Görlitz Zhorjelc (Upper Sorbian) Zgorzelec (Polish) Zhořelec (Czech)
Town
Sts. Peter and Paul Church and Lusatian Neisse Lower Market Square towers of Görlitz town hall department store Upper Lusatian Library of Sciences Gründerzeit streets of Görlitz
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Görlitz Zhorjelc (Upper Sorbian) Zgorzelec (Polish) Zhořelec (Czech) within Görlitz district
Görlitz Zhorjelc (Upper Sorbian) Zgorzelec (Polish) Zhořelec (Czech) Show map of Germany Görlitz Zhorjelc (Upper Sorbian) Zgorzelec (Polish) Zhořelec (Czech) Show map of Saxony
Coordinates: 51°09′10″N 14°59′14″E / 51.15278°N 14.98722°E / 51.15278; 14.98722
Country	Germany
State	Saxony
District	Görlitz
Subdivisions	9 town- and 8 village-quarters
Government
• Mayor (2019–26)	Octavian Ursu[1] (CDU)
Area
• Total	67.52 km2 (26.07 sq mi)
Elevation	199 m (653 ft)
Population  (2022-12-31)[2]
• Total	56,574
• Density	840/km2 (2,200/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	02826–02828
Dialling codes	03581
Vehicle registration	GR
Website	www.goerlitz.de

Görlitz ([ˈɡœʁlɪts] ^ⓘ; Upper Sorbian: Zhorjelc [ˈzhɔʁʲɛlts]; Polish: Zgorzelec;^[a] Czech: Zhořelec; East Lusatian: Gerlz, Gerltz, Gerltsch^[3][4]) is a town in the German state of Saxony. It is on the river Lusatian Neisse and is the largest town in Upper Lusatia as well as the second-largest town in the region of Lusatia after Cottbus. Görlitz is the easternmost town in Germany (the easternmost village being Zentendorf (Šćeńc)) and lies opposite the Polish town of Zgorzelec, which was the eastern part of Görlitz until 1945. The town has approximately 56,000 inhabitants, which make Görlitz the sixth-largest town in Saxony. It is the seat of the district of Görlitz. Together with Zgorzelec it forms the Euro City of Görlitz/Zgorzelec, which has a combined population of around 86,000. Whilst not Lusatiophone itself, the town is situated just east of the Sorbian-speaking parts of Lusatia.

The town's recorded history began in the 11th century as a Sorbian settlement. Through its history it has been under German, Czech (Bohemian), Polish and Hungarian rule, the last three by invasion. From 1815 until 1918 Görlitz belonged to the Province of Silesia in the Kingdom of Prussia and later to the Province of Lower Silesia in the Free State of Prussia – it was the Silesian provinces' largest town west of the Oder-Neisse line, and hence Görlitz became part of East Germany from 1949 until German reunification in 1990.

Görlitz is culturally diverse. Whilst it is in Saxony, its inhabitants also identify as Upper Lusatian. The East Lusatian dialect (Ostlausitzer Mundart [de]) of the town differs from the Upper Saxon dialects spoken in most parts of Saxony, especially those of Dresden and Leipzig. Because the town had been integrated into the former provinces of Silesia and later Lower Silesia respectively there is also a strong Silesian element in the city's culture, which is reflected by the presence of some Silesian dishes such as Schlesisches Himmelreich [de] and Liegnitzer Bombe [de], a Silesian Museum (Schlesisches Museum zu Görlitz), and the Silesian Christmas Market (Schlesischer Christkindelmarkt [de]). There is also a Sorbian element, since Görlitz was founded and first settled by the Sorbs, a Slavic people. This is evidenced by the name of the town and the etymology of some of its incorporated villages and geographical features being of Slavic origin.

Spared from the destruction of World War II, the town also has a rich architectural heritage. Many movie-makers have used the various sites as filming locations.^[5]

Slavs migrated into the area during the Early Middle Ages. The nearby Landeskrone mountain, as Businc, is considered the main stronghold of the early tribes and Gorelic is said to mean a small village. Other references state the origin of the name Görlitz is the Slavic word for 'burned land',^[6] referring to the technique used to clear land for settlement. Zgorzelec and Czech Zhořelec have the same derivation.

