The remaining inhabitants of the village of Pödelwitz in the district of Leipzig are calling on federal politicians to work towards the "true" preservation of their village. During a visit by Green MPs on Wednesday, the "Pödelwitz hat Zukunft" association handed over an open letter calling on federal politicians to play an active role in the revitalization. The demand applies to Pödelwitz, but also to rescued villages in the Rhineland mining area such as Keyenberg, Kuckum and Berverath.
""Rescued" currently means that these villages are largely empty and their houses are falling into disrepair," the letter states. The energy companies RWE and Mibrag are preventing a revival. They own a large proportion of the houses in these villages.
In Pödelwitz, 80 percent of the land has been transferred to Mibrag. The mining company had bought them from residents willing to relocate when Pödelwitz was still threatened with excavation. At the beginning of 2021, it then became known that Mibrag no longer wanted to mine the coal under Pödelwitz and in the Groitzscher Dreieck.
