Minister President Michael Kretschmer yesterday handed over the notification from the Saxon State Ministry of the Interior, according to which Görlitz and Zittau can now officially call themselves a "university town".
What a great day for our Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences.
Yesterday, Minister President Michael Kretschmer presented a notification from the Saxon State Ministry of the Interior at the Görlitz campus in the presence of Prof. Dr. Alexander Kratzsch, Rector of Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, Stephan Meyer, District Administrator of the Görlitz district, Octavian Ursu, Mayor of the City of Görlitz, and Thomas Zenker, Mayor of the City of Zittau. According to this, the towns of Görlitz and Zittau can now officially call themselves university towns and also display this on their town entrance signs.
Kretschmer emphasized that the university is an important location factor for the further development of the region and wished it "continued growth and a continuation of the successes of recent years."
Following identical city council resolutions in March, the cities of Görlitz and Zittau submitted an application to the Saxon State Ministry of the Interior to be awarded the title of university town, which is to be displayed on the town entrance signs in future, in accordance with the legal basis in the Saxon municipal code. The prerequisite for the award is that this is a special circumstance that has a connection to the historical past, the character or current significance of the municipality.
Görlitz and Zittau have applied to be awarded the title of University City by city council resolution, as both cities have not only been home to the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences since 1992, with around 500 employees and over 2,600 students, but the region has also developed into an up-and-coming science and research location in recent years. Renowned scientific institutes such as Fraunhofer, Helmholtz, Leibniz, Senckenberg, DLR and CASUS are represented in Görlitz and Zittau and the surrounding area. Most recently, the city of Görlitz has attracted a great deal of national attention thanks to the German Center for Astrophysics (DZA), which is currently under construction.