The early Sorbian Milceni tribe were subjugated in 990 by the Margraviate of Meissen, a frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire. The settlement was then conquered by Polish ruler Bolesław I Chrobry in 1002 and briefly, from 1025 until 1031, was governed by Poland, after which the region fell back to the Margraviate of Meissen. In 1075 the village was assigned to the Duchy of Bohemia. Goreliz was first mentioned in a document from the King of Germany, and later Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV in 1071. This document granted Görlitz to the religious Diocese of Meissen, then under Bishop Benno of Meissen. This document can now be found in the Saxony State Archives in Dresden.^[7] In 1126–1131 Bohemian Duke Soběslav I erected a castle, one of several new castles on the Bohemian-Polish border. It may have been on the site of the present St Peter and Paul church. The date the town was founded is unknown but in the 13th century the village gradually became a town. Owing to its location on the Via Regia, an ancient and medieval trade route, the settlement prospered.

In 1319 it briefly became part of the Duchy of Jawor of the fragmented Poland, and Duke Henry I of Jawor confirmed the town's privileges.^[8] Later on, the town fell back to Bohemia. From 1346 Görlitz was a wealthy member of the Lusatian League, which consisted of Bautzen, Görlitz, Kamenz, Lubań, Löbau and Zittau.^[9] Around 1348 a Jewish woman, Adasse, was made a citizen of the town.^[10] In 1352 during the reign of Polish King Casimir III the Great, Lusatian German colonists from Görlitz founded the town of Gorlice in southern Poland near Kraków. From 1377 to 1396 it was the capital of an eponymous duchy.^[11] In 1469, along with the Lusatian League, the town became part of the realm of King Matthias Corvinus, thus passing to Hungarian rule, and in 1490 it reverted to Bohemia then ruled by Vladislaus II of Hungary.^[9]

The Protestant Reformation came to Görlitz in the early 1520s and by the last half of the 16th century, it and the surrounding vicinity, became almost completely Lutheran.

In 1623, during the Thirty Years' War, the town was captured and occupied alternately by Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire.^[11] In 1635, the region of Upper Lusatia (including Görlitz) was ceded to the Electorate of Saxony. From 1639, the town was occupied by Sweden again, and then it was besieged by Imperial and Saxon forces in 1641.^[11] After the war it was part of the Electorate of Saxony, from 1697 within the Polish–Saxon personal union. One of two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through the town in the 18th century and Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland often travelled that route.^[12] Napoleon visited the town several times in 1807, 1812 and 1813. After the Napoleonic Wars, the 1815 Congress of Vienna transferred the town from the Kingdom of Saxony to the Kingdom of Prussia. Görlitz was subsequently administered within the Province of Silesia and, after World War I, the Province of Lower Silesia, until 1945. During World War I an internment camp for Greek soldiers was located in present-day Zgorzelec, whilst 500 Greek officers lived in private quarters throughout the town.^[13] A burial ground for Greek soldiers was located in the local cemetery.^[13]

Shortly after the Nazi Party's rise to power, in March 1933, the SA established the Leschwitz concentration camp in Leschwitz (present-day district of Weinhübel).^[14] Political prisoners were held and tortured in the camp before it was dissolved in August 1933 and the prisoners were deported to other concentration camps.^[14] In 1936, during a nationwide Nazi campaign of changing of placenames, two present-day districts of Görlitz were renamed to erase traces of Slavic origin—Leschwitz to Weinhübel and Nikrisch to Hagenwerder.^[15][16] On Kristallnacht in November 1938 an arson attack was carried out on the city's synagogue. However the building survived the attack without major damage because firefighters resisted the order not to extinguish the fire.^[17] It is the only synagogue in the present state of Saxony that survived Nazi rule.^[18] In the interwar period most of the Jews had left the city and their number dropped from 567 in 1925 to 134 in 1939.^[19] Many remaining Jews were then killed in the Holocaust during World War II.^[18]

