The local organising team invites interested participants to join one of the following guided tours. The capacity is limited and the slots will be filled in on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. All tours are free of charge.
DHL Hub (Monday, 23.09, 21:30), Leipzig
Places: 14
To join the DHL Hub visit – register here.
Officially opened for operation in May 2008, the Hub Leipzig is DHL’s major European hub, offering myriad direct connections to the growing markets in Eastern Europe and Asia.
The DHL Hub Leipzig is an excellent example of logistics in action, with facilities that take into account both environmental and sustainability considerations. With some 65 aircraft movements every night, the hub processes up to 2000 tons of parcels and documents within a few hours to every part of the globe. On the tour, participants will see first-hand this state-of-the-art airfreight hub operating during exciting rush-hour conditions.
Please note the following:
Presentation of an ID (ID card, driver´s licence, passport, etc.) at the facility is required. Photography is not permitted during the visit. Sturdy shoes are recommended.
BMW Group – Factory visit (Thursday, 26.09, 12:00 – 14:00), Leipzig
Places: 14
To join the BMW factory visit – register here.
The BMW Group Plant in Leipzig is one of the most innovative automotive factories in the world. The central building is also unique: it was designed by Zaha Hadid – one of the most famous architects of modernism.
The Extended Tour takes you on a 120-minute immersion into the production of vehicles. See for yourself how 2 brands, 4 models, and 3 drive variants are produced on the same production line at the same time. You will not only gain insight into the body shop and the assembly halls but also experience live how BMW and MINI vehicle parts are produced from huge sheet metal blanks in the press shop. You will also gain a brief insight into the paint shop and learn what role artificial intelligence plays in the painting process.
Please note the following:
Participation in the tour is only possible with closed footwear. Audio guides with headphones are provided for a full tour experience. Wearing the headphones is mandatory. If you are unable to wear headphones for health reasons, please contact the booking centre before your visit to the factory.
You can read more here: https://www.visit-bmwgroup.com/en/experience/plant-leipzig-tour/
Grünau district tour (Thursday, 26.09, 10:00-12:00), Leipzig
Places: 19
To join the Grünau excursion – register here.
The tour is authored and guided by Lyubomir Pozharliev, an Ifl research associate and the conference organising team member.
As an alternative to the classical Leipzig tour, which we can only recommend, we will explore not all, but one district of Leipzig. It was the 3rd largest GDR large panel system-building district during the GDR era with a total of 8th microraions, and was finalized by 1988. After the fall of the wall, the district witnessed major disruptions, symbolically and literally. Following the downgrading demographics, many of the buildings were included into a program of demolition, reduction in size and height, or reconceptualization. Large groups of the pre-transition generation, now at age, continued living in the district, but with new neighbours. The district hosts the largest part of migrants and refugees in Leipzig, living next-door with “native” German folks, who constitute the highest number of income support receivers (the so called Hartz 4) per capita in a single district in Germany.
The short excursion to Grünau will display the old life and the new divides in a former socialist model district and will give us a look into its past, present and chances for the future. We will gain insights of developments of post-socialist panel districts, typical not only for the GDR, but for elsewhere in the former socialist world before 1989, as a counter example of gentrification.
Important! The tour to Naumburg was cancelled. Interested participants should opt for another excursion option.