Description
Gera is the third-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, located 55km south of Leipzig, 75km east of Erfurt and 120km west of Dresden. Together with the neighbour-cities Chemnitz, Zwickau and Plauen it forms a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region with more than 1 million inhabitants, while the city itself has a population of 95,000.Gera was first mentioned in 995 and developed to a city during the 13th century. Later, it was the residence of several lines of the Reussians until the end of monarchy in Germany in 1918. Over the 19th century, Gera became a centre of the textile industry and saw a period of rapid growth. In 1952, the city also became an administrative centre in GDR as one of the capitals of Gera administrative district (Bezirk). Since 1990, Gera is again part of Thuringia. The loss of its administrative functions as well as its industrial core (caused both by structural change among the European textile industry and the economic system change after the German reunification), precipitated the city's slide into a deep economic crisis, which continues to today.Since 1990, many of Gera's buildings were restored and big urban planning programmes like the Bundesgartenschau 2007 were implemented to stimulate Gera's economy. Sights include some retained buildings of the royal residence epoque and a large number of public and private buildings from the economic heyday between 1870 and 1930. The famous painter Otto Dix was born in Gera in 1891.
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