During World War II a Nazi prison was operated in the town, with four forced labour subcamps within the town limits and three in nearby villages.^[20] The Nazis also established and operated two subcamps of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, located in present-day districts of Biesnitz and Kunnerwitz, in which over 1,500 Jewish men and women were used as forced labour, and 470 of whom died.^[21] Numerous subcamps of the Stalag VIII-A prisoner-of-war camp were located in the town, in which over 10,000 POWs worked as forced labour in 1942, and one of the largest subcamps was located in nearby Weinhübel (district of Görlitz since 1949).^[22] After the Soviet offensive of 1944 and the partial evacuation of the German court staff from the General Government in German-occupied Poland, a special court of the General Government was established at the local courthouse.^[23] Several Polish citizens were detained in Görlitz and sentenced to prison or death at this court for rescuing Jews from the Holocaust.^[24]

Near the end of World War II German troops destroyed all bridges crossing the Lusatian Neisse. The redrawing of boundaries in 1945—in particular the location of the East German-Polish border to the present Oder-Neisse line—divided the town. The right bank became part of Poland and was initially renamed Zgorzelice, and then Zgorzelec in 1948, with both names being historically used in the Polish language,^[11][25][26] while the main portion on the left bank became part of East Germany, now within the state of Saxony.

On 12 June 1945 the city issued a set of four of its own postage stamps.^{[citation needed]}

When the East German states were dissolved in 1952 Görlitz became part of the Dresden District, but the states were restored on German reunification in 1990. In 1972 the East German-Polish border was opened for visa-free travel, resulting in intense movement between Görlitz and Zgorzelec, which lasted until 1980,^{[citation needed]} when East Germany unilaterally closed the border because of anti-communist protests and the emergence of the Solidarity movement in Poland. On 27 June 1994 the town became the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Görlitz but it remains a Lutheran Protestant stronghold.

In 2002 Lake Berzdorf, occupying a former open-cast lignite mine south of Görlitz, began to be filled. The Altstadtbrücke (literally old town bridge) between Görlitz and sister city Zgorzelec was rebuilt between 2003 and 2004. It was officially opened on 20 October 2004. As soon as Poland signed the Schengen Agreement (20 December 2007), movement between the two banks of the river again became unrestricted, since border controls were eliminated. Indeed, users of the new pedestrian bridge are not informed by any signs that they are leaving one country and entering another.

Since reunification and as of 2013 more than 700 buildings have been renovated. It is a popular place for retirement among the elderly of Germany, being quiet and relatively affordable by German standards.^[27] Its tourist potential is rapidly expanding since it is very much an eastern counterpart to towns such as Heidelberg.^{[citation needed]} In the case of Görlitz much of the funding for the renovations of the town's buildings has come from an anonymous donor, who, since 1995, has sent an annual donation of more than €500,000, totalling more than €10,000,000.^[28]

In 2021 the surviving old synagogue was reopened.^[18]

Today Görlitz and Zgorzelec, two towns on opposite banks of the narrow river, are well connected.^[29] Two bridges have been rebuilt, a bus line connects the German and Polish parts of the town and there is a common urban management, with annual joint sessions of both town councils.^{[citation needed]}

The town has a rich architectural heritage (Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical and Art Nouveau). One example of this heritage is the Schönhof, one of the oldest civic Renaissance buildings in Germany. Another medieval heritage is a model of the Holy Sepulchre (de) the construction of which began in 1465 under Bürgermeister Georg Emmerich.^[30]

In 2006 the twin cities of Görlitz and Zgorzelec applied to be the European City of Culture for 2010. It was hoped that the concept of Polish-German cooperation would be sufficient to convince the jury, but Essen won and Görlitz was placed second. As a result of the campaign Görlitz was renamed the City of Culture in order to further German-Polish relations and to attract tourists from all over the world.^[31]

As Görlitz was part of Silesia from 1815 onward, it has a Silesian Museum dedicated to the region (Schlesisches Museum zu Görlitz). The exhibition features the 1000-year-old cultural history of Silesia.

