Gera.Jetzt · Project 01 · Sorge 23–27
Nobody is coming
to save us.
So we'll do it ourselves.
The old department store on the Sorge has been dark since 2003. If everyone in Gera chips in €65 once, it belongs to all of us.
- 1943
- Empty since December of that year.
- approx. €0m
- Estimated cost: buying (€5.8m) and fixing it up (around €3m).
GMemories & history
Remember?
For many of us the house on the Sorge wasn't just a building, it was a place in our lives. Riding the escalator holding grandma's hand. Your first pair of jeans. Christmas shopping when the whole street was full of people.
Today we walk past blind windows. A child born in 2003, the year the doors closed for good, is 23 years old today. It learned to walk, finished school, fell in love for the first time. And walked past this house every single day without ever seeing it open. No escalator, no light in the window, no Christmas shopping with Grandma. Not once in a whole lifetime.
Investors came and went. Plans were drawn up and rolled away again. The city said no.
Nobody will come. We are the ones we've been waiting for.
hor·ten German verb
To hoard: to collect, keep or hold on to something valuable, useful or scarce in large quantities. Often out of worry (“Sorge”) about shortage.
That's exactly what we're doing now. We're hoarding people who are in. Memories. Courage. On the Sorge, out of worry for our city.
Where it all began
From Oscar Tietz to today. Swipe or use the arrows.
- 1882
Jewish merchant Oscar Tietz opens a textile shop here. It becomes the seed of the Hermann Tietz department store chain.
- 1912
On 28 November the extension by architect Carl Zänker opens. The sales floor doubles.
- 1934
The Nazis force the Tietz family out of their own company. This house remembers that too.
- GDR
As Kaufhaus UNION, later Konsument, it remains the city's big department store. In 1967 it gets an escalator.
- 1991
After reunification the house trades as Horten.
- 2003
In December the store closes. Ever since, it has been waiting for a new purpose.
- 2008
A developer buys the house and its neighbours. Plans and reports are produced, nothing is built.
- 2021
The owner offers the store to the city for €5.8 million. The city council declines.
- Now
We, the people of Gera, pool our money.
Everything has been tried.
A developer bought it, made plans and commissioned reports. The owner offered the house to the city, the city council said no. Council groups filed motions and refused to let the matter drop. Councillors were given tours of the building, funding was on the table.
Nothing happened. The windows stayed dark. In the end, it comes down to us.
1The plan
A thought experiment
That's the whole calculation.
€65 is dinner for two, half a tank of petrol, a few parcels we don't really need. If almost everyone in Gera gives €65 once, the house belongs to all of us. Not to an investor. To us.
Buy it and fix it up.
With €100 we don't just buy the house, we start fixing it: a sound roof, power, heating, fire safety, doors open. For the rest there are funding programmes. In 2021, €5.8 million in federal funding for the quarter was already on the table. With thousands of people from Gera behind us, the chances are better.
€0 are on my neck
I put it in up front, so the first pledges are safe.
€0.000,500 still to goof €9m
Fun fact
If 17,999 people do the same as me and give €500, the house is paid for. At €65 per person it takes 138,454, at €100 89,995. Every extra euro gets us closer.
Based on the asking price from 2021; today's price is unknown. Nobody pays anything now. We'll only collect money once the association exists and everything is legally sound.
To be honest: This is all still just an idea.
There is no association, no money, no finished plan. There is an empty house and people who won't accept that any longer.
Maybe the city council already has plans. We don't know, and neither do most people in Gera. That's exactly the problem: for 23 years there's been talking, reviewing and postponing, and from the outside all you see are dark windows.
If you're already working on something: join us, we're happy to pull together. This page asks just one thing: Are you in?
From today to the open door
Eight steps from the first “I'm in” to the key. Every step needs people, not money.
All dates are goals, not promises. We'll adjust them when life gets in the way.
- 28 Oct 2026
Here we goNow
This page goes online. Everyone who says “I'm in” lights up a window.
- Nov 2026
The first seven
We need seven people to found the association with us. Board, treasury, press, hands-on help.
- Dec 2026
Out on the streets
Flyers and conversations at the Christmas market. All of Gera should hear about it.
- Jan 2027
Founding meeting
We meet, adopt the statutes and elect the board. From then on “Gera.Jetzt” really exists.
- Spring 2027
Gera.Jetzt e.V.
Entry in the register of associations. First talks with the owner and the city.
- Oct 2027
Collecting money
Launch at the Höhlerfest. Set up properly, with a notary or a cooperative, so every euro is safe.
- 2028
The key
If everything works out: the house is ours. Only then do we vote on what goes inside.
- Someday
The door opens
Everyone in Gera can go inside again. Day and night.
2I'm in
Light up a window
Let's be honest: everyone in Gera wants the Tietz building back. Saying yes is easy. That's why we ask differently.
You pay nothing today.
Only your word counts. Nobody pays until the association exists and everything is legally sound.
Are you willing to give €65 once, when it gets serious? Or even €100, so we can renovate too? You pay nothing today. But whoever says “I'm in” here is counting on it. Only then do we know whether the numbers add up.
Every window is one of us. With everyone who says “I'm in”, the house gets brighter. Once the facade is full, we move on to the next stage, until all of Gera is in.
Click a dark window and light it up.
RRoof · First goal
24/7
The door opens
Before anything else happens, everyone in Gera should be able to walk into this house again. Whenever they want, as often as they want, day and night. See the old escalator, look out of the window onto the Sorge. Simply be there again.
What moves in after that, we all decide together. The final count happens once the house is ours.
RIdeas to dream about
What we could do
No decisions, just ideas. Some of these rooms really exist in the house. If you like one, submit it to the committee as a proposal.
We meet for a beer in the old vault in the basement.
Traders and farmers from East Thuringia on the ground floor.
A memorial room for the Tietz family, right where it all began.
No museum in the old Stasi listening post. Just a slogan on the wall: “Forward ever, backward never.” This time for real.
A warm place for pupils, students and everyone. Chemnitz showed how in its Tietz.
Affordable space for crafts, start-ups and creatives.
Where the alterations tailor used to be: repair café and studios.
A view across the old town all the way to Osterstein.
Food from around the world and from East Thuringia, at long tables with room for all of Gera.
The big reunion in the new Tietz building. All years, all schools, everyone who ever moved away comes home for a weekend. Music on every floor.
klassentreffen-festival.deWhat it could look like
Visualisations, AI-generated. Not a plan, just a dream.
The roll of honour · an idea for later
Your name. Forever.
When the door opens, a roll of honour will hang in the Tietz building with the names of everyone who was part of it. So it never stays closed for 23 years again, but stays in Gera's hands forever: for our children, their children and everyone who comes after us.
Today is the starting shot. And then you point at a line and say: There. That's me. I was there.
Here stand all who were part of it
- Your name
What do you think?
Your memories, questions, ideas and criticism. Write it here so everyone can read it. You need an account to comment.