My Hometown Disappears, Bit by Bit

... or rather building by building. 

source: WestfalenBlatt 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had an appointment with my cosmetician today who has her cute little store in my hometown of Werther, and when I drove back home, I saw that there was a large excavator demolishing one of the most prominent older houses. It was a rather sad view.

Did I mention I love old houses? I really do. And it makes me sad when someone tells me: "Oh, the expenses for a makeover would have been too high. Let's build an apartment building there instead." I always feel it's kind of disrespectful towards those buildings that have been there for generations.

Though I'm not really sure when this house had been built, but I learned today that Gustav Nebel used to live in it about 100 years ago. He is said to have invented "Werther's Originals", the candies. If you put it that way, he was responsible for making Werther at least a little bit famous. And I was thinking: "Oh, other towns would have put up a blue plaque here instead of demolishing the place."

But well, these are the times... 

Just across the road, only a few weeks ago another house had been demolished. I have no idea what will happen to the vacant lot, but I'm sure, it'll soon be known. And just half a mile from our place, the remnants of a former road house are being removed these days. A few years ago, there had been a fire that turned the building into an irretrievable ruin which remained there untouched until a few days ago. A few months ago, an old hotel building here in Halle was demolished as well, and as far as I know, another apartment building will be erected there.

These were all wonderful buildings in their day, and it's really sad to see them converted into a pile of rubble. Sometimes, I'm not convinced that "progress" is always an entirely good thing... buildings like these are a part of our culture, so we should probably treat them with a little more care during the years and keep them in good shape - so financial reasons won't be an excuse to knock them down...