Görlitz is also the birthplace of the German version of nonpareils, popularly known in Germany as Liebesperlen (German for love pearls). Invented by confectioner Rudolf Hoinkis (1876–1944), the name derives from a conversation Hoinkis had with his wife, proclaiming his love for her was like these 'pearls', the nonpareil. Unsure of what to call the treat he invented, his wife suggested calling them love pearls and the name stuck. The factory where he first manufactured the treat, founded in 1896, is now run by his great-grandson, Mathias.^[32]

Görlitz is situated on the border with Poland, adjacent to the Polish town of Zgorzelec on the opposite bank of the Lusatian Neisse. The municipality measures 19.4 km (12.1 mi) from north to south, and 7.3 km (4.5 mi) from east to west.^[33] Its area is 67.52 km² (26.07 sq mi).^[34]

Görlitz is divided into 9 Stadtteile (town divisions) and 8 Ortsteile (formerly independent municipalities). These are:^[33]

• Stadtteile: Historische Altstadt, Innenstadt, Nikolaivorstadt, Südstadt, Rauschwalde, Biesnitz, Weinhübel, Königshufen and Klingewalde
• Ortsteile: Ober-Neundorf, Ludwigsdorf, Schlauroth, Kunnerwitz, Klein Neundorf, Deutsch-Ossig, Hagenwerder and Tauchritz

Görlitz station is on the Berlin – Görlitz and the Dresden–Görlitz lines of Deutsche Bahn. The station also provides an international connection to Wrocław, Poland.

Local public transport is provided by:

• The Verkehrsgesellschaft Görlitz (VGG) provides public transport service in the city, including the Görlitz tramway and bus services.^[35]
• The Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacji Samochodowej (PKS) provides bus service over the river between Görlitz and its sister city, Zgorzelec.^[36]

The climate is oceanic (Köppen: Cfb) or on the western edge of humid continental (Dfb) at the 0 °C isotherm. The location on the easternmost border of Germany, far from the sea, gives a climate less affected by prevailing westerly winds although these do reach further into the western half of Poland. Summers can be warm, though not as much as in Southern Europe, and the winters are cold; snow is sporadic, not persisting all winter.^[37]

The Görlitz weather station has recorded the following extreme values:^[38]

• Its highest temperature was 37.9 °C (100.2 °F) on 7 August 2015.
• Its lowest temperature was −30.8 °C (−23.4 °F) on 9 February 1956.
• Its greatest annual precipitation was 1,013.7 mm (39.91 in) in 1939.
• Its least annual precipitation was 362.4 mm (14.27 in) in 1943.
• The longest annual sunshine was 2,162.5 hours in 2011.
• The shortest annual sunshine was 1,368.3 hours in 1977.

Due to the historical parts of the city, many movie-makers have used the various sites as locations. Eli Roth shot the movie-in-a-movie Nation's Pride (Stolz der Nation) for Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (which incidentally purports to be France) in the Lower Market Square and Upper Market Square in the oldest parts of the city.^[40][41] Other films shot in Görlitz include the 2013 war drama The Book Thief and the teen years in The Reader. Görlitz was used as the primary shooting location for the Wes Anderson film The Grand Budapest Hotel, with Görlitz standing in for a resort in the fictional Eastern European country of Zubrowka. A vacant department store in the city was redecorated to serve as the hotel itself.^[42]

The first freely elected mayor after German reunification was Matthias Lechner of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who served from 1990 to 1998. The mayor was originally chosen by the city council, but since 1994 has been directly elected. Rolf Karbaum served from 1998 until 2005, Joachim Paulick from 2005 to 2012, and Siegfried Deinege from 2012 to 2019; all were independents. In 2019, CDU politician Octavian Ursu was elected mayor. The most recent mayoral election was held on 26 May 2019, with a runoff held on 16 June, and the results were as follows:

The most recent city council election was held on 6 June 2024, and the results were as follows:

