Ulrich Franke does not make his way down the Niedergasse, which is full of tour guests. Instead he hurries – you might say behind the scenes – down Uferweg on the banks of the Thyra river. Today Franke, who is mayor of the town, is a well-wisher at a diamond wedding celebration. He has been head of the town of 1100 people since 1990 and so he knows everyone and everyone knows him.

“We were already laying fibre optic cables when other towns didn’t even know what the Internet was”

He can tell stories dating back centuries and some from his period of office. He explained how he had to convince the residents in the early 1990s to remove from the beams of their houses the boat varnish that they had procured with great difficulty during the Communist era and to discard the “lovely” white plastic windows from the period after German reunification. He also tells of how carefully the new pipes and cables were laid under the centuries-old foundations. Or how all the streets were not just dug up, but actually completely removed. “We were already laying fibre optic cables when other towns didn’t even know what the Internet was,” he said.

Another example of modern thinking in an old town is currently making its way through Stolberg’s streets and alleys: a small automated bus, admittedly still a pilot project, but with a distinct possibility of returning at a later date. What concerns the mayor today is that the local government reforms are having an impact on the residents’ commitment to preserving the historic buildings, which is so essential for the success of the preservation measures.

Echtzeit - Online Magazin - A complete medieval town