The architecture database has also been launched in Teplice; they want to revive memory

Teplice - At least a small bridge over the broken history of the city has been achieved today in North Bohemian Teplice. A group of enthusiasts has launched a web database of modern architecture, which aims to map architecturally interesting and significant buildings in the city. The Modern Architecture Database project in Teplice follows a similar project in the neighboring Ústí nad Labem and primarily aims to connect the current residents of the city with its past. Its website Teplice-Teplitz.net has been accessible since last evening.
    "In this city, it is clear that there is a lack of historical ties. Before the war, there was 10 percent Jewish and 80 percent German population, which has practically vanished. The exchange of residents here was enormous, and this always brings a huge discontinuity. People don't know what they live in, they don't care about it," said Lenka Burgerová, one of the organizers, a historian, and architect, to ČTK after the launch.
    Understanding in an original and modern way is meant to be a way to protect still historical Teplice from further ruthless interventions. "It's about providing information. When we know something well, we realize that it is rare and fundamental for that place, we suddenly feel bad just destroying it," Burgerová said.
    It took nearly an average human lifetime for people under the Ore Mountains to again identify with the history of their region, even though their ancestors generally did not build it. "Now there is already a third generation of people living here, and especially the young are interested in where this city came from, who built it, and what the connections were," Burgerová said. Since the end of the war and the expulsion of the Germans, 65 years have passed, and spontaneously created websites in Teplice and Ústí nad Labem testify that people have grown up in the north who tend to take only the better part of the past.
    The actual launch of the website was just a modest event; nevertheless, around 60 people came to see it on a spring evening, and as soon as the organizers headed out into the streets for a guided tour of some buildings, more passersby joined spontaneously. Such interest was unexpected, admitted the authors of the non-profit project. "Now is simply the right time for the renewal of memory," added Burgerová, effectively throwing down the gauntlet to other former Sudeten cities that have yet to discover their former beauty.