Party		Votes	%	+/-	Seats	+/-
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	28,496	37.2	6.4	14	1
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	19,765	25.8	3.8	10	1
	Citizens for Görlitz (BfG)	10,679	13.9	3.6	5	2
	Motor Görlitz (MG)	6,266	8.2	2.5	3	1
	The Left (Die Linke)	4,727	6.2	2.3	2	1
	Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)	3,309	4.3	3.3	2	1
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	1,951	2.5	0.2	1	0
	Free Saxons	1,377	1.8	New	1	New
Valid votes		76,570	100.0
Invalid ballots		428	1.6
Total ballots		26,964	100.0		38	±0
Electorate/voter turnout		45,068	59.8	1.1
Source: City of Görlitz

Görlitz is twinned with:^[43]

• Amiens, France
• Molfetta, Italy
• Nový Jičín, Czech Republic
• Wiesbaden, Germany
• Zgorzelec, Poland

Being the easternmost town in the country, Görlitz has formed a 'Compass Alliance' (Zipfelbund) with the northernmost, westernmost and southernmost towns, List, Selfkant and Oberstdorf respectively. They participate in the annual German Unity Day celebrations to represent the modern limits of Germany.^[44]

• Adasse (fl.1348), money lender
• Michael Ballack (born 1976), football player
• Jakob Böhme (1575–1624), mystic and theologian
• Johann Christoph Brotze (1742–1823), educator
• Hans Georg Dehmelt (1922–2017), co-recipient of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics
• Hans-Jürgen Dörner (1951–2022), football player and coach
• Werner Finck (1902–1978), comedian, actor and writer
• Richard Foerster (classical scholar) (1843–1922), classical scholar
• Johann Carl Gehler (1732–1796) physician, anatomist and mineralogist
• Gottlob Harrer (1703–1755), composer
• Clara Hepner (1860–1939), German-Jewish writer
• Torsten Gütschow (born 1962), football player
• Herbert Hirche (1910–2002), architect and designer
• Hanna von Hoerner (1942–2014), astrophysicist
• Emil Jannings (1884–1950), first actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor
• Jens Jeremies (born 1974), football player
• Reinhart Koselleck (1923–2006), historian
• Michael Kretschmer (born 1975), politician (CDU), Minister President of Saxony
• Lars Kaufmann (born 1982), handball player
• Selma Lohse (1883–1937), politician
• Oskar Morgenstern (1902–1977), economist
• Gustavus Adolphus Neumann (1807–1886), publisher
• Arthur Pohl (1900–1970), set designer, director and screenwriter
• Hans Ulrich Rudel (1916–1982) highly decorated WWII pilot for Nazi Germany
• Pavle Jurišić Šturm (1848–1922), Serbian Army general, born in Görlitz
• Alfred Wagenknecht (1881–1956), American Marxist politician
• Giorgio Zur (1930–2019), Catholic Archbishop and Apostolic Nuncio in Austria

• 
  St. Peter and Paul church, the Woad House and the river Lusatian Neisse in Görlitz
• 
  Interior of St. Peter and Paul with its Sonnenorgel (sun organ)
• 
  The Schönhof, the oldest Renaissance building in Görlitz
• 
  Interior of the Görlitzer Warenhaus department store
• 
  View over Upper Market Square taken from Reichenbach Tower, residential buildings of Zgorzelec in the background
• 
  Old town hall on the Lower Market Square
• 
  Royal coats of arms of Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus (Old Town Hall)
• 
  Reichenbach Tower
• 
  Courthouse
• 
  The Landeskrone, literally "land's crown", the local mountain of Görlitz
• 
  Theatre
• 
  Gothic Holy Trinity church
• 
  Thick Tower
• 
  Nikolai Cemetery
• 
  Nikolai Tower
• 
  St. Peter and Paul
• 
  Old town hall
• 
  Wilhelmsplatz

• Ludwigsdorf
• Pließnitz

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Görlitz.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Görlitz".

• Görlitz travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Official website (in English)
• Official website (in German)
• DW-World 'trial living' report.
• "Görlitz/Zgorzelec – Urban development from 12th to 21st century" on YouTube