, that above the gaping hole before them half of the village of Grötsch had previously stood.
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LAUBAG had the effrontery to talk of a revival of the village. In the house journal LAUBAG Report from September 1998, under the headline "Creating something beautiful from the dismal – the improvement of village life is also rated very highly in Grötsch", it was reported that an"out of an unsightly peripheral area – the no longer used sports field – a pretty village square has been created with the help of LAUBAG."
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