Alcohol, a bunch of people and a new city

Author/Photos: Johanna Steuber

As every year, new faces appear at our university with the fall wind: This October, around 600 students began their first semester at the HSZG. They were welcomed not only by a friendly hall of residence or their new shared flat, but also by their respective faculties.

In addition to the organizational introductory events - such as the welcome by the faculty management and an introduction to the degree courses - our student council had once again put together a great first semester programme. Cornelius was one of the main organizers. During a lecture break in front of the canteen, he told me about the FSR's intention in organizing the Freshers' Days:

"It's important to us that we create opportunities where students can come into contact with each other before their first lecture and also get to know the campus."

And there were new opportunities for this every day of the week...

A relaxed games evening on campus kicked off Freshers' Week on Monday. Spread over two seminar rooms, the first-year students were involved in various card, board and party games. There was also beer and wine. Melanie (29) didn't know anyone at the beginning of the evening and soon found herself in a Werewolf group with 12 people. For her, playing together was a good icebreaker to get into conversation with the (still) strangers:

"The atmosphere was generally very open-minded right from the start too, because of course everyone was up for meeting new people and no one here was from Görlitz either. So it was a relaxed, good start to the Freshers' Week, I would say."

On Tuesday, the well-attended city game took place, which was mainly organized by Gabi from the FSR. He explained to me:

"The aim of the MK-Ersti-Rallye is actually always to show the students who arrive here for the first time the most important places where you can get involved, where cultural exchange takes place. And we ask them every year if they would like to take part, so most of them know well in advance that it's taking place and then think about an activity for their ward."

This year, the Maus student club, Basta, Rabryka, the Camillo cinema and the Gerhart Hauptmann Theater took part.

The meeting point for the city game was the canteen on campus. Everyone was given a handout with the stations and Gabi, standing on one of the benches, explained loudly and animatedly to everyone how the rest of the game would unfold. "I particularly like this part," he said to me with a wink. It was also important to him that the rally also had a certain competitive character, so that the students stayed on task and interacted with each other to get to know each other:

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"Especially on this small campus, you run into each other all the time anyway and it's cool to know who's from where, what their name is and what they're studying."

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ND (26) also took part in the city game and was enthusiastic - both about the different locations of the rally and the organization. Of the 6 groups of around 10 students, she was one of the winners and received a voucher for the Görlitz brewery Bierblume at the end. Her favorite station?

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 "I really, really liked the theater! You had to put on a temporary costume there, which was of course also super fun!" 

But the other stations were also an experience. In Rabryka, for example, there was a kind of silent performance that was intended to show the students that it is not the organizers but the committed volunteers who give the place a voice. Gabi also incorporated a station on the Mount of Olives, an enchanted place near the Nikolai cemetery, into the city game. The task here was to eat 20 salt sticks in time - "Not so easy," he added knowingly. In any case, his summary of the Fresher's Rally was brimming with enthusiasm for the cause: 

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 "You should definitely take part. It's super cool, there's free alcohol, you can get to know a bunch of people and a new city. So I think that without this rally, many first-year students wouldn't even know that we have an art house cinema like Camillo in Görlitz, for example, and so many clubs where you can get involved and that are happy when new blood comes in. Especially in a city like Görlitz and at a university like here, it's incredibly important that distances are short and I think that's important: You can make great connections here and the university in particular also stands for practical learning and you can do that in an association like this: Cultural work, helping to shape the city, getting involved in the cityscape. That also promotes identification with the location and means that students don't move away straight after graduation and say to themselves: I'm lucky I'm out of this hole, but they also see that Görlitz really has a lot to offer if you know where to look."

Cornelius gave me an overview of the remaining stations. We continued with a bike tour, which, as he noted with an insightful smile, wasn't exactly the most popular activity of the week, as many first-year students didn't even have a bike yet. In the packed auditorium cinema, The Reader was shown - one of the films for which Görlitz was an important location - and the hike up the Landeskrone was also very popular.

There was an additional event the following week, namely a guided tour of the Landskron brewery, which Micha from the FSR told me about. The brewery guide took around 20 students on an hour and a half tour of the various premises. First there was a brief outline of the history of Landskron, with Micha remembering the developments in the post-war period as the most interesting fact:

"After the Second World War, they supposedly only sold cask ale because the fields were not yet ready to grow hops and malt. And that's why they switched their entire production to keg soda back then and it's still being sold today. It's their only soft drink and it tastes delicious!"

We were then shown the various beer production areas, where we were able to look into the illuminated kettles through peepholes. The last stop was the brewery cellar 70 meters underground. This is where the beer is fermented and stored in large barrels and canisters, and Micha particularly enjoyed the beer tasting at the end:

"We were able to try all the types of beer they had there, from black beer to pilsner, which was pretty cool. Four were on tap, but they also opened extra bottles for us, such as the winter beer, which is only available seasonally." 

All in all, the Fresher's Week events were definitely well received and therefore considered a success by the student council, says Cornelius:

"I think there was actually something for everyone, in the variety of ways we did it - outside, inside, sometimes with a focus on activity and sometimes with a focus on getting to know each other - so I think we're all satisfied and happy that it worked so well."